What's the Future Hold?

I have mentioned before that Nathan got into PA school, and he starts in January. He will be in class Monday thru Friday from 9am-5pm, plus staying late for extra lab time, plus study groups, so he will hardly ever be home. Obviously school will be his full-time job for 28 months, and there will be no time for him to work, not even part-time. It'll all be on me. Yikes! That's a scary thought for me, that I will have to support our family on a nurse's salary, especially since the amount of our monthly bills will increase while he's in school. Thankfully he's eligible for quite a bit in federal student loans, but I believe we'll have to take out a private loan as well. Ay ay ay, money's going to be tight for 2.5 years! It will all be worth it in the end, though....I hope!

The average surgical PA salary is pretty nice, and the surgical group that he works for now realize how lucky they are to have him and say they really want him to come back after graduation; they would "do what they have to do" to get him back. Nathan met with the office manager last week, and we were pretty excited to have a starting point as far as job offers are concerned, seeing as how Nathan is very well known in the local medical community (the group works at both hospitals and the outpatient surgery center) and has multiple other unofficial offers locally, a potential job offer in Vancouver (yep, CANADA), and another potential offer with the chief of surgery that he worked for before we moved here. Boy, was the offer from his current bosses a total slap in the face! It makes us wonder how badly they really want him. Maybe they're just trying to play hardball and low-ball the offer at first. Maybe they'll come back with something better, but I don't know. We're keeping our options open, and though it's nice being relatively close to our parents right now, there's really nothing tying us down here. I am totally confident that he will have no problem finding a job. He has so much experience in what is probably the hardest specialty in surgery, and that's his passion, so he getting a job won't be a problem...but finding a job that he's passionate about and that pays adequately might be an issue.

When Nathan is working as a PA, he really wants me to be able to stay at home. That'd be great (maybe), but it will depend on where we live. I'd like to live in a relatively low cost of living area, but in or near a busy medical community. 

If you live in or have visited a city that would be great to live in, I'd love to hear about it! Some of cities I'm interested in looking into:



Nashville, TN

St. Louis, MO

Charleston, SC

Greenville, SC

Springfield, MO

Savannah, GA

I pray everyday that God will direct us in the direction we are supposed to go. I know Nathan will make a difference in many lives, we just have to figure out where those lives are.