c“I’m sorry for the uncertainty,” my recruiter said.
I replied, “it’s not your fault.”
And it wasn’t. It wasn’t his fault any more than it was mine, but it wasn’t even the fault of the hospital administration we waited on for an answer. It simply was what it was. Gosh, I hate that phrase, but I could think of no better description. It was what it was.
Travel Nursing is a whole lot of waiting and uncertainty. I mean, it’s not that bad, but it for sure is less stable than a staff nurse position. I never know from one assignment to the next where I might end up. Basically, we sign a contract to work a job three months at a time at a given location, and somewhere around 3-4 weeks from the time it ends, I can start looking for my next job, hospital, and location. No sooner. You might have the grand idea of going to Colorado in the summer, and even though a job would be open in April (when you were under contract in Florida), it most likely wouldn’t be hiring in June (when you needed another job).
This took a lot of getting used to for me. Always a planner, even a perfectionist (though I shudder to admit it), it was hard for me. I guess it could be hard for anyone who enjoyed stability with their employment or certainty with their finances. Perhaps for a young, single person, it would be easier, but for a middle-aged mother of three taking her children and husband along, it was not. One might consider it a heavy burden being the primary breadwinner for your family in such an undependable environment. Travel nurses made good money, as coworkers were quick to remind me, but you had to when you accounted for the things you didn’t have in your pay package. You needed a financial cushion since you didn’t have paid time off or sick leave. You wanted a little extra if the next job came a couple of weeks late, or if it took you a thousand miles from your current one. See what I mean?
Today my husband had made himself a plate of sharp cheddar slices and saltines, and as he sat eating it our [3]-year-old appeared out of nowhere like some snack-stealing ninja. She offered him her grandest grin, reached stealthily and confidently for a cracker, then giggled as she stole it away.
He watched her wander off and mused, “she didn’t even worry that I wouldn’t give her one. She just knew I would.”
And that, my friends, is the kind of thinking I have adapted to over the past year.
When God leads you to something new, and when you listen to His lead, they say you’re stepping out in faith. And I’m discovering that many times when you’re led to something, God has a wonderful plan to change you for the better from the inside out. He doesn’t just take you to a different job or state. He takes you to a new level with Him. He takes you from fear to courage, from defeat to success, from the bondage of worry to the freedom of trust. Who knew?