End of another year...

Is 2014 really almost over?  As I think back over this year, I'm blown away by where all it has taken me.  I've learned over and over and over this year, that my plan is not God's plan, and that is completely ok with me.  If you would have asked me last December where I thought I would be writing this post from today, the last place I would have thought of would have been my desk here at Duke. But, here I sit reminiscing over all this year has encompassed feeling completely at peace with where God has me.  Here is a look back at all of the highlights from 2014:

January:
I had the honor of being a bridesmaid in one of my best friend's weddings.

Which then led to the realization that I would need back surgery, where my sister lovingly took this picture for us all to remember the occasion.

 

February - March:
Which made the next two months pretty much consist of this...

April:
In April, after finding out the second hole in my incision was not closed and a third had begun, I decided to not return to Haiti full time.  Mom, Erin, and I, instead decided to take a short week-long trip over Easter to pack my stuff up and to bless the kids at HFHM with a week full of Holy Week activities.

 

I also started working at Michaels in April.

May:
We got to celebrate Andy's graduation from college!

June:
I got the privilege of watching another one of my very best friends get married!

And, I got to see Julianne and Derek Hough on tour (yes this was a highlight of my year!).

July:
In July, I opened my Etsy shop.

and, Erin and I got to spend a weekend, just the two of us, with Grandma and Pa, where we introduced him to smores (probably one of the top highlights of my year!).

August:
I started my temp position here at Duke with UCAE.

and, did LOTS of dog sitting!

Septemeber - October:
Late September into early October, I took a trip up to Virginia to see all of the girls from college.

In mid-October, I said farewell to Helga and welcomed this beauty into the family after accepting the permanent position here at Duke with the UCAE team!

November:
Andy came home from Vegas to surprise us all.

and we celebrated Thanksgiving old school style with Bue's Brunswick Stew recipe.

December:
The Student Involvement team, here in UCAE, took a day to volunteer at the local food bank in Durham (I love that my job gives back!).

Erin and I hosted a Thirty-One gives fundraiser.  Through your purchases and support, we raised $100 which was donated to Carrington Middle School to buy Christmas items for five families in need this Christmas.  We also were able to purchase over $500 in free products which will be given to 18 moms at the Ronald McDonald house today!

To finish off December, we will be doing all of our usual Christmas traditions.  From watching the Summit's DPAC Christmas performance, to traveling from Raleigh to Elkin to spend time with family, and even having Christmas breakfast at home.  It's going to be a busy last few days of December, but this is always my favorite time of the year!



It has been a great year.  One that I would not have necessarily planned myself, but one that has blessed me beyond belief.

So from our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Thirty-One Gives, Christmas Fundraiser

To help support a family in need this Christmas, Erin and I are hosting a
Thirty-One fundraiser next Wednesday night at 6pm!

15% of EVERY sale, as well as ALL hostess rewards that are earned, will be gifted to them this Christmas! 

This is a great time to come out and see some fabulous products, finish your Christmas shopping, buy some items for yourself, and support a great cause at the same time!  You can see all of the gorgeous products on the link below.

Erin and I get no personal gain from this party, but you will bless a family tremendously this Christmas by shopping online through the link below or coming to the party!  As a bonus for reading my blog, use the coupon below at the party for special deals as well!

Curious what the family could earn?

Well, if we get $600 in sales the family will receive:
$90 in cash
$100 in free product
2 half price items
A Large Utility Tote with a Stand Tall insert
& 2 Hostess Exclusive items!

If we get $1000 in sales, the family will receive:
$150 in cash
$200 in free product!
2 half price items
A Large Utility Tote with a Stand Tall Insert
& 2 Hostess Exclusive Items!!!

If we get $1200 in sales, the family will receive:
$180 in cash
$250 in free product!

THREE half price items
A Large Utility Tote with a Stand Tall Insert
& THREE Hostess Exclusive Items!!!

• Click here to shop online
• Come to the party, see the fabulous products, and shop in person!
  • Date: Wednesday, December 10th
  • Time: 6pm
  • Where: Erin's house - email me for the address - allysonhemric@gmail.com!
  • Use the coupon below for extra gifts as well!
   
