The last eight years have been epic. So much work has been accomlished.

When I came to Haiti, I had a dream of helping a few mothers be able to earn enough of an income to keep their children. Eight years later and more has been accomplished than I ever could have imagined.

People are working, sending their kids to school, building homes, learning English, learning computer skills, staying with their babies, affording weddings, traveling to the United States to show off their creative skills, and becoming more than they or I ever imagined.

I have been sitting in a place of abundance.

It has not been without trials. Some self-inflicted. Some by chance.

The road has been hard. I have grown stronger. And I have been blessed.

This summer I had a chance to get out of Haiti for a few months and see how the business could run without my hovering over everything. They did it. It is such a proud moment to be able to step back and realize that all your hard work and perseverance has led to empowerment.

The goal is being accomplished.

Giving people the opportunity to step into their talents and callings is amazing. It feels like I have a hundred children who are always graduating. I couldn’t be more proud. They have taken the opportunities and have run with it.

With their ability to do more and more, it makes me able to see new opportunities for business expansion as well as realizing some of the attention that needs to be turned towards my children at this point in their lives.

I have been having a hard time finding the right “fit” for my four kids  for education and in some ways am just hobbling by as I try to run a business and homeschool four different grades at once. It is going ok but it is not the “best” for my kids. The time has come to give my kids the opportunities that they have been without their whole lives. None of my kids have ever lived in the USA except for summer visits. I want them to experience school, friends, sports, holidays and be introduced to “America” before they go off to college and start their own journeys.

I also want to see what I can do in terms of further developing the business with presence in the states.

For all of these reasons, I will be transitioning with my family to Washington state at the beginning of November.

My oldest daughter will be able to finish out middle school this year before hitting a highschool of 2000 kids next year. (Yikes!)  It will be a bit of a shock I am sure.

I will be traveling a lot still- spending one week of the month in Haiti (and leading teams to come and see the work we are doing) as well as spending my summers in Haiti. I am not LEAVING. I am just growing with the company’s needs and my family’s current needs.

It took me a while to come to this decision- and not without a lot of tears and heartache. Haiti is where I belong. It is in my blood. My children are Haitian. Everyone I know and have lived with for eight years is Haitian.

But now is the time to spread the wings even further, let my kids spread their wings as well and see where we fly. It is going to be good. And it will be full of abundance.

I will be opening a small storefront in Olympia, Washington just in time for the Christmas season this year. I want to see the viability of having a brick and mortar location in the states as well as warehousing capabilities for online retail growth. I have so many plans for future growth and am so excited to see how this next chapter will allow me to keep living in that blessing of creating jobs and empowerment opportunities for my Haitian friends who so desperately need it.

Onward and Upward!

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