Something Bad Happened.....
It has been only a week since we shared with you our excitement about going to Ghana. So sad to now have to share with you some not so good news: we will no longer be leaving in September for Africa. How can this be? Believe us when we say that we have asked that question more times then can be counted this past week. We have cried, yelled and finally laughed about the craziness of this sudden change of plans. We had root canals for crying out loud!
In short, the program Derek was going to work with in Ghana fell through. Since it is so difficult for the Peace Corps to find placement for married couples and the September deadline for departure is soon approaching, we will not be able to go this time around. We have been in the application process for the Peace Corps for over a year now, and since the beginning we had heard stories from other volunteers of departure dates and destinations being changed and set back numerous times. We were just hoping it wouldn’t happen to us. It makes it especially painful since we had already received an assignment and departure date. As you could tell from our first blog we were extremely excited about the upcoming adventure. We found out the same day of our last posting that everything had gone terribly wrong; however, we are able to say that today we have almost completely bounced back – ALMOST. It was a long hard weekend though.
The Peace Corps said if we wanted to wait there would be a chance to leave in May. Since there would be no guarantee that we would leave in May we have instead decided, after much thought and discussion, to pursue graduate school and then plan to work with Peace Corps again afterwards. The tentative plan is to move to Denver around October and begin attending the Graduate School of International Studies at Denver University in January or April. While we are still disappointed about not going to Africa right now, we are trying to look on the bright side of the situation. We were already planning to attend this program to get our Masters Degrees once we got back from Africa. Now, we are just doing things in reverse order, and hopefully it will work out for the better.
We are trying to trust His timing. There is a reason things have happened this way, even though we don’t understand it right now (it is a wise move to go to school first so that once we get back from working in the Peace Corps we are able to take full advantage of career opportunities, blah, blah, blah – but we want to go to Africa right now). As the saying goes, “We make plans. God laughs.” He doesn’t laugh in a malicious way, but in a way that says “if you just trust me I know what is best for you.” Or perhaps he said, once again, “Silly Missy/Derek, oh silly, silly you. I am smarter then you are.” One day we will probably look back and laugh too. In the mean time we are scrambling to get everything together for school and our move and hoping everything works out.
Our plan is to still work with the Peace Corps once we are done with school as crazy as that may sound. It is in our hearts and plans, so....
We appreciate all the love and prayers from all you. Please continue to remember us in your prayers as we move on to this next challenge in our lives (and move past our disappointment). We are excited about our move to Denver and starting school again. If any of you ever feel like strapping on some snow skis or hiking boots, please come visit us! We will keep this blog (maybe change the name) but won't write too often since, well, Denver is neat, but not Ghana.
We love you all. Thank you for your good thoughts, prayers and support.
