Haws Household: MATCHED! + a cooking class

Match Day was kind of a surreal experience. I got a babysitter for the kids all day and friends house's for after school for the older kids and drove down to Miami with Sterling because we kind of felt like we might not match and wanted to be prepared for that (hello repeating second year). We even drove separate vehicles to Miami because if Sterling did indeed have to stay to start the SOAP process (applying to programs that did not fill during the first round of matching--due to a computer algorithm putting our rank list with programs rank lists) then I might have to come home to pick up our kids before he was finished. We pulled into the sixth floor of a parking garage on UM campus and Sterling told me that his phone had notified him he had the email but he was waiting for me, and he jumped from his car into our van and then opened the email! I have to say, the week leading up to this had been the most stressful ever. We were arguing over nonsense, Sterling had no patience with the kids, my fingernails were nubs and neither of us were sleeping. (There are a million, million reasons why I would tell everyone I ever meet to NEVER go into medicine, the match process is one of them and it just gets worse and worse every year because they are getting less and less residency programs for the number of students graduating) ANYWAY it was SUCH A HUGE relief to see that he matched! I think Sterling didn't really believe it at first. IT WAS AMAZING! We were so so thrilled! We kept reminding ourselves that we probably matched here in Florida, which wasn't our favorite idea, but was MUCH better than not matching, and so we tried our very, very best to enjoy it. We ate lunch/brunch together. Hung out in the student lounge all afternoon chatting about our future and especially enjoying not having any kids around. Sterling had an appointment on campus later in the afternoon which is why we hung around there. Then we came home in separate vehicles in the awful afternoon traffic and I remembered why I am so bitter against Miami.

So that was a Monday. You find out that you matched, but you don't find out WHERE until Friday. So two of our very, very, very awesome friends that we have done game nights with for the past several years, did not match. They were applying to pretty much the MOST competitive specialties--orthopedic surgery and ENT. Both of them did the SOAP process and instead of ENT our friend Brent was able to get into an anesthesia program in Vegas (where he is from) so they were thrilled, and Jeff got with the dean and is doing a prelim year in Tallahassee and he'll apply again next year. Which I think is kind of for the best because I think he will totally match ortho next year and he really wants it. Also our old RS president from last year that didn't match last year and moved to do an interim year in California MATCHED this year in ortho---which is huge! Anyway, with all of that going on it was just a really weird week. We felt blessed we matched, although we are doing internal medicine, which is less competitive (but what Sterling wants, so that's huge) and while we were pretty positive it was to Florida, it was still not definite, which is just a hard thing to be patient for.

On Friday we could have driven down to Miami and joined in the match day hoopla and taken pictures---but it is kind of like a graduation. Each student goes up and opens their letter and shakes hands and takes pictures. We didn't want to take our kids, but it didn't feel like celebrating without them. So I just got babysitters again (this was no small feat, and I appreciate EVERYONE who helped us out!) and we were going to play in the ocean, but it rained. So we ate beside the ocean in an adorable little French brunch diner and had a delicious breakfast and waited to get the email. Then we picked up our babies and laid Russ down for a nap and opened the email at home. MATCHED UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI JFK MEDICAL CENTER IN BOCA. Which is 20 minutes from where we live (thankfully not in Miami) and such a good thing. I have to admit we were both sad we weren't moving west, but Sterling loves working at JFK and already knows and enjoys being around a lot of the staff. Several of his classmates matched there last year and he knows them and it has a fabulous critical care program and different things that he really loves. I love Delray Beach, so if we have to be so far away from family, at least it's in this beautiful little 'village by the sea' as the signs say. And I have to admit, while I am very, very sad to not be closer to family (just remembering the three day drive to Utah has me turning green) I am so excited to be by the ocean for another three years. I think I can be excited because there is a time limit. I never, ever, ever envisioned living in Florida for eight years of our lives. But while Miami was hard, Delray Beach has really grown on us. I've made Sterling promise to bring me back to Delray Beach every February for our anniversary for the rest of our lives. February here is magical. Now...if we could just get rid of the weather from May-October, that would be great. Ugh. But really---we are so, so excited to have matched. It is a crazy stressful process and I am just glad to have it behind us. Ready to move forward and keep looking up!

Here is a photo of Sterling on the day he found out he matched for residency! YAY!

During match week I signed the kids up for a cooking class at the library. It was the cutest thing ever and it was very helpful to keep my mind off of all the stress!

We both had on shark shirts!

We watched Jaro on one of the days while they were doing SOAP. It's a three day process and excruciating. I wish we could have done more. But Jaro was adorable and held Grace's hand!