Doctoral Residency, Part 1

 Hey, friends and fam!  Just finished a lovely campus walk, and I'm writing from Lakewood, Colorado tonight!  

This = yesterday morning after our first session, me with Dr. Ryan Burkhart and Dr. Selin Philip, my two favorite professors at CCU -- I could and would so happily listen to them talk all day!

I enjoyed the 10-hour drive on my own, just listening to music and audiobooks and chatting with Mom and Chet Lee!

Despite a poor night's sleep and the weather being a bit dreary and rainy this time, I'm especially grateful for the presence of God, the support and wisdom of the CCU faculty, and the growing sense of community and belonging!

Me and Alicia headed to grab some coffee (for her) before our last first day of school!!  Love her - she did her Masters at Dallas Theological Seminary, and she's super fun, and we've had some great talks here!

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My team won the Haiku challenge, a silly team-building project, but still fun to be in the winning group! =)

PhD pen - YAY! lol

The girls after our dinner at Farmhouse Thai Eatery last night... Alicia, Terri, Laura, me, Charisse, Heather, and Michelle!  Terri lives close to campus, but the rest of us are roommates! =)

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All our classes so far have been in the new chapel building, the Armstrong Center! ❤

The above pic and the below cutest-bunny-buttons pics are from my campus walk tonight.  The CCU bunnies are friendly and unafraid, and I love seeing them! =)

My annual selfie by the CCU lake and fountain! =)

The Rock Woodfired Pizza for dinner with most of the doctoral cohort earlier tonight - delicious food, and fun getting to know everyone better!!

Over 80 people applied, 18 were admitted, and 17 are in our current group!  This = Me, Laura, Heather, Billy, Jasmine, Alicia, Charisse, Kacie, Terri, and Elyse!

Dr. Philip teaching on Biblical Foundations was everything I could have hoped for - she has a commanding presence and speaks with gentle authority - she has so much wisdom, and you can just tell that she knows Jesus well!

Anyway, I'm headed to bed because I'm getting up for an early breakfast meeting tomorrow!  The first two days here have been great, and I expect nothing less from the next two!  I've had some good time to process and pray and think about the life and identity God is calling me into.  I'll try to write a more detailed recap on Monday!  

Best of luck to Chet Lee and Mark Anthony in the Tulsa Tough bike race tomorrow morning... and Happy belated 1st Birthday to Miss Holly Marie yesterday!

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