there is hope.

In the past two days my faith in humanity and the true goodness of people has been revived. Additionally, I am thanking God for the true blessings He has recently rained down here in Oregon.

T, a loving and energetic woman who works for our campus dining company, has recently experienced a MAJOR family emergency. She is unable to afford a ticket to get home to the Philippines to be with her daughter (the injured party) much less afford to take the time off of work. The situation is dire enough, however, that she can't afford not to go.

The word about this went out to the students, faculty and staff and I am f.l.o.o.r.e.d by the out pouring of love and generosity from the campus community. Within a day and a half we had more than enough money to buy a ticket. And, as if that wasn't enough, the Lord helped someone step forward and donate an entire airline ticket through his frequent flier miles. More than $1300 has been collected and will be used to assist with the additional expenses and medical care. The money is still rolling in steadily and there has been the promise of more upon the return of many who are currently away for spring break. The abundance of God's work continues to bring tears to my eyes and joy to my heart.

I often get frustrated about the politics and practices etc. at the university. However, this is exactly the type of community I want to be a part of in my job. I have fallen in love with the WU family this week and T is going to be with her daughter by the end of this weekend. It is really amazing what can happen when everyone gives.

Keep it up. Pay it forward. Thank you WU. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Can anyone say double standard?

I was faced with a big sister reality this week. We all know that I'll take off gallivanting around the world anytime and not worry too much about it. And I've discovered that when my friends or students head abroad I'm nothing but excited for (and somewhat jealous of) them.

However, when my "baby" brother Nick (20) announced that he was heading to London over his spring break, I instantly started to worry. I was happy that he had decided to start traveling as he's always been a homebody, but dang... those big sister instincts sure did kick in.

He left this past Friday and we had a nice phone conversation before he took off... I was giving him some last minute (solicited) advice and that led to an "in case of an emergency, here are some options for you..." speech. After I'd given a few examples he started laughing and pointed out the statistical likelihood of my "possible scenarios." Maybe it's because I do too much work with risk management, maybe it's because I've found myself in situations that were a little sketchy while traveling or maybe it's because Nick has always had a wild streak to him. In any case, I was feeling protective and worried.

Upon further reflection I remembered that I had those same feelings when Dan (my other baby brother, 24) trekked across the country this past summer to move to a new state (approximately 5 months after I did the same thing).

I am so grateful for both of my younger brothers and love them dearly. Even though they are intelligent and completely capable men, I still get protective. I can only imagine what it'll be like if I ever have kids... heaven help them.