A lesson in compassion

A few updates:

1) I passed prelims! This means I am ABD (all but dissertation). I will hopefully be graduating in 2 years.

2) I gave my first talk at a conference! I practiced quite a bit and it went really well.

3) Dan and I served on a "Newlywed Panel" at a marriage retreat. I know what you're thinking, "what do they know?" Well, we were invited to give our 2 cents along with 2 other couples at a marriage retreat that all Catholic engaged couples have to attend before getting married.

4) Lastly, I found this story that I wrote back around Thanksgiving, but never published. I thought it would be good to post it now so we don't forget about it. Also, I think it is really funny how I thought 9 degrees was so cold! So naive!

Last night it was freezing in Madison. Around midnight it was about 9 degrees and very windy. It snowed over the weekend, so the ground was covered in snow (and will probably stay that way until May). Dan has been working a seasonal job until he starts grad school at Marquette in January, but he gets home late, most nights after 2am. Last night I dozed off before he came home as usual and then suddenly woke up around 3 in the morning to the smoke detector going off. I go into the kitchen to see what is going on and I see Dan standing by the stove making soup, completely oblivious to the piercing noise filling the apartment. Dan can't hear high pitched sounds even with his hearing aids on. I am furious. Not only did he wake me up, but he isn't eating the dinner I left for him in the fridge (Hawaiian chicken and jalapeño poppers, which were amazing btw!) He tells me there is a homeless man in our stairwell. Me being the compassionate person that I am respond by saying, "Well tell him to leave!"

You see this has happened before. Last year Dan and I came home one night and used the front stairwell instead of the elevator like we almost always do. The heater is always blasting in there because it is by the front door. On the 2nd floor landing we found a homeless woman sleeping. We carefully stepped around her and then emailed the condo president about the situation.

After my ridiculously selfish comment, Dan just grinned at me and said, "I brought him here." Dan was making soup for this man that he picked up on the side of the road who had fallen down in the snow. He offered to drop him off at the homeless shelter, but it turns out they lock up after a certain hour, so Dan offered the toasty spot in our stairwell (knowing full well I'd freak if I found someone sleeping on our couch). Dan went out to the stairwell to bring him soup and find him passed out on the landing. He placed the bowl of soup next to him and left him alone. By morning he was gone and the soup bowl was empty.

I think this is such a good example of what a great person Dan is and the very reason why I married him. He challenges me everyday to be a better person and I don't know anyone else who pursues Christ's love more than him.