The search continues

As many of you know, Chuck had his second interview with Children's hospital in Milwaukee the other week. To be honest we were so sure we were going to get the contract and not have any major surprises with it and sign on. We were already making our top 10 list of houses to look at.

Chuck was able to have lunch with us before leaving for the airport and this is the fortune he got. Another good sign :) Then, in the last 45 min of his second day of interviews he was hit with a deal breaker. They want the new hires to spend a week EVERY month covering the hospital in Marshfield. That's 3 1/2 hours away! This isn't just for a couple of years either. The Marshfield contract is for 5 years! After 9 years of working as hard as he has to become the best pediatric surgeon he can be there's no way we can do that! It will be exhausting on him and on us as a family. We are tired of not having Chuck around and are looking forward to taking a job that allows him to be around A LOT more, not away for a week every month.
So, needless to say our hearts were broken and the excitement died. Yes, we knew about the Marshfield contract but we were told it was going to be a group commitment. They led us to believe is was going to be an equal division of time there between the group. Instead they decided to make the new hires take the majority of the responsibility. They are hoping to hire on 2 more people and we'll be shocked if anyone takes that job.

Now we just need to keep searching. He has a second interview with Grand Rapids and he will need to decide if he won't get bored being in private practice. We find ourselves having to look at more cities that we didn't want to have to consider, like Peoria and Indianapolis. Those are both academic groups. We no longer can say we'll be decided by Christmas. We really don't know how this is all going to play out right now. What we do know is that these jobs will allow us to be a family and that's what's most important to us. We'll keep you posted.