Farewell to Durham

Today marks the end to 23 months of full time employment in Durham. It is certainly a bittersweet goodbye. I landed this job right after finishing up at Meredith and have had a blast teaching nutrition classes in elementary schools around downtown. My coworkers and supervisor, especially, have been a huge blessing. I've been spoiled - my team loves what they do, watch out for each other, don't slack off, and give grace where grace is needed. I've had the flexibility to have a life outside of work, but enough work and continuing ed to keep me growing and engaged. They took a chance on a brand new RD, just 23 years old and trained her, patiently and with great encouragement, into a "seasoned" Public Health Nutritionist.

The past 2 years have changed me in so many ways, and this job has been a huge part of where I'm headed. Public health, working to improve the lives of women and children in underserved populations, specifically concerning infant feeding and prenatal nutrition are the areas I want to pour in to. Some of you have know me for quite a while and can attest to my longstanding passion for motherhood. I am awed with the shape that this passion is expressing itself through, how God is guiding me to use the things that I am most excited about for the benefit of many. I'll be meeting my classmates and faculty (a whole swarm of like-minding folks!) at a potluck on Sunday, will go to the School of Public Health orientation Monday, and start classes Tuesday. I've already been notified of reading assignments to do for my International Maternal and Child Health class on Wednesday :-)

August has been a beautiful month, most notably this past weekend which was spent with Chas and his fellow Anathoth Community Garden interns in Tuckaseegee. David Hamilton's (Chas's summer roommate) family owns several hundred acres not too far from Brevard and they invited us to come hang out with them there. We hiked, went swimming in Paradise under a most impressive waterfall, rode horses, played and sang and danced to bluegrass (just the dancing part for me), had a deck tennis tournament, played disk golf, ate a ton of fabulous home-grown food, bundled up around the campfire at night, and took cat naps on blankets during the day. You must check out the pictures!

I'm packing Katelyn up for her return trip to Australia on Thursday, which will be proceeded by her mission trip to the Phillipines. I am so excited for her, but will really miss her again this fall! Right now she plans to return in December and will have lots of pictures and stories to share, I hope! Then I will be directing a wedding this weekend for Cara Smith (coworker and good friend) in Chapel Hill! Whew!

Last note, if you're still hanging on - I'm incredibly excited to get to hang out with Bob and Carolyn Jacobsen at some point this month while they are in Greensboro. Bob and Carolyn are the directors of Good Shepherd's Fold Orphanage (GSF) in Jinja, Uganda that I lived at during the summer of 2006. I would love your prayers as I am beginning to make arrangements to return over my Christmas break. My hope is #1 to love on, laugh with, and encourage my dear friend Jaclyn (see post below), bring your stories and pictures and hugs to the sweet children and missionaries at GSF, and see if I can link up with some of the local breastfeeding and Maternal and Child Health initiatives for a mini project. I'll be investigating connections UNC has in Uganda as soon as I start classes.