My Story

I shared my story as the guest speaker today for the Professional Women of Williamson County...

Photo taken by: Jen Henderson

It was about a little over a decade ago that I found myself sitting outside the US Embassy in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.  The Minister of Health and Deputy Chief of Health were playing tug of war in some kind of a power struggle and the lifeline of the project I was charged to lead along with the US State Department was on the line. In just a few short days my team of 35 doctors and volunteers would be arriving.  We were there to bring in a multi million dollar shipment of donated pharmaceuticals, building projects in orphanages and provide medical education in this former republic of the USSR.  I was 23, had been married for just over a year and my furthest travels had included Colorado and Pennsylvania.  

You know… sometimes life surprises you.

Its like a book, but its the story of us.

Each of us is dropped into a unique history, mid story, given our chance to add to it.  Sometimes you can sense the twists and turns of the plot, but as I found out early on, life is not something that always follows to a plan, Its a journey and an adventure if you let it.

It was hard to see at 23 as I sat in the US Embassy…

Stopped in my tracks, my mind was questioning my preparation or even why in the world I was the one currently sitting in this seat.  And it wasn’t just that the Tajik Ministry of Health was trying to unravel the project… this was only one more thing added to having almost missed my flight in Oklahoma City, getting sick in between flights at Washington Dulles, landing in Munich with a fog so dense that our flight to Istanbul was delayed every hour on the hour until after 6 hours, they brought in the police to protect the airlines staff from what was developing into an angry mob.  They then took us out onto the tarmac only to determine something was wrong with the plane and brought said angry non English speaking mob back to the airport.  They finally got a working plane, I loaded up, and fell asleep.  I was awoken, thinking we had landed only to realize we never had left.  There was a terrorist threat on the plane a nice semi English speaking German girl shared.  We all unloaded, grabbed our non bomb toting luggage and loaded the cleared bags back onto the plane.  At this point, I was aware that the twice a week flight out of Istanbul to Dushanbe would be missed, and I am now 5 days stranded in Istanbul and 5 days delayed on getting in country and ready for the State Department and my team.  You can understand my confusion when my luggage was apparently lost, a I myself put it on the plane to prove it was not a threat in the earlier described terrorist threat.  To kill some time, I was given a personal tour of the city which became a little too personal. As we ducked into the underground cistern, he asked me to close my eyes. The big reveal I expected wasn't a view I expected, it was his kisses down my neck. After receiving a marriage proposal in the underground cistern, I was just pleased to make it back to my hotel room unharmed.  Upon finally making it to Dushanbe, the hotel I had worked with over emails and calls had failed to mention they had taken on renovations, and had ceased the use of their elevators, but the “good news” was the 8th floor had been remodeled for my team of mostly retired physicians.  So with less than a week, I was forced to relocate the team, and its not like in Dushanbe there’s just another Hilton down the corner with capacity for 35, but God was gracious and Shamsi, my interpreter, was tenacious and we secured the location with only a few days to spare.  It was fast and furious working from 6am or so to midnight each day.  I had been in country a week or so when The team arrived and the project lasted a couple weeks.  Even on the trip home, I was stopped and asked to step off a plane in Copenhagen… with some confusion about where was my boarding pass, or perhaps it was the money belt I was wearing with $9,999 that had drawn the attention of the flight crew.  

What was a neat and tidy project on paper was quickly re framed to become a journey turned to a pretty extraordinary adventure, to say the least of it.  It is the twists and turns of the adventurous journey  that give the opportunity of great discovery… of ourselves, our passions, and our calling.

Today is a great day to celebrate that.

With the support of your community in this room, we celebrate the opportunity of unlocked potential, not only in your future endeavors, but in who you continue to discover yourselves to be.  

We celebrate the stories of the women here, their successes, and their investment in the future of our community through their daily endeavors and the mantle of encouragement, empowerment and education they carry to create the opportunities for you, me and others.

It was seven years ago that I sat in these chairs as a scholarship recipient.  

At the time, It was just my husband and I and we were putting him through grad school full time and on a single nonprofit income.  But I felt a calling of preparation to get my MBA.  So you can see, it was a step of faith to pursue furthering my education.

Because of my scholarship with the Professional Women of Williamson County, I took that first step, not knowing how it would all happen, and was enrolled in the inaugural class for the Concordia University MBA. It was a rigorous two years, and step by step I was faithfully led with provision, and in 2012 I graduated with a 4.0 GPA earning my MBA with an emphasis in Organizational Leadership and Management, with over half of my education provided for through various scholarships.

I want to pause and give thanks.  To the women in this room who made my first scholarship possible and to those who gave today.  I thank you for your investment.

The grand adventure continues today.  It was actually 8 years ago that I sat in a room much like this at a women’s luncheon in Round Rock.  The guest speaker was the City Manager at the time, and she was sharing about Round Rock and it seems a focus of her presentation landed us on the heavy reliance at the time on the Dell sales tax, which made up something like 40% of the city’s income.  It seemed a little odd at the time when it almost became open mic asking the crowd if there were any questions or suggestions on a solution to decrease the dependence.  It was unconventional, it sounded like crickets chirping, but I’m glad she asked, because you never know what you can put together unless you ask.  

