Blogging from Seattle!

Hi, folks! Well, my first interview is done! Only seven more to go. I meant to have a little photo journal of my travels...but I left my camera battery at home! Bummer...especially since Seattle is in it's full fall glory and not a cloud in the sky since I've been here. Gorgeous.

Washington's program is absolutely fantastic. Wow. Everyone I met was super-nice and passionate about children and about their program. And the resident I interviewed with is a fellow Christian (they SO set that up on purpose, which is just cute)...he talked with me about the challenges and awesome rewards of moving to a place where you are the "spiritual minority." So great. Also, fantastic curriculum, diverse patient population, gorgeous hospital...and the residents call the attendings by their first names!

This experience has made me really excited to visit the rest of programs. :) If only I had photos to put up...

God is bigger than my feelings.

I went to Bible study tonight...it actually ended up being just me and my dear friend Andrea...so I got to see a video that I had missed a few weeks back. The teacher on the video made several profound points about God and also about our battles against sin and evil.

The point that really made an impression on me is that God is so much bigger than how I feel. He is bigger than my battles, more powerful than every possible temptation. He is greater than my screwups and my misconceptions and skewed perceptions. He has won victory over death and, in that, I too can be victorious.

Application of this truth is more difficult. Sometimes I feel really angry with God when I have feelings that I know are not in line with His will for my life. My feelings are often a jumbled up, angsty mess, and I ask, Lord, how can you allow me to have these emotions that are so confusing? I am also dealing with a couple of specific sin areas in my life...some things I've struggled with for a long time. Sometimes I feel like I can never have victory over these parts of my life. What a lie. I resolve to tell myself, whenever I am tempted or stray or succumb or just have frustrating feelings that I don't understand, that my God is so much bigger than all of these things.

Yay for interviews!

My interview schedule is finally set. I'm going on eight interviews...all over the place. I'm visiting programs in the Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountain region, California, the Southeast, and, of course, right here in Texas. I'm nervous...and more than a little bit afraid of air travel...but I'm so excited, too! My first interview is a week from Friday.

Also, I got my car window fixed today, and it wasn't even that expensive.

Boo.

Today, someone broke into my car. They didn't take anything...but they broke the window and messed up part of the window frame. You see, I had purchased a suitcase for my interviews that did not fit in the trunk...so I left it in the back seat as I went into a restaurant (in a safe part of town). I guess someone wanted to see if there was anything valuable inside the suitcase...they unzipped it and then left it on the seat.

I need to be more careful...usually I do not leave valuables visible. But seriously...where I'm from in Mississippi you don't have to worry about that sort of stuff.

Can I find somewhere safer for residency? Probably not...

On a high note...breakaway glass is cool. I went to my car, and there was all this grainy glass on the ground, and I thought, where is this coming from? And then, oh.

At least they are letting me out of clinic tomorrow so I can get my window fixed. And, nothing is missing except my window. Praise the Lord for that.

The highlight of my day.

The best part about my women's health elective is that I get to speak a lot of Spanish. Which pretty much totally rocks. Anyway, I was translating for my supervising nurse practitioner today, and a Mexican-American patient asked me, "Where did you learn Spanish?" (obviously asked this in Spanish). I answered, "I majored in Spanish in college." She replied, "Oh, I thought you were Spanish. Your Spanish is really good." A native speaker mistook me for a native speaker from another country! That absolutely made my day.

On a side note, I am awesome at Pap smears now.

Best weekend ever!

I spent last weekend with in Oxford hanging out with my best friends, Anna, Chaeli and Shane. It was so wonderful to see them. They are like sisters to me and have been my family during a lot of tough times. I love it that when we hang out we don't have to fill our time with constant "fun" or have tons of deep meaningful conversations. We know each other so well that we can just "be" and that's fine. Corny, but true.

It was also a lot of fun spending time with Shane's husband, Mike, and getting to know them better as a married couple. It was the first time I had seen them since the wedding. I also got to see Corrie, my sweet roommate from senior year of college, and her husband, D, for the first time since December...and meet their baby Isaiah. Isaiah may be the cutest baby in the whole world...he is at least above the 90th percentile of baby cuteness. He also just has the greatest happy little personality. Spending time with him made me really excited to be a pediatrician...and made me want to have a baby of my own. Yes, I'll admit to that. All in good time...I hope.

Below are some highlights of the weekend:



Shane and Mike at Bottletree, the coolest bakery ever



Anna and Chaeli by Uptown Coffee



My old roomie Corrie and her sweet Isaiah



Me and Isaiah...holding him is therapeutic