Being Pruned

Life brings all kinds of different adventures and feelings! If you have a relationship with God then you know that He is giving you blessings as well as trials! God prunes and molds us to be the people He wants us to be. Sometimes that pruning and molding is painful. I speak from experience. Since Andy started school it has been a quite the experience! When Andy decided to apply for his masters program for CRNA, we knew it would be a long, tough journey. I don't think we realized though just how hard or how much pruning would take place. I often times ask God "Really!?!" I don't know His plan but He will fill me in as I go.

The definition of prune, pruned or pruning is:
To cut off or remove dead or living parts or branches of (a plant, for example) to improve shape or growth. So let the pruning begin.

To get into a CRNA program is quite the feat to begin with! You have to have a 4.0 and be at the top of your game with nursing. Andy felt like this was where God was leading him. So we knew that if this is what God wanted it would happen. There is one school in AZ that has this program the rest are scattered across the U.S. We had just bought our house here and the market had already started to go down from what it was. We wanted to stay here of course but you cant put all your eggs in one basket right!?! So Andy applied to 5 CRNA programs: Midwestern (here), two in North Carolina, one in Virgina, and one in Texas. Now if they like your application you have to go to that school for an interview and if they still like you they send you an acceptance letter and you have to put a hefty, non-refundable deposit down to hold your spot or you get a letter telling you they put you on a waiting list. So Andy got interviews at all the schools he applied to. Go figure my man is smart and good at what he does! :) I always had more confidence that Andy would get accepted somewhere then he did. So we forked out money for flights and hotels for these interviews because of course Midwestern interview was the 2ND to the last one! Now the decision might need to be made about whether if Andy gets accepted to a school before we know about Midwestern do we put down that hefty, non-refundable deposit? Andy got denial letters from both North Carolina schools and wait listed at Virgina. Andy of course is discouraged. I am confused because I know my man can do this and am kinda shocked not one of these schools took him first time!! But God closed those doors! So Andy gets his interview with Midwestern and gets ready to go in and he said he felt Gods presence the moment he walked in the door. It was a God moment he said. When Andy was walking out of the interview one of the interviewees said I cant say this officially but, you scored very well with us! I am excited because to me I had my answer as to why God closed those other doors. Andy didn't want to get his hopes up yet.
About two weeks later we got a letter from Midwestern saying he had been accepted!! That was the beginning of what I feel has been our pruning, happy, stressful, molding, learning journey.

God will close doors for a reason and sometimes it is hard to understand why. God has had His hand on this from day one and we both believe that! But it doesn't make it any easier when God is molding and pruning you to grow. We are almost at the end of this particular journey as Andy graduates this August. But God is still teaching us and pruning us as Andy looks for jobs that do not seem to be in the Phoenix area! God has closed doors here thus far, but I know in my heart that he will open others wherever and whenever that may be.