finally...some good news

When I found out California bar results were out this week my heart nearly stopped. Shane did his best to convince me there was no way he could pass but I've still been getting my hopes up in recent weeks.

I knew Shane wasn't going to look though and when the results came out late last night East Coast time, I decided not to push it. Plus, we didn't have his application number handy and it was impossible to look it up without it.

Well, this morning I tried to play it cool but I was getting antsy. While Shane was out with his mother I couldn't stop thinking about where I could find that application number. I realized it had to be on the e-mails we got confirming his initial application, etc. and started to sift through Shane's gmail account. I figured he wouldn't mind. He has me log in there all the time to check things for him.

But once I had found all the information I needed, I wasn't sure I wanted to know. Bad news would just ruin our weekend and what would I do? Just pretend I didn't know and let someone else break it to him? Probably. Who wants to be the bearer of bad news?

All of the sudden I couldn't stand not knowing any longer. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, muttering a little prayer that I could be at peace with whatever the results were, and pushed enter....and then, paused, unsure if I wanted to open my eyes. However, I'm glad I finally did, because this is what I saw:

I let out such a squeal that I scared both of our boys who were hanging out with me in our bedroom. They both broke into tears and I scooped them up and reassured them I was so happy and that they should be so happy. (When I saw the Virginia bar results last summer I burst into tears and Christian was the one trying to comfort me while I reassured him that they were very happy tears!)

It's such a relief to find out that all those late nights spent dragging the kids in their pajamas into D.C. to pick up Shane after he'd put in a full day's work and then crammed for the bar were not in vain! Same with those early trips into D.C. on the weekends to drop him off so he could study all day in peace. Not to mention the countless times Christian wound up in tears because Shane had to lock himself away in our bedroom to try and review once again.

When Shane got home today Christian greet him at the door with a sign that said: "You did it! You passed!"

Shane tried to play it off but I know a huge weight was lifted from his shoulders. He admitted that he had been dreading the idea of taking that test again.

It was a group effort but Shane deserves most of the credit, of course. He didn't get one day off of work to study, and even took meetings over the phone the day before the exam began. Which actually means he gets to share that credit with our Father in Heaven, who obviously heard and answered our prayers. (Thanks to all you out there who have been praying on our behalf!)

This will be the first 4th of July since our honeymoon five years ago that Shane won't have to be studying his guts out. Hurray! Now to find him a new job...somewhere. ;)