Reflecting on a Milestone

March 22, 2017: We made it! Six and a half years later we are at the END of the PhD journey, dissertation successfully defended, final edits turned in and signed off on, Jeff officially doctored.

Jeff with his friend Lance the night he successfully defended his dissertation.  Thanks to Lance & family for hosting Jeff and celebrating his accomplishment!!

Many times over these last years (the entire time we've been married, and while we were dating) it seemed like this day would never come.  There have been many roadblocks and delays (it has taken 3 months since his defense date just to get the signature page from his advisors, a requirement for graduation), but God has been so faithful and good to get us to this point, and to provide Jeff with a job that he enjoys and that's in his field.  He's been good to keep our marriage together and bring us 2 beautiful children while we've been on this journey.  He was good to us while we were apart for 8 days for Jeff to go to the US for his defense, and I'm so looking forward to his goodness on the other side of the PhD journey.

A picture timeline I made, showing all the major events along the PhD journey

It is also his gift of community that has gotten us here.  So many friends in Wheaton, and so many family members who helped babysit Lydia while I was working so he could write.  Our parents helping out with babysitting, as well as my mom driving up to watch Lydia and give him some dedicated writing time. We are thankful for all of your support!

Although we wish we could've celebrated with our stateside family and friends who really saw us through this journey, we were grateful to celebrate with our new community here.  Here is a peek at the celebration we had:

Friends and colleagues came to celebrate.  We had chocolate peanut butter themed desserts (Jeff's favorite) and other snacks.

Working on the "How well do you know Jeff" trivia game.

The new Dr. Spanogle pontificating (a word he would use) and the drink bar.

Jeff was encouraged that his advisors liked his dissertation enough to advise him to publish it.  However, that will be a project that will wait until next year, after his first year of full-time college level teaching is under his belt.

For now, we plan to celebrate this big accomplishment, and revel in the feeling of relief that it is done!