Hooray for Chad!!!

Chad finished his residency two weeks ago, and we are both loving this new life of ours! It's great to have him around so much more often. We've spent three Saturdays in a row together! I can hardly believe that this is going to last. It feels unreal that we don't have any more grueling rotations to look forward to. But even though I can hardly believe it, I am loving it!

The weekend after he finished we visited my parents in Oregon and went to two days of the track and field Olympic Trials. Talk about fun, fun, fun!!! If any of you ever want to have the vacation of a lifetime, visit my parents. They really know how to host guests. They treat you like royalty and you feel like royalty in their beautiful home. We just had a blast.

The Olympic Trials were awesome. My favorite events to watch were the women's high jump, the women's 1500 meter, and the men's 10,000 meter. The men's 10,000 (that's a 10K--6.4 miles, just going around and around the track) was so inspirational to me! It was the last race on the night of the 4th of July, so you could see fireworks in the distance while you cheered on these men who were running their hearts out. It was an awesome atmosphere to be in. Every time they passed your part of the track, you stood up and cheered for them. There aren't too many sports that are as inspirational as track and field is.

My parents got us amazing seats, and so we were able to see most of the athletes up really close, and even talk to some of them briefly. Not to mention that Michael Johnson was sitting within a few yards of us! The girl who won the women's high jump (Chauntel Howard) was SO personable, friendly, funny, and flamboyant. When we told her good job, she looked up at us and said, "I could hear you cheering for me!! Thank you!" I really hope she does well at the Olympics, she was so down-to-earth and nice.

One last Olympic Trials detail, and then I'll move on. We watched the women's 1500 meter qualifying races, and there was a girl who looked 14 who made it to the finals!! Later we found out she was 16, and that in that race she broke the high school girls record. It was so cool to be a part of that!

Another really fun thing we did in Oregon was tour the new hospital my dad has been working on for the last three years. He is the CEO of a hospital that will very soon have two campuses--the new campus (the hospital I just mentioned) and the original campus. They have put a ton of effort into this new hospital--not just to make it nice but also to change the structure of the hospital to make it more patient-centered. They analyzed the process of care in each section of the hospital, changed the processes to be more patient-friendly, and built the hospital in a way that would be conducive to these changes. It was so inspiring and exciting to see!

The hospital is beautiful and also in a very peaceful, natural setting (flanked by fields, tall trees, and a river). I think hospitals are such sacred places, and I was so proud to see how my dad has reflected this idea in his leadership of the hospital. Way to go Dad, you did great! And good luck with all the last-minute projects and with transferring the patients in a month!!! We'll be praying for you.

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to post of this trip, but I actually have a good excuse this time. My camera broke. If it hadn't, I would have posted pictures of the Olympic Trials, the new hospital, and the beautiful wedding quilt my mom made for us and sent us home with. It's on our bed now, and I will post pictures of it once we get our new camera that we ordered last night. The quilt is a charm quilt, meaning no two fabrics are the same in the entire quilt. We did the math and found out that it includes nearly 800 different kinds of fabric. My mom says it is like a history of her quilting life--she remembers where and why she bought many of the fabrics. She can point out many of the fabrics and tell me where that fabric is in other quilts and projects she has made. It truly is a treasure. THANK YOU MOM!!!

We came home from Oregon a week ago, and then the next day all of the M* clan (except Wayne and Hillary) came over to celebrate Chad's graduation from residency. We had a delicious pot-luck dinner and talked and played games. It was wonderful to celebrate with family. It feels so good to love others so much and feel so loved in return.

In short, life is good because Chad is done with residency and we have the best family in the whole world.