Doing business as...

My life is a shifty thing I tell ya.  I have been a chiropractor for 2 and 1/2 years now. I love it.  I really do. I however, don't love being an employee.  This is true regardless of the job it seems.  If I have the option, I want to run the show.  Straight out of school I accepted a position as an associate doc in a town 20 minutes away.  I initially intended to buy the practice from the owner, but it became clear by the end of year 2 that he wasn't 100% ready to leave and that I am terribly impatient. 

 For over a year I went back and forth, forth and back trying to find direction.  I am fortunate to have options, but change is intimidating.  Especially change that requires starting over, large loans, and a new kind of dedication that for now I can only assume I'll muster up.  I fretted and talked it to death.  Waited and repeated the process.  Eventually I realized, I can't find direction because I haven't asked for it.  Don't get me wrong, I had support, I had discussed with Zac, with my parents, with my best friends, but when it came right down to it, I had neglected a quick conversation with God about what I was really supposed to do.  (I don't know why I have to be at the end of my rope before it occurs to me turn over my problems, but I imagine it has something to do with me being prideful enough to believe I can solve everything on my own.)  I threw up a quick prayer, told God simply that I was done.  Done thinking about it, done fretting.  If he wanted me to leave and open my own practice he was gonna have to give me some really obvious signs.  

Ask and you shall receive!  A couple weeks later (in November) I got a call from a lady I know and had actually talked to about opening a practice in Effingham.  She called to tell me that the building she worked in was going to be available for rent.  She wanted to know if I was interested.  A fairly low rent building, in the only town I actually considered opening in, you betcha!  A couple weeks later I went and looked at the space.  It is perfect, and my decision was made very easy.  Not only was the building great, but my office sits in a plaza with a cycling store, a family gym, a tumbling/taekwondo facility and a spa.  Can't ask for much better than that!  

In December I told my boss that I was going to be leaving to open my own practice.  He ended my contract early, so I am my own boss starting at the end of March.  I got my business plan approved almost 2 weeks ago.  I am officially "in business."  It is a bit unbelievable.  A bit surreal even that I am actually doing it.  But I am!  I look forward to it.  I imagine it will be one of the hardest things I ever do.  I am waiting until baby gets here to open, which will make things interesting.  Sleep deprived decision making, sounds promising right?  

This is where I am at right now.  Pregnant, soon-to-be jobless, with a whole lotta changes in store.  I plan to do fill-in work for local docs and some substitute work to earn enough to pay my insurance deductible.  But beyond that, I fully intend to work in a leisurely fashion at my new office (thank you to baby for seriously extending my timeline) and float around Annie's pool in a 2 piece suit with a giant belly.  

I will look just like this, but with considerably bigger boobs...and butt....I know my body. 

So you guys all feel free to say prayers.  Pray for me and the babe as we both get bigger.  Pray for a successful practice (probably called Ballard Family Chiropractic).  Pray for Zac and I as we become parents, our relationship changes, and he continues to pick up my slack.  Or simply pray that I remember to pray myself as pregnancy has left me exhausted and without much short term memory :)