My Christmas celebration this year began by working over 5 hours on my last day at UPS. On a normal day I pull 110-130 packages for Grand Rapids and International Falls. Christmas Eve is not a normal day in the shipping industry and I ended up with over 400 packages. I could have stuck around for at least one more plane, but decided to make my exit about 10 so I could get to Iowa in time to shower and be ready for the 4 pm Christmas Eve service.
The family celebration at Christmas time has always lasted at least a week with my brother, Andrew, being here from Texas from at least Christmas to New Year's. Mom's side of the family arrives on the 26th and stays a couple of days and around New Year's Dad's side gets together. This year was no different except we have the addition of Andrew's new wife, Vicky, and her mother who is here from Mexico. It's been a joy to have them as part of our family and blend some of their traditions with our own. Homemade tamales were on the menu for Christmas Eve because it isn't Christmas in Mexico without tamales. The Christmas ribbon salad has the added meaning of having the same colors as the Mexican flag. The Mexican tradition of having a turkey dinner on New Year's Eve (at midnight) has been moved a day earlier and at a more reasonable time for the Hibma family.
We have done other things besides eat. The weather has been warm enough (for Iowa) that we've been out for a walk most days. Vicky and our Louisiana family made a snowman in the backyard. The next day was so warm that the head fell off. (Or did Calvin and Hobbes pass by?) We also visited the local "natural science museum" down the street in a neighbor's living room. He has hunted big game since the late 1980s and fascinated us for over 90 minutes with his knowledge and stories about his numerous trophies. We've also played lots of games together since that is something you can do without being able to speak the same language. We all learned a new word, schadenfreude, since cousin Jake was rather gleeful every time someone else failed to get a big score in farkel. Another family tradition is working on a puzzle. We've finished the new one for the year and begun another which should take us through the parades and bowl games on New Year's Day. Then I can begin sorting my things for my trip up north where the next adventure will begin.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
Most important lessons
Over the last few weeks I've been rather nostalgic when I think of leaving the Twin Cities. There's enough farm girl in me that I won't miss the city but I will miss the friends I have made and I will especially miss my church. Over three years ago I wrote about why I chose to be a part of Twin Cities Church. Since then I've come to appreciate this group of believers on a deeper level. My main regret in moving away is not being able to continue to be a part of this family and what God is doing among and through them. I'm especially thankful for the people who have been a part of my house church. We've eaten a meal together each week and shared our lives together. That includes the good and the bad, the struggles and the victories. We have prayed for each other through the mundane of school, jobs, and housing issues as well as through painful losses and long periods of waiting. This is a very generous group of people. Calls to meet practical needs are always abundantly met. For me personally, when I needed a place to stay for a month I had three offers before the end of the day. They have walked with me through the transition back to the US and gone from being new friends to family. They grieved with me when my brother died and rejoiced when I finally finished my studies.
During my time with this house church we spent a year in Ephesians, the next in Colossians before spending most of the past year in Ephesians once again. That seemed like lots of repetition at times but I needed it as I've been a rather slow learner. I grew up hearing gospel themes so maybe it takes longer for them to really sink in. I've come to appreciate that it is not enough to simply articulate the gospel. It also needs to be internalized and lived. My house church leaders often repeated two key gospel ideas. One is that we shouldn't hide or hold on to our sin because sin is no longer who we are; it doesn't define us. Because of this we should expose it to the light of the gospel. The other is that because Jesus lives in me I can __(fill in the blank)_. I may think that there is no way I can forgive or be filled with gratitude in all circumstances instead of coveting. But Jesus can and he lives in me, which means that I can. I've spent a lot of my life trying do what God requires while hiding my failures. It's been healing for me to be in a community where the grace and redemption of the gospel are central so sin is both taken seriously and addressed with grace and redemption. Though being a student was my primary occupation during my entire time in the Twin Cities, the most important lessons I learned weren't in the classroom. Rather they were learned from the Spirit in the midst of a family of believers while studying the word.
During my time with this house church we spent a year in Ephesians, the next in Colossians before spending most of the past year in Ephesians once again. That seemed like lots of repetition at times but I needed it as I've been a rather slow learner. I grew up hearing gospel themes so maybe it takes longer for them to really sink in. I've come to appreciate that it is not enough to simply articulate the gospel. It also needs to be internalized and lived. My house church leaders often repeated two key gospel ideas. One is that we shouldn't hide or hold on to our sin because sin is no longer who we are; it doesn't define us. Because of this we should expose it to the light of the gospel. The other is that because Jesus lives in me I can __(fill in the blank)_. I may think that there is no way I can forgive or be filled with gratitude in all circumstances instead of coveting. But Jesus can and he lives in me, which means that I can. I've spent a lot of my life trying do what God requires while hiding my failures. It's been healing for me to be in a community where the grace and redemption of the gospel are central so sin is both taken seriously and addressed with grace and redemption. Though being a student was my primary occupation during my entire time in the Twin Cities, the most important lessons I learned weren't in the classroom. Rather they were learned from the Spirit in the midst of a family of believers while studying the word.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Graduation! and next steps
After 66 credit hours over 4 semesters and more hours spent staring at a computer screen than I care to count, I've reached the end of the classroom portion of the occupational therapy program. Even though we won't get our diploma until sometime in July, we went through a graduation ceremony. My memories of the day include being the 2nd to last of my class to arrive. At least by then they had figured out how to attach our "ink" colored hoods to our gowns. The one-size-fits-all mortar boards fit none of us. Ben felt like it was so small it would pop off his head while most of the rest of us thought it was too big. The speaker agreed with us that they were rather silly and eventually removed his. I barely recognized some of the professors in their academic garb. The most joyous part of the afternoon was as we went to line up and high-fived each other all down the line as we whooped it up. I will also remember the sense of pride most of our family members expressed as they knew better than anyone else how much work had gone into reaching this point. I say "most" because when I asked one of my classmates 7 year old son if he was impressed with his mom he responded, "No," with a look that said, "Why should I be? She's just Mom." Later that evening I was honored to celebrate at a nice restaurant with people from the significant parts of my life: my parents, friends from my time in France and a family from here. I've been blessed in so many ways.
