Whatever stipulations come when I say 'I am a doctor's wife' it is just the plain truth. I am married to Tim and he is a medical doctor.
When I was about 13 I went to see our family's pediatrician for a cold or something. I remember thinking "WOW, he is a DOCTOR!" I idolized him as this super smart, incredibly busy man who shouldn't spend time with measly old me. I don't know why, but as a girl, I put doctors up on this pedestal of grandeur. They were men and women of super natural intelligence that went far beyond how my simple mind worked. In this particular visit I felt guilty that I was even there taking up valuable time of this learned man.
Years later I met a boy just my age who was in college just like me and taking lots of science courses just like me. Then I watched him study for the MCAT. I walked with him through the med school search and application process. I listened to him as he read aloud the acceptance letters. I watched him go to class, study, eat and sleep those four years of medical school. I clapped and cheered as loud as my lungs would let me the day he graduated. I got up with him early to see him off to his first day of residency.
All doctors are human and I am glad that I have been with Tim through this entire process. I think I needed to be in order for my original ideas or idolizations to change and see them for who they really are. Humans just like me.
We are two days away from celebrating nine years of marriage. We are also into our ninth year of residency. It has been hard at times and rewarding other times. I could go on and on about how he has dragged me and the kids through all of this residency crap, but I won't. Instead I will remind myself to 'consider it all joy when you encounter various trials'.
Being a wife is hard trial sometimes. It is lonely sometimes. It is grueling sometimes. It is a trial and most of it I have rebelled against the fact that his chosen profession has any effect on the challenges of our life together. Pastor's wives have it hard, military wives, the list can go on and on. So I have just continued to deny that the fact that being a resident doctor has nothing to do with hardships in our life. Well, I don't think that is so healthy. I have to face the facts and see my husband and his profession for what they are.
I really am so very proud of Tim and all he does for the greater good of health. He is caring, compassionate, a team player and a people pleaser. He gives so much of himself to those people over at the hospital.
I often forget that we are a team in making this world a better place. You see, even though I don't have a degree in medicine and I don't work at a hospital day in and day out, I can have a small impact on those patients that Tim sees. We are a team and I am a worker behind the scenes. I must do whatever I can to serve and nurture him in order that he is at his optimum.
That is way way harder to do then it is to write. Alas, that is where my journey is of late and where I will close out this post. Lord, give me the strength to serve him with a smile, give me the grace respond to him in a loving way and help me through this last year of residency.
He is a man whose profession is a doctor and I am his wife. A doctor's wife, I am.
