Crazy Cozads: Houston, We are Board Certified!

This afternoon on my way home from work I picked up the mail and text Benjamin this image:

Upon arriving home, he burst upstairs into the bathroom where Winston was getting a bath and exclaimed, "I'm Board Certified!" The excitement and glow of accomplishment beamed from Benjamin's face. This achievement has been a goal of his since before residency. It was one of the things he wrote that he wanted to accomplish in personal statement that accompanied his application letters and one of the main reasons that Houston was a such a good fit for him.

Not every orthodontist that graduates residency is Board Certified. It requires work above and beyond the requirements of satisfaction for graduating the program. It requires countless hours of perfecting patients teeth, examining and re-examining their progress, writing and re-writing case files and being sure that, as an orthodontist, you can defend and give sound reasoning for treating this particular patient the way you did. And you have to do that for six different cases. It requires caring models of teeth in a padded case all the way to St. Louis, setting them and the write ups out carefully and then waiting for the next day when a team of Board Examiners ask question after question about the cases sitting before them. Being Board Certified is an accomplishment that only 20-25% of orthodontic specialists can claim.

To my husband: I am so proud of you for this accomplishment! Your faithfulness to trusting God's plan for your life has been rewarded in so many ways. I am in constant awe of how humble you are in the midst of accomplishing great things!

To the Class of 2013: Congrats to all who have completed your journey to Board Certification! You all kick butt in the best of ways and we are proud to have cheered you along!