For Russ and Sarah Schneider, Waynesburg has been their home for the past six years. But, this year they added a new addition to their family with the birth of their son, Kaleb.
“Everything has changed, the way I care for my residents, the way I reach out and equip my resident assistants,” said Russ Schneider, Willison’s resident director. “Everything is different cause I’m seeing it through a different lens. Time is different, I’ll still get to walk around the building, hangout and do things around campus but, it’s all different having a little boy. In the morning, you don’t just have to get yourself ready, you have to get another small guy ready for the day too.”
Things have changed for Russ, but he is still finding time to do activities on campus and get to hang out with his residents. This change only makes it more difficult for him to do some of these things because caring for a child is time-demanding. But, he is still making it the best living space possible for his residents.
“The apartment is not terribly small; it’s two bedroom, two baths,” said Schneider. “But, it has changed, you have all his things like play mats and toys because you are working on fine and gross motor skills. All of his stuff takes over. So, his bedroom used to be a study room it had bookshelves and students would study for exams or just wanted to escape. Now it has a crib and a glider. So, that space is not available for students anymore. I mean they could hang out in the living room, but the whole apartment has changed.”
Along with his newly expanded family, Schnieder maintains his career goals.
“I have my masters in higher education, so I think moving up is the ultimate goal,” said Schneider. “I won’t be an RD forever; I don’t think that is suitable if we want more children. And, as Kaleb gets older, I would love to be a director of resident life or maybe eventually even a dean, to just being able to influence and equip people that are in my current positon. So, they can reach out to their resident assistants and equip their resident assistants, so they can reach out to their residents.”
Continuing to expand his family is still a topic of discussion for Schneider and his wife.
“We take it day by day; we just want to get through this one first,” said Schneider. “But, we have talked about the ideal family – [it] would be something that we can’t plan for [but], we would love to have two girls and two boys. Maybe some of them would be adopted, but with two girls and two boys that means they each have a sibling.”
During the first week of last spring’s semester the Schneider family found out they were going to have an addition to the family with the birth of Kaleb.
Schneider said, “Early on in the spring semester, in the first week of the semester in January.”
In September, Kaleb was born.
Seeing the process from start to finish, it has helped them rely on God more and see what the best is for Kaleb. Not knowing everything with parenting is one thing that has also helped strengthen their relationship with the lord as well.
Every day is a new day for the Schneider family with the birth of Kaleb, who is now 10 weeks old. But, every day is a new day to grow for them and walk closer with him and with the Lord.