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.