Ann and I both started our graduate studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley in 1999.  Ann had completed two master's degrees (a Master's of Divinity and an MA in Biblical Languages) by 2003.  Last weekend I finally finished my Master of Theological Studies degree.

The Graduate Theological Union is a very cool place, being a consortium of nine Christian member schools.  Students generally affiliate with one school, but can cross-register at any of the others.  Ann was a student at the Jesuit School, while I opted for the Franciscan School of Theology.

Most people complete the MTS degree in two years, although most people also don't try to do it while working full-time as a software engineer, getting married, and having a baby.  There are some advantages and disadvantages to doing it this way.  Being able to focus on one class at a time (rather than juggling reading and assignments for up to four) is helpful.  However, by the time I got to the end, I was very ready to be done.  I not only outlasted many fellow students, but saw a lot of instructors and school staff members come and go.

I have posted my thesis here, although I hope to clean up the formatting some more when I have a chance.

As you can see, "Madeleine Grace with the Beautiful Face" enjoys looking at herself in the mirror these days.  She also enjoys pointing at just about anything in sight, waving goodbye, and clapping. In honor of the latter skill, we took her to her first Oakland A's game which she thoroughly enjoyed. (She didnot seem to enjoy garlic fries-flavored breastmilk a few hours later.) She's beginning to recognize quite a few words and now can use sign language to ask for a nursing. She continues to crawl and get into everything, and now she pulls herself up. We didn't know she could climb stairs until we took her to a friend's two story house and she immediately scrambled up the entire flight of stairs unaided. We've decided she'll be great on the monkey bars and climbing trees.  

The new photos are here.