Practitioner

Happy Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux! It is October 1st and it is 104 degrees out here! I hope this heat goes away soon because I hate the heat and I love the chilly weather of fall and winter. This weather makes me miss the Midwest with its changing leaves and cool temperatures.

I have not talked much about my internship and I thought I would fill y'all in on how its going. Well it has been tough lately I have assignments that are due that I should be doing right now but I am not. To say that this internship has challenged me would be an understatement. There have been times that I want to stop the program and not do it anymore because it takes time away from my family.  I usually see clients in the evening and on Saturdays when people are more available and my husband works early in the mornings so he needs to go to sleep by 9pmish, so our time together is limited when I have follow-ups. I am not a very good long distance learner at all! Most of my communication with my supervisor is over the phone or via email and that does not work well with my learning style.

Despite all the challenges I know that God is calling me to be a practitioner. I am so humbled by the fact that my clients allow me to be part of their lives, especially with such a sensitive topic. I love working with each of them and they each have helped me to grow as a practitioner and a human being.

A huge reason I went into the program was because our practitioner is so awesome. When we first met our practitioner we were not sure we wanted to do the whole Creighton thing because we had previously done sympto-thermal and liked it. The only reason we went to Creighton was because our ob/gyn said we needed to. We soon found out that our practitioner's temperament was matched well with ours, before marriage she wanted to be a Carmelite just like my husband and I. She has been compassionate and understanding of our situation and a listening ear about our frustrations with infertility. At the follow-up after we miscarried she was so gentle in the way she handled the pregnancy evaluation and I was so thankful for that because I was a mess. She is the one who encouraged me to enter the program and encourages me to keep going. She has been such a blessing to us and I want to be a blessing to my clients. I want to walk with my clients through frustrating situations as they learn or rejoice with them when they achieve a pregnancy or get answers they have been searching for or weep with them through their trials.

Another reason I know I am called to be a practitioner is because I have seen so much craziness in my charts that I know I can help other women figure out theirs. I love seeing the light bulb go on in my clients when they start to connect the dots with their charts. It is such a gift to be able to understand the mystery of our body more and I love when my clients get it. I feel like they become more confident in themselves as a woman and in their femininity and the husbands will have this new appreciation for their spouse.

I know that I am going to have more challenges ahead not just with the work but with the clients but as long as I keep on the little path like St. Therese I know that my tiny efforts will make a difference.