I found this on my desktop. It's a blog post I wrote as soon as we'd arrived in NY for Aaron's first year of grad school. Somehow I never posted it. I thought it was worth posting. It makes a perfect opener to sharing what's next in store for us as Aaron finishes grad school this summer! More to come. First, please reflect with me on the beginning of our journey!
So we here we are in New York City where Aaron will begin a
dual degree for a Masters in Public Policy and Public Administration. It’s a
two year program that will be one year in NYC and one year in Sao Paulo Brazil.
Many of you who read this blog know how we arrived at the decision to go to
grad school but some may not, so it’s worth a blog entry!
Three years ago (currently
5 years ago) we started grappling with the idea of grad school for Aaron.
When we lived in Brazil before, we worked with college students who were
essentially the elite of society. We were very burdened by the needs of the
society as well as the personal needs of Brazilians. We wanted to return to the
US to get training in how to tend to those needs. We weren’t sure what that
would look like initially, but after a couple years of being back, we began to
catch a vision for a holistic ministry. We want to establish a center or NGO
(non governmental organization) agency where we can help churches, government,
and nonprofit agencies to work together in collaboration to tackle needs within
a community.
In light of that, we felt like Aaron getting formal
education in public policy/administration emphasizing on international
development would be a great asset. This vision was increasingly becoming more
of a defined call of God on our lives. So Aaron began studying for entrance
exams for grad school and started researching schools that had programs to fit
this long term goal.
Our intention was to go begin
grad school in Fall of 2009. That spring Aaron changed jobs from Neighborhood
Revitalization Coordinator for the city of Grand Prairie, TX to Grants Planner
for the city of Arlington, TX. If we were to leave for grad school in the fall,
Aaron would only be able to serve in that role for 9 months. This along with
learning that we were expecting our first born in May of 2009 made us decide to
put school off until fall of 2010. Aaron was thriving in his role with the city
of Arlington, and we loved being able to birth our firstborn around the support
of an incredible community. When Austin was 5 months old, we learned he was
going to be a big brother! The new baby would be due in August of 2010.
Immediately our plans were pushed back. There was no way we could birth a baby,
move cities, and start grad school in one month. A very clear memory from that
time for me was asking Aaron if he was disappointed that we would not be able
to attend grad school that fall. He said with great confidence, “I would much
rather have another baby than start grad school right now.” I knew God had
prepared us for this little gift growing within me!
On with the story…during a trip
to Brazil in January of 2010 Aaron discovered Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV).
It’s the top Public Administration school in Brazil. He was inquiring about
attaining a degree from them as we were in the process of exploring how and
when we would return to Brazil to live. He learned during that visit that FGV
had a partnership with Columbia University where he’d study for one year in NYC
at Columbia and then one year in Sao Paulo at FGV. For the next year, we researched, prayed, explored,
prayed, visited, prayed, applied, and prayed some more about where to go to
school. The actual decision is a lengthy blog post in itself, but it was very
clear to us one Sunday Morning early May 2011 that we were to go to
Columbia/FGV. Aaron was awesome in including me in this entire process and we
were totally on the same page with this adventure we are embarking on!
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