Aloha!

It is official! I have been selected for Orthopaedic Surgery residency at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, HI. We will be moving in June 2011 after medical school graduation. Laura and I are excited to continue life for the next 5 years there. Once we get settled into a home and such, anyone is more than welcome to come and visit!

For those of you who have previously read the blog posts by Laura, you understand that residency choices were tough for us. I loved both Hawaii (Tripler AMC) and Tacoma, WA (Madigan AMC). Laura had a really rough time in Tacoma for many reasons. Moving to Hawaii is something that is incredibly hard for a family, namely because you are choosing to not see your own family that much for whatever time period. Ours will be 5 years. We are close to our families, and several of our grandparents are getting to the age that we are not sure how much longer they will have on this earth. Also, Laura's brother Michael (who has Down Syndrome) is turning 30 soon, and we do not want to miss out on any memories with him. And he does not do well with plane flights. So although many have shared that since Hawaii is even an option, our top choice should be a no-brainer. "You have to go to Hawaii!" most have said. As glamorous as Hawaii sounds, logistically, it is not the easiest decision to make. We will be in the most isolated archipelago in the world, with a 7-month-old, without any family close by, and with me starting a very time-intensive residency. Needless to say, it was a difficult decision.

All that being said, we ranked Tripler first on our list knowing how difficult it might be. We did so because we really did love our time there, we felt the residency was the best fit for me, and we felt that Hawaii was the best place to begin raising our family. We did not want to shrink away from what seems difficult because of fear. We believe that our faith will be increased during this time - our faith in God's provision and his perfect plan for our lives. We will learn to be dependent on Him for our needs in a deeper way. We have prayed to learn this dependency on Him, as opposed to dependency on ourselves or on our family/parents. We will probably learn more than we bargained for, but we cannot wait to learn and grow. Laura and I cannot wait for this new adventure!