Change of Plans

This blog entry has more detail than most people will care to know and it's ended up being pretty long. I'm mostly including so much so I can look back on it all later.

So as some of you know, I graduated this last December from BYU-Provo with a Bachelor's degree in Communication Disorders (Speech Therapy). In order to do anything with this major I need to get a master's degree. When Derrick and I first got married (4/28/07) we were planning on waiting at least a full year until starting a family so I could be most of the way done with my master's degree before the baby came. After talking with the Lord, He let us know by the end of the summer that our plan regarding our family wasn't the same as His. He changed our plans so we would be starting our family more than 6 months earlier than we thought at first.

With this change of plans I decided I would just graduate and maybe think about graduate school in the distant future. I wasn't even going to try to apply, but after more thought and prayer I learned that I needed to apply for a master's program. This was a scary idea and would be a lot of extra work with having a baby at the beginning of the program, but I knew we could manage since we were trying to do what we knew to be right. Throughout fall semester and January, I took the GRE (sort of like and ACT only for grad school), got letters of recommendation, wrote an essay, etc. I only applied to BYU-Provo's program because Derrick still goes to school here and there was no way I was going to try to commute to SLC with a baby.

After I finished applying I had to wait over a month to hear anything back. This year was a lot more competitive than other years because BYU was only letting in 10 new students when the usual amount is 20. I felt relatively confident because test scores and my GPA were above the average that have been accepted in the past. At the end of February, I found out that I made the top 20 out of 50 applicants and that I was invited to be interviewed by a group of professors. This interview happened on February 28th and was a bit intimidating. I got to sit in a chair in front of 6 professors who each took turns firing questions at me. They told me I was doing well and seemed to like me so that was a good sign.

Two weeks later (March 8th) I got my letter from BYU. It turned out that I did not get accepted to the program. I was shocked and upset to say the least. I felt very qualified and it didn't make sense that I wasn't accepted (sorry if this sounds cocky or something...it's honest). I had Derrick give me a Priesthood blessing to help me calm down and I felt a little better. It wasn't until after letting the words from the blessing sink in, getting over the shock, and praying a lot that I was able to feel good about the situation (luckily this all happened by Sunday morning). I received a strong witness that not getting accepted was for my good and that Heavenly Father is in control. The applying process has been a big growing experience and not getting in gives me the chance to take a break from full-time schooling to focus on my growing family. Surprisingly, I can say I'm now grateful for the experience.

So what now? While I was wondering what I should do next with my life, I felt very strong
that I should start learning ASL again. I've taken 5 ASL classes from BYU and loved it. I only stopped because BYU's program isn't very good (they don't even offer it as a minor). Right now I'm looking into taking some ASL classes from UVSC and becoming proficient enough to become certified as an interpreter. Their program is really good and offers probably about 6 times more classes in ASL than BYU. Some perks of pursuing a license in interpreting are: I will only be taking a few classes at a time so my schedule will be much more flexible than it would have been in grad school, I don't have to do a master's thesis, I love doing and learning sign language, this would be a very flexible profession, the pay is relatively good, there is a high demand for interpreters and...I feel really good about it.

This is all still up in the air but I'm pretty excited about it. I guess I'll just have to see where this change of plans takes me now. I'm very grateful that Derrick has been amazingly supportive and loving throughout all of this (he made a good shoulder to cry on). I have a strong testimony that while it's hard when plans we make don't work out, things will work out for the best when we truly seek to find out and follow what the Lord would have us do. He knows us and our futures and can bring about amazing things in our lives. He loves each of us, is aware of all the details, and while small and maybe large things may seem to be going wrong, the Lord is really laying down the foundation for a great future.