  

Brain Dump #6594

I couldn't think of good title for tonight's update so why not go with my 6,594th brain dump post…after all that's what all my posts end up being :).  So here we go: prepare your self for an all over the place blog!

Erin and I went to Grandma & Pa's last week.  I honestly can't remember the last time just she and I went and stayed with them for a few days.  Growing up we spent most of our school breaks up there on the farm, but it's probably been years since just the two of us hung out with them.  It was SO nice.  I felt like I was reliving a part of my childhood and kept finding myself feeling immensely grateful for the opportunity to go see them.  I love my grandparents and am so very blessed to call them mine!

Pa had never heard of, let alone tasted, s'mores so we had to introduce him! I think you can tell he liked them :)

We helped supervised Grandma & Pa while they cut and canned tomatoes - over 12 quarts worth!

My Etsy shop has been open for two weeks now, and while I haven't gotten as many sales as I'd hoped, I'm really enjoying having the shop!  The creative juices are always flowing and I love trying to come up with new ideas to sell.  Stay tuned, you may see some new fall/halloween items going up in the next few weeks ;-).

For an update on my goals:

-I have officially read 3 (and 1/2)…yes T-H-R-E-E books this year!!!!  I know you book lovers out there are laughing at me, but this is HUGE!  I'm pretty sure I've never read this many books for fun, ever!  I really enjoyed the last one I read, called Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult, and am thinking about starting a second book of hers next.  I know, I know, four books is impressive ;-)!  Ha!  This does mean I've not only met, but exceeded my goal for the year in this category!!  I'm feeling pretty proud of myself!

-Pursuing my dream career path is still in the works too.  Driving to Grandma's last week, I realized how much I miss living in High Point.  Erin suggested looking for jobs up that way again, so I've been doing just that!  I found that it's hard to get a job when you don't live in the area, but I'm hoping and praying for the right position to open up!  I would so, SO, love to move back up there again!!  In the meantime, I am meeting with the Duke Temp agency to try and get some more part-time work and experience to build my resume (and wallet!).  Please keep my job search in your prayers. I know it can seem unimportant compared to other prayer requests, but it would mean so much to me!  I'm ready to get into a full-time career and begin this next phase of life, so please pray that God would open and close the right doors to get me there!

-All of my other goals are pretty much where they were when I last posted.  They may be progressing slowly, but progress is progress!


Well, that's about all for now :)

Haiti Bound

Mom, Erin, and I head to Haiti in the morning to spend a week with Jenn and Jeremiah working at Have Faith Haiti Mission (HFHM).  I will also be packing up my items at HFMS to move back home.  I've decided with my back that it is just not physically feasible right now to live and work in Haiti.  This was not an easy decision, and is one I will elaborate on in a later post, but I believe it is the right choice and one God has directed me to.  I am so looking forward to spending this next week back in Haiti though.  I've missed it so much, and I cannot wait to celebrate Easter with Holy Week activities at the mission.

I will update and give more details in the coming days/weeks, but for now it's off to bed! 4:30am is going to come EARLY in the morning.

Please keep our travels and this upcoming week in your prayers.  Some specific ways you can pray for us:

• For safe and timely travels.  That our bags would arrive on time with no damage or anything missing.
• For patient and loving attitudes throughout the week.
• For my physical health and strength.  My back is still very limited and begins to hurt quickly.  Please pray that there will be little to no pain, and that I will have the strength to endure the activities ahead.
• Pray for the kids and workers at HFHM. Pray that these activities will help them to truly understand the meaning of Easter and will impact their lives for the better.

Off to Haiti we go (again!!).

Too Random for a Good Title

Hey everyone, sorry it's been so silent around here recently.  I feel like I have been running around non-stop ever since I got home and when I finally had the chance to sit down and blog, my computer decided to break on me...yep gotta love that!

I don't even really know where to begin this post, other than trying to recap the last couple of weeks.

