There are times in life for sunrises and other times for sunsets. Maybe that’s why I feel a little nostalgic and sad every time I watch the sun set these days. Each time the sun dips below the Caribbean Sea, there is one less ocean sunset to watch from our balcony in paradise and one less day to live here. We have about a month left in our island home, which makes me wish I could slow down the time and enjoy every nanosecond of it. However, every sunset brings good memories and the promise of another sunrise.

Ben is nearing the end of his medical sciences studies at American University of the Caribbean. He still has two more years of medical school to finish in the States, but our two years in Sint Maarten are almost up. In fact, he takes the comprehensive exam in two days! Everything he has learned in the last two years will be covered in this test. Needless to say, he’s off somewhere in the library right now, studying hard about Crohn’s Disease and enzyme deficiencies and other riveting topics. I helped him study last night and the amount of information he knows just blows my mind.

Ben has had a successful run during his time at American University of the Caribbean. Pardon my bragging for a minute! He made the dean’s list every semester, and earned a spot in the honor and service society for his high grades and his hundreds of hours of community service.

Now, as all of this comes to a close– the honors, the volunteering, the prayers, the TA commitments, and tutoring, the hours and hours of studying and the late nights in the books– it’s easy to look ahead and be overwhelmed by everything that is still to come. After all, he has the comprehensive exam, and then we move back to Arizona. In June he has to take his first licensing exam. Then we’ll get assigned to clinical rotations somewhere in the United States and have to start over again somewhere new. After two more years of student loans and loads of work, there’s two or three more big exams and finally, finally he’ll graduate and become a medical doctor.

I think it’s better, though, to look backwards for just a moment and appreciate how far we’ve come. There’s been a lot to overcome, and making it this far is not guaranteed. Yet here we are! I’m so thankful for the time we’ve had here. I’m thankful for the friends we have made, the people who have supported us, the hard work that Ben’s put in, and the grace God has given us to not only make it, but have an awesome experience while we’re at it. I’m thankful that we have thrived and not just survived. It hasn’t been easy, but it’s been fantastic.

The best kinds of evening are the ones when I can look back on the day and say, wow, that was a productive day, and it was a fun one, too. That’s how I feel about our time here. As the sun sets on this season of life, I can look back and appreciate everything that has happened. It’s been a blast, and it’s also been worthwhile. If we could do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.