Done!

About 2 hours ago, I completed my final assignment as a DTS student (a forum post for an online course). I have completed all the requirements for a Masters of Theology (ThM) degree, just waiting for the final grade :-)

This was a *long* road (6 and a half years!). Along the way I read and studied all 66 books of the Bible (5 - Ruth, Jonah, Romans, Ephesians and Phillipians - in the original language), read another 17,000+ pages, attended 1500+ hours of lectures, wrote 476 pages of various papers (longest came in at 32 pages) and gave 10 sermons. All while getting engaged, working full-time, getting married, having a son and buying a house.

God has shown me His grace and provision. He has broken me down and built me back up in Christ.

I look back and can't believe I'm finally done and wonder how I made it. But somehow here I am, glory to God!

Props

So as some of you know, this has been a busy past few months in the Owens household. On January 1, we welcomed Steven "Asa" Owens into the world. While the first few weeks were very rough with him waking up about every 45 minutes to an hour, things got a lot better and now he sleeps from about 8 pm to 6:15 am. As soon as he started getting a little more sleep, Lora and I embarked on buying a house.

We have been talking about buying a house for a couple of years, with one house or another catching our eye every once and awhile. We were referred to a realtor named Randall Simpson, who each time advised us not to buy a house as the time was not right for us. When we finally started looking we called up Randall only to find out he is no longer in Real Estate (he started a business as a CPA). I felt bad since Randall had given us so much good advice in the past I want to work with him when it was time for us to buy. He did refer us to Harold Smith, an excellent mortgage broker who helped us figure out what we could really afford (and he gave us a realistic picture not some 'stretched to the max' scenario). Harold in turn referred us to Sharon Hargett, who turned out to be the perfect realtor.

Lora an I had looked a a few neighborhoods in East Dallas (like Lake Highlands, Little Forrest Hills) and a few neighborhoods in north Oak Cliff. We really wanted to be close to downtown and if possible in a historically protected neighborhood. Last summer, on a whim, we went to open house in Junius Heights where the realtor told us she had another home open. That house, 5600 Victor, is the one we ended up buying about 6 months later. The closing process was very arduous and there was more than one time when I didn't think we would actually close. But we moved in April 10th and we love the house.

Along the way we had a great house inspector (Tom Deschane with Premium Home Inspections) who gave me a lot of confidence that I knew what I was getting into (important when the house you are buying is almost 80 years old). Also I recently dealt with a great electrician named Nathan Magill.

I mention all these names in order to give credit where credit is due. We were blessed to work with so many great people.