A family affair

Do you ever feel like when you're really looking forward to a really exciting, new, life-changing event that time just seems to creep by?  Then as it gets closer all of a sudden it seems as though you're speeding toward the goal line and all you can think is WAIT!  Slow down!!  I'm not ready for this!!!  This seems to be a recurring theme in my life: my wedding date, the birth of each of my kids, moving to Iowa to start dental school, the list goes on and on... Well, this whole graduation thing has been no exception.  Joseph has two weeks left until he puts on that cap and gown for the very last time in his life and is handed that ultimate, extremely hard-earned (and very expensive) piece of paper which will say "Joseph Dennis Dougherty, Doctor of Dental Surgery."  We've been looking forward to this since we've been married - 6 years!!  I am so proud of him, but at the same time, as graduation draws near I can't help but wish time would slow down a little.  

I'm not quite ready to leave all the amazing people that we've met here in Iowa. You see, for me, the experience of dental school has been less about learning dentistry, and more about navigating the rough terrain of raising our little family.  Of course, neither Joseph nor I would have had nearly as much fun with said experiences if it weren't for these people:

Here we are four years ago, when each of us were starting our various programs at the university:

(P.S. Because I know you're all thinking it, my hand is not on Joseph's butt, it's on his thigh...it's the angle...)

And here we are today, when we're (almost) all about to graduate:

Our numbers have exploded exponentially!  The reason I say "we" when I refer to graduating is because dental school has been a family affair for all of us.  It hasn't been something that only Joseph has accomplished, but something our whole family has done!  And really, all of these people that have gone through this experience with us (including ones that aren't in this picture) have become like family.  As time gets closer to Joseph putting on that cap and gown, I don't know how we're going to say good-bye to our dental school family.  I guess I still have two weeks to figure that out.