We're moving

again.

Some friends and family have asked what our medical path looks like.

It may be best to start from the beginning:

Matt graduated from college with a biology degree...spent a year in India.....moved back stateside.....worked as a salesman.....then a financial advisor for 6 years.....didn't love it.....talked about pursuing medicine.

He wondered if he was too old to pursue a medical career (him being the ripe age of 29 at the time).  Too old? I assured him that he was not too old and thought he should go for it.

So for the next year, he retook a couple classes....studied for and took the MCAT..... maintained his finance job.....applied to schools....and waited... 

studying for the MCAT

It made the least immediate financial sense for us to go this route, but we were on the same page and both at peace.  I could just totally see Matt practicing medicine.  It suits him and his interests.  He loves science, a good challenge, and genuinely cares for people.

I'll always remember the day Matt got his acceptance letter.  He opened it slowly, the two of us standing in the living room, holding our breath.  I saw that the first word of the letter was "Congratulations" and flung my arms around him saying, "You're a doctor!"  to which he laughed and replied, "No,...I'm not."  Because he wasn't.

He had just worked so hard to get in, and I was excited for him.

I tried to imagine our life as a teacher and a med student....accumulating student loans....living off my little teacher's salary.  And the Lord kept bringing me back to Matthew 6:25-34 which led us, a year and a half ago, to move with confidence from Colorado Springs to Kansas City.

Gosh, it looks so nearby on this map.  And a year and a half has zoomed by!

And so our medical journey began...

Matt's Medical Journey

Med school:

• 2 yrs. lectures/studying/taking tests (which we're now finishing up)
• 2 yrs. hands-on training in hospitals (graduate as "official doctor" after this)

Residency:

• 3-5 yrs. required graduate medical training (like being an "apprentice doctor")

Fellowship:

• 1-2 yrs. optional extra training (only if you want to "subspecialize")

Matt's med school assigns students to various U.S. cities for the second 2 years (the hospital training years), based on what everyone submits as their top 3 city preferences, taken from a list of options.

The students and students' families eagerly await results of this "Clerkship Match", curious where they will be living for the next 2 years.  *This Clerkship Match is not to be confused with the big residency match in a couple years.

We put Kansas City as our #1 choice.  We have community here now - good friends....church family....purposeful and fulfilling job for me....  And moving is expensive.

It would be simpler to stay.

After hearing that students who wanted to stay in Kansas City historically got matched here, we were pretty confident we'd get our first choice.

Needless to say, we were caught a little off guard when Matt received the phone call that he didn't match to any of the 3 cities he submitted, meaning he would have to choose from a list of cities that still had openings available.  Whatever those cities were.

Up until this point, things have been going pretty smoothly for Matt in med school.  While it's certainly not cake for him, he has experienced success, making me want to to shout from the rooftops how proud I am of him!  But this match isn't based on student performance, I learned.  It's random.  And that right there is the rub (I've always wanted a reason to say, "Ah, there's the rub.")

21 students out of a class of 240+ didn't match to one of their choices.

Still, I know it's not a fluke that we were among them and have a firm confidence that, for reasons now unknown to us, God is sovereignly moving us away from Kansas City to a city that He has matched us to.  Nothing thwarts His plans.

So, we're moving in July.

That's weird to write, because I feel like we just moved to Kansas City.  But such is our med school journey.

One concern I do have is that my new Kansas City friends, coworkers, and students' families will perhaps think me blasé about leaving.  Breeze in/breeze out.  But that's not how it is. This place and my job have become special to me.  (And I was just starting to get the hang of 2nd grade, to gain traction and vision!)  I'm a stay-er.  I don't know if I would have ever left my previous CO teaching position, had we not been forced to move for med school. I hate leaving my school in a lurch to find another teacher, but I have no delusions that I'm irreplaceable and know that God will meet their needs as He will meet mine. He's efficient that way.

So, to the Kansas City folk I've had the pleasure of befriending and working with:  I'll miss you.  Thank you for welcoming me and showing Christ's love to this newcomer.  I've loved our conversations.

And to our med school friends staying in KC:  we'll sure miss you and are looking forward to reuniting for graduation in a couple years.  Won't that be a happy day?

While we didn't expect this early of a move and haven't a clue where we will live in our new city....where I will work....who our friends will be....what our finances will look like...., I know Jesus is going with us and will take care of us.  And that really does alleviate worry for me.

My friend and mentor Christin gave me this book when I was in college, and I've since reread it several times.  It's a little book, easy to read in a sitting or two, but opened my eyes in a life-shaping way to what Jesus being my Good Shepherd actually means.

