A Letter to anyone I've ever known...
- Dec 2, 2025
- 11 min read
Hello from California!
If you're reading this, I want to start off by saying thank you. Thank you for investing in me enough to take the time out of your busy day just to hear what I have to say. It honestly means the world to me. I write this as I sit on the roof of the house we're renting for the week with the One ATTA Time team. I can see the Pacific ocean. The California sun warms my skin and the Pacific breeze smells like salt and freedom. I'm grateful for this moment to reflect on the year that's passed and the year that's coming. If you're reading this, well I haven't written an update in a while, so this might be new to you unless we've talked in person. I'll do my best to briefly catch you up in a moment. But first, I want to take a moment to thank God for all the opportunities He's given me to work with some amazing organizations. I am nothing if not constantly humbled that He has allowed me to be a part of this work. I want you to know, it isn't only something I am a part of, but something I feel uniquely called to - and God continues to show up and prove to me that I am on the right path. For the things he has called us to, He will bring us to. If he calls us somewhere, He has already been there and laid the path - if may we just continue to walk it.
I moved from Florida to Virginia in October of 2023. In November of 2023 I joined my first fundraising campaign in California with One ATTA Time. This is my 3rd year returning. To see more about the work we've done, check out some of my previous blog posts here. I appreciate these trips because they have allowed me to really focus on what God has for me in the next season, while simultaneously being ever-present on helping this amazing organization raise money and awareness to the work they are doing.
If you don't already know, One ATTA Time exists to provide clean water to families and communities with significant lack of resources. By doing so, we are reducing the amount of diseases, bacteria, and parasites in drinking water - which directly impacts the survival rates of children in developing countries.
I have been working in Central America consistently for the past 3+ years. I fell in love and knew God was calling me to this type of work the first time I stepped foot into a Central American country when I went as a Registered Nurse to Guatemala with the Liberty University School of Medicine in 2016. I can remember meeting intimately with God on top of a mountain in Guatemala when he whispered to me - "this is the work I'm preparing you for, but it's not time yet". I will never forget this moment of confirmation and I've been chasing this dream alongside God ever since.
I went again in 2022 to do medical clinics off the coast of Guatemala. But for the 6 years I was away, God continued to put the desire to serve in that capacity on my mind almost every single day. Like an awake dream that just played in the back of my mind on repeat - I couldn't escape it. Nights spent wandering how I would get back or what I was going to do kept me awake. But more importantly during this time, He was preparing my heart. He was sanctifying me, testing me, and growing my resolve in ways that I would need in the coming years. Then the trip to Guatemala with Extra Mile Pediatrics in July 2022 turned the quiet torch I’d been carrying into a full-on inferno. God had been preparing me for this moment and he would use this moment to plant another dream - another vision. This time something specific.
Maybe that sounds dramatic, but ever since that trip I have fought to return as much as possible. And God has so graciously allowed me to do so many more times than I would have been able to alone. He has used the times I am in-country to plant seeds of ideas, whisper thoughts, start dreams - but he has used the times I have been away to water those seeds, given me the space and time to be with Him while He shows me His vision for those kids and communities, and He has gently nurtured me and pushed me in the direction I needed to go.
He pushed me to leave Florida in 2023, which opened the door for me to work even larger with the special needs and medically fragile community. Prior to, I had some experience with this, but after following Him to Virginia I met more kids that impacted and changed my trajectory for this type of work than I ever could have imagined.
These kids might have thought I was helping them; but what they will never know is how much they changed me, how much they made me into the person I am today, and how because of them I will never stop fighting for kids with special needs and giving a voice to the voiceless.
I no longer work in that job, but I still think about those kids every day. I wonder how they're doing, what trials they're facing, what challenges they're rising above. And while I might not be a part of their everyday life, they will always be a part of mine. If any of you are reading this - I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me be a part of your lives, even if it was just for a short time. None of you are forgotten and I will carry you with me wherever I go. And know that I am always here if you ever need anything.
So what is it that I'm doing now?
I'm starting a special needs ministry in El Salvador for medically fragile kids who need access to physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, or the likes. I am also creating a safe space where families of special needs can find love, healing, and acceptance. After seeing what resource are available in a country that has everything, I want to bring similar resources to kids that have nothing. While I know kids in the US still fight for the resources they have available to them, to know that areas exist where the same kids if born in another country, would have nothing breaks my heart. The reality is that many kids in countries like El Salvador or Guatemala don't survive with these types of conditions due to lack of resources. I'm seeking to change this, one by one.
This is the seed that's been planted and growing ever since July of 2022 and a calling that God was building on since 2016 (and maybe even before that if I'm honest with myself)
I am currently raising support to be able to do this full-time. I work a hospital job that will allow me to maintain my employment status and travel back and forth to pick up shifts when I can, or when I need to work for more funds. But my ultimate goal is to be able to do this full-time. I am also continuing to volunteer with One ATTA Time and my hope with them is to streamline some of their hygiene education materials for communities receiving clean water, implement anti-parasitic treatment protocols in communities receiving clean water filters, and to collect data to measure how access to clean water and hygiene education improves overall community health.
I have big goals and big dreams - God given dreams - but I can't do it alone. I plan to start small, with just a handful of kids that would benefit from this type of support. I will evaluate them, get them assessed by a physical therapist, speech therapist, occupational therapist - whatever they need - help develop a treatment plan, and then implement that plan by meeting them in the communities that they live. We will do therapy in houses or churches, where ever God allows us. I believe that if we are doing the work and following God, He will give us exactly what we need.
