Dallas, Africa, Dallas, Haiti

Friends, I’m still alive.  Which means God is still sustaining!  Now that I’ve finished grad school and am about to settle into what I hope is a bit more of a stable season in life, I want to be intentional about re-connecting with many of you.  For the next few months at least, I will be staying in Dallas.  I’ve accepted an NP job at the clinic where I’ve been working in staff education and admin for the past year.

By way of a brief catch-up, I spent 5 wonderful, hard, challenging, encouraging weeks in Ethiopia and Sierra Leone this spring alongside a team from Baylor.

Baylor Africa 2010, Langano, Ethiopia Clinic

We saw many hundreds of patients, we were challenged to use skills not often tested in school, we held dying patients, we wished we could do so much more–but through it all we saw the compassion of the Father.  If you want to catch up a bit on that trip, check out this blog written primarily by our wonderful professor, mentor, and team leader http://homepages.baylor.edu/lori_spies/?cat=718

Baylor Africa 2010 Team at Faith Hope Orphanage in Freetown, Sierra Leone

VERY rural clinic outside of Freetown, Sierra Leone

Post-Africa, I spent a whirlwind month and half in Dallas trying to finish up all of the necessary coursework and clinical hours to graduate.  Graduation alongside dear friends and classmates was a joy—but it was a bit anticlimactic as we all had to then start studying for national boards.

Graduating with the other musketeers--Ivorry, Jamie, and Rebecca. Could not have done it without them!

I took mine in mid-June and passed (thank you Lord!).  Since then I’ve been working part-time at two jobs, my dear friend in NM got married, and I’ve reveled in evenings not constrained by papers being due!

A few weeks ago, I got an email from an friend who had served on a short-term team to Ethiopia while I was living and working there.  She was headed to Haiti with her church from the Baltimore area and their team needed a last minute provider to fill an unexpected gap.  It was a crazy time to make such a decision amidst a wedding, being out of state, starting a new job, etc–but He confirmed that it was right, so I said yes.  I bought a ticket and 9 days later flew out to Haiti to join the team.  Link to this blog to catch up on our time there: http://www.gcchaiti.blogspot.com/

I got back from Haiti late last night (or early this morning) and am trying to recover from exhaustion, a GI bug, sunburn, and very dirty laundry!  It was such a privilege to serve alongside such a wonderful, grace-focused team.  Haiti was, as expected, hard–so much devastation, disease, and despair.  We pray for the peace of that place.

So that’s me.  Alive, blessed, and happy for filled pages in my passport:-)

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