. . . And now you know . . . the rest of the story.

On March 30th I entered what appeared as an innocuous post titled "Whew".  Vicki completed her refresher course to get her nursing license back.  Feedback showed people as being excited and happy for Vicki  but no one asked why she went back.  As Hugh Nibley said in "Leaders and Managers, the Fatal Shift."  regarding a controversial prayer he had said at a graduation, "Well, some knew the answer already, and as for the rest, we do not question things at 'the BYU'."  In the article, Nibley was relieved that he could explain himself and likewise I am too.

Vicki has been trying, for the past four years, to get her RN license activated.  This past year she has felt especially impressed to complete this.  She has known ever since we were married that someday she wanted to go back to school but never pursued it because of the family situation.  This past fall, she received answers to her prayer that now was the time.  I usually respond with something like "That's nice.  Whatever you want Honey."

Since that time little miracles have occurred.  Vicki was called before the Nursing Board in June 2009 to discuss her issue.  After she laid out her case as to why her license lapsed, the board told her that they would grant her a temporary license as soon as College of Southern Nevada's (CSN) admitted her into their refresher course.  Upon completion of the course they would issue a license without stipulations.

Vicki had applied to CSN in 2008 and they told her they had a four year waiting period.  Suddenly, in August 2009, they had a spot open up.  After she passed the challenging paper course in early December, she had to wait for a preceptor so that she could work for 120 hours free in some hospital to prove her competence.  All the age 30 something nurses were placed quickly and we watched week after week as nothing came up for the "senior" nurses. 

In early March Vicki got a call to go to work.  She had said before that there was no way she could work a graveyard shift and no matter how unsavory, would be willing to work any Sundays just to get it over.  She figured that it would take 15 days to finish.  When CSN called, they told her she was assigned to a 12 hour shift.  Her preceptor did not work any graveyards and they didn't have any Sundays  scheduled and she would be done in 10 days.

In January and February, Vicki started investigating on-line universities.  She was very thorough as she looked for a school that provided a masters degree in nursing.  The further she looked the more she determined that she wanted a program that would offer specialties in Nursing Education and Leadership and Management. Also, she was adamant that the school be accredited by an appropriate accrediting institution.

Vicki had about 6 schools that were close to what she wanted but bit by bit, each school fell out for one reason or another.  It was then that in my mind one of the biggest miracles happened.  Although very frugal, Vicki has a knack of walking into a store to buy something and when she finds the perfect item it is always the most expensive.  Doesn't matter, shoes, dresses, china, fabric whatever, she always like the priciest.  But this time,  she chose the best university to meet her needs and it was the most reasonably priced.  A two year program at just $9,000 a year. Others ran $14,000 to $18,000 per year.

Now I didn't know how we are going to swing $9k but it's better than $18k.  She has continued to get all her transcripts and paper work together and submitted to Walden University.  Once everything was in place, they called her last week to congratulate her for her acceptance into Walden University.

And now you know the rest of the story!

Almost.

Back in late February Vicki saw that Walden had a full scholarship that they offered to a person.  The scholarship was based on an essay with the topic of How my Walden education has made a difference.  Vicki wrote a very nice essay and sent it in.  Then she looked at what the past winners had written about.  She saw the divorced and abused women who were helped and the women who had overcome cancer and how the education provided an unanticipated opportunity to progress.  At that point, we wrote off any chance of the scholarship.

But, you remember that in an earlier paragraph, I said "one of the biggest miracles."  I didn't say the biggest miracle.  That happened Wednesday when Vicki got a phone call from a Walden administrator congratulating her on being awarded the "Project Working Mom"  FULL scholarship.

And now you really know the rest of the story. 
Really!