Getting Close

After tonight, Heidi has six more work nights and Matt has six more work days. We actually started a countdown on our refrigerator about 50 weeks ago. Of course, we thought we were counting down to Heidi graduating her residency and us moving to North Carolina. That's still the plan, there will just be a bit of a side trip.

In case none of you know why we decided to do this, we should explain that we didn't decide to do this. It was revealed to us that this was the plan and we simply went with it. It would be hard to say when the chain of events started, but it probably goes back about 6000 years to the fall of Adam and Eve. You know much of the story for the next 5998 or so years (or at least the highlights) so we'll skip to 2004.

In September 2004, Heidi and Matt met on Match.com. In April 2005, we were engaged. An October 2005 wedding in New Orleans was planned. Tropical Storm Arlene, Hurricane Dennis, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ophelia, Hurricane Rita, Hurricane Stan, and Tropical Storm Tammy intervened, each changing our plans in one way, shape, or form, and we were married at Heidi's Aunt's Beach House in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina on October 8, 2005.

Prior to that, though, we had been discussing Heidi's graduation and her anticipated return to North Carolina, hoping for her dream job, which is to be on faculty at the University of North Carolina Medical Center. God threw up some roadblocks and we were getting discouraged. A random flier from a private practice in the Rocky Mountains arrived one day in the mail and Matt asked Heidi whether she would consider living somewhere else for a few years, then moving to North Carolina. What better time could there be to live in a place you've always wanted to live? No kids, no big mortgage (yet), no real requirements... The possibilities are endless. Hawaii, New York City, Los Angeles, Key West, Denver... We tossed around ideas for a few minutes with nothing really grabbing us. Then Heidi mentioned that she really loved Costa Rica when she visited and it was like a fog had been lifted. We didn't HAVE to stay in the U.S. Then the ideas started to flow. We could go to Africa, the Amazon Basin, Central America - anywhere people needed help. We were so excited we didn't know what to do. We both knew that God had steered that conversation and we knew what we had to do about it.

Two or three weeks of internet searches for overseas opportunities proved fruitless. Everyone either wanted a lot of money (which we didn't have) or didn't take spouses. About the best we could hope for was a few weeks working in a mission and we knew we were supposed to do more. So what did we do? We prayed about it.

Rewind a few months to Heidi doing a rotation at Methodist Hospital in Houston. She had met an anesthesiologist who knew some people from her medical school - quite a surprise in Houston. East Carolina University trains doctors almost exclusively to serve in the Carolinas - a long way from Texas (in more ways than one!). How did he know these people? They had worked with him in his mission in Guatemala. Heidi remembered that conversation during our search and started thinking that she wanted to find this anesthesiologist again. Unfortunately, her rotation there was basically over and she knew he was actually retired and she might not see him again.

Well, by now you probably know that this anesthesiologist was none other than Dr. Street and they did, in fact, work together again. Heidi asked him during the surgery about his work in Guatemala, telling him that we were looking for something along that line and wondering if he had any contacts. Little did we know....

So that's how we met Dr. and Mrs. Street (Jim and Kathleen). There's a lot more to tell, of course, but it'll have to wait for another day. What made us want to write this was that we met them for lunch today and had a wonderful time sharing with each other how many different ways we've been able to see the Lord work in the past few months and excitedly anticipating what He has in store in the next few months. We firmed up our move date to Guatemala. We will be flying down on July 22, hopefully with Kathleen, to spend a day and night in Antigua with Savior's Sons, a Houston mission group who will be on their way back to the U.S., then riding up the mountain to our new home in Quiché.

Wow! That's a lot. Sorry for the long post, but there's so much to tell! Please keep us in your prayers as our time here in Texas draws to a close. It's the end of four years for Heidi and ten years for Matt. Change can be hard, but growth requires change and we know that we're doing the Lord's work. What better way to live?