Many of you know that my husband and I have five children. All have left home as all are adults.

The last picture I have of all of them here in Poland at the same time is this one - I think this was about 2012 but would have to look that up.

From left - Jeremiah, Timothy, Lydia, Abigail, Daniel

The latest one of all 5 of our children is this one when our son, Tim was ordained for the ministry earlier this year in March.

From left - Daniel, Lydia, Abigail, Tim, Jeremiah

with spouses:

In between is this next one taken in 2019 when Lydia graduated from college with highest honors in engineering as an undergrad in Greenville, SC. It was then that Clemson offered her a graduate assistant position at Clemson.

Four of our children are married, however, Lydia, our second daughter, is not. She has been working on a PhD in Bioengineering at Clemson University in Clemson, SC.

She presented and defended her thesis on July 3 - just a few days ago now.

We were able to listen to her presentation via Zoom. It was pretty exciting for us to be able to be included in this major life event!

She called us a while later and told us they accepted it without any changes, and went on to say that it meant that she now has her degree. She has finished and is able to be called Doctor!

This was her first slide giving the name of her dissertation/thesis.

So she is Dr. Lydia Petersen.

That seems so strange.

However, I wanted to share this with you! Once upon a time Lydia worked for my sister, Rachael, both in her other business, but she has also helped at Quilted Twins when she was in Florida and needed work.

Because we missed my husband’s “hooding”, I knew when Lydia was finishing hers, that I really REALLY wanted to be there for it.

I told my husband that I wanted to go back for it, and then he added that he did too.

So, we will be flying back for Lydia’s official graduation ceremony in August where she receives her hood! It is just too important not to miss.

We couldn’t go back for my husband’s as we were already here in Poland and neither had the time nor the funds to go back the next May for his official graduation/marching with his PhD in Old Testament.

Anyway, I wanted to let you all know that she finished! We are so proud of her and so thankful for each of our children!

For now Lydia will be staying in Clemson as they are developing a teaching device for training people who insert IVs for those undergoing dialysis. She is part of the company that is developing the device.

Oh - and Lydia made this quilt - several years ago now. She chose the fabrics from us there at Quilted Twins. The pattern is Surf Song by Eileen Wright.

So now you know. I don’t usually share so much personal stuff with you all, but this seems pretty important, so I did.

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this.

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!

Feel free to browse the site.

It's a Personal Update!