I am finally ready to write a blog post. I know its been a while. And we've done so much over these last two months. Brett finished residency the end of June! It was one of those bittersweet moments. We were so excited to have five years of training, four years of med school, and those undergrad years behind us. But, we also knew that we'd be leaving a wonderful city, great employer, and incredible friends who have become like family to us. And.... who knows what the future holds right? But, I am so glad God knows, and we gets little glimpses at a time. Otherwise we might never follow.
I spent most of June packing up our house and tying up loose ends. And then as July came on, drive off to Illinois so the kids could stay with their Grandparents. Brett and I met up in Pennsylvania to attend ABWE 's Candidate Seminar for two weeks. It was a wonderful time of meeting so many others with a passion for ministering and reaching others across the world and right at home. It was a humbling and convicting time, but oh so encouraging. We are excited to partner with ABWE in going to our hospital in SouthEast Asia. Since we were in Harrisburg, Brett and I got to take in Gettysburg for a couple of hours. It was incredible! I'll try to do a separate post about it with some pictures we took.
Well, back to Illinois I went and Brett returned to Minnesota to meet the moving van. After several days we met up at the house we are renting in Southern Illinois. The last several weeks have been filled with unpacking boxes, beginning work, and exploration.
If you've been following our medical mission plans, you may be wondering about our move and work. While looking for a temporary job a little closer to family during this time of preparation, God provided far beyond what we could ask or think. However, it involved our time frame being lengthened slightly. We had hoped to be able to leave for Southest Asia with World Medical Mission by January of 2013. However, we were having a hard time finding someone who would hire a general surgeon for 6 months. After a lot of closed doors, one finally popped open and they were ecstatic about having us come down and work for them. As time went on, we could see this was only the hand of God in providing and preparing us. One of the senior surgeons here was at a mission hospital in Togo for 11 years and with ABWE, the same organization that built our hospital in Southeast Asia! What an opportunity for Brett to work alongside a seasoned surgeon who completely understands the journey we are on. Also, because our med school loans are rather low, we will be able to pay off all our debt before we leave for our hospital. Because we are staying a year, we looked at our plans to go with World Medical Mission and then switch over to ABWE, and realized it was going to involve a lot of moves, and opportunities that could be shared among more than ourselves. After a lot of prayer and spiritual counsel, we decided to step out of World Medical Mission's Post Residency program and just go long-term/full-time with ABWE. Both of these organizations have awesome people involved and we know that we will work again with World Med/Samaritan's Purse as they arrange a lot of help for our hospital in Southeast Asia. World Med was fully supportive of our decision and kept our account open until we finished our Candidate Seminar with ABWE, recently transferring everything over.
We are so thankful for people who have prayed for us and sacrificed to help us these last few months. I'm thankful for the friendships and investment of so many people into our lives over the last five years, and even longer than that! You are all precious to us.
And we miss you!
