Plans.

379 days till graduation! Yay!

We're currently packing like crazy for our move back down to Moscow. Our dining room looks like a box/newspaper/bubble wrap factory exploded all over it. We have a lease drawn up for a comfy little apartment with 3 (!) bedrooms on the north end of town, and we're shopping for matching twin beds for the girls. It's crazy, and it's bittersweet.

It's bittersweet for a number of reasons. First of all, it seems like we just did this whole moving thing, and do we really have to do it again already? I do like moving (especially when there is something new and exciting that the new place has, like a 3rd bedroom!), but it seems a little soon. More importantly though, it's oddly difficult to leave Spokane. I love our little urban condo and the fun parks and shopping, but that's about it. I don't like the city, I don't like the crime, I don't like having to drive 30 minutes to get to Wal-Mart and WinCo, and I don't like being away from our friends and family. But I think that Spokane will always hold a special place in my heart because of what it represents. To me it symbolizes PA school and all the hard work that Andrew put into getting accepted and making it through the first year. As someone told Andrew just today, "Wow. I've heard of the PA program at UW but I've never actually met anybody who got in."In the months after Andrew was first accepted, I was so excited because he had worked so hard to get in and I was so proud of him and the fact that his efforts were bringing us here. Now, as we prepare to leave, I am even more proud because of all that he has accomplished in the last year. Driving by campus reminds me of Starbucks deliveries and late-night pick-ups after long study sessions. Driving south on 195 reminds me of Friday afternoons, heading down to Moscow, hearing about that day's workshop and how much Andrew loved it. That restaurant reminds me of the precious handful of dates that we were able to indulge in up here. It's strange to go to Costco and be able to take our time roaming the aisles - shouldn't we be hurrying home so that Andrew can get to studying? Then there are the boxes (plural) of binders and notebooks, full of hundreds of pages of notes and handouts and articles. In some ways I wonder if it's some odd manifestation of Stockholm Syndrome - we've been enslaved by these studies for seventeen months now, and it's hard to say goodbye.

We are, however, thrilled to be heading back to Moscow where all of our friends and family are. And school is far from over - 379 days to go, after all. Andrew is confirmed for two clinicals so far - one month in the ER at St. Joe's down in Lewiston in November, and one month at Eastern State Hospital for his psych rotation in January. Our fingers are crossed for a surgery rotation in Seattle working with a MEDEX alum and four months of family practice down in Lapwai. Being in Moscow will give us the ability to stay somewhat centralized and at least when he's gone the girls and I will have a great community to keep us occupied. And, it will be so great to not have to be living out of a suitcase every other weekend (at least for the girls and I) as we seem to have been for the past year when visiting Moscow. It will be another long year, but I'm sure that next August I'll look back and have to pinch myself to be sure that we're actually done. Our Spokane Exile is just a few weeks from being done, and we will return home. Lord willing, we'll be staying there for a long time. Before we know it, Andrew will have graduated and then Bella will be starting school at our alma mater, just 10 short years after we left. God has been gracious to us, and now we say goodbye to this short part of our lives and look ahead with glad anticipation toward the new blessings He has in store for us.