Well, we have an announcement to make (no, Maggie is not pregnant haha)… After much prayer, waiting, and consideration, we have made a decision about our next step after our time in Ukraine. We plan to move to Austin, Texas for Trey to pursue a Master's Degree in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin!!! We are, of course, still very much enjoying our time here in L'viv and are trying to be fully present here with our friends and in our ministries. But, we are also looking forward to the next step in our lives, and wanted to share about it with you! You may remember from our initial support letter and our website that we planned to spend a year serving overseas between working at our jobs in Northern Virginia and Trey's anticipated start of graduate school in Fall 2015. During our time in Ukraine, he planned to decide which programs and universities he was interested in, to apply, and to decide where to go depending on his acceptance. (He took the GRE while we were still in Northern Virginia so he'd be ready to apply.) The whole time here, we've prayed about this and asked the Lord to lead and guide our steps if our plan wasn't aligned with His desires for us. Although we planned for Trey to pursue further schooling, we asked God to show us if He wanted us to stay in Ukraine after this summer, to return to Northern Virginia to work, or to do something totally different. We pursued our plans while remaining open to the Lord's leading, should He direct us elsewhere. In this post, we want to share with you the process and the story of how God has been directing us and opening doors over the past several months. First, we wanted to share some relevant background information. Trey LOVES the University of Texas. [As a sidenote, we're pretty sure this helped Trey get on Maggie's dad's (a UT alum and avid fan) good side when he started dating her.] He has been crazy about this school and the city it's in for as long as he can remember. In addition to being located in a unique city and having strong academics, they are an outstanding athletic school. He has always been a fan of their football team, and as a swimmer, he was always impressed by their swimming program - one of the top in the country. (To give you an idea, their men's swimming team has been either national champion or runner-up out of nearly 150 Division 1 schools in 10 of the past 15 years!) In fact, when Trey was a senior, he was beyond excited when UT's swim coach recruited him to join the team. The opportunity to swim at one of the top schools in the country that he had loved since childhood was a dream come true for Trey. However, UT wasn't able to offer Trey as much athletic scholarship money as Virginia Tech did, so he had to make a tough decision: attend VT and finish with an average amount of student debt or attend his dream school and rack up twice as much debt. He chose Virginia Tech - a wise and responsible decision, but also a painful one to make. Fast forward a few years past our college years, dating years, and our wedding... After paying off student loans from college, Trey's interest in graduate school remained, so he began to consider programs in a few different scientific and engineering specialties. He decided that he would probably like to pursue either a PhD in the sciences (probably in Chemistry) or a master's degree in Chemical Engineering (although he was open to several other areas of study as well); as he began to find the engineering-related areas of his work more enjoyable to him, he became more interested in pursuing the engineering route. The possibility of attending UT always stayed in the back of his mind, so about a year ago, before we had made plans to come to Ukraine, Trey looked into the possibility of getting master's degree in UT's Chemical Engineering program. To his dismay, he learned they only wanted PhD students, and admission to the program for a student without a very strong chemical engineering background would be nearly impossible due to the rigorous Chemical Engineering exams administered to students for entry. His degree in Biochemistry and his plans to pursue a master's degree were not a good fit for the program, so again, he gave up on the possibility of attending UT. For the first couple months in Ukraine, we were absorbed in adjusting to the culture, lifestyle, and getting to know people here. Of course, this is to be expected when relocating to a new country and culture. We both continued to pray about graduate school plans for Trey, but as he continued to look for chemical engineering programs, nothing emerged as something he was sincerely excited about and interested in. He didn't know exactly what he hoped to do, but wanted to learn a practical skill that could result in a job in the US or overseas in underdeveloped countries and could be used to help people. We knew application deadlines were approaching, but Trey still didn't feel sure of what kind of program to pursue, much less where to do so. He was even considering completely changing direction and was considering professions in the medical field as well. Amidst this consternation about Trey's future, one day in November, we had a Skype call with Maggie's cousin (a UT alum) and his wife, who were living in Austin at the time and were preparing to move to Thailand for full-time missions work. As part of this conversation, they told us about their church in Austin that has small groups specifically geared towards people interested in international missions. In addition to functioning like normal small groups, these communities provide formal missions training and encourage members to consider how they can live as missionaries in their normal lives. We were very excited to hear about something like this, because we have a heart for missions, but don't know if God will lead us to do international missions work in our future. We felt that by being part of a small group like this, we could receive some formal missions training while pursuing the next phase of our life, staying open to God's leading. Needless to say, this part of the conversation was very exciting to us and got us thinking. Shortly after this phone call, we were both sitting on the couch, thinking about the future and looking at our phones. We talked for a few minutes about how we'd really like to be a part of something like those small groups in our next phase of life. Thinking about how much we'd both love living in Austin, Maggie asked Trey if there was anything other than chemical engineering he would be interested in studying at UT. Trey was quiet, but we were both obviously thinking. At that moment, Maggie thought of Environmental Engineering