Residency Graduation

Last night was Jonathan's residency graduation.

It was a really nice ceremony. It was at the Biltmore Resort in Phoenix, which is super fancy, and the dinner was amazing! But of course the best part was knowing that residency was almost done and seeing Jonathan get recognized for all his hard work.

Jonathan was voted "most likely to be mistaken as having an asthma attack while laughing." We thought this was hilarious because J has this wheezing laugh that is so funny. (He gets it from his mom, she laughs the same way.) 

He was also awarded "Clinic Resident of the Year," and was given the "House Award for Best Diagnostic Skills." 

I thought that was awesome and I am so glad the program recognizes how hard he works. Jonathan feels that the awards were not appropriately given because he hates clinic (true that, he is always complaining about it which makes it so funny that he got a resident of the year award for clinic) and he feels that there are smarter doctors who should have gotten the House award. And he wasn't just trying to be humble. He started listing off residents who should of gotten a plaque and didn't. And I agree that all the residents should have gotten an award because residency is BRUTAL. But I love him for his kindness and I am still happy that he got his awards. :) 

 (If you can't tell what this picture is, it's the slide of Dr. House on the left and Jonathan on the right.)

Jonathan's mom and sister came and it was so fun to have them there.

I cannot tell you strongly enough how glad we are that residency is done!  (Well...almost done. He has to keep working until we move.)

Really, we are not sad about this at all. (We are sad about moving from our friends and family, though.) 

Residency is hard. So hard. Really, it is so, so hard.

There were some times when I was sure J was going to quit. He started looking at other programs and looking at jobs that didn't need a residency completed. He was totally and completely exhausted. But he hung in there and we are all so glad.

And through all of the difficulty of residency, I have truly seen the Lord's hand in our lives. I know that we could not have done it without the Lord's constant help. So the biggest lesson that I have personally learned while Jonathan did residency is that the Lord's grace is real. And so even though we are not done, and Jonathan is starting a two year fellowship in a few weeks, I know that the Lord will continue to help us. And I will always be glad that residency helped teach me that.