<p>digmedia,</p>
<p>A sensitive man is hard to find. You are awesome! </p>
<p>love, ~berurah</p>
<p>Berurah, I just returned from a Spring Break holiday with my son and have found quite a lot of good news on this board, not the least of which is your son’s fabulous list! All I can say as the parent of a kid who’s ecstatic at school, is that the stress, the energy, the whole-life-on-hold absorbtion is all worth it.</p>
<p>momrath,</p>
<p>Thanks SO much! We are pretty darned ecstatic right now. You know, you summed it up so beautifully and succinctly with this:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Tell me life will return to “normal” soon!! ~berurah</p>
<p>berurah, congratulations. Is Duke still the one?</p>
<p>Berurah, Thanks for the latest update. I look at the list and scratch my head. What a bizarre process this is… I am delighted that your S will have so many choices, and so many good ones.</p>
<p>I have said this here before and your analogy to childbirth reminded me of it. When I was pregnant, I went about my life as usual, but always in my consciousness was the fact that I knew I was pregnant. It preoccupied me and for 9 months I was so very focused on that one aspect of my life. In many ways, this year’s preoccupation with college decisions seemed so similar. I went about my business, but again so much of the year’s focus was on that one very big thing. Among my peers, conversation invariably turned to college stuff (as it once did to pregnancy/childbirth stuff). I read books, checked out facilities, planned for the future, worried about the impact on my checkbook, worried if my child would be OK, thought about how my household would change, etc., etc. So yes, indeed, you did give birth to a college student! Another labor of love, huh?</p>
<p>MotherOfTwo,</p>
<p>I found this post you made very poignant:
</p>
<p>This is such a difficult situation. You are right in that we are not having to deal with it at this partiuclar time, but with our large family, we have had situations in which we’ve had to handle things exactly like you did when your son was receiving his great news. </p>
<p>I am not sure why, but each and every kid in the family had stood steadfastly by my oldest throughout this entire process. They are all very proud of him and have rejoiced fully in his successes. You are right in that the freedom to enjoy this special time has been greatly enhanced. </p>
<p>Today, all three of my elementary school kids wore Duke stuff. Max wore his usual basketball jersey, but the younger two (4th and 1st grades) wanted me to make special shirts for them that said that their brother got into Duke, so I did. They were totally adorable!</p>
<p>On the few times that we’ve talked realistically about this at all (read: money issues), Max has offered to 1.) sell lemonade EVERY day so that he can make enough money for his brother to go to Duke, and 2.) agreed to sell EVERYTHING (except his beloved Duke jacket!) and live in a cardboard box so that his brother can go to Duke. The kids have been really, really sweet to their older brother.</p>
<p>Now, the flip side is that we’ve had a great deal of what you are talking about with the girls’ musical threatre “careers”. It has NEVER failed to be a HUGE problem if one of them makes a show that another one doesn’t, and there have been some serious hurt feelings over these things. Some theatres here favor different ones of my girls, and it is difficult to deal with that. The professional dinner theatre here ONLY hires my youngest daughter…it never takes my older two. Then, too, other theaters favor my oldest and still others, my middle daughter. </p>
<p>I have always felt the need to downplay those things so that I will not exacerbate the hurt feelings, but it is a very difficult balancing act…to be happy for one while at the same time being sensitive to the emotional pain of the others.</p>
<p>I greatly admire the fact that you were able to demonstrate the sensitivity to your daughter even as you were celebrating your remarkable son’s amazing accomplishments. You are a great mom!</p>
<p>love, ~berurah</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>wish,</p>
<p>Just as I suspected…we are twins, separated at birth. I could have written that post…but you said it more than perfectly!! </p>
<p>love, ~berurah</p>
<p>dstark,</p>
<p>Well, in our position, we will be forced to look at all of the financial aid aspects, but the thought of Duke still thrills him to NO END! ~b.</p>
<p>Pour me another glass of bubbly, Berurah! :)</p>
<p>texastaximom…You’ve got it, but please, come here and drink it with me!!! I’d love the great company! ~b.</p>
<p>My goodness if I stop at each happy post and imbibe, someone will HAVE to drive me home! <em>hic</em></p>
<p><em>LOL</em> texastaximom…we’ll just have to get a designated cyberdriver!!</p>
<p>Yay!!! Congratulations to you Berurah and your son!!! Lupe</p>
<p>Lupe,</p>
<p>Thank you so much, sweetie! ~berurah</p>
<p>What a grand way to catch up on this thread after a couple of days’ absence…Berurah and Son: are you “bored” yet w/all this celebration and congratulating? If not, add ours to the chorus…we’re thrilled for you! And Berurah, you’re an inspiration! You’ve made this board a very personal experience for me and I want to thank you for that…sharing this journey (which really is a lot like pregnancy!) is such an enexpected joy…</p>
<p>Again, congratulations to you & your family and most especially to your son…and to all of us a reminder: just consder Berurah’s son’s final list (pending Stanford): if college admissions isn’t a crapshoot then I don’t know what it! It just makes NO sense that he got those two rejections in the mix of all those fine acceptances…go figure!</p>
<p>Berurah,</p>
<p>I read your post and become so flooded with emotions. You have an absolutely amazing family. As a person who also comes froma large family, somedays, I get a little sad that my D is an only child. Every day is not always cak, and some days life can even be messy, but it is moments like this that makes it all worth while.</p>
<p>Son has some amazing choices. I hope that you print out a copy of the dream denied post and the one that you posted with the outcomes so far as a constant reminder of just letting the process pkay it self out and what having just a little faith can do.</p>
<p>Oooops, blew it with my Cornell prediction (<em>teaches me a quick lesson</em>) but way to go on U Penn!!!</p>
<p>Congrats, Congrats - Happ days at the Beururah house!</p>
<p>Berurah, YAY!!!</p>
<p>Congrats to your son!!!</p>
<p>Berurah,</p>
<p>I just have to tell you that I was just as excited for your son as I was for mine as I tried valiantly to fall asleep! My very best guy friend ever went to Duke and I remember feeling so very proud of him. I feel just the same about your son. It is an amazing school. And it is so wonderful that your other kids are sharing in his happiness. I can see the glow from here!</p>