Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Fellowship Follow-up


My friend Kara started blogging again after a long absence and I took that as my cue to make some time for it too.  Check our her blog here--White House Red Roof .

What the email we received looked like
The last time I wrote we were preparing to apply for the Fellowship application process. Now months later, we are preparing to move for Fellowship.  In July we applied to 56 programs for a Hematology/Oncology Fellowship. Shortly after his application was submitted, the craziness began. Over the next 3-4 months, Richard traveled non-stop around the East Coast to interview at about 10 programs. We were lucky enough to hear from about 16 total programs, but interviewing at 10 programs was insane (time wise and financially) that we had made the decision to only interview at 10. He was gone multiple nights a week for that 3-4 month time frame and our family time was extremely limited. BUT it was all worth it. On December 7th, at Noon- we found out that Richard had matched at the University of Kentucky.  


At Keenland horse race in Lexington, KY
We were thrilled to finally have our location and a little more known about the future of our family.  As a family we had traveled to Kentucky for the interview (and twice since finding out). Our dear friends and old neighbors from Greenville now live there and graciously welcomed us for the weekend so that we could learn about the city and explore a little bit with their guidance. We thought Lexington was a great town and surprisingly seemed like a bigger version of Greenville with horses.

We will be moving there sometime in the next month or two and Richard will officially begin July 1st. We truly feel like we are being called to Lexington for a reason and are excited to relocate. We are excited about the possibilities that Lexington will bring for our little family and the time to explore in a completely new area of the country for both of us.

Richard is nervous about the unknowns of what Fellowship will be like but Lillie and I have every faith that he'll be amazing and successful.  As of right now, I will be staying home with Lillie until she can get into a daycare and I can start the job hunt. On December 8th, I put her on a waiting list and the daycare still has no idea when she'll be able to start.We don't have a place to live yet but are going to look next week as a family. The right house will happen for us. Our home in Greenville is under contract after less than a weekend of being on the market and we will leave the house officially mid-May. We love our house and our dear friends here in Greenville. We are sad to leave all of these wonderful and precious things/people behind but phones work 2 ways and it won't be goodbye, just see you later. My sweet bible study friends are already planning their trip to Lexington!

Life right now is very busy and our time is limited with so much to do before we leave South Carolina. Somehow a million events are happening in May and right now Richard's hospital schedule leaves us with a 36 hour window to drive to Kentucky (6 hours), tour houses and drive back home. Please think of us and send good thoughts as we try to wrap everything up and find our new home.  As always, thanks for reading and following!

3 comments:

  1. You will love the "Bluegrass" state! You should tour all the horse farms, especially King Ranch, I think that's the name. Secretariat is buried in Paris or Winchester, not far from Lexington. Go to keeneland race track, but go during the week as it will be less crowded. It's only open two weeks in spring and two in fall! We travel through to go to northern KY. I'll have to email when we're coming through and we can meet!! Hope you fall in love with it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Haha - glad I inspired you! And make sure that your house has at least a couch for me:-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. You can look at a lot of real estate online - virtual tours and such - and maximize the time you have so you can see your favorites up close and personal! Just narrow the field and have your realtor set up showings. So excited for all that lies ahead for you both - we're here if you need us!!!

    ReplyDelete