This guy's graduating with a DOCTORATE in PHYSICAL THERAPY.

Us-June 2002 (Me, 17 Him, 21)

BK has wanted to be a physical therapist for a long, long time.  In fact in the very first letter I ever received from him, he mentioned it.  That was a little over 9 years ago.

While he was at the Missionary Training Center, he dislocated his shoulder playing basketball.  And so, during his mission, he had to receive therapy.  Unfortunately upon returning home, he still ended up needing surgery to fix it.  And then more therapy.  But through all that, he decided that he could see himself doing that very job.  And for as long as I've ever known him, I've completely agreed with that.

When BK actually had to declare a major, he got cold feet.  Various people told him it wasn't a good profession.  And so he doubted his initial thought.  He declared a Microbiology major and figured that left a few options open for him

Then he got sent to Iraq, you might recall.  While there, he had PLENTY of time to think about what he wanted to do.  He decided after a mission and two years of deployments, medical school was (thankfully) out of the question.  He has always been fascinated with microbiology, and really enjoyed his major--enough to consider getting a further degree in it--perhaps doing research.

BK-December 2002

But that never sat well with me.

BK is the most patient, kind person I know.  EVERYONE likes him.  In my opinion, he needed to be working with people, not in a lab.  It would be a waste of perfectly awesome bedside manners.

After thinking and praying about it, he agreed.

Since he didn't want seven years of post-bachelor's schooling, he began looking back into physical therapy.  And we both felt really good about it.

Things started falling into place for us.  While he first got into Creighton, he ended up getting into Texas Tech at pretty much the last minute when a spot opened up.  This saved our little family tens of thousands of dollars.  And so he moved down to Lubbock ten days after young Landon was born and began his education there.

Forgive me for bragging a bit in the upcoming paragraphs.  He deserves it.

In his first semester, he earned an A in Anatomy--which was quite the feat.  He continued to receive good enough grades that they offered him a scholarship that gave him the in-state tuition he otherwise would not have qualified for.  This also saved our family tens of thousands of dollars.

BK somehow managed to graduate from his Doctorate of Physical Therapy program with an amazing GPA (3.682) considering, except for one other classmate, he was the only one who had a wife and children to take care of in the middle of it all. And during my pregnancy with Spencer, he basically had to be the Mom, too, because I was a complete invalid. Oh, and did I mention he also worked part-time for a year and a half of PT school as well?

This past year BK was offered a job at almost every one of the clinicals he did.  He was also offered jobs at every single other interview he had.  He felt great about the job he ended up choosing and starts there on Monday.

I feel incredibly blessed to be married to a man who works so hard to take care of me and our children.  These past few years have been hard for all of us.  We've moved four times, lived on next-to-nothing, and put up with homework and tests.  But he encouraged me to stay at home with our two precious boys.  And I will always be grateful for him for that.  When it looked like we weren't going to have enough loan money, he got a part-time job, with absolutely no complaint or thought of asking me to work outside our home.  He knew how long I had waited to have a baby, and let me stay at home to savor the babyness of it all.

And when I started feeling like we should have another, he agreed and encouraged me in that endeavor, even though he knew it would make his life more difficult especially.  When I was sick and pregnant, he took care of me, and he took care of Landon--even though I know he worried about how he would make the grades to keep his scholarship.  And I know because of that, he was blessed for keeping his priorities in line.

I tried to do my part while he was in school to live on the bare, bare minimum so that we could afford to pay it off after he graduated.  (And I think I did a pretty darn good job, if I may say so myself.)  I plan on continuing to live as cheaply as we can to pay back the price of getting to stay at home with my children while BK was in school.  It was one of the greatest gifts he has ever given me, even though he probably doesn't realize it.

BK's graduation is this weekend.  And I can't believe he's finally accomplished this goal.  And I'm just really proud of him and the manner in which he's done it.

Here's to you, BK, Doctor of Physical Therapy.

In honor of him, I am opening up comments on this post!  If you have any congratulatory notes to leave, please do--sans his actual name, please! :)