Saturday, July 25, 2009

Smitten with the Mitten

As you have probably heard by now, Mike and I are officially moving to Grand Rapids, Michigan!

The original plan was to be here for the summer, then head back to Philadelphia to get an MSW degree so that I'd be qualified to jump into some anti-trafficking work. Well, after arriving here, we've been overwhelmed by opportunities to get involved right now. It's a very long story, but, essentially, after processing all of the things we felt God teaching us the last six months, it became clear that Grand Rapids is the next step in our lives. If you want the long story, give us a call.

I'm still enjoying my internship with The SOLD Project, and we're saving money to visit Thailand for two weeks in January with the organization. Also, I interviewed with Women at Risk International and will volunteer with them each week. Also, we just met with a small group helping brainstorm for fundraising with The Hope Project, a forthcoming safe-house here in Michigan for children rescued from sexual exploitation. Yep, it's here in West Michigan, too. We are hoping this is a start of an opportunity for Heather to be involved full-time in this area of ministry. At the very least, within two weeks of living here, we've already met four other 20-something girls in Grand Rapids who have a heart for human trafficking!

Mike is really enjoying his work with Dot&Cross. He mostly works with Josh Shipp, who gives quality advice that is "in your face, but on your side" to teens. Check out the blog Mike is managing at HeyJosh.com. I'm also assisting Amy with her photography business and loving all the time she is getting to hang out with her awesome sister!

We are moving at the end of August into a house in Heritage Hill, the circa 1900's neighborhood in downtown Grand Rapids. Our new home is part of a large house transformed into apartments in the 1940's. It has beautiful hardwood floors and original crown-molding. The best part is that Mike can walk to work!

Interesting side note: Rumor has is Gerald Ford (who just so happened to be born in Omaha) lived in our house from 1948-1950. My Wikipedia research reveals that this would make it his first home with Betty after their marriage. I'm guessing their firstborn caused them to move out in 1950. (David informs us that many Grand Rapids locations claim such status, so we're looking into it.)

We've already been loving our time with David and Amy, not to mention their two cats, Pegasus and Other Kitty. We are so thankful for the opportunity to be with them and get to know our brother and sister even better. They have been more than generous in helping us get settled (and introducing us to the best local Thai and Indian food!), and we don't even know where to begin repaying them. For updates on David and Amy, visit their respective blogs at jumpdavidjump.com and blog.amywenzel.com

We'll be visiting the Philadelphia area (and getting our stuff from storage) during the third week of August. We'd love to see you! Please shoot us an e-mail at colletto.heather@gmail.com if you'd like to get together with us.

P.S. - Philly friends, if you know of anyone or organization who needs some furniture or books for whatever reason, please let us know.

1 comments:

John Patton said...

You make it sound like it is actually easy to get ahold of you guys.