Coming To America...

Greetings my friends from the Windy City - that today saw a 20 degree drop in temps over yesterday's highs - winter is all but here!

Like Kelly, I have what could amount to pages and pages of life updates to share with y'all (especially since I haven't seen some of you in way more months than I would like to admit by counting) but we'll get there little by little. For now...a taste of how I came to be in Chicago.

I got back to the States in the wee hours of August 11th after, what for now, I'll just say was a ridiculously amazing year in South Africa that was closely followed by three weeks of backpacking through Zambia and Malawi with some friends. I chilled at home for a few days just trying to catch up on everything - sleep, time with family, meals that included multiple food groups, etc. I was then begged back to Edison State College to work a bit on the 16th and 17th - those were really hard days for me. They stuck me at the Advising counter the week before classes started which meant TONS of people and TONS of people who thought they were the most important people on the planet. Talk about culture shock. I was much happier when they told me I could go make copies or work in the smaller advising center that was just helping students to register for their classes. Y'all know me - I usually thrive under pressure and with lots of things coming at me from multiple directions but that front desk was not my cup of tea and other than airports it was the largest number of people I had been around since I had been back.

One of the girls who was part of my volunteer crew (she was in Johannesburg for her placement) was in Orlando for a large assembly for the Lutheran church that finished up on the 19th. She had known long before we left for SA that she was going to be there, so for an entire year we had been planning to meet up and go play at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - since neither of us had ever been. I went up on the 18th and hung out with Stacy and James and then met Amanda at the Marriott World Center - talk about a massive hotel - more culture shock. We stayed with the Efstathious and got to play at IOA which was just as awesome as I remember. Then I dropped Amanda at the airport on Monday and headed to Cocoa Beach to visit with Caroline for a couple of days.

At this point, I should back track a bit to a random day in Nkhata Bay, Malawi when I stopeed into an internet cafe and had an email from a friend and former colleague of mine from my internship days at the ELCA in Chicago. She had just been hired for a new position and was told to hire someone as an assistant to the Constituent Engagement side of World Hunger. She was soliciting my stuff and I was still in Africa. So I shot my mom a message real quick (the internet connections were terrible) so she could look at the position and potentially submit a resume on my behalf. From there I had no idea what had happened as we were without internet fro the rest of our travels. I found out when I got home that mom had indeed submitted a resume but then we heard nothing so I just went about my merry way trekking across the Sunshine State. I got a phone call when I was at Stacy's that first night to make an appointment for a phone interview on Monday. Monday I was at Caroline's and we were catching up when the call came and I took myself out next to her pool and tried to stay focused on answering questions while the dolphins were playing in the canal out back. Pretty much what Mikka and Dan said was that the position I had "applied" for had been given to someone else. BUT they had a 6 month contract position that they wanted to give me. They weren't talking to anyone else, but they needed me ASAP and pretty much needed an answer by the next day. I said "thanks", hung up, called my mom, talked to Caroline about it, prayed a lot as we sat on the beach, and eventually called them on Tuesday to say "why the heck not, but I can't be there before Labor Day." I was now employed with a salary and full benefits - wow, Big Girl time!

Since everything was on crunch time, I went on up to Gainesville (Stew was pretty much the only person who knew I was coming) from Cocoa Beach and dropped in on a pre-Rush event, and saw some old faces for a few days then headed home to finish unpacking and start repacking and trying to find a place to live. When I was an intern, I was fortunate enough to be able to find a host family to take me in for the summer - for FREE! During my prep time this go 'round, I sent them an email just to say we should ahve dinner, etc. Cindy, bless her soul, responded and said they had converted part of their basement and I was welcome to it for as long as I wanted - and the only cost was to help with the heating bill. :) HOORAY! I said goodbye to my family, AGAIN, and drove up to Chicago over Labor Day weekend. My travels allowed me to have birthday lunch with Melissa and APrats and Stephen in Gville, stay with my sister & family for a night in Atlanta, hang out with Ellie and Joel and watch my first Gator game in forever in Memphis, and crash at Kelly's awesome apartment for an evening in St. Louis before finally arriving to Chi-town on Labor Day Monday. On Tuesday, September 6th, less than a month after coming to America...I was at work.

Speaking of work...I should probably get back to it. More on that and Africa things later. Love you all more than you know!

P.S. I'll try to liven it up with pictures in the future but those would be at home and not in my cubicle...:(

And so it begins

My dear sisters, this makes me so happy.

Life is crazy here in St. Louie. Being out on my own makes me homesick for the community I left behind, but I KNOW I am where God wants me to be. Be prepared that this post will be long, I want you to know whats going on in my life!! I am going to include pictures wherever possible

My program is a two year Master's of Science in Deaf Education at Washington University here in St. Louis. I NEVER imagined myself coming to St. Louis, but they offered me a full scholarship which was impossible to turn down.

I feel like life has been a whirlwind since graduation. Sadie's wedding, going back on Disney summer project as an intern... and then I moved here! So crazy. I live in a one bedroom apartment right between my campus and a HUGE national park that I go to frequently to escape the concrete. I live a few miles from downtown but it is all still really urban. The part of the city that I live in reminds me a lot of downtown Gainesville- midrise apartment complexes with fun restaurants and boutiques in the bottom.

I really love this city, way more than I thought I would. It is a little too urban for me most days, but I love being close to a fun downtown, living in midtown, and being close enough to some wilderness to escape. It is really artsy and has a TON of places that are unique to St. Louis. And, luckily, I picked a pretty dang good time to move here considering I am a baseball fan. 2011 World Champion Cardinals!!

Forest Park- where I go to run, walk, and talk to Jesus

The famous Gateway Arch

The view from the window of my apartment- I live on the 11th floor and I face the park!

