I had the opportunity to be in Iowa this week. To connect with my grandmother briefly, have long talks by the fire with heart-sisters, and to meet the incredible team at Vi Bella Jewelry. We brainstormed ideas, put together future jewelry collections, and marveled in how God would weave a girl like me, a girl whose heart began to grow as a child in the Iowa corn fields, into the fabric of this beautiful company.
I marveled at how God had called me to place that felt so much like home. Because it always has been.
Iowa is the place of my roots. The land that I love. The landscape where memories stretch as far as the dirt road ahead of me. It is where I learned to marvel at creation and where I took my first big fall in the feedbunks. Where I learned the painful process of healing.
Iowa is where I began. And it’s where I’m returning, at least in my heart.
On my last night in Iowa I got to lean in close and listen to Jennifer Lee share her passion and love for Haiti. I listened close to the stories of children receiving bicycles and women making jewelry and the tin yards and market, and I squeezed her daughter Lydia Lee’s hand in awe of what one young girl can do with enough courage and resolve to make a difference.
A girl with a heart big enough to stretch across the ocean.
I fell in love with Haiti that last night. In the living room of my friend Jennifer. In Iowa.
It all seems to make perfect sense to me. That God would do things that way.
And so through tear-streaked cheeks, I ask you to lean in to listen to Jennifer, too.
To read about how WE can reach across an ocean and make a difference.
A real difference, one person and one piece of jewelry at a time.
