How to be an awesome husband (and happy v-day!)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

How to be an awesome husband

(Obviously this is based on Mark)

• Make Jesus a priority. 
• Mark prays for us every night, makes sure going to church is a priority (even if he works overnight the night before), tithes, and asks me about, and encourages my walk with Jesus.
• Work so hard to provide financially for your family.
• Mark has spent the past two years working really hard, at some pretty crappy jobs (including pizza delivery, dishes for a catering company, yard work, and dog sitting) and spent almost his whole paycheck on PA school, and my medical bills. I honestly don’t know if I would be selfless enough to do that for him, he is such a stud.
• Share interests.
• You won’t obviously love everything your wife does (and if you say you do, you are lying). But try to share some of the things she does. Mark does this by watching the Bachelor with me on Monday nights and laughs and jokes with me through it, which means so much. Also, we have these two lovely little girls I babysit (Anna and Amy) every weekend. I LOVE this. Mark does not. I know this. But I know he also makes a huge effort to enjoy them and play with them and shows me so much love through that. Find new things that you enjoy together, for us, its mountain biking, board games, cooking (and eating), scramble with friends, libraries, and double dates.



Mark with sweet little Anna at the park

•  Be patient.
• Girls are moody. I am the moodiest. Your wife probably is too. Take deep breaths and be patient.
• Deal with conflict – quickly.
•  Don’t let it build up, if something is bothering you, speak up out of love so that Satan does not get a foot hold. For example, I have this horrible habit of playing Tetris on my phone whenever we are talking about things that I don’t really want to hear about or am annoyed. Which is super lame and bratty – I know. The other day Mark so gently explained how much he hates that and would just appreciate if I sat there and listened. He brought to my attention the bad habit and now I can fix it.
• Forgive easily.
• What a better way to be the head of a house, and lead as Christ does, than to forgive?
• Serve your wife.
• Mark cleans our mess of a room, does dishes, cooks dinner, does laundry, and rubs my back. These are the things that serve me the most. I am sure these things wouldn’t be the best for every couple. Some girls love flowers and gifts, but Mark has learned what serves me most and does that.
• Love her family.
• I know Mark does not always get my crazy sisters and mom and I, but he loves them. Even though he knows we will probably be too loud and obnoxious, someone will cry at some point, and there will be fights. He has sat through so much family drama, but still encourages our relationships with them. He reminds me how much he loves them and cares for them, and makes sure we spend time with them.

Mark fits in so nicely with the girls :)

• Be content.
• We are in a season of not much extra (or any at all) income right now. And Mark is content. He doesn’t complain, and leads in being content. He makes a big deal out of little things we get to do, and finds joy in what we do have.
• Do as many crappy errands as you can.
• Like fill her gas tank up, change her oil, carry in groceries. Mark always gets me two liters when he comes to Detroit and carries them all the way up to the apartment and I LOVE not having to do that.
• Make her laugh.
• This is so important. I assure you this will make your life seem much easier. Find things that you can laugh together about. Mark is hilarious, so most of the time we don’t have a problem with this :)

This is what Mark did to my room one Valentines day in college. It made me laugh. And actually my roommates and I used that toilet paper for months in our bathroom. Ha.

I assure you we are far from a perfect couple, and Mark would be the first to say he is growing and learning a lot as a husband. But he’s pretty amazing, and I love him so much, and it’s Valentine’s day. So go celebrate love!

Love,
Brittany

Happy Groundhog day (Belated)

As you may know, (or if you don’t watch the local news, you probably didn’t know) on February 2, our country gathered together to discern the will of God via a rodent. Essentially. Kinda. Ok, maybe that’s a little bit of a stretch.
When I think our Groundhog Day holiday (which I celebrate privately), the first thing that always seems to come to my mind is a movie. Perhaps one of our country’s finest contributions to the realm of cinema. The movie I’m talking about is of course, Groundhog Day. One of Bill Murray’s best movies, right alongside with Caddyshack and What About Bob?

The whole premise of the movie is this (taken from IMDB.com):

A weather man is reluctantly sent to cover a story about a weather forecasting "rat" (as he calls it). This is his fourth year on the story, and he makes no effort to hide his frustration. On awaking the 'following' day he discovers that it's Groundhog Day again, and again, and again. First he uses this to his advantage, then comes the realization that he is doomed to spend the rest of eternity in the same place, seeing the same people do the same thing EVERY day.

I have to admit that a lot of times I feel like Phil Conners. I feel like I’m stuck on “February 2nd,” a day that I’ve already lived a thousand times, nothing changing, nothing new, just the same crap, on the same day, forever. Wake-up, grab that cup of coffee and my lunch box, drive to work, fold boxes for 12 hours, drive home, watch tv for two hours, pass out. Again, and again, and again. Doomed.