My first two weeks at home were filled with visiting family, celebrating Christmas, catching up with friends, lots of cuddling with my sweet puppy, and planning/shopping for my return to Haiti.  Those first couple of weeks were honestly a blur and felt like they passed in the blink of an eye.

Once the New Year hit, things slowed down a bit but quickly caught right back up with the fast pace of things here in America.  I traveled up to Virginia to celebrate a dear friend's wedding (see below), which was such a blessing for both of us!  I have missed hanging out with those girls so much and it really put back into perspective just how perfectly God has crafted every aspect of my life.

I have missed Haiti more than I anticipated, but I have also longed to stay home more than I thought I would too.  It seems like home and Haiti are always playing a tug of war game in my life.  My heart wants to have both of them all the time, but that unfortunately doesn't quite happen.

I did end up extending my stay at home for a couple of weeks, however it was not done for a reason I would have chosen.  You see, a couple of days before I left Haiti, I pulled a muscle in my lower back which made my sciatica flare up for the first time in a while.  I've had a bulging disk in my lower back since college but it has remained fairly dormant with only a few painful days here and there.  That day however, I had a bad feeling I had just made it way worse.  After coming home and not getting any relief from the pain, I started to see a chiropractor and we began throwing around the idea of getting another MRI done.  I didn't want to accept that I may have seriously injured the disc, so I kept putting it off.  However, when I almost passed out from the pain during the wedding I decided it was time to get things checked out.  Mom and I decided it was best to postpone my trip to Haiti so we could figure out if there was indeed something serious going on in my back (it also helped save a ton of money on flights if I had gone back).

Well, after getting the results of my MRI back this week, it was determined that I have a herniated disk and am now being referred to a neurosurgeon... not the news I was hoping to get.  My doctor is pretty sure it will require surgery, but that is to be confirmed next week when we meet with the surgeon.  Surgery would mean relief from the pain (which would be awesome), but it also would mean that my stay at home will have to be extended further.

I never imagined this would be happening right now, but I know the Lord has a plan.  I'm praying he will show me which route to take to find healing as well as get back to Haiti.  Please continue to keep me in your prayers.  I feel like that flag in the middle of a tug of war game being pulled two different directions both physically and emotionally.  Trying to process of all this, let alone explain it to my supporters has been very difficult for me.  I will return to Haiti, and I will finish out my year there, but I've had to put things on hold for a little bit.  This saddens me deeply, but I'm learning more and more each day that my health must take priority right now.

Please continue to keep me in your prayers as I try to figure all of this out.

More posts (some a little behind schedule) will come as soon as my computer gets out of the shop!

Surprise!

I'm home!!!!!!!!!

A few months back when I was booking my flights home for Christmas, I realized I could come home on the 19th for over $100 less than on the 21st (which was my original plan).  So, I went ahead and booked the cheaper flight but decided, with Erin, that we wouldn't tell anyone and surprise mom and dad by coming home early :)!  I almost ruined the surprise SO many times over the last couple of weeks, but we were able to pull it off!

Yesterday morning I packed my bags and headed to the airport.  It was a full, but fairly easy day of traveling.  Erin and Faith met me at the airport and then we headed back to the house.  I knocked on the door to be greeted by dad; mom stayed on the couch thinking it was Erin at the door until I walked around the corner.  A few tears and lots of laughs were shared.  It was a really fun and successful surprise! (Erin has a video you can see on Facebook or instagram!)

 Flying first class is awesome!!  I wasn't able to use the money I'd budgeted the last two months to take a few days off with a beach trip, so I put it towards an upgrade on my flight!  Have you ever seen so many buttons for reclining your seat in an airplane?!! It was awesome!

 I got to see a rainbow from above (top right), which was SO cool!  I also had to get warm with some Starbucks in Miami (I enjoyed some for you Jenn!) and then caught up on the latest celebrity news during my 5 hour layover.

