>Sometimes you look at your problems, and they seem insurmountable. You don’t know what to do, you don’t know who you can turn to, and you wonder what is going to happen. And then you look around and realize that there is always someone else with a worse problem, someone who would trade places with you in a heartbeat.

For those of you who pray, I would appreciate prayer. For some reason, the census at the hospital (number of patients) for the past five months has plummeted, and we normally run about half full. For the first four years that I worked here, our unit almost always ended the night with 40 patients in our 40 bed unit. Since April or May (I forget when), we have had an average of 20-30 patients. What this means is that the overtime which I relied on to pay our bills has disappeared. We budgeted for me to work one OT shift per week, and I haven’t had a single OT shift in six weeks. This constitutes a net loss of 25% of our income.

We don’t know why this is happening, but we are trusting God that He does know, and that He has a plan to help us get through this. I am currently looking for a part time job, we have even discussed my wife getting a part time job while the kids are in school, but it seems ridiculous for her to get a job making $8 an hour, when I can make $20-$30 as a nurse.

So, back to the opening paragraph. I have been trying hard to not worry, to trust God, and my problem keeps coming back. Then tonight I realized that some people live in abusive relationships, some people are in jail, some people live with horrible addictions and circumstances that, to me, would seem insurmountable.

Some do not have the love of a spouse in whom they can trust implicitly. Some do not have happy, healthy children who are always willing to hug or smile when you walk through the door. I look at my life and think, even if God does not provide the money we need, I am truly blessed, and I am thankful.