Year End 2011

I am playing catch-up and it has been a crazy year. I suppose as most years go there have been some good stuff going on and terrible stuff going on in my family. The terrible stuff will be the first to go that way I can get the tears out of my system. I am on vacation and it is coming to an end with tears mostly at night when everyone is in bed. I am here alone with my computer playing games while thoughts run through my head.

Early in January this year, my mom-in-law ended her battle with cancer and the Lord took her home with Him. She decided to stop the cancer treatments during the summer or early Fall and we never asked for a time frame as to how much longer she had with us. Thanksgiving sucked in 2010 as everything was so chaotic. We had planned for a simple Thanksgiving and for some reason it got all complicated. Christmas was spent with my family in Ohio which seemed to have gone better except for the fact that my cousin's boyfriend was a little drunk and decided to throw out some swear words from time to time. January 2011 came around and my mom-in-law died.

In February, my grandma decided to kick the bucket as well. She died the day before her birthday. My mom never gave grandma her birthday present. We had a traditional Roman Catholic burial for her and I said the petitions. My cousins did the readings and my sister and other cousin brought up the gifts. If you aren't Roman Catholic and you are reading this all confused, send me a comment and I will clarify.

Jumping to October, as I said the good stuff will come later, my Uncle Louie dies of cancer pancreatic to be more specific. He went quick considering he was diagnosed in during the summer. The doctors did what they could for him though like my mom-in-law progress was difficult to find so treatments were stopped and he died.

In December, my Uncle Johnny decides to die from alcohol poisoning. He also had some other medical conditions and was taking other medications to treat those conditions so I am unsure as how his body was affected by the mixing of medications with the alcohol. He had a simple memorial service since his body was cremated. My cousin and I did readings and the priest did the petitions. No one did gifts since the memorial service was at the funeral home so only a partial Roman Catholic funeral.

A mix between the two, I crammed 600 hours into one semester to graduate on time. Amazingly enough, I got all 600 hours between two internship sites. God comes through when I needed him the most. He was my strength during this time when I wanted to quit. Okay enough of the bad stuff, now onto the good stuff.

In March, we celebrated my birthday as well as my son's First birthday. In April, I hit the "300" mark on internship hours. In May, I complete all 600 hours and graduate on time with my class. In July, I receive my limited license and go into private practice with my own company Community Recovery Counseling Center, PLLC otherwise known as CRCC. Thanksgiving and Christmas go much better this year than they did last year. Both were very low key which is what my family needed for this year. That covers 2011.

On My Way to Supervision

I have supervision in an hour so I'm taking this time to write because I haven't written here in a long while and God has been moving big time. I mailed in the paper work for my own counseling center which is in connection to Community Recovery, International. We are also looking for space and found a building we love though needs much TLC. We are putting our resources together before we buy the building to make sure that we will be able to handle what needs to be done to the building. The building is located on S. Division just on the cusp the the Hispanic neighborhoods which is perfect because that is an area of people we have yet to connect with in Grand Rapids. We are close to those we offer counseling to which is the ARC, Guiding Light Missions and Mel Trotter. We provide after care counseling for these people who have graduated from these programs. The building is perfect for us because one level will be administration offices for Community Recovery, International and the other level will be the counseling center.

As soon as things are up and running smoothly and we have a steady flow of clients, I would like the counseling center to be an approved site for other MA's and MSW's students who are ready to start on their practicum and internships. This is huge and God is moving in big ways in providing the funding that we need to make this happen.

I already had other counselors approach me wanting to do counseling at the center and we will get there. Right now, I'm working on building the base as well as doing all the necessary paperwork registering a professional limited-liability company. One step at a time.

Graduation

This semester has been crazy though I completed 600 hours with 240 client hours and 360 support hours at two internships. One internship may turn into a private practice within a private practice. I may be opening up my own PLLC--Professional Limited Liability Company. I have been looking at rental offices and the possibility of owning a building. I completed a policy manual for future counselors and interns who may work at Community Recovery, International. I am meeting with someone from SCORE who will help me with my business plan. Will I have a partner to share the practice? Overall, I am glad to be done and I am sad at the same time. Seminary took me 4 1/2 years to complete and I appreciate the support my loving husband, Denver, gave me.

With all this going-on, I've been toying with the idea of child #2. There seems to be a jump on that already at my church with 3 women already pregnant and one approaching me when is it going to be my turn. I laughed. I will be 42 next year. I already have one child. I know several families who are dealing with infertility. I am here to live the life God has given me with or without another child.

Anyway, that's all I have for now.

Neglected

I've started two blogs and both have been neglected. My life has gotten busier much to my discomfort. I do not like leading a busy life; however I also want to graduate in a timely manner so I decided to take on two internships at once. Why did I do this to myself? Because I wanted to graduate this May rather than wait to summer. With the support of my husband, family and friends, I can get this done. This also means my house is messier or cleaning takes a backseat for a while. Laundry takes longer to get to though it eventually gets done. My son's needs are always addressed in a timely manner though my shower might wait for an hour or two.

God's been with me throughout this whole journey and I know it would have never been completed without Him. Time to go to bed. I tried taking a nap though at least my eyes were closed for a couple of hours.