 Sunsets are gorgeous from above.  I didn't get a really good shot of the beautiful colors on the other side of the plane, but it was breathtaking!  I'll pick a seat on the other side next time!  We also had a delicious meal on the flight home and then it was like Christmas opening all of my mail from the last two months!  (I LOVE getting mail!)

 Finally home and reunited my my family and sweet puppy dog!

I'm so happy to be home.  I thought it would be major culture shock or at least feel like a transition, but I just feel at home.  It was pretty awesome crawling into my own bed last night, brushing my teeth with sink water, and doing laundry today, but it hasn't felt out of place or anything.  I just feel like I'm home.  I'm so happy to be home.

Now to start the Christmas celebrations!! The next three weeks are super busy but I'm going to soak every minute of it up before I head back to Haiti!

Christmas is Coming!

Despite the fact that it is 80 degrees with a gorgeous breeze here today, Christmas IS in fact just around the corner and I can barely contain my excitement!!  Christmas means that I get to come home for a few weeks, see family, hang out with my friends, hold my sweet puppy dog, and just be home!  Oh I cannot wait!!!  So soon...so so SOON!!

Our little Haitian Christmas tree I absolutely adore!

As I prepare for my time at home, here is what I am most looking forward to during this little vacation from Haiti:

• Seeing my family!! 
• Holding my sweet puppy dog
• Seeing all of my friends and getting to be part of one of their weddings!! I cannot wait for the wedding weekend!
• Good food that I don't have to cook, dishwashers, and all the holiday treats that only come once a year :)
• Worshiping at Grey Stone - I miss my home church so much!
• Giving everyone their Christmas gifts!
• Getting a pedicure
• Washing my clothes in my own washer and dryer!
• Sleeping in my own bed
• Brushing my teeth with cold water from the faucet
• And walking around barefoot without getting grossly dirty feet :)

Before heading home though, we've got a pretty busy weekend ahead of us! HFMS is hosting the KOFAEL Christmas party this Sunday, which I'm also very excited about!! All of the ladies are bringing their kids, we're making sugar cookies for them to decorate, we'll have cake, games, and Christmas fun!  We are going to have a packed house but it is going to be SO much fun!  The ladies will also each get a special Christmas gift that Elisabeth is bringing. They are going to be so excited!!

With one of the KOFAEL ladies at the last meeting!

Well, I should probably get back to working on things here.  Christmas is SO soon!

What are you most looking forward to this holiday season?  

This Just Got Real

Nine days guys.  NINE! I am moving to Haiti in nine days....

Say what?!

Let me wrap my head around that for a minute...

Ok, 9 days. I can do this! I should probably start packing though shouldn't I?  

NINE?!?!!! 

I honestly think I'm still partially in denial that this is happening. My bank account, the room with all my stuff, and my to do list say otherwise, but my brain hasn't quite caught on yet. It feels like I still have weeks left but it's more like a week and a couple of days. yikes!

The past few weeks have been jam packed around here. You've probably noticed a few changes around the blog, right? There are more coming, but please look around and explore!! All the information you'll need on the ministry I'm working with is located up top. Everything you need to know is in one easy to find location now thanks to the incredible designer I hired! Hope you like the new look, I sure do!

Anyways...back to the past few weeks. I have spent the last month or so shopping, picking up donations, crossing off items on the to do list, speaking at churches, and trying to finalize fundraising. It has been crazy, but kind of relaxing too. You all know I love working through details, so this part of the journey has been kind of therapeutic. I just really need to start packing...anyone want to help??

 My only attempts at packing thus far...I have to say these space bags are pretty impressive!  That's a full size quilt, three sets of sheets, two pillows, and three rugs compressed to less than 2 feet tall. 