So what's next? Though I'm done with the classroom part of my program, I still have 6 months of level II field work which entails working under the supervision of an OT who will help me transfer the learning from the books to real life practice. I will be at the hospital in Fergus Falls from January - March and the VA in St. Cloud working in the area of mental health from April-June. In August I'll be able to take the national licensing exam so I can begin working. (It is possible to get a temporary license before that if I have a job offer.) I hope to be able to get a job in Sioux Falls so I can be closer to family. All of that means leaving the Twin Cities. Saturday morning we loaded a trailer with my things. Mom shook her head wondering where this would all fit in her house while Dad calmly said there was plenty of room. As soon as they pulled away and I had cleaned up the dust bunnies, I had a two hour nap. I'll be staying here until the 24th to finish up peak at my UPS job, wrap up things here, and get a chance to spend some time with friends.
So what's next? Though I'm done with the classroom part of my program, I still have 6 months of level II field work which entails working under the supervision of an OT who will help me transfer the learning from the books to real life practice. I will be at the hospital in Fergus Falls from January - March and the VA in St. Cloud working in the area of mental health from April-June. In August I'll be able to take the national licensing exam so I can begin working. (It is possible to get a temporary license before that if I have a job offer.) I hope to be able to get a job in Sioux Falls so I can be closer to family. All of that means leaving the Twin Cities. Saturday morning we loaded a trailer with my things. Mom shook her head wondering where this would all fit in her house while Dad calmly said there was plenty of room. As soon as they pulled away and I had cleaned up the dust bunnies, I had a two hour nap. I'll be staying here until the 24th to finish up peak at my UPS job, wrap up things here, and get a chance to spend some time with friends.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Poster Defense
Friday afternoon most of my class gathered in the atrium of Hasselmo Hall for our poster defense as a culmination of three semester's work on our scholarly projects. One of the adjunct professors told us that back in her day these were individual affairs with an hour long defense. I'm thankful that has changed and it is now a group project with a 30 minute defense. Despite that benefit, there was still some nervous tension in the room as we set up our posters and checked note cards again. I looked around the room and saw the best dressed bunch of OT students I'd seen in four semesters. Two of the men even wore a tie.
My group was scheduled to be the last to defend which actually turned out to be a benefit. We had numerous opportunities to explain our project to potential OT students, 1st year students in the program, and a couple of doctoral students who have helped with our classes. The best one was the woman who introduced herself as Emily's mom. She was paying no attention to Emily as her group presented to their committee which I later found out was the only way Emily would allow her to come. Another classmate said she didn't even tell her mom it was happening because she didn't want her to come. The event also allowed me to meet three of my classmate's husbands.
My group's project consisted of doing a program evaluation of an adult day service program using a quality of life framework developed by our professor. The basic idea is that the activities offered by the program over the course of a week should promote specific aspects of quality of life such as autonomy, individuality, functional competence, enjoyment, social interaction, meaningful participation, dignity, and spirituality. We expected to see each of these indicators promoted by at least a few of the activities and we did. The strongest aspects of the program were the areas of enjoyment, dignity and social interaction. From our observations the weakest were spirituality, functional competence and autonomy. We also realized that some that was due to weaknesses in the form we used for the observations.
After the event, 9 of us went out to eat where more stories came out. One group had received their data from the statistician on Tuesday so had to put everything together after that. Another group realized on Wednesday that their poster was based on a false premise and they had to rework their data and come up with a completely new poster by Thursday morning so it could go to the printer on time. I was thankful for a simple project where the stats that only required addition and division.
My group was scheduled to be the last to defend which actually turned out to be a benefit. We had numerous opportunities to explain our project to potential OT students, 1st year students in the program, and a couple of doctoral students who have helped with our classes. The best one was the woman who introduced herself as Emily's mom. She was paying no attention to Emily as her group presented to their committee which I later found out was the only way Emily would allow her to come. Another classmate said she didn't even tell her mom it was happening because she didn't want her to come. The event also allowed me to meet three of my classmate's husbands.
My group's project consisted of doing a program evaluation of an adult day service program using a quality of life framework developed by our professor. The basic idea is that the activities offered by the program over the course of a week should promote specific aspects of quality of life such as autonomy, individuality, functional competence, enjoyment, social interaction, meaningful participation, dignity, and spirituality. We expected to see each of these indicators promoted by at least a few of the activities and we did. The strongest aspects of the program were the areas of enjoyment, dignity and social interaction. From our observations the weakest were spirituality, functional competence and autonomy. We also realized that some that was due to weaknesses in the form we used for the observations.
After the event, 9 of us went out to eat where more stories came out. One group had received their data from the statistician on Tuesday so had to put everything together after that. Another group realized on Wednesday that their poster was based on a false premise and they had to rework their data and come up with a completely new poster by Thursday morning so it could go to the printer on time. I was thankful for a simple project where the stats that only required addition and division.
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