death of a master

Yesterday I received some hard news.  A dream of mine is dead.

It really was amazing that it was still a possibility in the first place. 

You see, back in the day (the term, in my mind, always refers to "life before children"), I was working on my Masters of Divinity in Leadership and Management.  It was/is a 60 hr masters and I completed 42 hrs.  Then along came Maddy.

If you know anything about the Maddy-That-Was, and my life back then, you will not be shocked to know that I put completing my Masters on the back burner.  Then Mia, Cade and Lucy all came along, life happened, and priorities necessarily changed.  But I never stopped thinking about completing my Masters.  I had always hoped to be able to pick it back up and get it done.

In the last few years I have been in contact with Briercrest, where I have done my studies, trying to figure out a plan to get these last few classes completed.  The classes I still needed were not offered online and until we moved back to Canada, going to intensive classes didn't work for me.  So now I've been looking into it again.  One of the people there has been very diligent in trying to help me get a plan together to finish.

Until now.  The plan is over.

The accrediting association has just changed their policy and all course work needs to be completed within ten years.  So what that means is that all that work is just a heap of nothing in their eyes.  I would have to start completely over.

The masters is dead.

I had hoped for many many years that we might one day go back to Briercrest and work again.   I had envisioned working there and having a kid or two attend, living in the dorms, but bring friends over in the evenings or weekends.  The Student Life/Services area (or even Recruitment) has always drawn me, and I love the potential to positively influence so many kids, just ripe to learn and grow.  My Masters would have opened up many doors for this to happen.

Of course, I could start all over.  The amount of work, time and thousands of dollars is a bit of a discouragement, however.

I suppose that God has other plans.  And I know that His plans are good and to give me a hope and a future.  Maybe He'll still bring this one about in some crazy way.  In the meantime I will still grieve.  But I will hope.