Let's Start at the Very Beginning....

Two. Weeks.

TWO WEEKS from today I will be on a plane to Haiti.  Miami to Haiti - 2 hours, 700 miles, and a world away.

It really doesn't seem real....and yet, I know so clearly that it is where I am to be.

I am going to Haiti to live and work as a nurse.  How did this come to be?  I'd love to tell you!

If you've talked to me at all within the past 4 years and the topic of conversation was the future and "what's next?" (every college student's favorite question...) you likely heard me mention Mercy Ships, a mission that brings health care to the coast of West Africa through a huge boat-turned-hospital. I first heard about Mercy Ships in high school, and have dreamed about working as a nurse on that ship ever since.  Since the Mercy Ship application requires two years of nursing experience, it's been my plan all throughout these past two years of working as a medical/surgical nurse (my two-year anniversary would be in October!) that I would just get the required experience and then go.  I had a plan.

So how did Africa become Haiti?

Good question.

If anything, I sense now that God used my interest in Mercy Ships to keep missions on the forefront of my mind and my pursuits for all these years.  But I realized this past spring that Mercy Ships had been exactly that - my pursuit.  It became my quick answer to the "what's next" question that was so faithfully asked. And while I was wrestling with this realization and questioning whether Mercy Ships was really what I was meant to do, God was already at work putting Haiti on my heart.

More out of curiosity than anything, I began searching out information on Haiti, starting with the Google search, "Where is Haiti?"  Seriously.  I'll be the first to admit that my geography skills are nothing to brag about. (Insert pause now for anyone else who doesn't know where it is. See map HERE).  The more I searched, the more I learned, the more I began feeling the Holy Spirit tug at my heart.  All the while, I still begrudgingly tried to hold on to my plan.  I figured I could do a short-term missions trip to Haiti, you know, to get some exposure to third-world living to prepare me for Africa.  My plan, Africa.  Somewhere during the process, though, I accepted that God was leading me to Haiti.  I felt peace, and I knew.  I didn't know when, or where, or how, but I knew it would be soon.  And soon it was!  In early August, through a series of divine "coincidences" I was suddenly made aware of an organization in Haiti that was looking for a nurse.  (Enter scene: Children of the Promise).  Within hours of contacting a missionary there (Shout out to Erin!) we were talking about what next steps to take in order for me to be there.  After a few more e-mails, video chats, and a week of backpacking in the Montana Wilderness (thanks God!), I knew this was the place.  God orchestrated all the details - I just got to watch in awe as He put it all together!

I don't know what is ahead, but I know God is leading me there...and not because I can do anything.  Really, I am not going to be impressing anyone. The culture, the language, being a nurse for children....nothing will be familiar.  But I am excited to learn.  I know that Haiti is God's tool to change my heart and to help me grow.  I know God is sending me there so that He can amaze me!

And I can't wait.