my team, my joy
- Claire Rady
- Jan 30, 2022
- 3 min read
Other than the grace of God, the ONLY reason I was able to get through this waiting was my team. My beautiful team whom I cherish so much - Mary, Lisette, Matt, and Ben.
We have all been in the same boat -- stuck in our home countries, waiting for our visas. Regardless of not physically being in Ireland together, we have had phone calls every weekday as a team to intentionally get to know each other. We thought the calls would only last weeks until going to Ireland, but that soon turned into months, and so we had to get really creative to keep them interesting. We play Apples to Apples, have talent shows, sing Praise and Worship, introduce our families, pray the rosary, have story time, bake together, and more. I feel like I know them so well and it is crazy that it all started with phone calls. Thankfully, it became more.
I knew Mary from college. We thought it was quite a coincidence that we both decided to take a gap year at the same time. And then we thought it was weird that we both decided to do NET Ireland, but we learned that it was Divine Intervention that we were placed on the same team together. How do two people individually discern a gap year, choose the same program 3,000 miles away, AND get put on the same team together? Yeah, it baffles me. I decided to finally meet Lisette. She had invited me to her home in Florida, and I finally decided to take the offer. It was weird booking a flight to see someone who I had never met but knew so much about from our phone calls. I had never had a cyber friend and didn't know what to expect. Not going to lie, there was the smallest part wondering if I was going to be catfished after watching too many episodes of 90-day fiance. But, seeing her was so fulfilling and we spent some quality time doing the things you can't do on phone calls like jamming in a car, bar hopping and smoking a tobacco pipe. And Matt is coming to visit me IN A WEEK!! It was somewhat of a spontaneous decision, but I knew the way to get him interested was to mention snowboarding hehe. He decided to book a flight from Canada and visit the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. I am going to take him to visit my family throughout Michigan and then we are going to take a trip to Franciscan University. He will get to meet most of my favorite humans. For TWO WEEKS we are going to have a party and do things the American way. Fingers crossed I can convince him to go shooting with me and my brothers. And Ben. Unfortunately, I will not get to see Ben before going to Ireland, but I have been able to get to really get to know his Ugandan culture through reading books, watching movies, and asking questions. And I have fallen in love with his culture and the simplicity in their lifestyle. One day, I will go to his country and visit him, and I wouldn't be surprised if I pulled a 'Katie Davis' and ended up staying and adopting 14 children hehe. My team is praying so hard that he gets his visa soon. The rest of my team has the option of going to Ireland without a visa for 90 days, but in Uganda, citizens need to have a visa to leave the country. I have so much hope that God will provide this.
Go through the slideshow and just notice how wholesome we are :')
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