Meeting in the Middle

Focus, the company Ryan worked for in the Philippines, sponsers young adults and gives them scholarships so they can go to University and have a chance at a real job when they probably wouldn't have been able to have that opportunity otherwise. I was grateful for the opportunity to find these young adults and get them set up and enrolled in school for Focus. How awesome it is to see how this can not only better their lives but the lives of their entire family. One of these scholarships went to one of our dear friends, a very dedicated, very hard working, motivated young lady who is the oldest of 6. She rocked the scholarship, never taking it for granted, getting some of the highest grades in her class, and loved every thing she learned. She would always come over and be very excited to share with Ryan and I all the different things she was learning in her classes and how much she enjoyed learning it. This year she had this amazing opportunity to do work experience in her field abroad. Abroad could be anywhere from Singapore, New Zealand, Canada or the US. She ended up being placed in a Golf Resort in New York City! She passed her embassy interview and was on a plane not more then 2 weeks later for adventure. As she's been working, supporting her family and trying to save for herself, she was able to come up with enough money for a round trip to Utah so she could see the Salt Lake City Latter-day Saint Temple and meet the man who is responsible for her scholarship and thank him. We told her that whenever that ticket was booked we would 100% make that drive down to Utah and be her tour guides. Well that finally happened. Tonight at 10:30pm Marytle landed in Salt Lake City where Ryan and I picked her up, took her home and went straight to bed. Yes, we are totally party poopers! But in our defence we had just drove 15 hours to get there to meet her, with our 3 kids. I think that's exhausting.

We made it to Ry's Aunts house early in the afternoon and spent the afternoon letting the kids burn off some major pent up energy and chatting with Ryan's family. That evening we took the kids to Ry's youngest cousins musical which he was in; Cinderella. The kids were hyper excited to see and spend some time with Ryan's cousins and wasted no time getting friendly. We raced home from the play, put the kids to bed and sped to the airport to greet Martyle. Listening to her chat away about all her different experiences so far after we moved back to Canada, her excitement as she related stories from when she found out she passed her embassy exam and would be headed to New York and how many hugs I was getting from her made that 15 hour drive completely worth it!! Here's to a great weekend.