To be completely honest, it has been a hard year for us so far. The challenges just seem to keep piling up month after month. Jonathon and I have decided that we are being taught patience, which we both need.
Jonathon has 3 papers that have been ready for publication for months now, but he is having trouble getting them published. He has been trying to get them into very prestigious journals, so it is normal to face some rejection, but after being turned down 3 times, he is pretty frustrated. Nobody likes rejection, so it has been very humbling. He also found out in April that he didn't get one of the grants that he applied for. He felt that he had a great chance, but it wasn't to be. All of that followed by my miscarriage and surgery in May seemed like we were facing a string of bad luck that we just couldn't break.
We kept telling each other that we just needed one good thing to happen to get us out of our funk. Well, it finally happened...
Two weeks ago, we found out that Jonathon was awarded the NIH Pediatric Loan Repayment Grant. That is a lot of words, but it means that the NIH (National Institute of Health) is going to pay off at least half of our student loans. In the next 2 years, they will pay $20,000 toward our student loans with a chance that they will pay off the other half too when he reapplies in 2014. Living in New York City really hurt us in terms of student loan debt, so this is HUGE for us.
Of all the grants that we could get, this is far and away, the best one we could ever hope for. We know that one good thing won't necessarily change the course of our year, nor prevent us from more frustration and pain, but it sure does a lot for our psychological well being.
Hurray for Jonathon!
And Hurray for some GOOD news!
3 comments:
If anyone deserves this, it is most def you guys. You really have been tried and tested and I'm so glad you get to experience such a huge tender mercy now! What a great blessing. And Sarah, thank you SO much for stopping by yest and for your sweet, sweet card. It totally made my day. We sure love you guys.
HOORAY!
That's awesome! I'm so happy for you guys! I know exactly what that grant is. Rob and I didn't have enough student loan debt to qualify for it, which always baffles me. I have to have MORE debt for you to bother with paying it off for me? Whatever. Anyway, enough about me, I'm super happy for you guys! That's gotta be a huge relief.
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