NewsLetterIssue4 April-June10.indd - RIS stories

Letter from the Editor
I
love butterflies. The way they flutter through
the air and land on a flower so delicately, slowly
waving their wings as if to say, “hello.” Each one
so different. The funny reality is if nothing in this
world ever changed, there’d be no butterflies. I
cannot image a world without butterflies.
Change is to be expected. And change is a
necessary quality and an essential attribute of this
world, and of time and place. I remember when
our family made the decision back in 2005 to leave
the familiarity and the comforts of home to move
across the world to help the less fortunate children
in India. Natascha was only 11 years old at the
time, but so willing to give this new lifestyle a try
to help her fellow man.
It wasn’t easy. Our world changed significantly
from what we knew – from living conditions
to schooling to language to culture – all was so
drastically different from what we were accustomed
to. It would have been easy to turn around and go
back home, but we reminded ourselves of our
purpose for coming to India; and each time we
made a difference in the life of a child, we realized
our own discomforts were small in comparison.
We left India the spring of 2007. We gave Natascha
a choice to either move back to the United States
or to another overseas experience. After spending
some time at home, she came to us one day and
said that she would like to experience another
country, giving her the opportunity for further
growth. We moved to Thailand in August, 2007.
Touring several international schools in the area,
she felt home once again at Ruamrudee.
Continuity gives us roots; change gives us
branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach
new heights. Our roots are forever deep in our
hometown of Fairport, New York, but the changes
we have experienced and the friendships we have
made in the last five years has brought tremendous
growth to us as individuals. And it doesn’t end
here. We will move yet to another phase in our
lives – Natascha on to university in New York
City in the fall, Nat and I to moving into my family
home to care for my aging father.
I thank all of you who have given us the opportunity
to share life with you, learn a new culture, stretch
out of our comfort zones, grow and reach new
heights. I wish for you a world full of butterflies!
Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be
worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him
with a bright and friendly face. Be a treasure to the
poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer of the cry
of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge.
Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech.
Be unjust to no man, and show all meekness to all
men. Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness,
a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven
for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the
victim of oppression. Let integrity and uprightness
distinguish all thine acts.
With much love,
Debbie
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NEWSLETTER Volume 3, Issue 4