Crazy, Awesome Day

So - this was it...October 31st, 2008. Travis' interview at OHSU. After almost three long, grueling years of year round schooling, first not even really having a direction to the increasing interest in the dental field, and finally, the a full blown pursuit of dental school. It all seemed so far away and a goal that could ONLY be reached if God Himself were in the middle of it. It felt like the day would never come but eventually, hurdle after hurdle were conquered - in stride even - and the day we were waiting for was upon us.

Travis was up most of the night (as usual) but he had reason not to sleep. Keira has been doing this thing where she wakes up once or twice a night and needs to go potty. I brought her to our bed around 6ish and it was then that Travis got up. Keira and I laid there until almost 7am and then my mind started ticking. What suit is Trav going to wear? How much time should we allow for him to get down town? I should probably make him a big breakfast. AH! All of these last minute things that had been crowded out of my brain by other details of life...until now. I got up to the smell of coffee and made my way to the garage where Trav was gathering his thoughts - or trying to. The plan was that the girls and I would drop him off at OHSU and pick him up at Portland State in the afternoon because his advisor wanted to see the girls all dressed up for Halloween.

Trav and I talked a bit and we prayed, giving God control and attempting to ease his nerves. He had been worrying about stumbling over his answers. The goal was to leave the house at 8am in order to be there by 9am. The interview started at 9:30 but he needed to be there early. Well, little miss Mia was having some "issues" and just as we were heading out the door...she pooped - for like the third time that morning. We got out of the house at 8:11. We prayed again - asking God to be over every detail of the day, including all of the time related activities we had going on. Traffic was crazy...rain is never good here in the Northwest, but combine rain on a Friday and you might as well just stay home. We weaved all around town - trying to find "faster" ways, only to hit more and more traffic. By the grace of God alone, we made it to OHSU at 8:56, time enough to park for one last prayer and making him exactly on time. For all of you who really know us Duffy's, that is nothing less than a miracle. :-)

After the interview was over and I picked him up, I of course asked for a blow by blow of every detail of the day on the way to my mom's for pre-trick-or-treating Chinese food. Basically, two doctors "interviewed" him, but only one of them asked him ONE question. The rest of the time, they chatted with him and told him about the school and a variety of things. One of the doctors said that everything looked really good and said things to most definitely get his hopes up. The kicker is that those two doctors still have meet with an entire committee and discuss if they want him or not. If they unanimously agree, we could know by Dec. 1st if he gets in or not.

We are trying to not "count our chickens" but it was such a positive experience, we are both just thanking God for what He's provided so far - and now we wait. We have agreed that Trav will hold off sending in secondary apps for other schools until he hears from OHSU.

So, for all of you that prayed, here is a big THANK YOU!!! Every single prayer was felt by us. Honestly, yesterday could not have gone any more smoothly. Even the details of getting the girls to all the Halloween functions on time happened better than we could have planned. When I started to get uptight, I remembered how faithful God had already been and there was no need for me to be anxious.

So - December will come quickly, right? :-)