Done!

We have a LOT to celebrate right now!  Survival seems to be an apt word to describe the last week of my (Liam's) life, but it's really only because a number of big things all came to a climax at the same time.

On Friday, August 9, we celebrated our annual Open House to kick off the new school year (our first day of school is tomorrow).  But this year was a HUGE celebration at NCA because our Open House was held in our school's new Eagle Center, a multi-purpose "gymnatorium" (sports court with a stage along one side) that we have been dreaming of for over 10 years.  For most of this time we were trying to raise funds with little success.  But now in God's timing, we were amazed to see how quickly everything came together.  The construction crews were still working in the building on the morning of Open House and there are a few more details remaining next week, but most of the work is behind us.

My schedule over the past 6 months has included hours of communication, involvement and decision-making every week with sometimes entire days being spent on the project.  It was very well-received by our school families, and we had so many people contribute generously to help make it possible.  Clearly God, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, was at work in making this happen!

In the middle of this, I was also working very long hours getting our new school year ready, leading major sections of our new teacher orientation program, and doing many of my regular school administrator responsibilities that are part of my responsibilities each summer.

To top it all off (in terms of busyness and also celebration), last week I completed my last two courses for my Master's degree!  For the past few years I have been taking online courses through Dordt College and working toward a Master's of Education degree in School Leadership.  I don't know whether I or Jessica and the kids are more excited about finally being done with spending my evenings and weekends working on graduate studies.

So you can see how the words "survival" and "climax" both described the last week (and months) of my life.  I now feel as though a great burden has been lifted from my shoulders and I am excited to start our new year of school.  There will be more challenges -- this year is an accreditation review year for NCA -- but now that some of these other huge tasks are drawing to a close, I have a renewed sense of energy and feel ready.  And I am happy to spend more quality time with my family!