But my long-term goal - the goal that if money wasn't an object and I could make it happen without question - is a therapy center. A place where kids can come and be loved on and cared for, a place where they can receive therapy that will impact their quality of life, but also a place of community and growth. A place of healing from the trauma of a world telling them something is wrong with them because they have special needs. I know this will take time. But it all starts with one. It starts with identifying a few kids with these needs and providing for them the best way I can, and watching God grow it from there.
But here's the reality, I can't do it alone. I need your help to make this dream a reality. I need support. I need people that believe in me, believe in this mission, believe that God is using me, and believe that these kids deserve it.
If I am able to this work full-time, kids just like these will get the support they need to thrive. I was able to bring a stroller to a 10 year old girl who lived her entire life in an infant stroller. When I gave it to this beautiful family, they told me they had prayed for 10 years for it.
My small step of obedience that day was the miracle they had been praying her entire life for. God uses even the smallest steps of obedience to change lives and this is just one example.
The little boy I wrote about here in detail and I encourage you to read if you haven't. But I was able to bring him a walker and see the miracle of him taking his first steps.
If I am able to do more of this work, more kids like this will live happy, full lives and more families will be restored and see God's goodness amidst great challenges. In a world that has told kids like these they don't matter, I want to show them that they matter to me and they matter to God.
If we haven't spoken in a while, know that I haven't forgotten about you. I've just had my head buried in forming this vision God has given me and have been taking steps to make it become a reality. I've moved so many times, lived and traveled to many places, changed jobs more times than I can count, but it's all been worth it. Sometimes because of that, it's hard to keep up with people. Because of that, I have the unique ability of feeling like I can fit in anywhere and at the same time no-where at all. God has been preparing me for this. Because home isn't in a house, or a place, but in the people you surround yourself with. I have been given the blessing of feeling at home in many corners of the world and if we've spent any time together, I'm so grateful you have been a part of that. The next time I see you or we talk, just know that you're a piece of this beautiful tapestry.
Home is the place I long for when I am away and the place I seek to return to when I'm gone. It's both here, there, and no-where. It lives in the memories of friends, kids, loved ones, people who have changed my life, and experiences I will never forget. But I'm grateful for every single one of them and I'm grateful for whoever is reading this because you're a part of it too.
If you want to support my mission and this vision God has been preparing me for, please reach out. Call, text, email, join my mailing list, donate if you can, pray for me, pray for the kids who's lives I haven't met yet that will be changed, pray for resilience, pray that I will continue to be used by God and know that you can be used by God just the same.
If you want more information about my work, explore the website or please ask me directly. I am happy to talk to anyone who wants to know more.
In order to make this sustainable, I am looking for monthly support. If monthly isn't something you feel comfortable with, one-time or annual donations are also very helpful. If you haven't ever given or maybe you haven't given monthly, pray and ask God if that might be something He is calling you to do. Even if it's not, start that conversation with Him and ask Him where you should give or what you should be doing for the Kingdom. And if you aren't a believer in God, but you still believe in the work of bringing kids critical resources to kids in need and want to help, we are all on the same team of creating a better quality of life for these kids. I am grateful for every single one of you, especially if you've read this far. I've included a link to donate below.
I'm being obedient to God's call on my life, but know that it isn't always easy. Making changes isn't easy - and sometimes it feels like my life is one change after another. But I will follow wherever He leads and will do whatever I need to. Giving up my full-time job with benefits won't be easy. Relying on others most definitely isn't easy - especially for someone as independent as myself. I've tried to do it on my own & I know that will always end in failure. This is what God is calling me to do - to rely on Him and not my own strength or wit. I know with Him I can become fully funded.
This is kind of an intimate thing with me and God, so I hesitated to share it, but God is telling me I need to be bold in this season. I just bought 50 envelopes to send Christmas cards to anyone who's supporting me. I prayed over this stack of envelopes on the floor of Micheals, asking God to send me 50 people - each card a person, a person or family who will come alongside me on this journey and support me as I support the kids He's placed on my heart. It might not seem like a huge act of faith, buying the item before having people to send them to, but it sure felt like it. And in that moment I felt God whisper in my spirit, if you trust me with this, I won't fail you. The reality is that God wants me to succeed more than I do, because any success I have is a testament to his power and control over it and His grace to choose me to partner with Him on this mission. So as you're reading this, if you feel called to be one of those 50, just know you are an answer to that prayer and a sign that God is still moving.
If you are seriously considering supporting me financially, please reach out, I would love to meet you for a coffee or if that isn't possible geographically, we can do it virtually. I want to know you by name and I want to personally pray for you.
Follow the specific instructions and do me a favor of sending me an email, text, or call to let me know as well because I want to start scheduling a monthly catch-up with all of my supporters so I can be praying for you as you support me.
If you've made it this far I have one last request. Pray. Pray over this mission. Pray over what God is doing here. Pray for me as I continue on following God wherever He calls. And share this story with your friends, neighbors, church or anyone else who might be impacted by it.
Lastly, I just want to remind everyone to be bold for the things God has put on your heart. It might not be easy, but I promise it will be worth it.
Thanks everyone!
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