Back to School 2.0

A week ago, I wrote about going Back to School. But it was probably too optimistic to think that we could hit the ground running so soon after our return from Korea — adjusting with Ethan, recovering from the flu, and now battling cold/sore throats; thankfully, Ethan continues to be well!).

But we did read the notes that Russell (our mentor) sent us while we were in Korea. After reading them, however, we were feeling pretty overwhelmed and had nearly given up on a May 2008 graduation. Fortunately, we both had very good phone conversations with Russell today and our work looks very do-able now — assuming that we both get well and Ethan cooperates.

Our plan is to complete our revisions by the end of the week, then overnight our drafts to Russell this weekend. After he takes a final read-through, he will submit them to the D.Min. office for us. As long as they’re in the office by one-week-from-Friday (3/7), we should be able to get our defenses scheduled in time for the May 2008 graduation.

Over the next few days, we will be taking shifts with Ethan. Please pray that our adjustment will continues to go well and that we will be able (physically and mentally) to complete our drafts.

Ethan’s transition is going mostly well — still some rough spots here and there (mostly related to sleep). Last night was Ethan’s first night to sleep the entire night (of course, wouldn’t you know that it was Joleen’s turn to put him to bed and tend to him during the night; we’ll see how tonight goes! He did get to sleep the earliest so far, 9:45 pm.).

We’ve heard that many times during the transition period, the child just isn’t him/herself. We’ve noticed that Ethan has been laughing a lot more in the last two days. We’re grateful for that!

One final thing about Ethan — the boy can eat. At dinner time tonight (as we sometimes must do), we had scramble and find things for him to eat. Joleen was crushing a pear and feeding it to him (he ate fresh fruit already in Korea). You should have seen us — I had to start crushing the pear while Joleen fed him — it took two of us to keep up with him. And based on his frustration with our speed, we may need to recruit a third person! πŸ˜†

Anyway, thanks for your prayers throughout our journey. Please continue to pray for our ongoing transition and dissertation work over the course of the next few days!

And check the “comments” for reports on our progress.

5 thoughts on “Back to School 2.0”

  1. Tuesday was a decent day, in terms of dissertation work. We each had a (up to) two-hour block in the morning where we mainly got back into the stream of things. I did some prep work on Chapter 3 and Joleen went back and did some updating on Chapter 1.

    We spent much of the afternoon picking up some food and supplies for Ethan.

    We hope to increase our dissertation time throughout the rest of the week so that we can get these drafts done! We’re both still battling colds, which doesn’t help.

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  2. Wednesday was a decent day as well. We’re both still battling colds, which isn’t helping; we’re just glad that Ethan continues to be well, though.

    But now, we need good days today (Thursday) and tomorrow (Friday), and possibly Saturday, although we’re hoping to do nothing more on Saturday morning than prepare our drafts to mail to KY.

    Joleen is working on finishing up Chapters 4 and 5 today, and may do some work on Chapter 3 tomorrow. I am hoping to finish up Chapters 3 and 4 today, then work on Chapter 5 tomorrow.

    After all that (Saturday morning, if not before), we will have a bunch of minor (but somewhat time-consuming) stuff to do — update Table of Contents and Works Cited sections, print, place in 3-ring binders, pack for mailing, etc.

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  3. Joleen’s mom spent much of the day at our house today, helping to watch Ethan while we tried to get some extra work done on our dissertations. Overall, it was a decent day (although we didn’t get as much done as we would’ve liked).

    We both need a good day tomorrow to finish up the bulk of the work. It’s going to be tough to finish tomorrow, I think, but it might be do-able.

    We will also have Saturday morning (as long as we get to the post office before noon), but we’re hoping to only have printing/binding left at that point.

    We would appreciate your prayers for this work — and for our health as we continue to battle colds. Joleen improved today, and I’ve had my worst day — right now, I pretty much have lost my voice. We’re both hoping to be much better tomorrow — we’ll need the strength as well as rest tonight.

    Thanks for your prayers!

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  4. One more update (I hope) …

    Today is our last full day to work on our dissertations, assuming we can finish by mid-day tomorrow (Saturday) to hit the post office before closing.

    We haven’t gotten as far as we need to today so we’re working tonight (Ethan has just gone to sleep — he’s going to bed earlier every night – 9:00 pm tonight – and he’s been sleeping all night for the last 5 nights). Going to sleep/waking up are still challenges, though. And today, he seemed pretty emotional — all part of the ongoing transition, we think.

    Anyway, we’ve got a good ways to go on our dissertations yet, but we’re still hoping to finish tomorrow morning, Ethan permitting! πŸ™‚

    In terms of our colds, Joleen is doing much better, and I am still battling. Joleen got it first (which of course means she gave it to me!), so I’m hoping to be better in the next couple days, too.

    Writing about things like “sampling logic” and “reliability and validity” and “generalizability” (coherently) are rough anytime (for us, anyway). It’s much worse when you don’t feel well!

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  5. Okay. *One* more update …

    Joleen and I worked 5 hours after Ethan went to sleep at 9:00 pm (and neither of us are night people!).

    It was a productive time — but we’ve decided rather than rushing them out to the post office this morning (even if we could), we’re going to mail/overnight them on Monday. While they’ll arrive in KY 24 hours later than if we mailed them this morning, we’ll gain some time to work on them today, tomorrow, and Monday.

    Thanks for your prayers!

    Reply

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