New Blog!

Welcome!

I've been blogging for years, but decided that it was time to branch out from my original blog which had become very focused on our experience with the loss of our first child, Jude, to Stillbirth. That blog can still be found at: www.jessandjennanderson.com. And I will still be blogging there occasionally.

Here I'm going to be writing about pretty much everything else! Primarily my experiences as a mom, and the wife of a military physician.

Now let's knock out some of the explaining about this whole process:

My husband is just starting his intern year (that's their first year out of medical school) in Internal Medicine. I'll do my best to explain any jargon as I use it, but feel free to comment if you have questions about anything! We just relocated to Mississippi, from Colorado (talk about a big change!) for his Air Force residency program. Residency is the phase of a physicians training that comes after med school. It varies in length dependent on their chosen specialty. Jess' residency is 3 years long; the first one being his intern year. During this phase of his training he is a doctor, but still requires some oversight by more experienced physicians (called Attendings). After residency a doctor can go right into practice, or if they want to specialize further (as Jess does) they then must do a fellowship. Again, they are doctors, but are continuing to pursue more and more specialized training. All in all, when Jess is done he will have 14+ years of education after High School. Yup, you read that right. 26 total years of formal education, and then a life of continual learning and professional development. On top of that, since the Air Force has payed Jess' way through med school, we will owe them time in service as pay back. Suffice it to say, becoming a doctor is a bit of an investment; both of time, and finances.

So, that's alot of technical talk about my husband and what he does right?

WELCOME TO MY LIFE!

There are certainly times when being married to a brilliant, kind, dynamic man like my husband feels a bit overshadowing. Ok,... more times then I like to admit. Here's the usual scenario:

We're meeting new people; they ask what we do,... Jess usually hesitates to answer because he's very humble, but after hemming and hawing and trying to avoid the question he finally says that he's an intern physician. Any interest in me and what I do instantaneously disappears. They already know what I do. DUH. I'm the doctor's wife. The conversation then generally revolves around him and his schooling or job until he humbly changes the subject. This isn't new since he graduated either. It was the same as a medical student.

This is just one of the many challenges of being a doctor's wife. I'll share more as time goes on, but you get the gist.

So in closing, today I want to make the same promise here as I made to readers on my other blog. My goal is to never use this blog to complain, and dwell on negativity. I want to be real with you and share the challenges and struggles of life, but I will ALWAYS try to find and share encouragement to go along with it. I'll use Philippians 4:8 as my guide:

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

With that being said, know that I realized how blessed that we are. Yes, there are certainly challenges unique to our situation. But I know that they are all worth it to see how God will use my husband over the course of his career. What an incredible privilege this high calling is! Not only for Dr. Anderson, but for me as well. Mine may be a supporting role, but I will strive to fulfill that role to the best of my God given abilities.

Thanks for reading! Check back for more soon!