There have been lots of changes in our home these past few months, starting with a month of bed rest, then the arrival of sweet Hannah and figuring out a new rhythm as a family of four. Understandably, the blog has been dominated by those things, but we have had some other fun news these past few weeks that needs to be shared as well.
A few weeks ago, Chris discovered that he has been awarded a research grant from the project, Memoria Romana at the University of Texas!! You can read more about it here.
As a result of the grant, his picture and project description have been added to the list of grant recipients, which you can see in full here. What does this mean for him? Funding for a trip to Germany in addition to his trip to Cairo this spring. He is so excited and I'm so happy for him! And not at all jealous.
Furthermore, there is the matter of the SBL.
The SBL has one large annual conference each year, in addition to several regional conferences. Each regional conference has a contest where scholars present a paper, and a board selects a winner. This person is the Regional Scholar. Then, out of those various Regional Scholars a few National Regional Scholars are chosen and recognized at the large annual SBL Conference.
Chris presented a paper in March at a regional conference in St Louis, and discovered while he was still there that they had chosen him as the Regional Scholar. Two weeks ago we discovered that he was also chosen as a National Regional Scholar!
I'm so proud of my husband! There is a part of me that debated about sharing this news, knowing how some people feel threatened in other people's successes. I don't want to make anyone feel bad so I considered not saying anything at all.
But I think that would really shortchange him and the huge amount of time and effort that he has put in, so instead I'm going to celebrate.
I have always known Chris to be smart, hard working, and aggressively driven. He was at the top of his class and a leader in his communities as a student. We used to joke about how he would like to just be a professional student, and never have to get a real job.
Though it was sometimes challenging for him to set himself apart as a student, it's a whole new ball game to set himself apart professionally. His peers come from different backgrounds, different universities, and many have been under the guidance of elite scholars. But he still continues to rise to the top. Despite his undergraduate and graduate training from a small Christian University, he continues to win awards over colleagues who were educated in prestigious universities. Watching him flourish in his career has been a joy.
Since he won't brag for himself, I'll brag for him. That what wives are for, right? He has won 5 research awards in just over 3 years of teaching. I'm so amazed at this because he's not a researcher, he's a professor. So the time and work that goes into his research is in addition to lectures, grading, advising and mentoring. Yet he still comes home at a normal time at the end of the workday and only works on the weekends while the kids are napping.
All of that to say, Chris I'm so proud of you. It is a joy to be your wife and partner and I can't wait to see how far you go. I love you. XO
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