The Next Chapter

OK- here we go into the unknown.

My name is Jessica. I am 27 years old, married to Mark who will be turning 29 this Saturday, mother to "the WB" who is almost 2 years old. We have been married for 4 years and we live in Phoenix. We have a very comfortable life. BUSY! But, comfortable.

My parents moved to Phoenix while my sister and I were attending college at The University of Utah. Both of us were studying theatre. She was studying theatrical design while I was studying theatre education. I graduated 2 years before her. After I graduated, I decided to spend the summer with my parents in Phoenix while I put together my resume and figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life. The day after I got to Arizona, I met Mark. Actually, to be honest, I did meet Mark a few months before on a prior visit to Arizona. It was an LDS singles activity that I went to with my friend who had just moved there. We were helping her find friends. I noticed Mark immediately. He is tall with dark hair and amazing eyes. Very handsome. I was dating someone in Utah at the time, but I mentioned to my friend that if she was to date anyone in Arizona, it should be him. And that was that! I ended my little visit, went back to Utah and moved on my my life without giving him another thought. So the day I arrived back in Arizona after my graduation, I was shocked when my friend approached me and said, "Remember that guy you thought I should date? Well, I told him you were moving down here and he's going to ask you out tomorrow." The surprising thing is that he did just that. That was in 2005 and we have been together ever since.

When we married, Mark was still in school getting his undergrad in Life Sciences at ASU. I got a job at Valley Youth Theatre as a contract instructor and quickly moved my way up to Director of Education. I was also a main stage performer with The JesterZ Improv Comedy Troupe. Needless to say, life was busy for both of us from the start. We were in love with each other and in love with what we were doing.

We had our first child in the summer of 2008. We were both completely smitten with "The WB" from the very beginning. Because Mark was still in school, I had to keep working. Although I would have liked to stay home, we couldn't have asked for a better situation. Both my parents and his parents lived in our same area. The WB was also the first grandchild of both sides of the family, so when it came to childcare, the grandparents had no problem accepting the responsibility with open arms. I loved this because I knew I was leaving him with people who loved him as much as we did and would respect how we wanted to raise our son. We never had to pay a dime for childcare. We were very lucky.

Mark graduated from ASU in May of 2009. From the beginning, we knew that Mark would go beyond a bachelor's degree. When we were first dating he was seriously considering Dentistry or Chiropractic. Mark is a very diligent researcher. He shadowed dentists and chiropractors. He read articles, asked questions to make sure that he was 100% sure about what he was going to do for the rest of his life. He was looking for a profession that would help people, allow him to do humanitarian work, allow time for his family, and make a decent living. Through his research he was lead to Podiatry. It is kind of a niche in the medical world that seemed to meet all of his qualifications and after shadowing several Podiatrists and a lot of prayer, he knew that this was his direction. Once Mark sets his path, it is nearly impossible to veer him from it. He applied to 8 Podiatry programs.

Our top school was Midwestern University. A relatively new program at a great school and best of all, it was 2 miles north of where we were already living. It was the most natural choice. Our lives would hardly change at all. Mark would still be in school; I would still be working; and we would still have the support of both our families. It seemed so perfect that I thought, of course, this is how it would be. The seven other schools were just back-ups. Months went by. We heard from San Francisco, Philidelphia, and Chicago. Mark interviewed at all of them and received conditional acceptances to all of them. (He had yet to take the MCAT.) We were thrilled with the positive outcome with the interviews, but kept holding out for the call from our local school, Midwestern. Chicago sent him an acceptance letter in December giving him 2 weeks to take the spot. We started to panic. The school in Chicago was a great school with an excellent program. I mean, it was the Dr. Scholl's School of Podiatry. THE Dr. Scholl. They accepted him as long as he scored ok on the MCAT, but he had to send in the deposit with in 2 weeks of receiving the letter. We didn't know what to do. We didn't want to turn down a great program, but we still wanted to hold out for Midwestern. Mark was scheduled to take the MCAT in January. I encouraged him to call Chicago and ask for an extension. They granted him one. The new deadline was extended to 24 hours after receiving his score. This gave us a little breathing room.

After Mark took the MCAT, he had to wait about a month to get his score. In that time, he was invited to interview at Western University in Southern California. At the time, this school wasn't really on our radar. I grew up in Southern California and didn't really have a desire to go back. However, he went to the interview and was completely impressed by the program and the school. Something told him that this was the school for him. They handed him his acceptance letter at the conclusion of the interview with the condition that he gets a certain score on the MCAT.

So, the waiting game continued until FINALLY he received his score. We though that this would be the key to answer all of our questions. However, it wasn't that easy. He got a high enough score for the school in Chicago, but it was a little under what Western University required. PLUS we now had 24 hours to accept the school in Chicago. I encouraged Mark to call the people at Western and explain the situation. They said that he could send his request into the Admissions Review Board and they would get back to him in about a week. I told him to call back and explain that we didn't have a week. We have 24 hours! Putting all our cards on the table worked in our favor. The woman on the phone with Mark from Western University put him on hold for about 15 minutes and then instructed him to check is email to find his answer. Mark was at work at the time so he called me to check his email. There in the inbox was an email from Western officially accepting him to the school. We were elated, relieved, excited, nervous, etc. I was just thrilled that we weren't moving to Chicago. Southern California was looking real good.

So that brings us to where we are now. It is the beginning of April and we will be moving in June. We will be moving with hardly any money, very little knowledge of the area, and a toddler. The only thing that gives us hope is knowing that people have been in this situation before and have survived. This is what inspired this blog. In researching our move, I've been desperate to talk to anyone who has done this. So, in effort help those who will do this in the future, I will document our entire process.

So here we go, into the unknown. Moving in June, starting school in August, and oh yeah, I'll be having our second baby in September. This will definitely be a great adventure!