I had the honor of speaking with two churches so far, and will be speaking at Grey Stone this coming Sunday. What a blessing that has been! For those of you that know me well, you know I hate public speaking. My knees start shaking, my nervous stomach kicks in, my mouth gets dry...yeah not so fun! I've pushed through though, dry mouth and all, and have been beyond blessed both times!! I spoke at Temple Baptist Church in Fayetteville first, and the congregation donated $816 towards my ministry. Through speaking at Temple, I was also put in contact with another donor organization that will donate close to $1,000! What a HUGE blessing that was! Last Sunday, I spoke at Concord Baptist Church in Granite Falls. They as a church gave $750 and individual donations totaled over $600, bringing the total donation that day to almost $1500!! I can't even put into words what a blessing those two churches have been to me. The encouragement from the members, the love, donations...it meant the world to me!! We are also good friends with the pastors at both churches, so it was so nice getting to see old friends and have their support and encouragement as well! Thank you again to both of those churches for having me! Between the two churches, they donated enough to support almost two full months of my time in Haiti. Seriously, what a Blessing!!!!

 Speaking at Temple Baptist Church

 Got to love on this sweet little boy after service.

 

Speaking at Concord Baptist Church.

 

Other than that, life has been pretty normally. I'm trying to take in every second of this gorgeous fall weather, enjoy my favorite American treats, and get in as much time with family and friends as possible while I can.

Overall I am feeling pretty good about this move. There are days where my emotions get the best of me, but I'm finding comfort and peace through Christ. Nights are probably the hardest time for me, as the quiet lets my mind wander aimlessly. If I'm not careful, my worries and what ifs get the best of me, but I've found opening God's word and reading scripture helps me through those harder times. I don't know the specifics of what this journey ahead will hold, but I know it's going to be an amazing year! I'm trusting in God for my strength, patience, wisdom, and courage for this new chapter. He has gone before me, will be there with me, and will go after me. He will sustain me.

Thank you again for all of your support, encouraging words, and most importantly your prayers! I covet your prayers.

 

A sweet gift of encouragement from one of my dear friends.  It meant the world to me!

 

Some specific prayer requests right now:

• My peace of mind before, during, and after my time in Haiti.
• For an easy transition into this new life/culture/climate/etc.
• For safe & timely travels to Haiti.  That all of our luggage would arrive safely and on time.
• For my parents as they experience this first week in Haiti with me, and as they adjust to life with me living Haiti.  Pray for their strength, patience, emotional well-being, and guidance through this year.
• For my fundraising.  I still need to raise around $10,000 for the year.  I know God will provide!
• For the ministry I'll be working with.  Pray that God would guide us on how to minister to the women of Haiti, and the best methods in doing so.  Pray also for the fundraising of the ministry.  We have some big immediate financial needs (inverter, transportation, washing machine, etc) but don't currently have the funding to cover them.
• For calmed nerves and peace of mind as I speak at Grey Stone on Sunday.  Pray that God would give me the right words and that the congregation would be open to supporting my ministry in Haiti.  Pray for my emotional state, as it will most likely be a tear-filled testimony. 

Summer Whirlwind

Sorry to have taken yet another long break from blogging.  This summer has been jam packed with work, fundraising, traveling, visiting old friends, & more!  It has flown by, but here are some pictures from the last few months.

 Jodi came to town for a quick visit!

 Staff trip to Myrtle Beach.

 The girls

 Courtney & me.

 Sisters.

 Barefoot Landing fun with Eliza.

 & with Erin.  We couldn't resist!

 Quick trip to Maryland to visit these beautiful ladies!  A much needed ID5 reunion!

 Fun on the boat.

 Love these girls (and Andrew!)

 Found my future dog.

 Stopped in VA to see Jessica Deen!

 Erin & I got slimmed by the group that raised the most money for my move to Haiti.

 Things got a little messy with Andy.

All done in love of course!

 Held our first fundraiser for Haiti, a Spaghetti Dinner & Silent Auction.

 Family came out to support!

 We had over 200 people attend that evening.  I was so amazed with the support from everyone!

 Raffling off goodies!

Kathleen helped run the Silent Auction table.

It has been such a wonderful summer, I'm not ready for it to end! The next step is to begin planning our next fundraiser.  Thank you again to everyone that donated items for the Spaghetti Dinner!  And thank you to everyone that volunteered and came out in support!  It means the world to have so many people standing behind me as I begin this journey.  Here's to the next few months full of fundraising!