Welcome to our lives!

Welcome to the Matthews family blog! I have always wanted to write a blog, but I thought, “who would care to read about my life?” Well, now that I have a beautiful baby girl and a husband in medical school, not only did I think more people would be interested in reading about our lives, but I wanted a place where I could document our journey and be able to look back on it in the future. When I was in college, I started writing a journal, which I still write in today. Looking back at the older entries now, it is incredible to see how much I grew as a Christian woman over just a few years. I went through a lot in college, both good and bad, and to be able to go back and read my raw emotions at the time, and to see how I overcame it and how I grew, is such an amazing experience. So that’s why I finally decided to write this blog. Even if nobody reads it, I will use it as my own journal that I can look back on and show my daughter when she is older and show her how we grew together as a family.

For those of you who don’t know our situation, I am a 5th grade teacher, and my husband, Ryan, is in his first year of medical school at IU Muncie. I cannot even begin to explain how proud of him I am for everything he’s accomplished so far. We started dating when we were 14 years old, and even then, he has always dreamed of being a doctor. In college, he worked his butt off taking 19 credit hours, working full time at Wishard hospital, coaching soccer, being involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters, and much more. We didn’t get to see much of each other and when we did, he was most likely sleeping. From the beginning, I knew that being Ryan’s partner in life would not exactly be easy because of everything he had to do to pursue his dream career, but I knew that he was worth all of it. Once we found out he got into IU Medical School, we were thrilled, because we didn’t have to uproot and move out of state. However, I was not so thrilled when we found out he got placed at the Muncie campus, which is 1.5 hours away from our home in Avon. While this wouldn’t be such a difficult situation in normal circumstances, I was pregnant with our first child due in September. We both knew it wouldn’t be possible for him to drive back and forth every day with all the studying that would be required of him, so we decided to get him a one bedroom apartment in Muncie, and he would come home on weekends. With this arrangement, I would be able to keep my teaching job at Mill Creek (besides, who would hire an 8-month pregnant woman who would need an immediate maternity leave?), and still be close to both of our families for them to help when the baby came. This was definitely not an easy transition for me, but I did feel very blessed that he was placed in Muncie instead of Fort Wayne, Gary, or Evansville. It turned out that this was the best possible situation for him because he has a smaller class in Muncie which he has become very close to. They have been extremely supportive and helpful through our situation, which I am very grateful for! When Ryan is home with us, we cherish every second together. He is such a hands-on dad and does everything he possibly can for me and our daughter. I cannot imagine going through life with anyone else!

I constantly have to remind myself that we are incredibly blessed with so many wonderful things happening in our lives, because we really are. Even though I wanted our situation to turn out differently, I trust God completely that this is the way it happened for a reason. He has never led me wrong before, and I know that He is on my side no matter what. As long as we keep God as the support system in our lives, we have faith that He will help us get through it!

Ryan and I at his White Coat Ceremony for IU School of Medicine (I was 8 months pregnant)