The big news is finally here!!! We promised that if Daniel passed, we would give ALL the glory to God. There is no way to understand how true this is unless you know the whole story. So here goes:
It all began (at least in our minds) in August of 2006, when Daniel had just completed an internship with the Alliance Defense Fund's Blackstone Legal Fellowship. Daniel talked to me about how he was considering the Judge Advocate General's Corps but he was also torn by his desire to work for a pro-life organization.
While trying to decide which path to pursue, he began researching lawyers' bios online to see how they got to where they were. And he came across Americans United for Life (AUL) and found that the vice president was an Air Force JAG officer before she started working for this firm! He became so excited at the thought of being able to do both that he set up an informational interview with her. Two days after their phone conversation, an email hit his inbox from the Blackstone Fellowship notifying Fellows of an opening for an intern at -- you guessed it -- none other than this same pro-life firm! Daniel immediately contacted the firm and spoke to the same individual whom he had just met. Her response: "God must be doing something here! We'd love to have you!" And she brought him on board.
The internship lasted the fall semester of his 3rd year, but it had a larger impact than we ever expected! Daniel applied to the Air Force. It was recommended to request an interview at a larger base, so he chose D.C. ... even though, unbeknownst to him, there were a few that were closer. By Divine intervention, Daniel's interviewer ended up being in the same entering JAG class as the lawyer he had just interned for at AUL! In fact, the interviewer was a colleague and friend of this VP at AUL. There is no way that was a coincidence!
But getting to the interview was anything but easy! We left after I got off of work at 5pm, but we got caught in a traffic accident. We were trapped on a two-lane interstate (like I-5, but with snow), with both lanes closed, for over 2 hours. By the time we got into D.C., it was close to 3am and Daniel's interview was later that morning! He left early to be there by 8am (a 1-hour commute) and was understandably exhausted ... and without his morning coffee. He apologized to his interviewer for looking so tired and explained the situation. Amazingly enough, the fact that we had driven so far for the interview and that I had even taken a day off of work (we only have one car) showed how serious we were about this interview. Everything went really well and we found out months later that he had been accepted!!
After a lot of prayer, we felt God giving us the go ahead for Daniel to take the CA bar exam, the hardest one in the country, despite the fact that JAG would accept any state's exam. Also, Syracuse Law's passage rate for the CA bar was only around 20% in recent years! The months of bar prep that followed were also taken with a leap of faith. I don't know if you believe in spiritual warfare, but we don't think it could have been anything else this past summer! Daniel had to carpool 1 hour each way every day for the bar prep class. This became very difficult as we have only one car. We had major problems with our neighbors. We saw each other for about 2 hours a day. And we experienced a multitude of other major issues that are an entirely different story.
The worst came when Daniel had to fly out for the exam. We had promised to give God all the glory for Daniel's success, something I don't think Satan wanted to see happen. When Daniel got to the airport on Sunday, he was told his flight was extremely delayed due to weather (in July!) and that his connecting flight was cancelled! He couldn't get another flight with that airline until Tuesday, the morning of his exam! We desperately tried to fly him out that same evening, but everything was either booked or cancelled! We were more than a little panicked. After 2 hours of calling and searching, my dad finally got Daniel a flight out of Rochester on Monday morning, so we drove him out there the next day (about 1 hour away). Of course, as I'm driving back to Syracuse, the transmission starts going berserk! I prayed like crazy that I would not be stranded (it was the middle of nowhere) and fortunately God got our Subaru back into Syracuse, limping. Daniel's flight was again delayed, and he missed his connecting flight! Fortunately, I was able to call the airline while Daniel was still in the air and book him on another flight to Sacramento. Daniel arrived Monday night at his hotel at midnight, without his luggage (sent to another airport) and with Day 1 (6 hours) of the 3-day exam starting later that morning at 7am!
Statistically, Daniel shouldn't have passed. Based on his first semester grades, he shouldn't have passed. Based on Syracuse Law's CA bar passage rate, he shouldn't have passed. But we trusted in the path that God led us down and He worked a miracle. We had no backups. We felt called to walk by faith and we tried to do so, some times more successfully than others.
Thank you to everyone who prayed for us and supported us during these 3 years. We could not have done it with out you! I hope this story serves as a reminder to us in the future that God is in control and that His plans are always the best!
