Graduation Day

Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!

Dear face, in a sea of black

Come and see what God has done:

he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.

 Walking up the aisle, at long, long last 

Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!

Michael J. DeCarlo, Bachelor of Science in Applied Statistics

  For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.
...yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.

Dear Dr. Sinha, Mike's adviser and mentor

There did we rejoice in him,
who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
let not the rebellious exalt themselves.

Proud, proud in-laws

Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for my soul.

Fiercely supportive and joyous parents

All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.

To see my love in his cap and gown, to know we're done...

Bless our God, O peoples;
let the sound of his praise be heard,
who has kept our soul among the living
and has not let our feet slip.

Heart full.

I will come into your house with burnt offerings;
I will perform my vows to you,
that which my lips uttered
and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.

We are so grateful!!!!!!!

If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
But truly God has listened;
he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me!

(excerpts of Psalm 66)

today.....

......is mike's last final!  starting in 61 minutes, actually!  i woke up thinking it was his birthday, because my sleepy brain couldn't differentiate between the happy occasions.  hurray for graduation!!!!

psalm 63

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
But those who seek to destroy my life
shall go down into the depths of the earth;
they shall be given over to the power of the sword;
they shall be a portion for jackals.
But the king shall rejoice in God;
all who swear by him shall exult,
for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

(Psalm 63 ESV)

Last Day

Today's my last day of regular classes!! I'm so excited to be finished with class attendances and get at those final final exams!! One of my professors even is giving us a take home final and he sent it out last night!! So I can get a head start today.

Firstly, though, I want to say if it wasn't for God carrying me through and providing for me I wouldn't be graduating. If it had been left entirely to me I would have given up a long while ago, but instead God gave me strength and perseverance to get to this point. I'm so grateful for His faithful provision for me. God gave me the ability to work and subsidize my expenses for many years working at Starbucks, He gave me parents who are extremely generous and allowed me to live with them well into my 20's also providing food, and He brought me to meet my wife, Kati, who has been faithfully working her butt off for years as an accountant allowing us to live well even while I haven't been working in order to finish my degree. Additionally, God has provided more than my simple material needs, but has provided emotional and spiritual support through friendships, encouragement and lots of pray from many many people.

I'm grateful to God and to each one of you who has prayed for me, been there with me cheer me onward, taught me not to give up and not to slack off - I'm so grateful for each of you, and yes I do mean "you" specifically!! Nine days until I walk! /grateful

-Mike

2 weeks, 2 days.....

......til he graduates!  we are thanking God, and counting down each class period.  :-p  i can't believe it's finally here - mike has been such an example of perseverance, diligence, and wisdom in pursuing his degree, especially in the last year as he's added a wedding and a wife to his plate.  he's my hero, and i'm so, so proud of him......i can't wait to cheer for him as his name is called!!!!!!!

and yesterday we hit the 6 month mark of our marriage - i can't believe how much better i know mike now than i did when we got married.  i knew i would love him more as our marriage progressed, but hadn't realized how (relatively) little i knew him.  i love you, baby, and i look forward to learning more and more about you as the years pass - thank you so much for marrying me!!!

fake or real??

that's the question for a new household, as we intently discuss the christmas traditions that we can even now form......mike and i shared with each other the sweet traditions we each had growing up, and tucked away ideas for the munchkins we'll (hopefully) one day have. 

but from this discussion, an important question emerged.....do we get a fake christmas tree - so much easier and economical - or do we go for a real one?  my family for years would drive to a tree farm (stopping at a 7-11 along the way for the necessary hot chocolate), to cut down our own tree.....so my desire for a real tree was strong. 

but.........practicality is stronger when you're the "adults" in the family.  the discussion went back and forth (with the idea of a pine-scented febreeze plug-in being added as an accessory to the fake-tree idea) until last week when i saw trees at costco.  i ran over to sniff them and beckoned to mike to take a whiff - apparently, making such a commotion that a friendly costco employee came over to offer to help us.  he seemed to feel even more strongly than i did that we should get a real tree!

so my sweet husband said that we could get a wee little "real" tree this year - we're not officially a "real" tree family yet, but i can't wait to have our apartment smelling christmas'y!!!  here it is:

just kidding!  ;-)  i'll post a real picture once we get our tree - i'm hoping to get the fattest little guy they have!!!!  i love fat trees.