Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't even begin to explain the growth, excitement, and relief that our family is experiencing today.

Jared has been working on the pre-requisites for dental school & studying for the DAT since 2005. He works full-time and of course, has his family on top of this. He has basically studied on his days off and 5 nights a week consistently until 1 or 2 every morning. He applied to dental school last year but did not get in. He has taken the DAT two times and did poorly both times, despite the countless hours of studying. I watched him do well on his practice tests when he took them untimed, but timed - his score would drop 5 points because he just didn't do well with the pressure of a timed test. This year, his application was so strong - but this test score was the one thing (BIG THING) he was lacking. He took it in June and was ready to quit his goal for dental school because he felt he had nothing left to give. But after a few days to clear his thoughts, he decided to try one last time to improve his DAT score for this application cycle (entering class Fall 2009). You have to wait 3 months inbetween test dates - so it was set for September 22nd. Because of the 2 hurricane evacuations, he missed out on 6 of his 8 planned tutoring sessions and then his test date was moved back until the office received power again. Yesterday, so many people fasted for him and I know my kids have prayed for him every day for a long time. Yesterday, Jared put the books away and tried to rest and rely on the Lord instead of relying on his own power. He knew the information, but needed help expressing it on the test without getting overwhelmed by the pressure.

All that to try to explain just how hard he has worked on this test. Going into the test, we both felt at ease, feeling really prepared for a score that was lower than he hoped. We were comfortable with the idea that dentistry may not be the right path for our family & that would be ok. Of course, we hoped that Jared would feel success after all of his work, but knew that if that did not happen - the Lord had a different plan for our family. So he got home at 4:30 and he had brought his academic average score from a 15 to a 19 in just 3 months, scoring a 20 on the perceptual & in the 95th percentile in one of the sections, not far behind that in many of the other sections. It was a real spiritual experience for our family as we felt the hand of the Lord in the final hour of his efforts. I know these scores don't mean anything to you, but to him - it means that he will most likely get into dental school for the Fall 2009 entering class!

We will keep you posted but for now... we get to enjoy having a normal life with Jared home more. Thank you all for everything!! Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!