It was right around then that I had read an article from the ABJ about how cities with a thriving young professional community had all of these positive key metrics for the whole community… I also recognized at that time, I was the only person showing up at Chamber functions who happened to be in their twenties.  We had consistent and solid leadership for decades, and with a population boom in the works, I questioned how do we continue a sense of community?  There was so much historical knowledge and an apparent gap in future leadership.  

My brain is one that likes to make connections and it wasn’t a couple of weeks before I met with the president of the chamber with my written proposal of a new program.  I desired to create a program where young professionals would have opportunities to build an annual program around the issues they are concerned about in the community, bringing in the leaders in education, infrastructure, entrepreneurship and other areas and learn from their experience. To learn from each others journeys and together meld a future generation of leadership for our community.  Our graduates and current class are spectacular people, making some of the best of our community, and so it doesn’t surprise me that some are in this group and room today as part of this wonderful cause.  

I’m so proud that they are taking what they experience, the relationships they develop and are giving back to their community,  whether that's active in the School PTA or serving on the School Board in Round Rock and one here in Georgetown.  We have others who invest their talents in leading great community efforts like the Community Foundation and others serving on City Council.  I think my dream someday would see this program expand so that we can offer similar opportunities to young professionals from all backgrounds across all of Williamson County.  

This was and continues to be such a big part of my adventure, and I’ll tell you what you already know.  Its why you’re here.  Because we recognize that life is so much bigger than ourselves.  The investment in others is a greater calling and an investment in our community.  You have invested in me and the young ladies here today, and in some part we’re all part of the grand adventure now.

Today my education and the experiences it has afforded continue to play a vital role not only in my community work, but also professionally and personally.

In May it will be my honor to have served on staff at Texas Baptist Children’s Home and for Children At Heart Ministries for 9 years.  As part of the twists and turns of any grand adventure, I find myself serving at the very children’s home I lived at when I was 5 years old when my family served as staff.  I have the unique perspective of memories as a child in cottage 5.  It was on the playground, around the dining room table and in the playroom that many of the virtues and values I hold today were formed.  It is where I realized that the children in my cottage were no different than me, other than my family was intact and theirs was not.  It also gives me the incredible perspective when talking with volunteers and donors that I can say specifically that I know in 25 years your gift will still be giving. So today, my MBA is helping over 145 children and single mothers find they are embraced, empowered and equipped to thrive for a promising future.  We were able to launch a brand new tour in January unlike anything we’ve done before, setting a goal of 2 per month and 230 guests for the year.  We have just had our 19th tour, hosted 229 guests, and 26 groups lined up through dates into September to come and be part of The Heart of The Home Experience.

Personally, education has afforded me the perspective shift of how I define myself to move from what I do, to who I am and what I am to be.  I pray that for each of us as we recognize to greater and greater extents of who we are called to be.  

You know how Oprah used to have those “Life Classes”? I feel in some sense my life has been an intensive lately.  18 months ago my  second son was born.  Infertility was the first battle overcome.  He was born with two ear deformities that required correction.  He also seemed to have a bit of reflux, and that's putting it lightly as if he wasn’t eating or sleeping, he was all out screaming...for months and months.  After a double ear infection, he was treated with antibiotics and gave opportunity to contract C-diff. A bacteria that colonizes and eats away at the lining of the intestines.  It is hard to battle, and there were times in the last year that I thought I was going to lose my son as his growth stalled and he slipped off the growth charts.  It was months of treatment, compounded with a case of salmonella to boot.  With the delay in his growth came delays in his development, and we sought the help of professionals in occupational, physical and speech therapies.  The turnaround was slow, and we began to pick up steam only for a freak accident at home when his feet got tangled in a lamp cord, pulling the lamp down and breaking his finger and getting 7 stitches.  As he has been healing, another freak accident happened and my husband fractured his fibula and has required surgery.

I share from my personal experience only to say… I find it's also part of the grand adventure.  For each of our stories, there will be hardships, failures and trials.  They too are part of the education of life.  The experience has the opportunity to create feelings of isolation.  As much as it may seem contrary, we can embrace these times.  It is a time of self discovery and reflection… The opportunity to explore virtue, patience, kindness, love, self control, discernment and enduring peace and joy.  It's where we learn a deeper ability to relate and the strength and power of our story can be built as an encouragement to others.  It is where our own calling can be rooted, established and more deeply founded. And to be fully honest, if you’re like me you can harness your natural frustration with it all into some very productive cleaning…

But these are the  experiences that build the stories of our lives.  We celebrate the victories. We embrace the losses. It does not happen in a bubble or isolation.  We realize that with each day, each breath breathed, every word spoken, every action taken, we are adding to that history we were placed into.  These not only further our own chapters, but intentionally or inadvertently we are writing onto the pages of our families, our neighbors, our coworkers, and our community’s story.   

So own your adventurous journey. Live today like the moment you’ve been preparing for. Invest in today's opportunities and its people… Discover your calling. And over our lives, these journeys we take and the adventures we share will be the heritage of our families and the fabric of our communities.

Thank you.