A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23

On my last job application, I had to write about a book that impacted me.  I wrote about this book.

The author, a former shepherd, led me through Psalm 23, line by line, sharing stories of his own shepherding experiences.  I never before understood the depth of my Shepherd’s love and detailed care for me as I have since reading this book.

One of my favorite lines from the book is:

“I know of nothing which so stimulates my faith in my heavenly Father as to look back and reflect on His faithfulness to me...Over and over He has proved his care and concern for my welfare.”

It's true!  When I look back over my life, I see Him.  I see Him when I think about how He moved some anonymous person's heart to pay for me and my brother's school registration when my parents were out of work......I see Him when He gave me undeniable renewed strength to handle a troubled student with grace and peace when I was at my wit's end.....I see Him when he led Matt and me, blind as we were in a new place, to a cozy apartment in Kansas City that, though not fancy, is perfectly suited to us.  I see His care.

Residency will probably move us again.  Then after residency, we'll likely move again. That comes to about 4 potential out-of-state moves in 9 years.

Someone recently said to me, "Moving all the time for med school would be hard for me." But, it's really not that hard.  I know this Earth isn't my home, so moving around on it doesn't feel like a huge deal.  And God's promised presence makes me excited to follow Him to the next place.

And too, we're moving within the continental U.S., so really, is there that big of a life change to get used to?

I'll still admit I'm glad we're not moving to Warren, Ohio - a possibility.  Matt asked how I felt about moving there, and the first word that came to my mind was "depressed" (I know that's unfair because I haven't been there, but that's the word that came to my mind.)

Still, if we had been sent to Warren, Ohio, I took comfort in trusting that Jesus would be with me and would satisfy me even there.  But for now, we won't be moving to Warren, Ohio.

So what city are we moving to, you ask?

I'll give you a hint:  It's south, and Mickey and Minnie will be our new neighbors.

We are moving to Orlando, Florida.

After the initial surprise of the moving news, we started to get excited for a few reasons:

Not the least of which is that we'll be only 7 hours from my family in Atlanta, Georgia which will be the closest (geographically) I have been to them in 10 years.

my family

After embracing my adventurous-move-to-Colorado-far-away-from-home season in my 20's, I'm excited to be near family again.  I foresee the occasional weekend trip to visit them or maybe a Disney World get-together, who knows?

On cold days, when our snow shovel is broken and our car remains buried, I get excited thinking about the warm weather.  In my heart-of-hearts, I'm a warm weather girl.  And I love the beach. Even though Orlando is not on the beach, it's the closest I will have ever lived to a beach.

Also, coincidentally, we found out some dear and personally influential friends of ours may be moving there too.  Huh.

And of course we're excited and ready for Matt to start his hospital rotations and to see what interests him.

All in all, I'm very grateful for our time in Kansas City.  While I'm not looking forward to packing boxes and saying goodbyes, I am looking forward to this next season, seeing how God provides for us and makes a way for us, as He always does.  We'll have new stories to tell about his faithfulness.

We have a little over 4 months until the big move.  If anyone wants to give us big boxes, we'll take em.  We'll also take prayer...and monetary gifts;)  Just kidding.  But seriously.

Friends traveling to Orlando, contact us!  We love visitors.

So there's our news.  Here we come, Florida!

School Days: Field Trips

This week, some teachers and I took our classes on a field trip to see the symphony.

You've never seen children so excited to ride a bus.
Private school means no buses, which makes bus-riding a novel treat.

Of the varied field trips I've gone on as a teacher - science museum, nature center, the zoo, art museum, one-room school house, that alpaca farm once - the symphony is probably my favorite field trip.

Maybe I like that the students are easy to keep track of because they're all sitting down the whole time. But I think I love it because the music is so uplifting.  It's relaxing to sit and just...listen.

Unfortunately, a little boy from another school got sick in the middle of Bach's fugue and threw up over the balcony.  I felt terrible for him.  And for his teacher.  That's so embarrassing to get sick like that in such a public place.  And to miss the rest of the music, ah, my heart just went out to him.

On a gladder note, we heard the pipe organ played.  I don't know if I've ever heard a pipe organ like this in person.  We learned that it has over 5,000 pipes!  Some of them as small as your pinky finger, others taller than your house.  There's a whole room of pipes behind that wall.  The organist showed us by "walking inside of her instrument" through a little door and turning on the lights in that pipe room.  You can kind of see some on the pipes showing through the wall on the lefthand side of the organ.

When she played loudly on the last piece called "Organ Symphony", the sound of the organ filled the place.  It was magnificent.  My breath caught a little bit.

Do you have a favorite field trip you went on as a child?