Big News

So.. we sort of have some big news. Now before all (five) of you go rushing to conclusions, this news does not involve a 9 month wait with an expensive gift in the end. So, please you can all rest assured (Mom) that this is not the case.

Matthew has decided within the last couple of weeks that he is no longer going to pursue medical school. Thankfully, he decided this before taking the MCAT and sending out applications, which saves us money, always a good thing! This decision came after a couple of months of going back and forth, until he ultimately decided that although he thinks it would be neat to go to medical school, it's not something he absolutely has to do to be fulfilled in his vocational life. On a side note... with the way things with healthcare are headed, we didn't want to take out hundreds of thousands in loan money when the potential earning for MD's could be falling each passing day. Let me step up on my small political soapbox for .5 sec... Don't you want the surgeon opening up your chest to be making good money? I would like to pay for steady hands, thank you! Ok... soapbox back under the bed.

Needless to say, we have officially decided that we will be out of Birmingham by next August. We will actually be signing our final lease to end July 31, 2010 this week... crazy. I know some of you are thinking, "but andrea you don't graduate until the second week of August!". Thankfully, we will live with our dear friend Geoff for a couple of weeks until I finish up, although we haven't asked him yet, no biggie. I'm sure he won't mind :)

So, this comes to my favor. We solicit all of your prayers as to what God wants us to be doing, going, etc... Matthew has been looking online for various post docs (sort of like a residency like med students) and industry jobs. Locations? Anywhere. We have mostly been looking in San Diego, San Fran, LA (we may or may not know some cool people there), Denver, Boulder, possibly Texas, Emory in Atlanta, and Vandy. Although I'll be honest, as of right now, it seems that the conversations tend to circle more around California than being back in Nashville (although I would love this as well:) To our family and friends. No worries! Post docs are only 2-3 years, then we would be free to move back to the South. I can only live so long where they don't serve sweet tea!

The ideal situation is Matthew finding a great job in a place where I can work and go to Nurse Practitioner school at the same time. But it really boils down to this, we want to be where God wants us, where we can really be used by Him in ways we never have, and where we can be a light to people who don't know Him.

I think that's BIG enough news, right?