My program is super small- there are only 11 of us!! And we take some of our classes with the 13 first year audiology students. We are becoming quite the little family. We all look pretty similar and come from similar backgrounds, but you could probably not find 24 more different people. 

My program at orientation

In typical me fashion, my feet are already in a lot of doors and I like it that way. I have class Monday-Friday, typically from 8-12, sometimes longer. I take all my classes at the Medical Campus of WashU at the Central Institute for the Deaf. St. Louis is the center of the US for hearing loss research and for what is called Oral Deaf Education. It is the opposite of using Sign Language to teach, which is really weird for me, but if I EVER want to get a job I need broad experience- that's what everyone has told me. It is mostly for children who get really good technology early on so that they can be put into mainstream schools early. I can explain more at a later time. Anyways, Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) is not just where I take my classes. It is also a HUGE research facility, a fully equipped audiology clinic, an early intervention center that educates families with children with hearing loss (birth to three), a preschool, and a primary school. So, I take my classes in the very same building where over 50 students are taught using the same things we are learning, which means sometimes in the middle of a class we get up from our seats, walk down the hallway, and observe it in action. It blows my mind how much opportunity I have here. 

CID hires the first year deaf ed students (for minimum wage basically haha) to do lunch duty, playground duty, and after care. I work about 10 hours a week doing lunch duty every day for the lower primary department (age 5-8) and after care. There are 11 kids in my class. I love them so much already, but it is far from easy. It is a really challenging group to work with- out of those 11, only two are typically developing besides their hearing impairment. It is really challenging to manage a class of kids who have emotional, behavioral, physical, and mental disabilities in addition to their hearing impairment. ADHD, autism, sensory disorders, cerebral palsy, eating disorders (several of the kids were on feeding tubes as young kids, which can present lifelong challenges), and one little boy has severe anger issues and the school psychologist suspects some sort of bipolar disorder. He is five. Working with him is the scariest experience I have ever faced in my life- he once tried to strangle one of the other kids. He is getting help, but it is a hugely complicated situation. Within the first month of school I had to give an official child abuse report to the school principal because he told me that his dad beat him up. Please pray for him- his name is Aevion.

Here are pictures of my kids when we had a Cardinals pep rally- if you don't understand why the squirrel is there, google it.

There is another awesome little boy in my life- Jackson! He is a nine year old that I nanny. I work 10 or so hours a week for his family- picking up him and his 15 year old sister from school and taking him to various sports practices. I love him a lot and the pay is wonderful for easy work, but it is a very stressful job sometimes because I am DEFINITELY more than just the nanny- not exactly what I signed up for. The dad lives in Kentucky during the week as a judge and the mom is really high up in her company and super busy. It is super fun to hang out with him but its really frustrating when the mom forgets to send me my schedule, sends me to the wrong place... etc. It is a huge exercise in patience and grace. They have a lot of family drama going on- the latest of which involves his 18 year old sister getting kicked out of college and living at home again, but I do my best to stay out of it and love Jackson and his sisters the best I can.

I found a church here too! Luckily, God really blessed me with a small amount of community before I even got here, thanks to a handful of people from summer project, both this year and last year. We are all really busy and have opposite schedules, but I got here and already had a group of people to go to church with. I started volunteering in childrens ministry within the first month- I couldn't stay away. And last month, after lots of searching, I finally got into a small group. It is super interesting for me to be in this group- with the exception of one girl, I am the youngest. It is co-ed and mixed with young singles and young married couples. It is definitely an interesting experience but I LOVE my group so far. I have already noticed a difference in my relationship with God since joining. It is so great to be in Christian community again, even though it took a lot of work to find it. 

I really love the girls in my program and I think I got really lucky. We have a great community established, although it looks a lot different from Christian community. I am the only one out of all 24 who has a solid relationship with God, so it is really different spending almost all of my time with people who have a completely different belief system than me. I wasn't in a complete Christian bubble back in Gainesville between dance and spending time with girls in my major, but I had a lot of community. I miss just being able to talk about what God is doing in my life over the dinner table, but that has started to get fixed a little with my church small group. That also means, however, that I have become the established designated driver for our little family. I have found myself in a lot of uncomfortable situations, but nothing unsafe. Temptation has been ramped up a lot, and I have definitely not been perfect, but God has been totally faithful through it all. A few of the girls have expressed interest in coming to church with me and two of them already have!! I know that God has placed me here with this group for a reason, and my heart is already so open to them. I love it.

The girls I am closest to- At Oktoberfest (oh man, do I have stories from that night). Lauren, me, Jen, Casey, and Madelyn. Jen lives in my apartment building on the floor below me! She and Casey are in the Deaf Ed program with me. Lauren and Madelyn are in the Audiology. Casey is my closest friend here and we have had a lot of really deep conversations. She and Madelyn have each been to church with me once.

Madelyn, Casey, me, Lauren, and Anita (another Audiology student) at a St. Louis Rams football game.

All in all, life is pretty darn good here. I get homesick a lot, moreso for Gainesville than anything. Luckily, I have been able to see some familiar faces in the past few weeks, including a trip to see Sadie in NC :) Then Kristie (from church) spent some time here the weekend before last when she was visiting cousins in Kentucky, and Brittany Clark came to visit this past weekend!! I am SO ready to be home for Thanksgiving though. 

I love you all so much. That is my life here. School, lunch duty, nannying, church, and lots of friend time. 

Prayer requests:

Safe travels for holidays

My kids- Logan, Landon, Peter, Zaire, LJ, Andrew, William, Katrina, Shayna, Aevion and Aiden.

The family I nanny for

Me being able to avoid giving into temptation when I am not in Christian community

LOVE YOU. POST NOW.