Fourth Year!

I can hardly believe that we are already in our fourth year of medical school (and yes, I count myself in med-school too, indirectly). These past three years have flown by. He has had a crazy year of studying for shelf exams every 8 weeks and then just taking step 2 of boards, I'm thankful he is starting fourth year off on a lighter schedule. He does have residency applications and interviews coming up this fall, so I know we are far from over. But I am so incredibly proud of how hard he works for our family. He has put in so many hours of studying this summer and still found time to spend with me. And as much as I have complained about his mandated study schedule or his school, he hasn't said a peep of complaining. He such an incredible guy and am so blessed to have him as my husband.

 First day of med-school on left and first day of fourth year on right.  

During the course of this past year of med-school we have really seen the Lord's hand take care of Josh. Things didn't always look like we were expecting them too but the Lord had a plan and he carried Josh through. We continue to trust Him in where He is leading us for residency. We will know where he will match for residency in February (or March possibly) and the Lord already knows where that will be. Craziness! All that to say God is good and we give Him all the glory for remaining faithful to His promises for us and for walking with us each step of the way.  

And thanks again Josh for letting me take these pictures of you. I know it's not your fave. =)

Don't Waste Your Cancer

You know when you hear about people being diagnosed with cancer, you never really think it will hit too close to home for you? Of course you know it's always a possibility. And you especially never think one of your best friends from college will ever be diagnosed with cancer.

Last week I received a call from one of my best friends from college, Libby, and she told me she has lymphoma. My heart just dropped. I immediately wanted to get in my car or buy a plane ticket and fly to Chesapeake, VA to be with her. I just wanted to see her and hold her. I remember receiving a phone call from her when I was in the hospital the night I had my c-section when we lost Leyton and she just wanted to come be with me. I now know how she felt.

I asked Libby if it would be okay if I blogged about her and shared a link of her new blog about her new journey. She is an amazing woman. She has a deep passion for the Lord and for her family. I admire her strength and courage during this uncertain time in her life. She is putting all of her hope and trust in the Lord and is already believing good things will come of this new trial. She has a wonderful husband who loves and serves her so well, I'm so thankful she has Justin.

Her blog is called Don't Waste Your Cancer.

She has a biopsy tomorrow afternoon to identify what type of lymphoma she has. Please be in prayer for her and her family. She believes in the power of prayer and would appreciate many prayers.

The past 13 months...

I know this is long overdue, sorry folks. I have a little problem with procrastinating that I am currently seeking help for. And I feel like a blog post of the last year of our life could really get out of hand so I will do my best to keep it under control. 

Usually when people ask me how I am doing, I quickly reply that I'm fine and then proceed to talk about my husband and what's currently happening with him in med-school. And that's pretty much what I'm gonna do here....

Right when I stopped blogging in July of '09, Josh had just started his third year of med-school which meant he was out of the classroom and into his clinical rotations. Every four weeks he began a new rotation and since we really just wanted to get away from everything we spent a lot of time out of Erie and ended up staying with my parents while Josh worked in Dayton (my father has a lot of connections of doctors in Dayton and helped Josh set-up rotations their). At first it was nice to be able to be with my family but after a while it got really unsettling staying in Dayton for four weeks and then Erie for four weeks and Dayton for eight weeks and so on and so on (we were also in western MI for four weeks this past May and stayed with his family). At this point Josh isn't planning on applying to any residencies here in Erie but he is in Dayton so it was important for him to make connections there. Which I totally understand and want him to rotate in locations that will be best for him. Thankfully I wasn't working so Josh and I were able to stay together. 

Josh just started his fourth year rotations (in fact, he just started them today!) and I've asked if we can try to stay here in Erie for as many of them as possible. I know three years ago I was counting down the days till when we would be leaving Erie, but now I realize this is our last year here and I want to be able to spend as much time with our friends here as possible since he will be graduating next May and then we will be moving. As strange as it is to me still, Erie is our home, our first home as a married couple and I like being here. So we will be here for about 8 weeks and then off to Dayton then back here for 8 and possibly back to Dayton. Not sure where we will be after the holidays but I guess we'll see. 

And as for me, I feel like not much has been going on and a whole lot at the same time. I was able to spend a lot of time with family and friends while we were away. We both have parents who are absolutely amazing and make living with them for four weeks easy breezy. Honestly, when are we ever going to be able to spend that much time with our families again? So I really tried to make the most of my time during the months we were away. 

Also during this time, I have been able to learn more about the Lord, deepen my relationship with Him, and truly see Him working in our lives every day. We have learned what it means to not have any control over what happens in our life and to put all our trust and faith in the Lord. There have been some major things we have had to trust the Lord with over this past year but we are believing in His goodness and we are holding to that nothing can separate us from His love. I can honestly say, I experience His grace and love in my life on a daily basis. And it is amazing grace.

One of the major things we are currently trusting the Lord with is we are expecting another baby boy around Thanksgiving time (good Lord's willing)! It took us a little longer this time around to get pregnant but of course the Lord's timing is perfect (remind me to tell you about how the Lord revealed to me when we would get pregnant, it's a relatively short story). But right when I was doing so well with trusting the Lord, He gives me something bigger to continue trusting him with (and as my life goes on He will continue to give me something bigger and bigger - wisdom from my incredibly wise mother). I was initially very hesitant to even blog about this but we would appreciate as many prayers as possible for us and our little one (my brother and sister call him g-kid). I will post a picture soon but I am currently 23 weeks and feeling pretty good.

Okay, I really need to end this post because it's much longer than I had anticipated. But I do feel like there is more to update you all on but I will do that in multiple and smaller blog posts. Thanks for reading!