Here is the second part of our story, detailing my hubby’s entrance to Medical school and how we got to where we are. I felt it was too long for one blog post, so be sure to read Part 1 first!
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When my hubby re-entered our small humid room in Bangkok, it was to tell me that it was actually his parents on the phone. He had been accepted into Medical school. His long-time dream was finally coming true.
Did I mention the Medical school was in another province?
And we had 4 days to get there or his spot would be given away.
What a rush of emotions. I remember the first feelings of pride and excitement for my husband. I was so happy for him. We had waited a long while for this day. We just didn’t expect it to happen then.
Then the selfish disappointment. We wouldn’t be able to finish our Thailand adventure. And then the slight panic and worry. We had to buy new plane tickets to get home. We had to move 20 hours away from our friends and family. We had to find somewhere to live and get all of our stuff there.
We stayed in Thailand for another 2 days and managed to get in a bit of adventure before our new flights home.
For those of you who know the Doctor, he is fairly mild-tempered (he grew up with two sisters) and I can honestly say that I had never seen him angry until that stress-filled ride home.
We had been married for 2 years at that point. Somehow in his panic to book us new tickets home, the Doctor booked me a ticket in my maiden name. I had no piece of identification with me in that name. Needless to say, it took a while for them to let me board the plane in Bangkok; luckily their security is rather lax.
We had a lot to think and talk about.
And then we had even more time to think than we bargained for when we missed our connecting flight in London. Although we landed on time, we had to deal with increased security (remember the liquid bomb scare?? We happened to connect through Heathrow the day after. Let's just say that 2 hours standing in line when we had a flight to catch was not my idea of a good time). Their security seemed to be trying to make up for the lack thereof we experienced in Bangkok.
After asking the security officials multiple times if we needed to be moved ahead in line, and receiving multiple assurances that we would be "fine", we got to the gate for our connecting flight and our plane was still there. But, they refused to let us board since it was 5 minutes past the allotted half hour before take off. This was before they realized that the name on my ticket didn't match the one in my passport. My husband lost it on the Air Canada representative.
As in "THE PLANE IS RIGHT THERE!!!" "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE CAN'T GET ON??!" "OF ALL THE INCOMPETENT, STUPID...."
I had to gently suggest that he wasn’t helping the situation and that perhaps he should take a seat while I figured things out.
The Doctor’s nerves were shot.
After booking yet another pair of tickets (this time in my real name) with a different airline, we eventually made it back home. And we remembered once again that we have a loving God who has a plan for us.
Some may chalk up the following details as fortunate coincidences. I choose to believe that there is an all-knowing God who cares about the intimate details of our lives.
1. My parents happened to be on the East Coast of Canada, on a road trip. They were staying minutes outside of the city we would be moving to. They had a trailer with them that had an extra queen sized bed. We were able to contact them from Thailand and ask them to stay in the city and start to look for a place for us to live. When we arrived we had someone to pick us up from the airport and a free place to stay. *sigh of relief*
2. My hubby’s dad had some extra vacation time and was able to take some time off work to rent a u-haul and drive all of our belongings out, while we flew in order to make it to the Medical school in time.
3. We had 1 day to find somewhere to live before school began for the Doctor. My parents had set up a number of apartment viewings. I have never lived in an apartment. I was un-enamored with every one we saw. At the last viewing I spotted a cute little house across the street. A ‘For Rent’ sign stood in the window. We called the number and were able to see the house and sign the lease that day. The landlord had put the sign up the night before.
As I look back on our crazy adventure and see how every detail fell into place I can't help but see a design; that God’s hand was in it.
There. Now you know about our mishaps along the way and how we (barely) got to where we are. As hard as it is to be away from our friends and family, we feel we are where we're supposed to be.
