I'm alive

Yes, I am alive!  Sorry the blog posting has been nonexistent here lately.  I've been getting back into the swing of things at school, trying to get organized, motivated, and on track for the semester.  While I'm not particularly loving my Sociology class, I'm trying to make the best of it.  This is the last general education class I will EVER have to take.  Let me just tell you, that is an AMAZING feeling!  The last class I'll have to write a paper for, the last non-major-related education...amazing I tell you!  Amazing!  Other than that the semester seems like it should be fairly smooth.  I would say easy, but well that would just not be wise.

Our big project this year is very organized and fairly straight forward.  We are designing a building downtown into a proposed new school of art and design for HPU.  I'm actually pretty excited about it because we get to design our dream learning environment.  There have been various things I would have liked to have or changed over the last four years, and the opportunity to propose those options is really fun!  While I don't think High Point will choose any of our designs or actually buy this building, we still get the opportunity to get our ideas out there and possibly have them incorporated into a future building.  Norton has simply outgrown the art majors and we need a bigger space.  Nido will most likely build a new building, but having the school of art and design located in the heart of Market would be invaluable to us design majors.  We'll see what comes of it, but I'm excited for the project and ready to dive in and get started.

For now, life is pretty much the same as last semester.  I'm helping Jessica Deen lead a bible study on campus, which I'm really excited about.  This Wednesday will be my first night teaching.  Fingers crossed it will go well (could use your prayers!).  I'm also job searching full force now.  If I can find something in the DC/Virginia area, Jessica and I are going to get an apartment together.  I had been looking in North Carolina, but so many designers have told me to go to D.C.  Honestly, living with Jessica sounds really fun and after visiting VA I got really excited about possibly living there. I don't know where God is going to take me, but I just keep trekking along and getting my resume out everywhere possible.

My goal for the semester is to enjoy every minute of my last semester and finish with a bang!  Graduation is like 95 days away! Crazzzy!

I promise I'll get back to my regular blogging very soon!

Meet Dorothy's Kids

I meant to make this post when I got back from Haiti, but better late than never right?  Dorothy has 27 kids living with her right now and I made it a point to learn all of their names as fast as I could.  Knowing their names not only helped keep control, but it also made them feel special that a guest knew their name.  I remembered some of them from my last trip and when I called them by their name their faces lit up. It is such a simple thing to learn someone's name but an important one nonetheless.  To help me not forget their names, and help you learn these beautiful kids by their names, let me introduce you to Dorothy's kids:

Aaron. 

 Angel.

 Biguerson.

 Cassandra.

 Christian.

 Claude.

 Claudine.

 Emmanuella.

 Fred.

 Frontzo.

 Gerdeline.

 Ismael.

 Johnny.

 Lovensky.

 Mackendy aka Mackenzie.

 Mawens.

 MayLove (pronounced MyLove)

 Myson.

 Poutchino.

 Richardson aka Sha Sha.

 Rosa.

 RoseMichel.

 Son Son.

 Taina.

 Tamara.

 Wilmerson.

Wilson.

New Look

I decided it was time to update the look of my blog.  I changed the title not long ago, and thought my old design was a bit out dated as well; it was the original design I made when I started this blog.    The new look is more me.  Anyone who knows me (especially my design friends) knows how much I love grey and yellow. It is by far my favorite color combination, so I thought it was only appropriate to design my blog around it.  I think it looks pretty good, what do you think?

All my blogging friends out there, do you know how to adjust the positioning of the blog title and description? I can change the size, font, color, etc but I cannot get it move up or down.  If you know how, please help me out!

Well I'm off to hang out with some friends at Erin and Stephen's! Enjoy the new look until then.

Thank You

I got my thank you cards out this week, which means an official end to my Haiti journey this month.  As I looked through the pictures trying to choose which ones to share with everyone, I was reminded again of how amazing our trip was.  I have been missing those kids, Dorothy, and Haiti every day since I've returned.  While it was not easy being away from home, I felt that Haiti was where God wanted me and that is a feeling you simply can't understand until you've experienced it.  I have felt for years that God was calling me to do full or long-term missions in Haiti. I've thrown the idea around getting various input the past few years, but was still not certain if it was where God wanted me. I went into this trip open and willing to listen to His calling.   I was not sure before our trip of what God wanted me to get out of it.  All I knew was that He wanted me there and I had to go.  Now being on the other side, I can say with certainty that God called me to Haiti this year to replenish and strengthen my love for the people there, and to confirm that missions in Haiti will be a definite part of my future.  I still do not know God's full plans.  I don't know if it's meant to be a full time deal, a long term trip, or if I'm simply meant to travel there as often as possible.  All I know is that there is a love and passion for Haiti in my heart that I couldn't deny even if I tried.  I'm not sure when my next trip will be, but I can promise you it will be as soon as I can.  I simply cannot describe my love for that place and the kids at Dorothy's.  Where, when, and what God wants me to do in Haiti I'm still not sure of, but I'm continually praying that His will, will be done.

For those of you tuning into my blog to read more about my trip, welcome!  There are lots of posts you can read about our time in Haiti.  For now, I want to take a few moments to thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting our trip.  The love and support that was showered on both Cassie and I was absolutely incredible.  We learned we have a much larger support system than we ever took the time to appreciate.  Your prayers and financial gifts allowed me to follow God's calling and I cannot express my gratitude enough for that.  Trips like these as a student would be next to impossible without support.  Thank you for believing in me enough to help send me to Haiti and follow God's calling.  Thank you for supporting Dorothy and her orphanage.  Thank you for allowing us to bless Dorothy, the kids, and her staff.  I've said it a hundred times, but thank you!  As I said before this trip was incredible and truly blessed Cassie and I in ways we did not expect.

To read more about our trip click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Thank you again!!

Check it out!

Recently the traffic on my blog has picked up quite a bit.  Thank you so much! I love knowing people out there are reading and enjoying the stuff I write.  Please keep reading, and suggest my page to others! To make things a little easier on the blog, I installed a new commenting system.  Before, you had to register and go through all these hoops just to leave me a comment.  It was frustrating, I know, and I'm sorry, but thanks for the comments you did leave!  Now, all you have to do is hit comment and write it out, just as you would on facebook!  There is also a like/dislike button you can click for each blog post, which will give me great feedback on your favorite posts and what I should write more about!  This will also make it much easier for me to respond to your comments quickly and keep everything organized!  I'm hoping this will make it so easy for you that you have no excuse not to comment!  I love to read your feedback, but more importantly I need your feedback!!!  Please comment or at least vote on if you like the post or not, it only takes a second.

***Correction:  You have to enter your email address on the new commenting system.  That is still easier than signing up, signing in, doing a word verification, and submitting.  At least it's down to one step.  Sorry about that!***

On another note, I realized the other day I am almost up to 6,500 blog views!  Wow! Thank you so much, I was at 5,000 not long ago.  I'm considering doing some type of giveaway for my 10,000 view mark.  I haven't decided what it's going to be yet, but I'll let you know!  That'll make you keep reading :)!  But seriously, I'm highly considering some type of giveaway.  Any ideas?? Leave me a comment!

Happy Wednesday!