We made our decision!

Well after 2 weeks of twists and turns and pondering and praying we have decided to start my career in Utah.  For those of you not aware of the decision I'll fill you in.  We had an offer from a clinic in West Linn, Oregon and an offer from a clinic in my hometown.  The doctors in West Linn are not just any doctors.  They are the ones who inspired me to do family medicine, when I had always thought I wanted to be a surgeon.  Basically saved me from a life of misery.  The clinic has got to be one of the best in the country.  The doctors are knowledgeable, caring, and fun.  The clinic staff are all very friendly and hard working and then, of course, it is in West Linn which is a great town.  I spent a week with them in September, using it as an opportunity to go the BYU-UW game.  Plus I wanted to thank them for their offer and tell them "no" in person.  Well, as happens every time I stop by, they convinced me that I needed to give up my lifelong dream of raising my family near the farm that I love so much.  The first day in West Linn I was literally in tears all day because I knew it was too good to pass up and I saw my dream crumbling before my eyes.  I talked quite a bit to my dad and by the time we left Oregon I was planning on coming back next year to start my practice as an Oregonian.  I was excited about this for the first 2 weeks after getting home.  Then Katie surprised the heck out of me.  She really wanted to go back to Oregon but she thought overall it would be better for the boys to raise them on the farm.  How many 1st graders can have a regular job and regularly contribute to their savings account?  It took me 2 more weeks to come around to that line of thinking, but in the end I realized Katie was right (1st time ever by the way).  It was crazy because as of a week ago I really had no idea what I was going to do.  

I always tell Katie that every good attribute I may have, I learned from the farm.  Not many people get to know the joy of putting in a 13 hour day and then coming home to Family Home Evening and lo and behold we get to go windrow as a family!  Those are priceless memories.  I felt the fulfillment of coming home in late September and the corn is cut, the fruit is all picked, and you know you have worked hard over the year to make it happen.  I know what it is like for your nostrils to freeze together at 5 am when you are walking over to the barn.  I also know what it is like to feel the spirit at 5 am when everything is quiet and it is just you, your dad, your grandpa and the cows.  The same goes for walking home after milking on a crisp winter's eve.  I learned about delayed gratification when we had to milk the cows before going into the living room on Christmas morning.  I got to spend more time in a summer with my dad and grandpa than most kids get to spend with their parents in a lifetime.  I never knew what it was like to be "bored" during the summer.  I didn't have to walk around the neighborhood at 13 asking if I could clean out people's garbage cans for money(not that there is anything wrong with that).  I got to make banana milkshakes with the hundreds of perfectly good bananas we would find in the grocery store dumpsters on Sunday mornings when grandpa and I went dumpster diving for boxes to put our fruit in.  That's not to mention all the free grapes we got by the same method.  

I could go on and on and on and I finally realized that while I may someday regret the decision of not working in an incredible clinic, I would never regret giving our kids the best chance at success in this crazy world we now live in.  It is sad to think that I won't ever have the CEO of major sportswear companies as my patients.  Not to mention not being able to see Katie's family as much.  Some of you may consider not seeing in-laws as a definite positive but I enjoy visiting Katie's family as much as my own so that is actually a negative for me.  

So there it is.  Our last month in a nutshell.  The other bright spot is that we are closer to a 3000 sq foot house in Brigham City than in West Linn.  I think it was when Katie was in the throes of pregnancy with Darren that I jokingly promised her 1000 square feet per child she bore.  Well Katie has muscled through 3 pregnancies despite absolutely hating pregnancy and basically throwing up the whole 9 months and now her investment (me) may finally bear some fruit.
We will miss the Sutherlands. Darren and Cordon will forever be asking when we are going to visit grammy and grampa and sara and mary and paul. We will miss being able to reinstitute trading dinners with our friends in Portland. However we will enjoy having cousins 5 minutes away. Weenie roasts in the spring. Our neighborhood also being our ward. And last but not least...my kids learning their way around an udder!