North Carolina Bound!

Well, we matched!  We know we are extremely fortunate and blessed. Tim is officially going to be an orthopedic surgeon!!!  I can't tell you what a sigh of relief it was when I received that phone call from him. All morning I had one of those feelings in my stomach that I used to get before a huge final, or a race, or a piano performance.  As a mother of two wild, but wonderful animals, I don't get that feeling very often.  I was with a few of my other dear friends who's hubbies were finding out the same fate.  Needless to say we were all a little antsy to get the news!!  Fortunately, all of our husbands called with good news. Phew! Of course, I started to cry.  I bet Tim did too, but he would never admit to it... 
After we jumped through that hoop, Tim and I waited on pins and needles till Friday to find out where our life adventure would be for the next five years.
Finally, Friday March 20th came.  We had been waiting for this day for years.  The room filled with the Class of 2015 matched Case medical students was pretty intense.  And crowded.  Very loud. And soooo exciting!  We left Jake with our friends, but brought Max.  He was a "big enough boy" to come to Match Day! Of course, he thought it was the coolest thing ever.
 Apparently, some dude in charge of the national match day decided it was mandatory that the envelopes telling each student where their residency would be couldn't be open until exactly 12:00pm.  So we listened to speech after speech after speech...   When the last speaker finally stood at the podium, she literally counted down the seconds until noon.  I was definitely sweating in my armpits by that point, I tell you what!!
Tim grabbed his envelope and bent down so Max and I could read it with him.  Once we opened it and read the destination, we both looked at each other and said, "UNC!!"  I couldn't believe it!  Tim couldn't believe it! My mind was racing a million miles a minute with all the excitement: Living 15-20 minutes from my sister Camille's family, no more horrible winters, 30 minutes from a temple (compared to the 2 1/2 hours we drive from Cleveland to Columbus), amazing running/biking trails, close to beaches, UNC basketball, how amazing the Durham/Chapel Hill areas are, the list goes on and on!! We were instantly smiling and calling our parents and texting siblings/friends with the great news.  The only downside about NC is the distance from Grandmas and Grandpas and cousins.  No fun. The visits we will have with all of them will be precious. 
The next weekend, all of us buckled up and drove down to NC to find a house.  The Andros family (my sister Camille) were gems to host all of us on such short notice. It was so good to see them! We rolled in late Friday night, excited/dreading the next day of house hunting with our realtor.  We had 12 home showings lined up, it was going to be a long day.  Thank you so much Andros family for watching/playing with Max and Jake all day!!  We couldn't have done it without you guys!!  To make that long day's story short, we started at 9:00am with 12 potential homes and ended around 8:00pm making an offer on our favorite one.  The home we made an offer on had been on the market less than 24 hours and already had 2 offers.  Bah! I could see why, it was perfect. To make another long story short, our offer was accepted even though the others were higher in price.  Complete miracle!!
Camille and Nate were so thoughtful and took Tim and I out to dinner after our long, but very rewarding day. Their oldest daughter Abby was a sweetheart to hold the fort down of sleeping children while we went out. We had such a great time with them and couldn't be happier about living only 22 minutes away from them!! 
 I have shed tears already about leaving our life and friends in Cleveland.  So many fond memories and friendships have been made here, we are truly going to miss all of it.  Tim and I both know that we are meant to be at UNC.  We can't wait for the next five years!  It won't be a cake walk, but that doesn't mean that it won't be wonderful!! 

 

This picture says it all! He was all smiles after opening that envelope.
Me being proud of this guy is a huge understatement!  Way to go babe!