winding down semester break

So, this girl ends her first semester of grad school with a 4.0 GPA :) Yeah, I was pretty happy about that. Now it's up to me to maintain that for the next 2 years...and a scholarship that pushes me even more to maintain it. I have a feeling it's not going to be easy...darn tootin'. But I'm bound and determined to keep it up and study my butt off for a course of study I really love. The new semester starts on the 23rd, Chinese New Year's Day, so I've got one more week of slacking :) But I'll be substituting, so far, 3 1/2 days next week, so that's great.

Meantime, I've been enjoying some reading (Noel Hynd's Russian Trilogy, The Help), some movies (Raul's Christmas present The Smurfs, dad's Christmas present Ben Hur, my Christmas present West Side Story's 50th anniversary), and Boy Meets World dvd marathons with Raul. We're on season 4 now, and I think I love the show more now than I did when it was first on tv. Such a great show. I helped Raul pass his driver's test this past Wednesday (woohoo!). We submitted more paperwork for his visa. We hunted for jobs for him...to no avail thus far, but we continue to look and pray. Meanwhile, Raul is taking 2 more courses this semester in anticipation of going to a PTA program in Florida, which brings me to... we continue to pray about the Florida move.

Please continue to pray with us. I still have no idea how this is going to work, and I pray that God will reveal more to us as we go along, especially as we prepare for our spring break trip to Florida in March. There is so so much to be done in order to make this work, and I'm getting pretty anxious. Not to mention the fact that it can't happen at all if Raul's visa isn't approved. Many people have asked me why we have to go through it in the first place (I think I've said this before), and I tell them that though I loathe the process, I understand why it's in place. You just have to do what you can and pray that it's enough. We know in our hearts that we married for the right reasons, that God brought us together, and we have every intention of staying together no matter what happens. Now it's up to the powers that be to see that as well. So please pray that they do, and in a timely manner...no clue how long it will be until we hear something.

So that's where we are in this first month of the new year.