Eight Favorite Experiences in Eight Years of Marriage

Chris and I celebrated eight years of marriage while we were in Maine, and I love using our anniversary to reminisce on all the special moments we’ve had throughout the years. Today, I thought it would be fun to share eight of our favorite experiences in our years of marriage. These are off the top of my head and in no particular order.

Celebrating Our 21st Birthdays and One Year Anniversary in Las Vegas
We had so much fun on our first trip to Vegas together! We saw Cirque du Soleil’s LOVE and KA and ate at so many amazing places. Vegas is still one of our favorite places if we only have time to get away for a few days.

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Studying Abroad in Europe
There’s something special about being married and getting to study abroad in Europe together. We went with a group of about 40 other students from Baylor and were definitely the “mom and dad” of the group, but we had the best time! Our study abroad program was heavily focused on travel (Fridays off and lots of holidays), and we took advantage of it by seeing 16 different countries. I’m so glad we were able to do something like this before the craziness of medical school.

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Discovering a Love for Cruising
I hadn’t been on a cruise in the United States (we did a month long cruise from Russia throughout Europe when we lived there) until we got married, but we’ve done six together since then! (two to Alaska, one Southern Caribbean cruise from Puerto Rico, one Eastern Caribbean cruise, one Western Caribbean cruise, and one fall color cruise). We haven’t been on one in almost three years mostly due to Zika, but I am definitely planning on going again when the baby is old enough!

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Graduating Baylor
Baylor will always be a special part of our story: we met on our first day on campus, spent that first semester falling in love, and got married the summer after our sophomore year at a gorgeous spot on campus. All of that made graduating together from the university we love even more wonderful. We were in different colleges, so we got to watch each other’s ceremonies. It was such a great day!

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Watching Chris Become a Doctor
I’ve never been one to sugarcoat medical school. It’s not easy (though it’s a cake walk compared to residency). Still, there was nothing better than watching my love fulfill his dream during those four years. I was so proud as he crossed that stage and officially became a doctor in 2015. Now we’re making our way through residency, and it’s hard to believe that day was over two years ago!

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Match Day Process, Match Day Results

Celebrating the End of Medical School with a California Road Trip
We’ve been blessed to visit many amazing places in our eight years of marriage, both in the United States and abroad, but our California road trip ranks as one of our favorite trips. We were celebrating such a big occasion in a place full of incredible views and so many fun things to do. I loved visiting La Jolla and the San Diego Zoo for the first time, and our drive up Highway 1 was absolutely incredible. Someday I’ll get around to finishing up my recaps of that trip, but it’s definitely a trip I will always treasure.

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Our Year in Chicago
Y’all know the story by now: I moved to Chicago kicking and screaming…and then I fell in love on basically the first day. Intern year was hard, but living in Chicago made it so much better. That year ended up being one of my favorites of our marriage so far. I loved exploring a new area of the United States with my love, and you better believe I left Chicago with tears in my eyes when the year was over.

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Our Journey to Parenthood
Of course, I had to include the last few months in my favorite marriage experiences. We have been so excited since finding out we’re going to be parents, and it’s hard to believe we’ll be mommy and daddy in just three short months! As much as I have loved all of our adventures, I know this one will be the best one yet!

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Life Update: One Year After Match Day

This time last year, I felt lost. I spent months anticipating Match Day, and the results were a big shock to us. We had spent so much time discussing radiology residency, so his prelim year location was a bit of an afterthought. We had hoped to stay in the Dallas area for at least a year, so I could stay at my job for at least a year. Obviously, that didn’t happen.

When I found out we were moving to Chicago, I cried. I was leaving my dream job to move to a city I had never visited…only to move back a year later. At that point, it felt like the worst case scenario. A year later, I know I will cry when we leave Chicago. It took me about two seconds to fall in love with the city, and our adventures here have been better than I imagined. I have been honest about how hard this year has been, but I will never feel like it wasn’t worth it.

The best piece of advice I received after finding out about our Match Day location was “you can do anything for a year.” At the time, a year in Chicago sounded like forever, but here we are, talking about where we want to live when we move home. As much as I will miss Chicago, I am also super excited to watch Chris become a radiologist.

I am part of an online group of doctors’ wives, and before joining that group, I had no idea how many people don’t match every year. It has really put things in perspective for me and made me appreciate where we are, and where we will be in the future. Throughout the whole process, I never had a worry that Chris wouldn’t match, and now I understand what a blessing that is.

What I thought was a major plot twist in our lives became an opportunity to enjoy a new part of the country. This time last year, I was mad at the Match process. Today, I’m thankful for all the unexpected blessings.

Match Day Results: We Are Moving To…

Friday was one of the longest and hardest days I have had in a long time. We had been waiting to find out for so long, had discussed and prayed about so many different scenarios, that when we got the result, and it was nothing close to any of the scenarios, we were shocked.

Honestly, part of me did not want to post today. I had imagined writing this post so many times before Match Day, and I thought I would be oozing with excitement. Over the past few days, the initial shock has turned into feeling overwhelmed. That being said, we know God has a plan for our future, and this is all a part of His plan.

