Happy _________ Day!

Bet you guessed I would fill in the blank with St. Patty's but nope, not me...today is MATCH Day!  For those of you far removed from the world of residency - you lucky dog.  No really - you have no clue what I am talking about, and that is okay - my friend.  Match day (always the third Thursday of March) is when all the fourth year medical students around the nation find out where they will be doing residency (if they were successful in matching that is).  After submitting applications in August/September then getting invites to interview, then going on a world-wind, 3 month interview trail, the med student and each of the programs submit rank lists in late February, the computer system does its magic and on the third Monday of March they find out if the matched.  Then you spend another three days in a state of worry and fret about where you will spend the 3, 4, 5, plus years, which is also where you matched.  Was it your first choice, will we be happy there, did I make the right decision, etc.

So for us Match Day was March 19, 2009.  Not sure if we have ever told this story officially so I am going to break the news to the 6 of you that read this crazy blog.

Anyway, Andrew's top three programs were 1) UMC Jackson, MS 2) UK Lexington, KY and 3) Some Hospital Greenville, SC.  Obviously we got super lucky and matched in Jackson.  Which is also the only one of the three that I had never set foot near the place.  I had to completely trust Andrew in picking the program and the City.  He did great, by the way - I love it here.  Side note - my first trip to Jackson was when we were coming to look for houses to buy.  Yep, never been here, but hey let's buy a house...and we did...and we don't regret a single thing about it!

But before we went looking for houses and after we found out we were moving to within 3 hours of our soon to be born nephew, we got some other news.  MB and Hugh couldn't make the trip from MS to be with us on Match Day since she was 1) 36 weeks preggers and 2) had her first weekly Dr's appointment that afternoon.  So at 9pm that night, right before we crawled in the bed, completely exhausted from all the nerves and worry and stress and then celebration over Match Day, we got "the" call.  Sister was on her way to the hospital.  Now at the time we were told not to get in the car and start driving, but to wait until they got to the hospital to make sure they were really going to deliver.  Whelp at 6:00am the next morning right before my alarm went off for work, we get the "baby is almost here" call.  Geee thanks for not calling us back the night before, but everybody knew we needed some sleep.  So we jump in the car and drive 5 hours to meet little John boy.  We arrived two hours after he arrived and I spent the rest of the day taking care of MB so Mom and Dad, who did attend all match day events, and got out of bed to drive all night to get to the hospital, could get some sleep.  What did Andrew and Hugh do all day?  They repeated every test possible on the poor kid.  As soon as he would get to sleep, they would have him unwrapped doing the reflex test again.  Crazy doctor boys.

I say all of this to say that Match Day and the third Thursday of March will always be a day that I remember...I will never forget the feeling of waiting for Andrew to be called to the stage to get his results, then how slowly he opened the dang envelope.  I am pretty sure I ripped it out of his hands...Then the pure joy and excitement that shot through both of us as soon as we saw the words "UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI".  Then of course, having John surprise us the next day, isn't so bad either.

On last note - John has done this sort of thing to us from the very beginning...while unbuttoning the covered buttons on my wedding dress in the coat closet of the Hall, MB tells me that they have started trying to have a kid.  We come back from our honeymoon to find out that they were successful...then he shows up 4 weeks early on Match Day.  What's next, little fellow?