With a sigh of relief...

Friday was in so many ways Good Friday to me! Not only was it the day to remember the amazing sacrifice of my Lord Jesus Christ, it marked the end of a long journey for me.

I spent Friday morning defending my doctoral dissertation. I am proud to say that everything went well (much better than I anticipated) and I am now officially Dr. Prairie Burgess!!!!!!!!!

This accomplishment comes after...

*Two years of course-work (which I LOVED)

*5 address moves (one being a move to a new state)

*Giving birth to The Wee One

*Dealing with a mild post-partum depression

*Editing & proofing The Husband's dissertation and supporting him through his completion

*Struggling with serious focus issues

*Teaching part-time

*Mothering/Wifing (yes, it's now a word) full-time

*Traveling with The Husband and The Wee One (probably much more than we should have since I had this dissertation to get done)

*A series of loans

*And a multitude of little activities and issues that arise in daily life.

All of that and 183+ pages later, I have completed my formal education and can proudly call myself Dr. Burgess - not that I expect anyone else to call me that (after the first month of course...hahahaha).

One of the things that I was looking most forward to during this process was writing my acknowledgement's page because this path would not have been possible without the love and support of several individuals. I want to share it...


"The journey to complete this dissertation has been filled with challenges, but through the support of certain individuals, I have been able to reach this point of completion. I feel truly blessed to have a Lord who knows me well enough to provide the necessary people in my life to carry me over the rough roads and reach the other side. It is very honestly through His grace and mercy that I am able to accomplish anything.

My dear husband was the ultimate inspiration and support for me to pursue this degree. His love is unconditional, even when I am emotional and nervous about the expectations and unknown of life, including this dissertation. During this process, he has served as a sounding board, a proof-reader, a cook, a cleaner, a baby-sitter, a friend, and a rock of support. I could not have done this without him.

I am fortunate to have a wonderful circle of friends who are genuine, loyal and lucky for me, very intelligent. They have offered advice, helped me work through my thoughts, and given me love and encouragement in all areas of my life, thereby making this that much more attainable. These ladies are my Circle Up family.

Knowing I have the encouragement of my family is something I treasure. My mother has always been a cheerleader for my life, but she also taught me the benefits of determination and hard work. Watching her dedication to education throughout my life has been an underlying current leading me to this point. I am forever grateful to hear and the rest of my family for their encouragement and support.

Finally, I want to offer my appreciation for the professionals I have been so fortunate to work with in my life. First of all, to my wonderful advisor Dr. Michael Miller and my dissertation committee, Dr. David Deggs and Dr. Daniel Pugh, thank you for your patience and encouragement. I would like to thank Dr. Flavius Killebrew and Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart who first introduced me to the concept of civic engagement. Lastly, I would like to extend a special thank you to Mary Anne Minto, my grade-school grammar and writing teacher. Her countless hours spent working with me on run-on sentences and grammatical formats have finally paid off."

There are several individuals who have helped me along the way through practical and emotional support that I could thank...I'm sorry I missed any of you in the recognition page - it was written at 7 in the morning after an all-nighter so I don't know that my mind was 100% percent. Actually I know it wasn't. : )

The picture was actually taken 2 years ago when the school let me walk early. At that time I really thought I would be done within the year...HA! It was nice though since The Husband and I could walk together and only ask the families to sit through that once.

Priviledge...who has the rights?

These days we see so many people disgruntled about immigrants coming to America and “flooding our nation.” I can understand a certain level of frustration with illegal immigrants, but those of us who were born here often forget that there is a fairly significant cost and a series of hoops to jump through to gain citizenship. Ultimately, my point is that many of seem to think that we (Americans) are better or more patriotic than an immigrant, but we forget that it is solely by the grace of God that we were born here.


I was recently watching M*A*S*H (a long-standing favorite of mine), and a particular episode as inspired this post. In this episode (Tell It To The Marines), a medaled soldier is attempting to get an early discharge (1 week early) to see his mother before she is deported to Holland. He is originally Dutch and after his mother married an American, they moved to the States. He joined the military to “serve my new country” and while at war, his mother got a divorce. Since she was no longer married to an American, she was being sent home. The doctors on the show go to great lengths to help the boy, ultimately enlisting the power of public opinion and freedom of speech. While it is a great story, what really got me thinking was the concept that this young man who CHOSE to live in America and CHOSE to serve our country because it was his new home. How many of us avoid even the smallest acts of civic responsibility, hoping or trusting that someone else will pick up the slack? How many of our wonderful service men and women are first generation Americans, possibly second generation who are willing to possibly make the ultimate sacrifice because they are so proud and grateful to be Americans?


Why is it that we can be so narrow-minded regarding immigrants? While I would hope that those who come to this country would take the time to learn the language and become citizens, I admire their willingness to better their lives by coming to a place where they find new opportunities (oh, and by the way, for those of you who complain about immigrants “stealing” jobs, do some research…most of the jobs these illegal immigrants take are open because the average American won’t do them).


It saddens me that so many "proud Americans" can be so harsh and unaccepting of people who want to make a better life for themselves and their families. I am extremely grateful that I was blessed to be born here. I've never had to make a decision about how to ensure my families safety. I've always been able to find some kind of work. I can't blame people for wanting to come to America, even if it is not officially legal. Maybe it's time for our government to stop looking at all the negatives and start developing strategies to provide legal and obtainable paths to citizenship.

Long time, no blog...

So for any faithful readers, you may have been at a loss due to the lack of recent posts to my blog. (hahahaha, I doubt my inconsistent blogging is of any major concern to anyone, but I can always pretend, right?). Anyway, to justify my disapperance, I want to share with you a run-down of the past week's events...

*Monday morning pulled in around 12:30am after a 12 hour road trip home from a conference (that was GREAT!)...slept till 10 the next morning and tried to catch up on things

*Tuesday - did revisions on chapters 4 and 5 of dissertation and taught class

*Wednesday - meeting on campus, more revisions, typed "extra" pages (acknowledgements, table of contents, appendicies, etc.) for dissertation...stayed up ALL NIGHT (26 hours) to get it done

*Thursday - slept while The Wee One was at Mother's Day Out and then spent quality time with the fam. Spent lots of time comforting The Wee One as she started her injury streak - lauched herself backwards off the couch onto her head, dropped a window on her hand/wrist

*Friday - took care of The Wee One as she developed her 24-hour bug, visited with friends till late in the evening

*Saturday - worked on stuff for my classes, attended to The Wee One's scraped knees, attended the campus musical (way to go cast!)

*Sunday - church, made bread, made cookies, visited with friends and decorated cookies, bandaged bleeding knees (falling on scraped knees is never fun)

So, as you can see, it has been a very busy week, but overall a GREAT one!!!!! The dissertation is complete and has been submitted to my committee (prayers for the upcoming defense would be appreciated). The Wee One is healing well from her mishaps. Sleep has been caught up on. Everyone is feeling healthy - minus a few allergy issues.

Life is good and hopefully back on track to where I'll be back to posting on a more regular basis.