As we get ready to embrace a new fall season and another school year, I started thinking about what Frank and I were doing around this time last year.
Last year in August, I began my last semester of university for my Bachelor’s degree. I was ready to finally have that piece of paper. Despite my best efforts to get senioritis, the overachiever in me wouldn’t let me slack, and I ended up graduating at the top of my class in December.
My gorgeous little sister and I
I don’t attribute this all to me. I had some really great professors that were kind enough to give me second chances when I failed. There was definitely an accounting class in there that I would have failed had my professor not taken the time to work with me individually, and for that I am grateful.
One professor that I think of often was my editing professor. She was hard-as-nails tough, and I’m sure there are editing errors in this blog that make her squirm, but if I had to look back, I’d say that was probably one of my favorite and most memorable classes. I really felt that she respected me and my opinion—something I don’t encounter often enough in the real world.
I also had the grand and surprising opportunity to meet a fellow crunchy mama my first semester at school. She was a young mother/breastfeeding advocate/communications professor, who ended up being my advisor at my request. I enjoyed our advisor meetings since, because I already had my classes figured out, we would end up talking about breastfeeding, midwifery, and other such crunchy topics.
Quite unexpectedly, my last semester actually ended up being the most fun. I’d finally been there long enough to make some good friends, and the feature writing professor I had over the summer convinced me to work for the school newspaper, which published a couple of my pieces and which I had the opportunity to design for a few months. At the paper, I also made a couple of really great friends, one of which asked me to design his book cover—a project which was both extremely fun and flattering.
Around October of last year, Frank and I were trying to decide on our next step in life, and we decided that we wanted to move to Argentina for a year. Our goal was to find host families through HelpX.net where we could experience organic farming and ranch life. Another benefit to this was that we would be living with host families in exchange for work, which meant little cost of living while we were down there and constant immersion in Spanish.
We would have been staying on places like this.
Or this.
Or this.
We originally wanted to leave in March, and spend some time in Buenos Aires for a few months, but decided it would be too expensive. Since Argentina is in the Southern hemisphere, their growing season is the opposite of ours and starts in September. Late February 2012, we decided to postpone our trip until September and got involved in a Maximized Living clinic here in town, where our lives took a different direction.
Here we are, almost in September again, and our lives have taken a totally different path. In June, a doctor at our chiropractic office approached us and said that God had laid it on his heart to tell us Frank should be a chiropractor. We took this very seriously and prayed and prayed about it, and we believe this is the direction God wants us to take. Over the course of our decision-making, we believe that God sent us seven signs—a perfect number. In July, Frank started a Chemistry II class for his prerequisites into chiropractic school.
Over the summer, I also finished my doula certification through DONA International, something I started in November 2010, back when I thought I wanted to become a midwife. After much deliberation, I know now that the midwifery route is not for me.
In the future, I’d really like to teach fertility awareness, and I want to gradually start heading down that path.
To finish, I just want to say that I’m really thankful that God changed our lives in a new direction. Since March, we’ve made a bunch of new friends—many from the Maximized Living community—and they have been such a blessing in our lives. We love seeing their faces and their kids, sharing stories, recipes, ideas for healthy living, and outdoor adventures.
So here’s to a new school year and a new chapter in this life God has given us. And here’s to you all, no matter where you are in life, that it may be full of blessings and joy. And of course, because my heart is with you mamas so much, here’s to YOU and your families and your babies and your babies to come! Love you all. : )
