FAQs

What does your Blog Title Mean?

My blog title is a quotation from my favorite poet Emily Dickinson. I like that particular poem because it talks about the power of Hope. This power was made very real to me in my summers in Eastern Europe through the eyes of children who had very little to look forward to. Many were dying, many were alone and many were in pain, yet they dreamed and hoped and believed. As a Christian, I find great comfort in the word Hope because it implies not only a future here on earth but also an eternal future.

Why do you always talk about Romania? Why Eastern Europe?

I spent the Summer of 2004 and then again in 2007 in Romania. I spent the summer of 2005 in Belarus. As for why I got interested in EE??? :::blink, blink::: Why not? I have no idea why really. Feel free to ask God. What I know is when I was in sixth grade, it was the only country left after everyone else had picked their nations for our geography projects. I picked mine last because I was being tutored at home as I was recovering from bilateral femur osteomonies (ow). During the same Winter some family friend gave me a Russian history book, I read it cover to cover because I was so bored at home. In college when I took Human Rights and did a project on abandoned and disabled children in Eastern Europe. The project broke my heart and I spent the next two summers in Romania and then Belarus and then went back to Romania this past summer.

I want to go to Romania!!!Or overseas?!?!

Check out some of my links. World Vision is a great organization, I went to Romania with them. So is SIM (Hope For AIDS), they are on my list of possible career organizations. Also if you happen to be a college student, check out Baptist Campus Ministries of NC (you dont have to be Baptist to apply). They have an AMAZING summer missions internship program that sends students all over the world every summer for FREE. I went to Belarus with them. Feel free to comment and ask me questions. I love talking about missions!

Why Med School? Why not Seminary or Divinity School? Or Social work?

Ha. Well that is a long story. The short version goes something like this. I have an extremely rare chronic illness. I spent my early childhood and preteen years hating doctors and hating biochemistry both of which I felt had failed me. Somewhere in the mist of my crazy high school years I decided if you can’t beat em join them. I majored religion in college though and more than toyed with the idea of going Div school or social work grad school instead. But in the end I was drawn to medical school for reasons I still do not fully understand. Likewise I had little to no trouble getting into medical school despite being a mutant-gimp and took this as a sign. I knew that missions and disabled children were in my future, I just didn’t know what path to service I was meant to take.

After you finish medical school what do you want to do with your life?

Complete a Pediatrics (Kid doctor!) residency (or possibly some other type of residency), be hired by a MedSend missions organization and work overseas with disabled folks.

Um…the word missionary sort of makes me want to run and hide…can you explain what you mean by that?

Its hard to explain exactly what being a missionary will mean. I think that is a evolving spiritual and emotional journey that I can get back to you on in about a decade… BUT I can tell you what it DOESN’T mean and what I think it might mean. It does not mean passing out tracts or even bibles. It does not mean stuffing my religion on anyone. It does not mean preaching hellfire on street corners. It also does not mean destroying beautiful pre-existing cultures. I think it will mean working for justice for disabled people and children (espeically orphans) and human rights in general. I think it will mean standing up for those who can’t stand for themselves. I think it will mean loving people and serving them. I think it will mean engaging others and other cultures in faith related dialogue where we can learn about each other. Lastly I think it will mean living in community with other Christians and others around me. I believe that these things are a reflection of the Christ’s ministry. Hope that clears up in misconceptions.
What is Kniest and who are these Kniestians that you keep talking about?

I have an extremely rare genetic illness known as Kniest Dysplasia. It causes dwarfism, moderate to severe osteoarthritis (the kind old people get) , nearsightness and hearing loss. It is caused by a messed protein that makes up cartilage. Imagine if cartilage is a sock that covers your bone and collagen is the yarn that your body uses to knit the sock. My yarn is defective. To top off my medical side show status. I am also well beyond the 4′10 cut off for a little person. My sister who shares my dark sense of humor wanted me to call this site the Life of the Tallest Dwarf in the World. But I refrained because I would never want to offend the remarkable Little People I know and love who might not share my unusual sense of humor. So I suppose if we want to be technical I have a VARIANT of Kniest Dysplasia. Kniestians are folks with Kniest. A friend and I created the term when we were in middle school. Feel free to check out www.ksginfo.org for more information.

I am a parent or individual with Kniest or a similar disability and I would really like to contact you, how can I?

If you have Kniest, SED or SMD feel free to seek me out through the yahoo groups (go to yahoo groups and search). Otherwise leave a comment with your e-mail and I will send you my contact information.

I love your blog! I want one! How do I make one?

I started off on Livejournal.com which is still my first love. But wanted some more options so I bought a domain from mydomain.com for 8 dollars a year. I use wordpress which is an awesome program. If you go to wordpress.com you can get a free blog. I also want to think my amazing webmaster who used her techie genius skills to get me up and running!

Can you explain this whole religion thing to me?

Sure, e-mail me and we can discuss. I prefer to talk about my faith on a one on one basis.