The cozy studio apartment is full of morning quiet, interrupted by intermittent snores from my husband and the tiny click, clicking of my keyboard.

I have only had two calls to triage in the past hour and I am holding my breath for the usual Saturday morning rush as children wake up with fevers, rashes, coughs, diarrhea, vomit and the sprinkling of strange calls from one state to the next, one household to the next. I pause to take a sip of my coffee as I consider that thought. It is difficult to predict call volume and in my experience, calls come in waves. I and the other nurse(s) swim furiously for a few minutes and then we have time to rest our feet in the sand before the next wave. But, sometimes, sometimes we marathon swim. This is nothing new to me or anyone else in the nursing world. What is new to me is applying my nursing experience to the amazing and strange world of tele-triage... and doing it all in my pajamas.

This post will be a disjointed as I ride the waves of calls and communicate with the nurse on my shift this morning. They have two of us working this morning because of licensing issues. Together we can cover all the practices.

My calm wave lasted for the first hour or so of my early Saturday shift and then, as I anticipated, the calls crashed in. Thankfully, I work with a great team of nurses and our management was able to log on and help us with the call volume. But now, as I sip on my second cup of coffee and unwind from a busy call shift, I can't remember what I had planned to write about in this blog post?

I have so very much to learn in this growing and unique tele-triage world, but I am loving the challenge of meeting people in the midst of crisis and reaching through the phone with comfort and help.

It is now Monday morning and the clock above the microwave is one minute behind my computer time at 4:47am. I have been 'on' since 2am and am enjoying some quiet worship music in this little reprieve. I am listening through my headset, of course, and quiet enough that I can still faintly hear Jon's soft snores.

I blink my eyes and tuck my fuzzy blanket around my toes. It feels strange to be awake at this hour. It is a contradiction to have the tranquil wee morning sprinkled with sleepy and concerned parents calls. I am the only nurse working this morning (though there is a nurse on-call that I can text if it becomes too busy for me to handle).

And yet, even as I marvel at the strangeness of this position, I am filled with a feeling of thankfulness. It wraps around me in a way this blanket can't. To help people from my couch while my husband sleeps in our little studio apartment feels like a dream. But it is a very good dream.

I reflect on some of my craziest caffeine fueled days as a pediatric nurse before Jon and I got married... and I smile with fondness and relief. I love being nurse but I am awed and relieved by how God led me through those hectic and sometimes stressful days to this point. Without that experience, I could not do what I am doing now.

Truly, there is no wasted time with our Lord.

Something about early mornings fills my heart with worship and I am reminded of a favorite verse:

"But I trust in you, O Lord; I say "You are my God." My times are in your hand.." (Psalm 31)

I am chuckling silently at this odd blog post. I am sure that sleep depravation helps with some of these wandering thoughts. But I don't mind, as long as I continue to wander to thoughts of such a good God and such a good life, with all of its mountains and valleys. Always God is my sweet oasis.
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If you are weary, if you are discouraged.. rest in this truth, take courage in this reality: God SEES you and He means GOOD for you. However it looks right now, God sees you and your situation with loving and eternal eyes that are, even now, weaving the strands of your 'times' together in such a beautiful tapestry.