The Next Chapter.....

I mentioned at the end of {THIS} post that we've got an upcoming trip to San Antonio for house-hunting, and after I published that post I realized I'd never "officially" shared about our move on the blog...oops! I post a lot of our day to day stuff here on the blog, and the "big picture" stuff gets omitted sometimes. Here's my attempt at remedying that. ;) I wish I had blogged about all of this as it happened b/c it was definitely a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for us!

Derek finished his Internal Medicine residency last June and has been the Chief Resident for the program since then. Ever since last June, I've been meaning to have him do a little post on what life is like for him these days as Chief....and here we are almost a year later, and it still hasn't gotten done. ;)  Anyhow, during the fall of Derek's chief year, he began the application process for fellowship. Derek was considering a few different sub-specialities: Rheumatology, Infectious Diseases, Endocrinology, & Allergy. Ultimately, he decided on Allergy. He submitted his application in September if my memory serves me correctly, and we knew we woudln't hear any results until December. We spent the months of October & November thinking lots of what-ifs....what our life would be like if Derek was selected for Allergy, or what our life would be like if Derek wasn't selected and we got to stay here at Keesler for another year...or if he wasn't selected, what if we would have to be re-assigned to a new base? Lots of what-ifs! Being selected for a fellowship in Allergy was a really exciting prospect for us--it was what Derek really wanted to do, it would mean a move to a new city, and some of our best friends {the Goins & Gallimore families} from Keesler would be potentially moving out there with us if they were also selected for their fellowships. At some point in the fall, Derek went down to San Antonio to interview for the fellowship & learn more about their program, and he came home feeling really confident about everything. So as time went on, Derek & I found ourselves getting more & more excited about the potential move, but at the same time I was still very cautious to get my hopes up too much. Fast-forward to December, and we found out that our friends would be moving to SA in June to begin their fellowships in Cardiology & Nephrology {we were/are thrilled for them!} but Derek was selected as "alternate" for Allergy. Apparently, adequate funding wasn't available to fulfill the 2nd Allergy spot, so only one Allergy fellow was selected for the entire Air Force. It was very disappointing to say the least. Derek was devastated that his professional aspirations weren't coming to fruition, and we were broken-hearted on a personal level to be "left behind" here at Keesler while our friends would go on to SA in June. Don't get me wrong, we LOVE Keesler & everything about living here; but it really & truly felt like our time here was wrapping up and that we weren't meant to stay. Here's where the rollercoaster ride comes in.....days after learning about Derek's fate with Allergy, he was offered a potential fellowship position in Rheumatology. We were considering accepting the offer only to find out that the offer was no longer possible, again due to funding. Christmas & New Year's came & went, and with that time we finally began to feel at peace with the reality that we would indeed be staying at Keesler for at least one additional year. I can still distinctly remember a Sunday evening family run in mid-January where the girls were happily snacking in the jogging stroller & listening to their music while Derek & I discussed our future. We were getting excited about what another year at Keesler might mean for us despite the fact that we were still very saddened to see our friends and we had the very real possibility of a fall 2014 deployment on the horizon for Derek. We were excited about being close to home for another year. We were excited about being able to send Shelby to Trinity for one more year & have Hadley possilby join her there for the Mother's Morning Out program. We were excited for a good work schedule for Derek. We were excited about living at the beach for one more year & being close enough to squeeze in another Disney trip. I was excited b/c I finally felt like I was in a good rhythm with the girls here with our activities {Excel by Five, Kangarooz, storytime, etc}, and that we'd be able to continue that. The very next day, Derek found out that money had been moved around in the budget & we would be moving to San Antonio for fellowship this summer after all! Whew, what a whirlwind of emotions!

It probably wasn't until mid-February that we were really able to wrap our minds around everything! Once we were finally able to do that, we started to get super excited about this next chapter for our family! We are thrilled to be moving to a fun, new city where there is so much to do & explore, and we're excited to make lots of new memories as a family! But we're simultaneously saddened to leave Keesler & the only home we know with our children. We brought both of our babies home to this house, and there are countless memories we have here with them. It will be so hard to say goodbye to this house.

Derek & I will be San Antonio bound for house-hunting on Sunday! Because of the whirlwind of emotions that surrounded this PCS, it's never really felt "real" to me. But with our trip upon us, the reality is starting to sink in more & more. We are incredibly proud of Derek and eager to begin this next chapter of our family's story alongside our dear friends in San Antonio!