Thinking About Caroline

With all my days filled with children, and everything in or of school, and my evenings no doubt filled with reading journals and writing comments or entries (or reading from whatever book I'm into, and watching an occasional episode of Lost! or Survivor), I have neglected to stay in touch with my friend and colleague, Caroline.

I have emailed her to let her know that I haven't forgotten her. She hasn't been able to get to her journal all week, and I know she misses that nice little activity as well <grin>.

Mostly, though, she misses her husband and babies.

If you have been a regular visitor of Caroline at A New Adventure, then you are aware that she left home a week ago to drive to Virginia so she could begin a lengthy exam process.

Caroline is a teacher from South Africa. Her husband is a teacher in our school system also. They both moved to our country several years ago, with their young children, and both taught in our state (NC) under the VIF (Visiting International Faculty) Program.

VIF is an international teacher recruitment program that sends more than seventeen hundred teachers from fifty countries into more than one thousand schools in NC, SC, MD, VA, GA, FL, and CA. After three years, the VIF teachers must return to their home country.

Caroline and her family did return to South Africa two years ago, and lived there for a year. They returned to NC a year ago, under the VIF program again, then Caroline returned to school herself.

This is a very brief account, and without the emotional description of how all this moving from country to country, making and leaving behind family and friends, impacted Caroline and her family, as well as those who came to love them during their first three years in our country.

The final exam is weighing very heavy on her, but she is maintaining a strong and faithful stance despite having to live away from her husband and children during this two week period.

I have never heard of exams that take so long, but I'm sure Caroline is going to tell us all about it when she is finished. Her final exam is on the 9th.

She is home now, for a brief respite, but will return to Virginia later in the week to complete the final exam.

I wanted to ask those of you who have the time during this busy VIVI awards week to stop by her journal and wish her luck, Godspeed.

She is by no means in despair. I just want her to know that we haven't forgotten her while she has been away. Imagine her surprise when she gets around to checking her journal alerts! That's the part I like to imagine.

Also, please pray for her that her travels to and from the exam site will be safe, as it is a long drive, and that her family stays well while she is gone. Pray for blessings on this loving, working, and giving family.

Thank you for listening! And thank you for visiting her at http://journals.aol.com/caromarls/ANewAdventure/.  

Bea

Tags: VIF Program, http://journals.aol.com/caromarls/ANewAdventure/,