A Bumpy Ride but Lots of Lagniappe

With our financial obligations, we didn’t think it would be possible for Ann to retire after she left the oncology group.   She eventually decided the best solution might be to spend some time doing travel nursing.   This represented a significant challenge for us because it meant we would spend long periods of time away from each other.

She took on a six month assignment with Baylor Hospital in Dallas.  In many ways it was good.  They provided her an apartment, and the work environment was incredibly positive.  The employees at Baylor has a saying, “Baylor is the best.”  They really believed it.  I think Ann believed it too. The salary was so good that we were able to fly her back to Cedar Rapids about once a month, but that’s not the ideal arrangement for a husband and wife, for ministry, and for life.   We survived the challenges, and it actually made our relationship stronger, but I hope we never have to go through anything like that again.

Since there were no immediate employment opportunities for a well qualified nurse in her fifties, who had advanced a good ways up the salary scale, we decided we would make a change.   The travel nurse thing wasn’t going to be a long term solution.   After fifteen years of work with the Central church, I announced my intention to leave before the year’s end.  At one point I thought it might be nice if I could serve as a interim minister with some church in the same area where Ann might be doing travel nursing.   Of course that could only happen in a perfect world, and this is not a perfect world.

Ann stayed in Dallas until June.   Our son was getting married, and she stayed until after the wedding.   Had I been able to find a ministry position in the Metroplex, it was clear that Baylor wanted Ann to come on staff on a regular basis, but that didn’t work out.    That was another one of those perfect world scenarios.  I did have an interview in the Metroplex, but I think I interviewed poorly and nothing ever came of it. 

After the wedding Ann came home to Cedar Rapids, and after a few weeks she accepted a three month travel nurse assignment at the UIPUI Hospital in Indianapolis.   She had been there about a week when she was threatened with a medical crisis that almost ended her life.  She was in the hospital about a week, came back to Cedar Rapids after that, and then returned to finish out the contract.   It would be her last job as a surgical nurse.   We thought we couldn’t make it without two full time incomes.  The Lord was about to teach us differently.

Our lives were about to undergo some changes, medically, professionally, and spiritually.  It was a bumpy ride, but there were blessing and a lot of lagniappe along the way. (NOTE: “Lagniappe” (pronounced lan-yap) is a Louisiana word that means “a little something extra you didn’t count on.”