Update on our situation: (for those who have been asking)
Apparently Charlie's degree is still waiting on some AP credits to get confirmed. We thought that he had all the credits he needed for his M-Div but the registrar's office is showing a couple of his undergrad transfers as still pending (or something like that).
Please pray with us that the school doesn't pull a "Laban" on him and indenture him for 7 more years! ;)
(just kidding. it seems they are trying to work with him here.)
But it would be really nice for him to have this degree as a Christmas present! It's funny-- one of Charlie's online usernames is MBS2013. Every time I have to type it in, I am reminded... He was originally supposed to graduate that May, then last December, then last May... really hoping he is able to get his Masters before THIS December! :) It's amazing how when you have a full time job, a family, church responsibilities, and military service on your plate, school seems to fall to the bottom of the priorities totem pole. :-P But I'm proud of him for sticking with it, and I'm hoping the end is now in sight.
It's been a long haul, and there is still a long road ahead before the Air Force will give him a job. His Reserve commissioning paperwork took over a year... PLEASE pray that once he gets this degree his Guard commission will process in a fraction of that time. This two-br apt is feeling smaller every day! (But that's not going to stop ME from filling it with babies. We're pretty irresponsible in that respect, but when you want to have a lot of kids, you can't wait around for Seminaries and Air Forces. The biological clock marches on.) ;)
Ok, so I've shared this before, but the phrase that I've adopted as our "family motto" for this year is "Until God opens another door, keep praising Him in the hallway." That is hard to do! Hopefully God refines us (mostly me) into better people through this process.
I know there is a light at the end of this tunnel, but as anyone who has been wild-caving knows... sometimes there is a whole lot of breakdown to crawl over before you ever see that light.
Caving Analogy: (for those who would be interested in that)
Note: The following won't make sense to anyone who HASN'T been wild-caving, but hopefully that will just motivate you to add it to your bucket list. You can't really understand life until you've had the weight of the world LITERALLY on your shoulders. ;) Knowing that there is a hundred feet of earth above you is a feeling everyone should experience at some point in their lives. As well as the feeling of being in Total Darkness (something that you can't really duplicate anywhere else.)
Ok, on with the show.
Crawling over breakdown can be fun... and it ALWAYS makes you think, challenges your problem solving skills, and pushes you to your limits (in a good way).
But it also can be painful, scary, and frustrating. Especially if you have to turn around.
The good thing is... there is usually a reward (sometimes a cavern or room that you wouldn't be able to see if you DIDN'T crawl through the breakdown, sometimes a way out of the cave altogether).
The bad thing is... there might not be.
Right now, this situation (trying to get Charlie through Seminary and the Chaplain Candidate Program) is our "breakdown". It's hard to crawl through it, knowing that there MIGHT be nothing at the end. We MIGHT have to turn around and crawl all the way back to start all over again and find a new way out of the cave. But God put us here, so we're trying to just move forward till we can't anymore.
Either way, I know we will learn something through it.
Ok, well, that was just something I was thinking of this morning. Probably other people with caving experience have already come up with this analogy, and could add more depth to it. But that's all I have for now.
Oh wait... one more thing.
An old picture of me caving. I need to do this again sometime soon... it's been too long.
Now I'm done.
Thanks for reading.
(and thanks to everyone who HAS been praying for us! we appreciate it)
