Bittersweet

I can honestly say that this is a hard post to write.

First, some wonderful news.  We matched and we now know where we are going.  Even better, we matched in a combined program... so we'll only have to move once in the next five years.  That itself is a huge relief.

Sometime in June, we'll be hauling all of our stuff (minus the couches) and two little guys to the Detroit area. Scott's program is well-known in his field and was at the top of our list. So, we can honestly say that we are thrilled to have been matched there.  It's close to family and I already know the area.  Plus, I'll already have my college roommate close by.  Though, I'm sad to leave my other college roommate who is within driving distance.

However, with our celebrations, comes some tears and sadness. It's sinking in that I'll have to change jobs, go back on the job hunt, and leave a great place.  I have some of the most supportive coworkers, and they will be impossible to replace.  I love that I work at a public school and prayer/family support is a regular conversation.  I only hope to find that to be a regular conversation at my next school.

We're excited for a new start. Maybe I'll live within a half hour to my workplace, maybe we'll find a great new house (we feel like we got lucky in Kalamazoo), and maybe we'll love the new city.  It's a lot of unknown that we need to decide soon.  I have that anxious feeling that June is going to come all too fast (and the program is already asking for our vacation days!).

As a final note, my family and friends, you are amazing. Thank you for everything: thoughts, prayers, support, encouragement, etc.

We Matched!

1/3 of the countdown is complete (Match Day & Spring Break are the other two).
I teach (now on my lunch break), but planned my day out with my kids so that I could be sitting at my computer desk at 12pm when the email was due to hit our inbox. That's how important it was. :)  Scott and I celebrated via text and let out out a huge sigh of relief when this came through.

It's nice and vague, but just what we want to hear.  Now, we know that we'll get an answer for where we are placed for transitional year and for the other four years.

If you happen to know someone who did not receive a similar letter today, please be extremely kind.  Their stress level is extremely high as they frantically find a place through the SOAP process.  In another blog I read, it was recommended to order pizza and send it to their house.  What a nice gesture!  Many forget to take the time to eat, sleep, etc.  It's an exhausting time.  

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers!

Almost There!

I keep debating whether to post or not.  Part of me is exhausted from constantly telling everyone that we have zero updates. But, at the same time, match week is now here. There's so much anxiety to this week, but I've made my schedule jam packed so that I can just get to Friday.  I think I have every dinner accounted for, and every evening taken up with activities.

I don't even want to tell you how many times I've opened this app on my phone lately.  Slowly waiting. On Friday, I finally can tell everyone if I'll be working the same job next year, Scott will finally be able to tell people his residency spot (we hope), and we can finally decide if and where we need to look for places to live for the next few years.   Once we find out, we have 3ish months to figure out jobs, houses, and other fun grown-up stuff. 

Tomorrow is an even bigger day for med students.  Around noon, they find out if they match.  From there, it's either a stressful week of making sure you make call after call to have a place to announce on Friday, or you continue to wait patiently to find out where on Friday.  

Keep watching the blog.  We'll try to keep all of our faithful friends and family as updated as we can.

Prayers are very much appreciated.  Here's what you can pray for:

• Now-Monday: Pray that we match.  We certainly don't want to have that unnecessary stress. 
• Monday-Friday: Pray that we are comfortable with where we are sent. Once it happens, we're done.  No second guessing, reconsidering, etc.  We have to be comfortable with keeping jobs, changing jobs, moving states, staying in the same state, going out of comfort zone, etc.

Much love,