Skip to main content

Transitions


 This past week, Ike and I both finished working. Ike had been working as a project manager with Shickel Corporation over the last three years and I was at the hospital for two and a half years, first as an inpatient clinical dietitian and then the last 7 months as an outpatient dietitian and clinical nutrition manager. 
 
Transitions are hard! 
 
Saying goodbye to really good things is difficult but freeing, it is sad but sweet to feel so loved in our work places, and scary but really exciting as we look toward next year. The last few days were spent away - first with friends at a cabin outside Harrisonburg and then Ike and I went to Asheville to explore a new place together and celebrate the end of work and beginning of a different pace. We anticipate the next month to be slower without the stress of working 40+ hour weeks but also packed with making time to see family and friends, a few Christmas parties, Christmas in VB, and then packing and moving out of our house.

We are currently 98% funded (specifically talking about the monthly pledged budget) and hope to be able to purchase plane tickets in the next week or so. Our departure date is roughly between Jan 9-16 at this point. 
We are hopeful and thankful that this next month gives us time to process and prepare. To sit and be present with loved ones. To breathe and be conscious of our emotional needs and what God is putting on our hearts and minds. To be free to focus on our savior and the power and magnitude of this season as we celebrate His birth. 
 
We would love and appreciate prayer in the next month. To be specific: for time to be intentional and for us to be open to what God has for us during this season. Prayer for our close families and friends as we all prepare to say goodbyes soon and thank the Lord that those folks are supportive and excited for us despite starting to prepare for our absence. Prayer for our team in Bundi as they anticipate our arrival and how that will change team dynamics.
 

At the Biltmore in Asheville, NC!


 
Thanks for being here and a part of this journey with us! If you have questions, please ask! If you are interested in supporting us or hearing more about what we are doing in Bundibugyo, Uganda - visit this link or send me an email: jshickel@serge.org 


 

 


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 32 - How grief changed me

 I obviously missed quite a few days - I took about 2 weeks off - turns out blogging about heavy stuff is draining and I probably bit off more than I could chew by aiming to do 35 posts.  I have been reflecting on how grief has changed me over the last two years.  In many ways, I am not the same person I was when 2021 began. Grief has changed my thought life, my friendships, my work.  First - My world got tiny. I often felt myself looking inward (at my usually crappy situation) and feeling a lot of pity, sadness, anger and occasional shame. In those seasons, it’s so hard for me to be an engaged friend. Essentially grief has made me selfish. When you are going through so much stuff, you don’t have capacity to extend yourself to be there for your people. There’s nothing wrong with that - that’s the reality of grief: other people are checking on you for a long time - for good reason. But that’s hard for me- I wasn’t built to be needy, to mope or even be able to answer “...
Post a Comment
Read more

Books for the Grieving

We received books on grief from lots of different people who have walked through different types of grief, loss, or suffering. I wanted to share the ones I have read (some I finished, some I did not) and which I love.  And hopefully in sharing these, if you are grieving the loss of a child or know someone who is, here is a resource for you.   A Grief Observed by CS Lewis - a book for all seasons of grief, a book that I will probably return to again and again.  Holding onto Hope by Nancy Guthrie - this book spoke directly to my heart because it’s about child loss. And it walks through the story of Job. I could probably read this every 6 months and it would speak to my heart in a new way each time. Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolterstorff - its short and concise, a love letter in some moments and a stream of thoughts on death and grief after the author's adult son dies hiking/climbing.  We actually read this in Uganda for an Apprenticeship assignment and I rer...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 19 - Joy in the In Between

That phrase makes me roll my eyes sometimes. Joy in the in between. It feels like a quick way to brush off the troubles you are living amidst and force yourself to just "be happy" instead.  But, I think I am missing some of the sentiment of the phrase when I let my jaded heart get in the way.  When I look back at pictures from the days between Jack's second surgery and when his soul left this earth, I do see joy. I see the faces of my family members who came to see him for the first time. Like my grandparents meeting their first great grandchild. My friends coming to swoon over him even with all of his tubes and unable to hold him. I see photos of us with Jack, holding his hand, enjoying every moment we had with him knowing it was a gift, a miracle.  There was pain and sorrow during those days, of course. But essentially joy in the in between is life. We are living right now in the "not yet." We live among pain and sorrow daily (often not as grave in severity...
Post a Comment
Read more