You see, a lot of times I struggle with bitterness and some depression. So often I’m good at looking at my friends and acquaintances and seeing all of their successes. I’m really good at that, actually. I see them living their dreams with everything falling right into place for them, so nice and neat. I try and listen to them share about their struggles, and empathize with them.

Question #1: What makes me think that I’m not exactly where God wants me?

Answer: Because I think I know better than God? That’s humbling to just be typing this right now; this is the type of transparency that I don’t like. God is ridiculously awesome! I, however, am not. God orchestrates the Universe! I struggle with the game monopoly. God is the great I AM! I am fallen, finite, weak, and self-centered.

Question #2: How do you break free from Groundhog day?

Answer: This could be as simple or as complex as you want, and I wish I was wise enough to have broken free from my “Groundhog day” on my own accord. However, this has been a process that I have been in for the past month or so. One of the verses that I have been meditating on at work has been Lamantations 3:22-23, which says this:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

I believe that this verse shares with us the essential truth that God is always with us and it is impossible for us to escape his hand, his sight, and his plan, where ever we go (Joshua 1:9). All good things come from him (James 1:17). Even on Groundhog day. It’s our choice to see the world around us as a servant to us, or a servant to its creator. It’s our choice to see “what is owed” to us, or see the blessings that are already surrounding us. This is the message I preach to myself. This is the sin I confess. This is the joy I express!

Mark

Is there nothing to sing about to-day? Then borrow a song from to-morrow; sing of what is yet to be. Is this world dreary? Then think of the next. —C.H. Spurgeon

This is hilarious.
 Anyone who knows Brittany, knows she always gets stuff stuck in her teeth (she blames it on her fake tooth) and this reminds me of her.

My newest rotation

I just started ob/gyn at Hutzel Women's Hospital in Detroit this week and all I can really say is...wow.

Here is the hospital I am at. Beautiful huh? ;)

Here is me in my little scrub suit and a lame mirror pic, but I know blogs are a little boring without pictures.

First of all, anyone who knows me knows my frustration with having to be back in Detroit and not getting a rotation in Kalamazoo, so I was frankly not too pumped about anything about this rotation. I have only had three days there, but have learned so much. I am on the labor and delivery floor, and get to help follow patients and deliver babies from 6:30am-7pm each week day. I have not only learned so much about obstetrics and gynecology but about me, and God, and what I want to do with my life. I cannot believe the brokenness and sadness that some most parts of my day bring me. Most of these girls are teenagers, and have no family or no dad for their baby in sight. On one hand I am blown away by the whole birthing process, and how you are literally just staring at a mess really (not to be too graphic), and then the next moment there is a little babies head just right there. And then a whole baby. Even the c-sections (which seem so painful and awful and I want to avoid) are so crazy. How you make a cut and just pull out a baby (which I know it is not that simple, but to me, standing there holding a retractor that's what it is). Every time I want to cry and hug and cheer. But sadly I have not seen that yet. If there is any family in the room (most of the time the girl is alone), there is not really any excitement. I know they must be exhausted and yadda ya, but it seems like there should still be some sight of happiness. It makes me so sad for these babies, and these poor alone, overwhelmed mothers. I have seen a 12 year old pregnant, delivered a 20 year olds baby who is on her 5th pregnancy, a girl that told me her complications were probably due to her abortions, so many people with no prenatal care, and a lady who's twins had to be taken away from her because she was high at the time of delivery.

 These three days could have been a fluke and maybe I will see much more happiness and different stories, but here is what I have learned about myself so far:

- I want to have kids, and lots of them.
- I have never been so pro-adoption in my whole life. I have always been such a huge fan of adoption and believe it's such an awesome and unique opportunity and reflection of how God adopts us, but I want to now more than ever.
- I think I want to work in low socio-economic situation or inner city. I have wanted to go into primary care and my favorite part of my work in health care has always been explaining things to patients to actually help them understand what is going on, and I feel like there is not a lot of that going on for people on medicaid. (Also, I understand that I have no idea how that would work, or what a job like this would look like, and I bet a lot of health care people say this, and I am sure people read this and think that I am just naive and haven't been hardened to the system. And really I hope I always have hope for people and don't get hardened).
- This is God's world, and he has not lost control of this. Even though it seems so bad, and sad, He is good, and has won the battle. I don't understand (and I am sure I wont on this side of heaven) why some people who are so prepared for motherhood cant get pregnant and why some of these girls are on drugs and get pregnant have have abortions. This has stretched me and forced me simply to trust God and just have faith when I cannot see.
- I cannot live apart from Mark. Holy cow, I have no idea how we did this all last year....like driving home on the weekends and only seeing each other for a few hours. Wow, I miss him during the week!

So, I will try to stay updated on life on the weekends when I have internet.
And 82 days till I am done with school! FOREVER!! :)