All About Wrangell

Welcome to my blog! My hope is that this will be a way to document my upcoming adventure as well as keep my dear family, friends, and others updated on my job as a Speech-Language Pathologist, new lifestyle, and home.

Wrangell, Alaska is a very small town in southeast Alaska. The town of 2,400 citizens is on an island accessible only by plane or boat. It has the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen, which is saying a lot because I have always lived in the amazing Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina. Numerous islands surround Wrangell Island, making it impossible to view the ocean endlessly in any direction. Being so far south, it has more of a Pacific Northwest climate rather than the “typical” Alaska climate most people associate with Alaska. And no, it also is not dark for weeks and months on end during the winter months. At it’s darkest day, Wrangell still experiences about 7 hours of daylight (and likewise, 7 hours of darkness in the middle of Summer).

I am thankfully not tackling this adventure alone. My sweet boyfriend, Jim, and puppy are also moving to Wrangell with me.  Jim, who is an Occupational Therapist, and I both have jobs waiting for us at Wrangell Medical Center (WMC). WMC has no programs in place within their rehabilitation department for our disciplines and we are excited to build the programs and hopefully enhance the care and services WMC already provides to it’s population.

Hopefully, I will get a handle on this blogging business soon. I hope you take time to enjoy news articles from Wrangell’s local newspaper, The Wrangell Sentinel, on the right hand side of the blog page. At the bottom left of the page, you can subscribe to new blog post via Email. Feel free to also answer my poll question (top left), and tour the links to related web pages (bottom right). My goal is to post every weekend on either Saturday or Sunday.

My weekly “God thing”:

I am excited for my move and of course also nervous/anxious for the change. Am I able to live so far away from my family? Will I be able to fulfill all job expectations and requirements? Will I fit in with the local people of Wrangell? Will my help be accepted by those who need it and their families? There are so many unanswerable questions with my limited knowledge of God’s greater plan.

I heard a song on the radio this morning, that was a wonderful reminder that everything works just as God has planned. The song was “Something Beautiful” by Steven Curtis Chapman:

And God says,

I’m gonna turn it into something different

I’m gonna turn it into something good

I’m gonna take all the broken pieces

And make something beautiful that only I could.

So put it all in the hands of the Father

Give it up, give it all over to

the only One who

can turn in into something beautiful.

Something really beautiful.