Stories of my crazy, crazy life

     So it has been awhile since I posted and for some very good reasons.  I won't list them because it would take forever, but suffice it to say, my life has been a madhouse this past semester.  Let me sum up.

1. My advisor (who I dig with) got a donor!  That means that I get to go to Syria for free!
2. Despite begging and pleading, BYU will not let me go to Syria.  Apparently unrest in the Middle East is a good reason for dashing my dreams of doing a Near East thesis.  Just because Syria happens to be the safest place there at the moment does not make me bitter...just sad that I can't be there.
3. So instead I am going to Jordan to dig up some tombs.  It has been a few years since I have been there.  Which is pretty obvious from this picture because my hair at the time was a bit shorter...a bit.
4. I should explain this next part.  I was aware that BYU might not let me go so I made a contingency plan to do a survey of Roman theaters that were similar to the theater I was intending on doing my thesis on.  So the big news came when my advisor suggested we use the donor money to do the survey of Roman theaters in a few countries including: Italy, Greece, and Turkey.  Yeah...pretty darn amazing.  But we had to make sure the donor, and BYU, was okeydokey with it.
5. And they were!  We don't have enough money to go to all those places but as of this week the plan is to: dig in Jordan for 3 weeks, stay in Amman for 2 weeks researching, fly to Italy to survey some theaters, and finally head to Great Britain.  I am going with my good friend Jessica who is doing part of her research in Italy and the other part in Wales, England, and Scotland.  So that is where we will hopefully make it.  I will go to Greece and Turkey anytime between Christmas and next summer.
6. Because of this amazing blessing my research is being accelerated so I get everything I need to this summer.  This is super stressful because I hadn't really done much because I had assumed I would not be able to go until next year.  While this all has been amazing it is making me do approximately 12 months work in 2 months...on top of the rest of my schoolwork which was definitely not apart of the plan.  So stressful but worth it.

With everything that has been going on I have kind of reached a new understanding of the scripture in Malachi 3:10.  I know it is about tithing but hear me out.

10. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

     After this week I had the end (the underlined section) of the scripture came to my mind.  I have had trials before, everyone has, and they have seemed unbearable but having blessings so phenomenal that you are completely overwhelmed is something new.  My program, in terms of funding, is a bit competitive.  There are a fair amount of us.  I am completely overwhelmed by school and other things that are going on in my life.  I felt that it was the right thing to go to grad school but I would have felt more comfortable waiting and getting more money so that I wasn't broke...all the time.  Instead I did what I felt was the right thing, and it has been so very hard.

     Then, one day, in the midst of my crazy, crazy life, my advisor informs me that a donor has donated a significant amount of money for graduate student travel to her specific dig.  When I wasn't allowed to go to the dig, this donor allowed me to do a survey of a bunch of theaters across Europe...with no personal expense for me.  This meant that I had to accelerate significantly the planning and research for my thesis, which is unbelievable stressful.  Then yesterday one of my professors says that she felt that she needed to help me.  We discussed things I might do, she gave me priceless advice, she is contacting her associates at Oxford to help me, and she wants to meet with me later to help me along with this process.

     I have never been so blessed.  I have also never been so overwhelmed by those blessings.  It has been so humbling to see the hand that Heavenly Father has in my life.  I know that this is important, but I never would have thought I would be so blessed in this process.  I could not have imagined it.  I am very shy and don't have these amazing friendships with my professors and yet countless times during this process a random person has made what I am doing possible.  It has been a truly remarkable experience.

I hope that I have the opportunity in my life to do for someone else what so many have done for me.  I am so very grateful.