Thursday, February 16, 2012

Chapter 2

My phone rang just after 6:30 this morning. I jumped out of bed because I left my phone in the kitchen overnight. In my grogginess I thought it announced my mother-in-law, but then I could tell by the ringtone that it was Ryan. He asked if we could Skype for a few minutes. In the muddle that was my mind, I could not think of one good reason for us to do that. "I don't have pants on," was my profound reply. He asked, "Is Daddy there?" I said, "Yes, but he's in the bathroom." He hesitated, then said, "I'd really like to Skype. Just for a few minutes."

I put him on speaker, yanked on some sweats, and warned him that I would have to un-hibernate my lappy first. "No problem." We had just connected when Kev joined me. Ryan looked showered, shaved, and altogether well-groomed, whilst we were bespeckled, sweatshirted, uncombed, and crusty. But at least we were there.

He looked like he was thinking of just the right words, and the thought hit me just before he started to say it. "I got a call from UW last night. I got accepted." Insert whooping and hollering and congratulations *here*. My Kevin is an excitable boy, and he lets fly when there's good news. When Jylle showed up on the scene, Kev told her, and she smiled and said, "I figured that's the only reason you'd be yelling and screaming with Ryan at 6:30 in the morning."

The call came last night while he was talking to Amy, and he wasn't going to pick up since he didn't recognize the number. He did though, which was unusual. Amy could hear the guy's voice, and when she heard what he was saying, she ran out of the room going, "AAAHHHHHHH!!!" Ryan said he felt like saying, "Jeepers, Mister, thanks for calling!!" He said his joy level was akin to finding out that his parents are super spies who just saved the world, and then raced back home to bake cookies.

One of the things I loved was when he said that there's no human way he should have been accepted into medical school. Doesn't matter how good your GPA and M-CATS scores are, the percentage of people who get in is pretty low. "Unless God had done this or that, I wouldn't be in." A thankful heart always gets me. Kev told him not to think too little of himself because "I'm not much, but I got Mama." To which I added, "And it's a small percentage who did."

It's his understanding that he'll be matriculating at the Spokane campus--which is sooo great! He also got into the Trust program, (Targeted Rural/Underserved Tracts), which pays for his schooling and which he repays by working a certain number of years for them. Yeah, baby!



This is him studying a placenta during a job shadow. I know, ewww, but it's the only picture I had of him in anything "labby." He'll be wearing these for reals someday. Wow, my Ryrie a doctor. Maybe he's the one who'll save the world.