Here's the Dealio...

Many moons ago, Doug found a practice "For Sale" in the San Diego area.
(My dream locale.  Where I finished high school.  Where we got married.  Where I've been wanting to move back ever since I left as a 20ish year-old.)

He contacted the seller/Dr.
She interviewed him via Skype.
He flew to California and met her in person.
After weeks and weeks of waiting (and an earthquake), she finally offered to sell him the practice.
We started making all necessary (extensive) preparations to buy the practice.
(lawyers, lenders, accountants...)
It would have cost a LOT of money to buy the practice.  (Turns out they don't give these things away.)
BUT it would come with equipment, staff, and patients!
We planned our move here.
We signed a one-year lease on a home.
We researched local schools and local church congregations.
I mapped all nearby Libraries, Costcos and Targets.
We directed our "Household Goods" to be shipped to the port of San Diego.

And then...

three weeks before we left Japan...

the seller changed her mind.

She backed out of the deal.

We don't know why.  (But we have our suspicions.)


Then Doug's heart stopped and his brain exploded a little, and his stomach turned into a giant bleeding ulcer.
      I took the immediate role of therapist/counsellor/cheerleader.
("It's going to be okay!!!  You're good enough, you're smart enough, and doggoneit, little kids like you!!!")

Luckily, on his last trip to the states, just for kicks, he'd looked over an available office space for lease in the area.  It's next door to a General dentist and is all set up for a Pediatric dentist.  It's in a great location on a busy, high-visibility street.

The same day we got the mind-exploding news, Doug called about the empty office space.  It was still available.  He asked for the lease paperwork.
We decided to lease it and start a practice from scratch.

With three weeks to go before unemployment and no pay check and no benefits and no security and no anything.  Except a house and office we couldn't pay for once our emergency fund ran out.  
(Yes, thanks to stupid Dave Ramsey, we have a hefty emergency fund.  Or at least, it seemed hefty until we moved to expensive here and had to spend a bunch of it!)

So yeah, it's been a stressful few weeks.

Since we've been back, Doug has done the following:
Filled out mountains of paperwork
Met with a bazillion lenders
     and vendors
         and Doctors
Hogged the laptop  (The desktop is still in transit, hence my spotty blogging.)
Gotten 58 new gray hairs
Secured financing to start a practice
Purchased us a second car (our mini van has been in storage for three years)
Made a bazillion phone calls
Eaten numerous "business" breakfasts

And a million other tedious things.

He's also gotten a part time job at an office about an hour away.
It's only three days a week, but it will see us through until his practice takes off.

Which it will.
Because he's Doug and he's awesome and little kids love him.

As for me, I'm keeping busy unpacking, organizing, donating, hanging, and throwing away a whole bunch of stuff. 

While also feeding, clothing, cuddling, chasing, disciplining, kissing, hugging, refereeing, supervising, separating, and time-outing four {extremely noisy} boys.

Oh, and I'm working on the colors/theme/feel/decor/accessories/"brand" for the future office and website.

Um hmm.

And it turns out, having your husband home 24/7 in these circumstances, doesn't actually feel like an extended vacation.  (Maybe an extended hellcation.  But forget I said that last part 'cause we don't say the "h" word.)  Not that I don't love having him around.  It's just we're not dealing with optimal circumstances here!


But despite all of the afore mentioned stress, we're happy to finally be "home".  We're happy to be back in America. We're really happy that the whole dang country isn't shaking every five minutes.  We're thrilled we don't have to move anywhere ever again if we darn well don't want to.  And we're extremely glad things are progressing in the job department.

We've even managed to have some fun!
All of my siblings and my mom were here to welcome us home.
Visits to the pool and beach have been squeezed in.
The weather has been perfectly beautiful.
Breakfast out has been eaten.
Friends and new neighbors have been good to us.

So life is good.
Prayers are heard.
Prayers are answered.
And life goes on.

And that's the dealio.