Only For a Season

Brian left for his out of state rotations today, and a part of my heart went with him. I know it's only for a time, but I miss him terribly. My eyes well up with tears every time Elisabeth asks for her Daddy, but I try to stay lighthearted for her.

We made a little calender to keep track of how many days until we see him again.

She gets to color in one box each night before bedtime,

and when all the boxes are colored we get to see Daddy again.

I don't know if she quite understands, but I figured it was better than saying, "We'll get to see Daddy on the 31st" or "We'll see Daddy in a couple of weeks." I know she definitely doesn't understand that. Colored boxes, maybe. Time, no.

We plan on keeping very busy the next four months, so hopefully the time will pass quickly. We have a couple of trips planned to spend with Brian's family, and we'll have the chance to see my family a couple of times. We'll be visiting friends and having plenty of midwives' appointments to check on the baby (My first appointment to hear the heart beat is this Friday! I'll be almost 11 weeks!). Really cute side note: Elisabeth came up to me this morning totally unprompted and said, "Baby in Mommy's tummy" and then proceeded to rub my belly! It was really precious!

The time should go quickly, and we are blessed that we will be able to see each other here and there throughout the four months of his rotations.

Our schedule:

*Brian in Oklahoma for two weeks.
*Elisabeth and I drive to Oklahoma to spend the weekend with Brian.
*Brian in Missouri for four weeks.
*We all meet back in Oklahoma to spend the weekend together.
*Brian in Oklahoma for another two weeks.
*Family vacation to California and Oregon for two weeks; Elisabeth and I fly back at the end of two weeks (Ty and Stacy, we already have our plane tickets, so we are definitely coming!!!).
*Brian in Oregon for four weeks.

Our reason for these crazy few months? As Brian has decided to do Orthopedic Surgery, he is rotating with the three Orthopedic residency programs that he is most interested in...they call them interview or audition rotations...the program checks Brian out and vice versa. This helps him to determine if he feels like one or more of the programs is a fit for him and how he wants to rank them in the application process. He will apply to many programs and wait to see if he is extended an interview. Of the programs he interviews with, these are the ones that he has a chance of being accepted to...no interview, no chance of being accepted. He will then rank the programs in order of his preference and see which one he matches to (Match for Brian is in February....same time Baby is due...many reasons to look forward to the Spring!)...for example, if he ranks Oklahoma first, Oregon second, and Missouri third (these are totally random...he has no idea how he will rank anything at this point) and Oklahoma chooses him for their program, then he matches there and we move to Oklahoma. If Oklahoma doesn't choose him but Oregon does, then he matches to Oregon and off we head to the Northwest....and so on and so forth down the line. He could match to his eighth (depending on the number of interviews he gets) choice and we end up somewhere totally random like Ohio or Florida. It's all in God's hands and we are grateful for that!...probably as grateful as you are for this incredibly long detailed description! But seriously, the Lord knows much better than we do where we need to go next.

After Brian gets home from his out of state rotations we are looking at a fabulous schedule to finish out his fourth and final year of medical school.
*6 months of easy rotations (all within a few miles of home) and no tests (That means no studying. Once he's home, we can do whatever we want. We haven't done that in three years!)!!
*Match to residency program in February.
*Graduation in May...Brian officially becomes Dr. Hodges!
*We move for residency.

It's been a long hard road for all of us, but we know that this is what Brian was called to do. We know that we have to make some sacrifices to complete this journey, and our temporary situation is one of them. We will make it through and get to see the rewards in February. We are so incredibly proud of all that Brian has done over the last three years and is doing during his time away.

Brian, we are here praying for you and cheering you on! Until we get to see you again...