Sisters + Mamas
Although, I am 8 years her senior, I’ve always looked up to my little sister. Fearless determination courses both our veins, but she’s discerning where I’m impulsive. She’s methodic, where I’m visionary. She’s a learner, where I’m an activist.
Just yesterday, I called her for conflict resolution advise, because I believe her when she tells me I’m wrong. She said: Take your time to respond, be honest + let the conversation teach you how to be develop stronger professional relationships.
She’s had good advise since she was 8.
Talia and I had a vision to empower mamas long before we went to Haiti. I was 27 + she was 19. I was newly divorced, pregnant + finishing a degree in Social Work; Talia was working 3 jobs, saving every penny to move to Hawaii for Youth With a Mission.
In those days, Talia was at my house all the time. Reflecting now, I think she came to prevent me from losing hope while I was adjusting to the stinging loneliness of single motherhood. So, while we watched my son Miles grow inside me, we dreamed of an organization that could empower single moms with acts of service.
In 2012, I was theoretically plugging our big idea into a hypothetical Community Development Project for a class; when Talia called for the first time from Hawaii. She had one thing on her mind, the mama project. She was on fire drawing parallels between today’s single mom and the biblical widow. She went on to tell me about a vivid dream she’d had of me working in a field as a slave.
She said, “You were you, just working as a slave and having fun. You were joking with the other slave mamas while you plowed the field by hand. I don’t know what it means, but it feels tied into this whole thing... somehow.”
That somehow is a phenomenon we coined #Godmagic two years later- as meaningful coincidence shook our existence and Haiti Mama was born.
After 5 years of blood, sweat and tears in Haiti- I can’t imagine doing this without her. It’s an undeniable blessing to work beside someone as honest, willing, and stubborn as my sister.
