Living life...

Saturday marked a huge accomplishment for Jut.  He graduated with his Master's Degree in Religious Education with an emphasis in Missional leadership.  I am so proud of him.  Until three years ago, he never desired a higher degree...and based on his undergraduate work, never thought he'd really ever be able to do it.  His parents did not have 4-year college degrees and his sister does not either.  A B.A. was fine for him.

But, God has a way of making us change our opinions about things.  Jut felt called to leave youth ministry and take the lead minister role of our church.  The elders felt that he needed more education. He didn't want to take the traditional M.Div. route...he was thinking more of leadership training.  I thought he needed some biblical studies and we found Rochester had a bit of both.  So, he decided to give it a shot.

It has been a long 20+ months for us.  We have experienced more 'life' in the past two years than we have in all our previous 8 years of marriage.  It started with the death of my grandmother less than two months prior to the beginning of classes.  Then, C was born two months into the semester.  Jut assumed the role of 'lead minister' that January right before we received word that the doctors were ready to discontinue chemo for Mike.  We lost an influential friend to heart issues that month and an elder of the church shortly following.  Then his dad died...then my grandpa died.  I think auto-pilot took over that spring and we just functioned as well as we could.

Summer began.  We took a relaxing vacation and then kept busy for the rest of the summer.  Jut started school back up in the fall.  I took over the Sunday night children's ministry program.  We started homeschooling E.  We watched my extended family's relationship disintegrate.  We made a decision to buy and remodel my grandparents' home.  Jut's grandfather passed away.  There have been church issues to handle throughout the year.  The kids seemed to have an inordinate amount of sickness this winter. The list of things doesn't seem as huge for things that happened in this year of grad school but I don't think we could have handled much more on our plates.  The events seemed very mentally/emotionally taxing...and I think the first year of grad school used up our 'bank' of mental/emotional reserves.  It has been a long semester.

However, it is finished.  Jut graduated.  He even got a great compliment from his hardest professor on his last paper.  He did great!  Life is good.  Now, it is time to sit back and relax a bit.  Maybe build up some of those reserves again. Jut is even playing video games as I write this...taking time to relax.  It is good.  It is hard to remember what 'normal' was prior to graduate school.  Before grad school began, we were a preschool family a four. So, now we get the fun task of finding out what 'normal' is for a homeschooling family of five...

We know new challenges will face us.  Other things will try to make us busy again, but we have our priorities.  We know there are things that will fill the hole that school left in his life.  However, we will be careful to guard that hole that 'things' do not take too much of that space.  We need time.  The kids need time.  He needs time. These are all things we must remember.

Well done, Jut!  You did awesome.  You did your best to balance school, church and family.  I couldn't have asked for anymore.  Thank you for all your hard work!  Congratulations on your accomplishment!!