ITS OFFICIAL!

So we've finally accepted an offer. It came down to this last week. On Monday, the head of the French dept. at UCLA phoned and increased the offer trying to persuade us to go there. The next day, Wisconsin finally made their offer, but it wasn't anywhere near as good as UCLA's. Towards the end of the week, they also had the graduate director phone to persuade us, and he increased their offer as well, but it still wasn't a match for UCLA's. Both schools offered a full scholarship, assistantship, including benefits, and a living stipend. UCLA's stipend offer was fully double what Wisconsin offered, it seemed too good to pass up. So, after prayer and fasting and weighing the options, we came to the conclusion that the Lord wants us to go back to the only city on Earth worth living in.

On Friday Texas sent their acceptance with an email extolling the virtues and benefits of their program... little late boys. Texans... what're ya gonna do?

We're really excited but nervous also. We'll be heading out in August. We were really hoping to be closer to Grandma and Grandpa, but it's not meant to be right now. The good news is who doesn't want to come and visit us in beautiful, sunny Southern California? We'll be expecting lots of visitors!! (Provided we can afford a place to live and won't be inviting you all to the park bench :-) We love Shea's expression in this photo, it pretty much sums it all up!!!!!!