as a field that might appeal to Trey because it combines engineering and science, the water treatment field is geared around helping people, and there is a need for it in undeveloped countries, as well as the US. She went to UT's Environmental and Water Resources Engineering (EWRE) website on her phone to check it out. But before she had a chance to say anything, Trey answered her question, "What about something like this?". He showed her the website he was on; it was the same exact webpage: EWRE at UT! The more we talked about it, the more sense it made. In particular, the water/wastewater treatment specialty appealed to Trey. In addition to the aforementioned benefits of environmental engineering, water treatment is likely to draw on Trey's pharmaceutical industry experience in purification. Trey decided to contact the department to introduce himself, share a bit about his background and experience, and ask a couple of questions. His biggest concern was his lack of engineering degree, as many top engineering programs require students to take several undergraduate engineering classes before being admitted. We were shocked by the incredibly positive response given by the graduate advisor. He told us the program usually doesn't accept people missing as much engineering coursework as Trey, but that Trey's performance in school and athletics, as well as his work experience and even his service in Ukraine seemed to indicate that he would be a good fit for the department, and thus, might be an exception to the rule. He did indicate that if accepted, Trey would have to make up the undergraduate engineering coursework he lacked, but strongly encouraged him to apply. So, with just under four weeks before the application deadline, Trey decided to apply. Just five days after this initial contact, Maggie's grandmother passed away. We had not planned to take any trips home during our year in Ukraine, but we were so grateful when God miraculously provided the documents for us to go to the US for the funeral so we could be with Maggie's family to celebrate Gran's life. The funeral, a sweet memorial for a wonderful woman, was held in Fredericksburg, Texas, which is only an hour-and-a-half from Austin. Just before leaving Ukraine for the funeral, Trey decided to contact the graduate advisor at UT on the off chance that he would be able to meet with him the day after the funeral. Once again, we were shocked by the response. Not only did his contact make time to meet, but overnight, he arranged a full 4-hour agenda for Trey, filled with back-to-back meetings with 6 different faculty members and 1 graduate student (who also had a biochemistry background). We attended these meetings together, and they turned out to be a valuable experience. We were impressed with the people and the program, and meeting faculty face-to-face only solidified Trey's interest in the program; he left the interviews with increased excitement, tempered by his knowledge of the risk of not getting accepted. He completed his application after we returned to Ukraine and submitted it just before the deadline. With no other clear leads at other schools, we put all our eggs in the UT basket, trusting God to give us direction if it didn't work out. We shared about Trey applying with a few friends and family members so they could be praying along with us, knowing rejection was a real possibility with his lack of engineering undergraduate degree. We were praying not only for admission to the program for Trey, but we were also praying for a funded graduate assistantship position for him (something the department had indicated would be unlikely for at least the 2015-2016 school year due to his lack of engineering experience). We were also praying that if Austin wasn't where God wanted us next, that He would make it clear in our hearts and/or totally close the door. After two months of praying and waiting, we were ecstatic when we learned that Trey had been accepted to the program! We still didn't know anything about funding, but with growing excitement, we started to look forward to the possibility of him attending his dream school. We kept praying, but waited to make a final decision until we received information about an assistantship/funding. If he didn't receive funding, he was considering the possibility of deferring admission for a year, taking math/engineering classes at a community college, then reapplying as an in-state studenta year later. But a couple of weeks ago, we heard some great news... Trey was awarded a fully-funded graduate assistantship from the department - complete with free tuition, health insurance for both of us, and a monthly stipend!!! We are so grateful for the Lord's provision for us in this way and for the way He chose to reward Trey's hard work and accomplishments through giving him an assistantship position that seemed unlikely at best. Needless to say, Trey accepted the offer that day, so he is officially a Longhorn! Maggie plans to look for job opportunities in Austin in the coming weeks and months, and we look forward to seeing what God has in store for her. We're starting to think through the logistics of moving back to the US, seeing our friends and families, finding a new home in Austin, getting our things out of storage in Virginia and down to Austin, repairing or selling our car (currently in VA) with major problems, potentially attending a cousin's wedding, wrapping up our year in Ukraine with meetings in our key supporter locations (Huntsville, Alabama; Luling, Louisiana; Leesburg, Virginia; and Winchester, Virginia), and being ready for Trey to start classes all within a few short weeks. It's a little overwhelming to think about, but we know that God will help us figure out the best way to do all of it. For now, we are thankful for direction God has supplied for our future, yet also very thankful that we still have a few months before all of this happens. We have such wonderful friends here, and working with the Blessing Ministry has been a privilege and a tremendous experience, so we are really glad we don't have to think about saying our goodbyes just yet!
2 Comments
4/19/2015 05:35:23 am
Congratulations to Trey on being accepted at UT in the program he wanted. Sounds like everything has fallen into place. May God continue to bless you both as you complete your Ukrainian ministry and settle the details for your time in Texas. Safe journeys, good health, and a smooth transition.
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Julie Scott
4/20/2015 03:39:43 am
Mags and Trey,
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July 2015
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