Some good news!!!!  Justin got accepted into St. Eustatius!!!!! He now has permission to take Step 1 (his first board). The point of taking Step 1 is so that he can get into clinicals somewhere!

We are VERY EXCITED! It feels so good to be in Gods will! Meaning that even though this last monthish has not been our plans and haven’t been the easiest time in our lives – we have been blessed beyond words! God has really spoken to me really in the past few months but I would like to tell you a little about how he has since Justin did not pass the comp.

Before and after Justin took the comp it felt as though almost every sermon, bible study, prayer, etc. was just for us! Bro. Bob preached a sermon about going forward – pressing on. Marsha spoke on being Fearless – taking refuge in the Lord. One verse that she spoke about that I felt was “for us” was Psalm 27:14 (WAIT for the Lord: be strong and take heart and WAIT for the Lord).

Tara spoke wisdom into my life and reminded me of two things. One thing I didn’t realize I needed and one thing was something I had “forgotten”.
The first thing was Isaiah 40:31 – a verse I have known forever but had never spoken to me like it has in the past month.
(But they that WAIT upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.)
We needed to “relearn” to WAIT on the Lord and wait for HIS plan.

The other thing she reminded me about was to pray for the desires of our heart to match the desires of God’s heart. Three years ago when Justin was applying to med school God gave me that same prayer – to change the desires of our hearts if it wasn’t His will that we get into med school. I feel like he wanted to bring us to that point (twice now) to remind us to give EVERYTHING to him. Our dreams, plans, desires, baby – everything!

All these things reminded us to not be anxious also. We have both been so at peace while “waiting”. This is an answer to prayer – BIG TIME! 

These few things are just a small portion of what God has done in our lives. We have been so blessed throughout this whole process. Not just the last month but the past three years. Thank you so much to ALL OF YOU who have been in our lives constantly praying, speaking encouraging words, sending sweet emails, and being so GIVING of your time and money. 

I could write pages of everything God has done for us, shown us, given to us, taken from us, etc. etc. But hopefully you understand from this tiny testimony above how awesome God is – through ALL times. 

We feel like this is the door God has opened for us so we are going through it! 
So the big question is whats next? Well – a little more waiting!! Ha – fun right? Justin will take Step 1 within the next two months. He has some practice tests to take to tell him where he is “scorewise” basically. Those practice tests really determines on when he takes the test. After he takes Step 1 it takes about 5 weeks to get your score back. When he gets that score back (assuming that he passed) he will FINALLY be able to get into clinicals!!!! Clinicals will be two years doing rotations in the hospital and then he gets to graduate and start residency. 

Continue to pray that Justin studies his butt off and learns everything he needs to learn for yet another test!
 
 
We had the BEST baby shower EVER!!!! I had a great time! The hostesses did a great job. We had a little bit of drama with the weather but it ended up working out great. It snowed like crazy the Thursday/Friday before the shower so we were questioning what to do about whether we should cancel/move it/ or what? Merry Beths house (the person’s house it was supposed to be at) is after somewhat of a hill and there was no way people could park in her yard with all that snow and ice! So we all decided it would be best to move it to the church Fellowship Hall. I have to admit – I was pretty bummed. I thought that no one would come due to the weather and that all the hostesses’ hard work would go to waste. Well – the hostesses called EVERYONE on the invite list the Saturday before to let them know it was moved! Isnt that the sweetest?

So it ended up that actually most of the people invited got to come!!! Even Mollie came from Tulsa, Aunt Patti from Fayetteville, and Allie from Little Rock. I told them I was flattered that they “risked their lives” to come to the shower! Then I was beyond excited when I got there and saw that they had transformed the fellowship hall and made it as cozy as possible. And so personal! It was ALL ABOUT REBEKAH!

We got so much stuff. I didn’t realize exactly how much until we got home and started unpacking everything and I had to quit – I was so overwhelmed. And exhausted. I opened presents for an hour and a half straight! It became so surreal when we were unpacking everything that we’re HAVING A BABY!!! OUR baby – not just something we can play dress up with and give to someone else when it cries. Ha! We are stoked though. Just a little overwhelmed.

Thanks to EVERYONE who came to the shower and to all the awesome hostesses who made it the best shower ever!!!!

Below are SOME pictures from the shower (Justin took a TON). To see all of them go to http://lizandjustinvorispics.shutterfly.com/pictures/5059.
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The cake! LOVED IT!
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Part of the cake table
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All the hostesses!
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Her name is so pretty! =)
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Thank you Leigh! LOVE IT!!!
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My Mom and I
 
 
So sorry I have taken such a LONG break from the blog! But IM BACK!! I just wanted to update everyone on whats going on with us right now.

So the comp that Justin took on January 14th didn’t go quite as planned! He didn’t pass and therefore is no longer with Ross (the med school). He did not fail out of school. He had a good GPA – Ross just wouldn’t let him continue on to take Step 1. Step 1 is the first national board exam that he has to take to get into clinicals.

We found out on a Saturday that he did not pass so the Monday after that he went to work trying to figure out what next. We really prayed for God to close all the doors that he did not want us to go through and to just open the ONE that he wanted. So Justin called all the reputable foreign med schools that he could. It wasn’t looking good! Everyone said no – that they wouldn’t let him transfer. He also tried calling area PA (physician’s assistant) schools. They all have a year long application process so Justin would not be able to get in until August 2011!!

Tuesday morning a school called St. Eustatius called him and told him to fill out an application! So he has done that and has gotten all his paperwork into them. This morning he had a phone interview with the dean of the school and Justin felt like it went really well. The dean told Justin that he felt like he had plenty of “ammunition” to take him in front of the board and get him accepted. We should hear within a week by mail if he gets in or not.

If he DOES get accepted into St. Eustatius then he will take Step 1 around the end of March (hopefully before baby Rebekah gets here). Then if he passes Step 1 we will apply to clinicals which could more than likely be in Atlanta, Lafayette, Oklahoma City, or Chicago.
If he DOESN’T get accepted then we will just consider this another door God has closed and continue to knock on other ones! 

We are doing great and are trusting God to take us through this crazy time. Thank you all so much for all your thoughts, prayers, and encouraging words. They mean so much to us!