My New Job

As I mentioned on Instagram last month, I quit my job to stay home full time! It was a huge decision- very overwhelming and emotional for many reasons. I have been working since I finished graduate school. I worked full time for over four years until Curran was born, then I switched to part time when she was four months old and have been working three days a week {Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays} since then. It has been a great schedule, and I'm so very thankful to have had it. It gave me four days at home with my kids, and we were able to do so many fun things that we wouldn't have gotten to do otherwise. We were very happy with that schedule for a long time. Of course every now and then I would think "Oh, it would be nice to stay home full time," but it was never something I ever realistically considered. I worked very hard for my degrees, and I truly enjoyed working as a nurse and then a nurse practitioner. 

My first job was working as an RN on the hematology/oncology floor at UAB. I worked three, twelve hour shifts per week and really loved it. I learned an incredible amount, made some wonderful friends, and truly felt like I was doing what God called me to do. I absolutely loved taking care of that population of patients-  I got to show them love and compassion every day and always felt like I was making a difference in people's lives. 

After two years inpatient, I took a nurse practitioner job in the outpatient hematology/oncology clinic at UAB, so I was still working with all of the same doctors. I saw patients in clinic every day, and every now and then I would help out in the infusion clinic {administering chemo, blood products, fluids, etc} if they were short staffed. I loved the people I worked with and the patients I served, but after having Curran, I couldn't imagine continuing to work full time, and there wasn't really an opportunity for part time work there.  While I was on maternity leave, my office manager at the time, who was also over another clinic, told me she had a part time job becoming available, so I jumped at the chance and turned in my notice as soon as I got back to work. 

So when Curran was four months old, I took a nurse practitioner job in the Anticoagulation Clinic, where I've been for the last 5.5 years. Our clinic has gone through lots of changes, including a new boss, new coworkers, and even moving locations. We went through some very, very tough times, but the past couple of years have been much better. And one of the hardest things about leaving my job was leaving my two coworkers {there were just three of us who ran the clinic}. We were very close and worked well together. I was so nervous about telling them I was leaving, but of course they were nothing but supportive.

When Curran started kindergarten this past fall, I had a really hard time {emotionally} with how quickly the last 5 years seemed to have gone by. I just realized that my time with my young children is precious and finite, and it goes by in the blink of an eye. I was so very fortunate to only work part time, but it started to seem like it wasn't enough. Add in the stress of having to figure out after school activities, who was picking Curran up from school, etc, it just became overwhelming. And my job was very inflexible- I had to clock in and out and we saw patients all day long. There were no breaks except for one hour for lunch. We would have anywhere from 45-70 patients on the schedule each day, and so if someone was sick, it really messed us up. Thankfully John's job was very flexible and that's the ONLY way we made it work this long. If the kids were sick, school got canceled for a snow day, our babysitter couldn't pick Curran up, etc, he was the one to do it every single time. 

I had been mostly very happy with our set up, but as this past school year went on, it really just felt like it was time. My heart was telling me that I was needed more at home for a variety of reasons. And I am so thankful to John that he let our family take this leap of faith. So far it has been really great. I know there will be stressful times, but I think my perspective is just different after having worked all these years. I was a little worried about jumping right in with both feet into summer without a good schedule, but we have loved having lazy mornings at home and lots and lots of pool time. This is the first summer in twelve years that actually feels like summer to me. When you are in school or working all summer, it's really just another season. So we have had a blast, and the girls are loving me being at home. It definitely has been the right decision for our family, and I feel so very blessed!