{"id":671,"date":"2008-07-14T20:08:11","date_gmt":"2008-07-15T02:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/2008\/07\/14\/7-13\/"},"modified":"2008-07-14T20:08:11","modified_gmt":"2008-07-15T02:08:11","slug":"7-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/14\/7-13\/","title":{"rendered":"7-13"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One year ago yesterday we moved to the States.&nbsp; In some ways I feel like we&#8217;ve come a long way since then, and in other ways I wonder how I wasted so much time.<\/p>\n<p>On the positive side:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We landed with a few suitcases and now have wheels, a place to live, and a church we&#8217;re getting to know.\n<li>The boys were reading (English) slowly and mostly because they were pushed; this weekend they both won prizes in the church reading contest (they really did well).\n<li>We have enjoyed having many family members and friends spend time with us.\n<li>Kelli has been a part of several great women&#8217;s Bible studies.\n<li>More publishers have shown an interest in licensing my photos.\n<li>The boys are nearly swimmers.\n<li>Mark has had the opportunity to show everyone that he&nbsp; is really good at soccer.\n<li>Luke may have a remarkable medical opportunity that would not have been possible elsewhere.\n<li>I had only two masters degrees and now I have three.\n<li>Our family has spent much more time together than in previous years.\n<li>I have really benefited from opportunities to study more carefully Matthew, Genesis and 1 Samuel.\n<li>The kids are now going to Vacation Bible School.&nbsp; In all the years, they&#8217;ve never had the chance for any such thing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the negative side:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kelli could walk, but now cannot (though she started putting a little weight on the ankle <em>today<\/em>).\n<li>I have completed a mere 6 (of 32) units for the PhD program.\n<li>Parts of the Bible that I thought I knew before I feel are more difficult for me to understand now.\n<li>I have made very little progress on completing some photographic projects.\n<li>We have learned that there is a downside to renting.\n<li>I don&#8217;t think I have developed one relationship to the extent that I would usually develop 20+ each semester.\n<li>Many things cost less here, but the things that cost more make up for everything else (like electricity).\n<li>Some existing friendships have not developed like I had hoped.&nbsp; I think part of this is simply owing to the great distances between places in the metroplex.\n<li>Most of the piles that I didn&#8217;t have time to organize before we moved are still&#8230;piles.\n<li>I don&#8217;t think anyone would call me a better husband, father, son, or servant.\n<li>I have nothing to blog about, but I blog anyway.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Check-ups like this are good times to remember that our confidence is in God and not in ourselves.&nbsp; He is faithful and he will accomplish all that he has promised.<\/p>\n<p>Update (7\/15): One more thing to add to the &#8220;positive&#8221; list above: I just learned that I passed the French test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One year ago yesterday we moved to the States.&nbsp; In some ways I feel like we&#8217;ve come a long way since then, and in other ways I wonder how I wasted so much time. On the positive side: We landed with a few suitcases and now have wheels, a place to live, and a church\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/14\/7-13\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}