Grad School

Decisions, decisions -- that's the story of the past few weeks.

There are several big things in our life right now. The biggest one that consumes a great deal of our thinking is grad school. Carson applied to fifteen schools for the fall. FIFTEEN.

In the past week, we've been receiving responses. For the sake of keeping you updated, here are the schools that have said "Yes!":
Trinity Western University (Langley, BC, Canada)
George Fox Divinity School (Portland, OR)
Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL)
Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI)
St. Louis University (St. Louis, MO)
Candler Divinity School (the Divinity School of Emory University: Decatur, GA)
Duke (Durham, NC)

And the no:
University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC)
Brandeis University (Boston, MA)
Catholic University of America (Washington DC)
Notre Dame (South Bend, IN)

And there are a couple of others that we don't know about yet but they're not really important ones.

The number one choice was Notre Dame. Carson could tell you all about why. He was so passionate about that school and the program they had. He was super excited about the possibility of going there and as he got acceptances from other good schools, he was encouraged and thought that maybe he'd get in. Chances were slim (almost 200 applicants and only 10 get in) but if God wanted him there, then he'd get in.
It's on the "No" list so you know what happened there. He found out the day before my birthday. It was the very last school to contact him.

The list of schools we'll actually go to is smaller than the list of acceptances. We can't really afford just any school, so if an assistantship position was not offered or a stipend was not given, the schools won't really be considered. We're waiting to find out which schools want to offer money right now.

But one of the reasons I'm sharing this is because so much of the family and friends we'd like to keep informed is forever away. So this is for you.

And by the way, we're excited for the possibility of being closer to the east coast. Every place we get accepted I look at the driving distance between that place and Beaufort. 16 hour drive? Woohoo! 11 hours? Yes! 5 hours? Please! So I guess this is also teaching us perspective :)

Please pray about these schools with us.
Pray that if we should take out a loan to go to a certain school, that it would be clear.
Pray for our finances (moving this summer, finding a place, rent in a new city, renting a moving truck)
Pray for logistics (moving, housing, etc)
Pray for peace and continued trust in the Lord (Philippians 4:6-7)
Pray that if we're supposed to take a totally different path, that it would also be abundantly clear.

Thank you dear friends for coming on this journey with us. It's been so neat to see God working through this application process. I know so many were praying and fasting with us each week in light of this school thing. So neat to see the body of Christ work in that way even though it's all over the country/world. Keep us in your prayers!