Tuesday, July 24, 2012

the unexpected

There comes a time in EVERYONE's lives that something unexpected happens, and I'm not talking about a little something, but a BIG something. We recently learned that something unexpected happened to some friends of ours and while I am not at liberty to share any information, we'll just say it is life changing.

I wanted to share with them (and everyone else) that even though things may not be going as planned or expected there is a reason this event occurred, God has a master plan that we are not privy too. Sometimes it may take a while to figure out why, but each time hubby and I have experienced something totally unexpected, we have *usually* been able to identify after the fact why. I always like to use the example of my son Al (#2), we weren't planning him, in fact we didn't plan a single one of our kiddos, but that's another topic! But we know now that he was born to get us through the death of my grandma, who passed away six weeks after he was born. Same thing happened with DJ- he was born the day after my hubby's grandma passed away. I will say when I found out I was pregnant with #4 I called my last remaining grandparent and said "You better not be dying in 9 months!" (Which he didn't!)

I don't yet have enough hindsight to see aftereffects with my dissertation, but I am sure that it will come. ;)

So I just wanted to share that life happens and sometimes you just have to have a LOT of faith and know that your family and friends and the Lord will support you through this journey.


Monday, July 23, 2012

7/2, 1:00, 310

July 2, 1:00pm began one of the biggest moments of my life. DISSERTATION DEFENSE! In just under 45 minutes I presented the 310 pages (current count) of my dissertation research. It was amazingly easy presenting, in fact I had almost no nerves once I started presenting. It wasn't that different from all of the practice trials I had done, which made me really glad I had rehearsed it that much.

The questions were good and generally answerable. I did realize into one questioning that I could easily get into a pissing match with this faculty member (not on my committee), but I opted to avoid it and was left alone after the initial questioning. When the committee removed all the outside people the questions were interestingly a little more relaxed, but still challenging. I was confident when they asked me to leave the room, but hearing a raised voice of my adviser made me walk a little further down the hallway. It could have been 5 minutes or 15 that I waited for them, but when my adviser came out to get me there was a smile and a question about how many years it had been. Hugs and congratulations were given and it was done!

I still have corrections to do, and in fact have only been back into school one evening since my defense to look at the dissertation, but I am still waiting on comments from a committee member. But.......otherwise I am DONE!

PhD, PT