Wow. I don't know if I even have words to describe the last week. Well, that's not entirely true. Those of you who know me, know that I always have words =). It's Wednesday night, and in the last 6 days I have taken 4 ordination exams (which constituted 9 hours of 'in class' essay writing, and 2 full days of researching and writing on a take home exam--totaling about 40 typed pages), caught and gotten over a nasty cold, got engaged, went to a surprise engagement party, had a surprise over-night guest, made a ton of phone calls, and received more emails and facebook comments than I can count! Whew! No wonder I am currently laying on my couch with a glass of wine....that's about all I have the energy for! It was an amazing, somewhat overwhelming, and a bit of an exhausting week, which stretched me in so many different ways, and all I can say is praise God I have an amazing therapist who I got to see yesterday!
I have to admit, taking ordination exams may not have been the most fun thing I have ever done, they were insanely difficult and absolutely mentally exhausting, but such a good experience for me. I won't know until October if I've passed or not, and while I may have to retake one or two of them, I am glad to have had the experience of trying to pull together all the different aspects of Reformed theology into coherent thoughts. I read the questions I had to answer aloud to Chuck and he just stared at me, asking me to define theological terms and then finally exclaiming "this test could be open book, open notes, and open friend and I wouldn't have a clue how to answer these questions!" They were tough questions, but I think I felt pretty prepared and hopefully passed a couple of them.
And then of course there was this little thing that happened on Saturday night....=) I am constantly thrown when someone asks me how my 'fiance' is, or...well every time I see my finger! I love being engaged, even though it's been kind of a stressful week, and I am so excited to start thinking, planning, and dreaming about our future together. I told my therapist that it feels a little bit like I am a little girl playing dress up everytime I look at my finger, but then I have to remind myself that I'm actually not dreaming!
I have one more paper to write for a summer class, which I will hopefully be able to finish up in the next several days, and then Chuck's parents come on Monday for a few days. The rest of September is off from school but I realized tonight I have a huge list of things that I need to get done before school starts again on the 28th, including paperwork for my Presbytery and starting to plan a wedding! Although like Chuck pointed out, I've been planning my wedding since I was about 12, so I have an idea of what I'm going for =) Friends have been giving me wedding magazines to flip through, and our friend Steve (who is getting married in a week) gave Chuck a book on how to be the groom. My favorite section which I pointed out was "stay quiet, be encouraging, and say 'yes honey, that looks awesome' a lot!" We have been so blessed by so many wonderful comments, thoughts, and well-wishes from so many friends and family, and we are so thankful for all of you!
I can imagine that it feels weird to be engaged!
ReplyDeleteWhen do you plan on having your wedding?
Isn't it so validating when those outside of the PCUSA freeze when they hear the rigor of what we have to go through??? I definitely feel that way.