Our hope had been to stay in Dallas for another year, which would have given us time to figure out a possible move and allow me to stay at my job while Chris was doing his intern year. Instead, we are moving to Chicago in two months for one year…and then moving back to Dallas for radiology residency.

I’m sure you can tell by now that these weren’t our top choices, but we are really looking forward to being in Dallas for residency. Even though it wasn’t our top choice, match is very regional (every single person picked for our top choice was from that state), so we knew it wasn’t likely. Chris is excited to be working for a top program in brand new hospitals. Plus, we will be close to both of our families, which is huge for us.

As thankful as we are to stay in Dallas for residency, when we opened the envelope on Friday, we barely glanced at the residency destination. Moving to Chicago for a year was a huge shock for us. Now that we have had time to process it, we are excited for the adventure. Even so, I am heartbroken to leave my job when we will be moving back to Dallas just a year later. I have no idea what I am going to do in Chicago for a year (because I don’t feel good about applying for jobs knowing I could only work there for a year). We have to figure out where we are living as soon as possible…and how much we are going to bring with us since we will be back.

On the other hand, I am excited to explore a new city and the area around it. I can’t wait to try new restaurants, and I am already coming up with road trips we could go on the few occasions Chris isn’t working 100 hours a week.

I am so thankful for our trip to California so we can take time to celebrate Christopher’s upcoming graduation before the madness starts! Thank you so much for your support during the Match Day process, friends, and I can’t wait to share our moving progress.

One Month From Match Day: Residency Update

We are on the home stretch, friends! I can’t believe we will have the envelope that says where we are headed in a little over three weeks.

Today is the last day to submit your rank list, so our list is officially set in stone. This time last month, I was freaking out because Chris fell in love with a school I didn’t expect he would love. I am happy to say we put together his rank list without a single compromise, and we would both be over the moon if he got his first choice (but we would also be perfectly happy with his top five choices).

I can’t tell you what a relief it is to feel completely at peace about the process. Will I be panicking on the days leading up to Match Day? Probably. The thought of moving across the country in a short time still seems daunting, and, at times, terrifying. Even so, I know where we go is God’s will and will be the right place for us.

We are so excited the process is almost over, and soon enough, we will be heading to California to celebrate!

Feeling lost? I outline the Match Day process here, and explain more about radiology residency here. 

Two Months From Match Day: Residency Update

Where did the time go? I feel like I was just writing my three months till Match Day update. It’s crazy to think that two months from now we will know where we are going to be for the next five years of our lives!

Chris is now finished with all of his radiology interviews. He has one more internal medicine interview this week, and then he will be completely done. I am so glad that he is done with interview season. Even though he is about to start work at the hospital again, it is nice to know we are in the same state.

I have had several people ask me why he had to interview at so many places. Radiology is considered a competitive specialty, and each residency program only has 4-12 spots. Residencies like internal medicine have 40 spots per program so people don’t have to interview at as many places.

Now that interviews are done, it’s time for us to make our rank list. For some reason, I thought this part would be easy. That was before Chris fell in love with a program that I didn’t expect. I can’t even tell y’all how much I wish I could write out our top choices and the pros and cons of each place on here. It would be so nice to get opinions from people who aren’t affected by our decision. That being said, the match system is complicated (I explained it a little last month), so it might not matter what place we choose to rank number one.

I am definitely feeling more stressed about the process than I was last month. We are both so ready to just know. Then, we can celebrate Chris being done with medical school and look forward to our next adventure!

Three Months from Match Day: Residency Update

Other than mentioning the interviews in my Friday Favorites, I haven’t talked about the residency process in a while. I can’t believe we are so close to finding out where we’re headed! Although I am doing better at living in the present (the holiday season has really helped with that), I am still eager to know if we are moving.

Here’s a quick explanation of the process:
Chris is specializing in radiology, which means he has to do a year of internal medicine (or surgery) before he starts his radiology residency. He has to interview for both internal medicine and radiology programs right now, and we will find out his placement for both on March 20. He still has a whole month of interviews in January, and he will have a total of 32 interviews by the time he is done.

Once the interview process is over, we will rank the programs, and the programs will rank Chris. On March 20, we will receive an envelope with one radiology and one internal medicine program on it….and that’s where we’re headed. Most residencies start on June 15 so we will have less than two months to move (if we need to).

Current thoughts: 
Though it is still hard for us not to have a lot of control over the process (since the schools ranking Chris is what will matter in the end), Chris and I feel pretty good about our top five choices. The top five choices are really different from each other in location and size, and there is still a chance that these will change since Chris has some interesting options coming up in January. I wish I could break them down and talk about similarities and differences, but I can’t write about it.

Right now I am in a weird position where I am so ready to know so I can start planning, but I want time to go slowly because life will be even crazier once we do know. Here’s to the next three months—I am sure they will pass quickly, and before I know it, I will be writing a post about where we’re going.