Hospice volunteer: I've been accepted

I just got a call from the Hospice program I applied with , my background check came back clear (whew,haha). I go Monday to pick up my name badge and get my patients.

Given the date and time of year. I dedicate my hospice service to my beloved husband, Joseph Leslie Danford. Whom on 12/12/1981 @ 12:12pm we exchanged wedding vows and I am proud to say we fulfilled our vow. Through sickness and in health, until death we did part, but only in the physical. The two became one and part of me is already there. I look forward to our reunion, but until then I hope to discover and complete my purpose with as much grace and dignity as he did. It was through our battle with cancer and his ensuing death that I learned more about Faith, Family, God, Love, Life, Purpose, sickness, commitment and the true meaning of death and eternity in 14 month than many learn in a lifetime. We have it backwards, our time on earth is death and decay. At what we call death is in actuality the life we so desperately seek while we are on this side of heaven.

I truly do look forward to standing on this side of eternity, pointing towards Jesus and ushering others through the doorway. I consider it an honor and a great privilege to be allowed to be part of the intimate death experience. To have the opportunity to talk, listen, pray and really get to know my patients and their families. This is where the rubber meets the road, all games aside. Good, bad or indifferent it is the kind of reality that is honest and true. I anticipate my experience with reverence and trepidation, peace and sense of knowing that this is my calling. No matter what I encounter my God goes before me, preparing the way. All I really have to do is stay in his presence. Be His hands and feet, His heart and compassion. Remembering always Proverbs 3:5 .

Hospice Volunteer

After years of contemplating, the time has finally come for me to accept God's prompting to become a hospice volunteer. The seed was planted during my husbands illness. It has been watered and nurtured for 6 years. Friday of last week (Dec 3rd) I picked up an application, got a TB test and training videos. Monday morning I went back, dropped off the application, had the TB test read and today I finished watching the videos. I should hear something next week when they get my background check finished. This will be a place for me to record my life and experiences or more importantly the amazing miracles I will see and experience as I walk this path of hospice.

Keep me in your prayers.....

I am a new creation

I am no longer living in today carrying along yesterdays' woes. Tomorrow has troubles of it's own and so DID yesterday. I have carried them with me to learn, exam and grow, but that has gone on long enough. Now it is time to take all of the introspection and put it to use in todays world. A world that is so void of hope and encouragement. A world that is so afraid of death that they are afraid to live. Part of me died that day & part of me is already in Heaven, but the part of me that is still alive and still on this earth needs to LIVE.

I recently said to someone that I feel like I am living someone else's life... just going through the motions living a life that is far removed from the one I had. The one that I was familiar with, comfortable with. That life that I knew and understood is gone.

Today I am not married, not in a relationship, not dependent upon any one. Today I must live as though I were alive because I am. It is a new life that I have to learn. Like a child exploring the world for the first time. New rules, new parameters, new experiences, new everything...and it's not all a bad thing.