Match Day

Friday morning we went to UW Medical School to discover our match results. The foyer was packed with nervous medical students and their families. Sitting very prominently in the middle of the room were tables full of these boxes, each one containing a little white paper with each student's match results.

At 9am the Dean of Student Affairs rang a gong and everyone opened their boxes. It was quite exciting! Some people grabbed their box and ran away. Most of us stayed and opened the boxes with shaking hands.

We discovered that Brad matched for his transitional year of Medicine at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane!

We are thrilled! It's an easy move for us to a much less expensive area, it's somewhat closer to family, Brad's schedule shouldn't be too grueling, and he even gets to do some surgery. Wahoo! Also, our friends from high school matched to the same program! They've been in Indiana for medical school and it will be fun to have their familiar faces around for a year.

After opening our boxes, everyone stuck around talking and congratulating one another. It was pretty exciting! We learned that the University of Washington matched the highest percentage of 4th year medical students to residency positions in the country. Wow. What a blessing to be part of this amazing school and amazing class!

It was fun to talk to people we know and find out where they are headed. It's such an exciting time for everyone! We stayed until Leah started whispering in my ear, "Go away people". I'm afraid she's not quite the social butterfly that her sister is.

We're so relieved to have the match behind us. We feel so blessed. We have been praying so hard since last Fall that the Lord would bless us through this process, and He definitely has. Brad matched at two outstanding, highly competitive residency positions. We are humbled and very grateful, and ready for the adventure. Spokane for one year, Boston for three! Bring it on.

(This was a map in the foyer. Each red pin represents a medical student and is stuck where he/she matched for residency. Brad is pointing to his pins in Spokane and Boston.)

P.S. In case I have neglected to explain clearly, Brad is going to be an Ophthalmologist. His residency requires one year of general medicine (Spokane)  before training in ophthalmology for three years (Boston).