ONE YEAR AGO TODAY...

... we didn't match. The world stopped turning... I sobbed like a baby in the fetal position on my living room floor...

It seemed fitting to bring the blog back today. Because today I am reminded that out of horrible situations, the most incredible blessings are given.

The day after we brought Tyke home from the hospital, we found out that Dale had not matched with a residency program. SHOCKED. It's interesting to look back on the whole process a year later. WE WERE CERTAIN HE WOULD MATCH. Did you hear me? Capital letters... I'm YELLING. We had been assured that we had matched. We ranked our "safety net" high in order to make sure we weren't left with nothing. WE GOT SCREWED. Dale got thrown under the bus... and people in positions of power failed to check the facts before assuming that Dale had agreed to go elsewhere. A "friend" falsely led people to believe that we had made other plans. A "friend" was as shady as it gets.... and when I think of him today

I COULD KISS HIM!

Truly. His shady actions led to the best possible situation for not only Dale, but our whole family.

So the rest of the story goes something like this. We didn't match. Dale joined the scramble. A list of all of the programs that didn't match with a student is posted, and everyone starts sending out their info in hopes of being offered a job. I'm pretty sure I can't think of anything worse. (k- so I can, but it was really awful) We watched as less qualified students picked up residency spots. We were confused. The residency coordinator at Dales school was confused. Dale hadn't received a single call. He had really good grades, fantastic clinical evaluations, and a passing grade (it is a pass/fail test) on part one and two of boards. I watched the website like a crazy person, and one by one the desirable positions filled. All without a single call. Long story short (kinda) it turns out that NOBODY had gotten Dale's email application. GASP!

2 MISERABLE weeks past. Thinking back- I'm pretty sure that I had some sort of the baby blues going on, because although it was a bad situation, it felt like the end of the world to me. I couldn't stop crying. I didn't love on my new baby the way I had with the others. I could NOT pull it together. I sent out a frantic, desperate, hormonal email to my friends and family asking for prayers for our family. My sweet cousin Carey forwarded the email to ALL of the extended family. Before we new it we had an army fasting and praying for us. THE NEXT DAY a student from Dale school had gotten a call about a spot in San Antonio Texas. She had already signed with someone else, so she gave them Dale's name and number. (insert hallelujah chorus here) They called and asked him to send his application. He already had- but they didn't get it. We quickly emailed (and faxed) it again. They called him that day and wanted to interview him. We booked a plane ticket that day. After we booked the flight another student called Dale to tell him about another option. The hospital in Temple Texas where she had matched was in the process of being approved for a 3rd first year residency spot. She called the director to tell him about Dale. He then called and talked to Dale. He was very up front with the fact that the spot had not yet been approved, and that he didn't know when it would be- but if Dale was truly interested, it might be in his best interest to go meet with him face to face. SOOOO we paid a fortune and changed Dale's plane ticket. He would now leave that afternoon... fly into Dallas... rent a car... drive to Temple... spend the day there... drive to San Antonio and interview there. Yikes. He spent the day in Temple, and the phone call I got that evening was bittersweet. He LOVED the hospital, the program, the people. After one day he felt SO good about it. That is not like Dale. He takes a good week to be comfortable with anything new. The problem was that Scott and White didn't ACTUALLY have a spot to offer him. So he went to his San Antonio interview. He was 1 of 5 guys there for the same spot. Dale hadn't even gotten to the parking lot when he got a call from the director offering him the job. YES! I was all kinds of relived! Dale was not. He KNEW that he belonged at Scott and White. He bought himself some time with San Antonio by asking them if he could review the contract. In the mean time he called the director at Scott and White to ask him some questions. #1 IF you get approved is the job mine? #2 What are the chances of being approved? That was it. The director could only answer #1. Yes the job was his IF they were approved. We were supposed to find out April 7th- but he had to give San Antonio an answer. So he gathered up all the kahones any one person can possibly have, and TURNED DOWN the job offer to wait for the possibility. ARE YOU CRAZY? Okay- so he didn't do it without talking to me first, and I decided (with help from my sweet friend Kim) that he was the one receiving inspiration about this decision- I obviously was not. I let him make the decision. IT WAS PAINFUL. We were suppose to find out on April 7th if they were approved. April came and went. Each day was more and more awful. We waited. Finally 53 days after match day, I opened the email of my dreams... "Dale, good news. We're approved. Call me right away." I screamed. I really did. I woke up my new sleeping baby. I called Dale. I cried.

Thinking back to that day- I have a much greater perspective a year later. So many things had to absolutely fall apart, for us to be given the blessings that our Heavenly Father had in store for us. He wanted us to have faith in him. He wanted us to remember that he knows who we are, and he knows what we need. Dale had faith... I did not. So I did the only thing I could do... I trusted my husband.

It's funny because we were so sure he would match, but thinking back, he didn't really feel great about any of the programs he ranked. He ranked them more for the sake of location, than the program. We have often said that we are being drug all over the countryside kicking and screaming. It's true. Dale going to Podiatry school was a complete fluke, and now we have ended up somewhere that we never even considered. It's hard to argue that the lord has a plan for us. We're working on not meeting him with quite so much opposition.

Happy match day class of 2010... it's not as bad as it seems...