The Polson Family Adventure: Goodbye Belize

Monday, October 12, 2009

Goodbye Belize

What an experience Belize was for us. So many people have asked us what single thing was most memorable about this experience. After some thought no doubt the answer is the people we met. One of my favorite sayings that is quoted often by Dave Ramsey is that "the only difference between you and you in 10 years is made by the people you meet and the books you read". People make all the difference in this word, and we met so many great folks while in Belize. Saying goodbye to them was not easy and came with tears of sadness and joy. Here are some pics of some of the many goodbyes we made in our last week in Belize:

Mrs. Rose was one of our very favorite patients. Lily and Aidan loved her! Sweet rose died less than 2 weeks after this picture was taken shortly after we returned home. We will see this beautiful lady once again...

This little girl was just born when we arrived in Belize, and look at how big she has gotten! They went to church with us.

Mrs. Coleman will turn 94 this December. The kids loved visiting her every month.

Mr. and Mrs. Villafranco have been married for 50+ years and have 12 children!

Tears of sadness and joy...

This dear 97 year old lady loved Hannah and oranges (which we brought her often)!

Hard to let go....

Pastor Gideon and family...

All smiles...

Hillside staff and volunteers

3 comments:

New Creation Blocks said...: Oh wow, the lives you touched and the ones that touched you...so amazing! Bless you guys! Where are you now??; October 12, 2009 at 10:09 PM
Polson family said...: We are about to start a short term job in New Mexico, then... only God knows... your kids are beautiful! later! j; October 13, 2009 at 10:53 AM
Betty Hodge said...: Awesome pics James.... I KNOW that God was able to Love and Tend to so many people thru yall!!!
It was great seeing yall, those youngens are still so precious. Olivia asked me a couple days after seeing yall... She said... Oh so NOW I get to have Mr. James as my Doctor again too LOL She was very excited about that. However I explained to her that you & Hannah are praying hard and trying to find the right place where God can use you the most.
Will be praying for your NM jobs and direction for your family!
Take care; October 13, 2009 at 4:15 PM

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Where do we start...

For those of you who are not familiar with our family's life, let me quickly catch you up. Hannah and I have been married for 8 wonderful years. We met as teenagers and quickly became best friends. Love blossomed and the rest is history. We both had plans on entering nursing as a profession and dreamed of medical missions prior to us even knowing each other. I finished my undergraduate work just days before we were married in December 2001 and Hannah finished the following May. We both worked as RN's at the Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children. We had plans on making the BIG BUCKS as travel nurses before starting our "family" but God had other plans. For on May 23, 2003, our beautiful Lilyan Rain (we call her Lily) was born. She absolutely changed our life.

During all this we were very active in a growing local church (Restoration Church), where we led a cell group and I led our worship team. Life moved on and things were good. I felt that I needed to further my education, but was unsure how we would balance family, church, work, grad school. Plus, we were very interested in adding a new little one to our family, so we decided that I would entered Graduate school part time. And on July 13, 2005, God blessed us again with our angel Aidan Nathanael.

Despite our wonderful life, in a home that we loved, great family and friends, a good supportive church, good jobs etc., we began to feel God pulling us away, changing our hearts, and still felt the He was telling us that we should pursue the dream of medical missions. So we continued to pray, and we started to plan. I finished graduate school in May of 2007 as a Family Nurse Practitioner and quickly started a job at a local primary care clinic. The strong pull of God to foreign soil persisted, and even strengthened over the next few months of 2007. We battled doubt, fears. We particularly battled leaving a church family and worship team that we had given so much of our life to. We learned some tough lessons about following the move of God on our heart, even if it meant leaving the "familiar"ities of life. This was a very hard time for us. I liken it to the desert with no sign of green or water. After much prayer, talk and tears, we decided to "step out of the boat". In early 2008, we notified the church and my job that we were leaving. "Tearing ourselves away" from the church was one of the hardest things we have ever done. At times it felt like it would easier to rip my own heart out but God is faithful and He gave us a peace that we had not experienced before. Pursuing the dream of God placed in our heart most definitely includes medical missions, but we also know God has even greater plans for us IF we will follow His voice.

Some amazing things have happened since. We sold our house within 7 days of it being on the market (unbelievable in the current housing market). God has opened up so many doors to opportunities for medical missions. I wish I could say that it all has been easy but I can't. But we are trusting God to make our paths straight.

One thing I can say... life in the past months has been anything but normal. Some of it has been exciting, some hard, some even really painful, but all good in the light of God's grace.

We look forward to sharing our life with you here. Please keep us in your prayers.

j/h/l/a

The Polson Family Adventure

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Monday, October 12, 2009

Goodbye Belize

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