John and I flew back from Seattle, WA yesterday. We left last Wednesday to check out two dental practices that are looking for an associate/partner in their practices. Thursday we visited a practice in Olympia (the capital of WA), which is about an hour and a half south of Seattle. The practice John would be working at has not even been built yet. The plans of completion are for June, which would work out perfectly since John will be finishing up his residency here in Ohio around that same time. We had known the dentist and had visited him before, he had graduated from the UW a few years before John. The area looked nice, but we felt like something was still missing.
On Friday, we woke up at 3:30 am to get ready for the day and start the 2 hour drive to Bellingham, WA. The practice is a brand new practice, beautiful/classy in decoration and in a great location. Bellingham is 2 hours north of Seattle and only about 30 minutes away from Vancouver, Canada. The border is so close, you can see the mountains that are in Canada! We met with the dentist at 7am, John shadowed him for the morning and I drove around exploring the area. I came back to the practice to have lunch. I cannot say enough about how warm, friendly and welcoming everyone (the dentist, his wife and all of the staff) were to John and I. We were so impressed at their generosity, sincerity and effort to make the most of our day there in Bellingham. We had the best time! We went out to dinner with our new found friends and were once again, taken aback with how wonderful and professional the dentist and his wife were to us.
So out of the two practices, John and I feel the best about Bellingham. Up until this point, we had been exploring multiple options: Buying a practice in California, moving to Eastern Washington, Oregon, but hadn't felt really good about any of them. When we heard of the possibility in Bellingham, something clicked, but we weren't sure why and thought we'd check it out. I am so glad we did! It's too early to say just yet what will happen, but we're really excited about this option.
Last, but definitely not least, we are sooooooo incredibly grateful to John's mom who flew out Ohio to watch Caleb. It was so much easier to leave him home, thank you so much Terri for watching him that whole time, we love you so much! Caleb already misses his 'andma'!
I have one more thank you I need to give out to Dave, John's dad. Thank you for letting us stay with you, use your car, eat your food and the rides to the airport!
