I will live my life as a mountaineer's wife.

This post is late in coming...for a couple of reasons. I've been in shock for awhile, and I've waited until I've allowed the idea to "simmer" and process. March 18th, at 11:00 am we received word that Kimball will be doing his General Surgery residency in Charleston, West Virginia. ....Ummm...I beg your pardon? ...Hold on let me go get a map....Yes that's right my friends, we are headed to Charleston, West Virginia, I'll wait for you to go and get a map........okay, as I was saying. The first question everyone asked me that day was "Are you happy about that?"....here is my answer.

.....Yes....We are ENORMOUSLY blessed by a loving and all-knowing Heavenly Father who has prepared a place for me and my little family in West Virginia. This answer was, and still is, a little difficult to say with meaning but I AM happy and I'm trying more and more everyday to put my trust in God. I'm scared that a culture shock may take place, I'm afraid to send my daughter to school in a place I know nothing about, I'm afraid because they don't have a pottery barn or a central market. We learned that there were 600 more general surgery applicants than there were last year, which means we are very blessed to have matched ANYWHERE, there are applicants out there just like Kimball who found out that day that they didn't get a spot...I can't imagine. The Lord would have me be humble.

Another thing making it a little difficult is my heart aches for Texas and the life we had there. Last weekend we were talking to some of our friends who were planning a trip to Texas about how much we loved it. We talked about the people, the low cost of living, the beautiful sunsets, and the fact that it's Texas...and then my friend said "Hey, in five years you could be saying these things about West Virginia..". It hit me like a ton of bricks, and I realized my home will always be wherever Kimball and my children are, and we can MAKE it so we can say these things about West Virginia.

With that being said, I'm excited, proud, and thrilled for my husband who has worked so diligently these last four years to get us to this point. We had a little celebration for him (pictured above) and we truly were overwhelmed by the love and support of our friends and family that came to wish us luck. I'm happy that he can be a surgeon, and I can be a mother, a spectacular dream realized for both of us. Not everyone gets to do what they love every day. Medical School is behind us, and we are on to another new and exciting chapter, and an opportunity to learn and grow. I'm so excited to see him walk across that stage, I know he'll make a wonderful physician. So if I ever tell you dear reader, that I'm scared or unhappy about this change please refer me back to this post, so that I can remember how lucky and blessed we are.

So it's Charleston, West Virginia or bust!!! You haven't seen anything like the Knackstedt's yet!!!