Hahn Solo

Join me in welcoming Krista Hahn to the DR!

Krista is a short-term volunteer who'll be sharing her gifts with the Regional Team for the next three weeks (and blogging about her experiences!). She's a wife, mom, amateur cake decorator, and dental hygienist by trade that runs a non-profit safety net dental clinic in rural Kansas. Here, she'll wear many hats: accounting, communications, consulting, development, community health evangelism, and more. 

Krista represents a growing part of my job: identifying, recruiting, placing, and overseeing not just teams of people that stay for a week, but individuals with specific skillsets that commit for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. My random thought in the shower this morning, though, was that she really is here as part of a team; her family, church family, pastor, coworkers, and others make up the rest. Check the LCMS website for more opportunities like this one around the region!

Yesterday, Krista's first full day on the ground, was, alas, a statutory holiday. While "Restoration Day" has everything to do with history and politics and nothing to do with restorative rest, we spent most of the day together doing a fair amount of personal restoration. 

HAD to take her to my happy place - the botanical garden!

In between afternoon cat naps, we played three different card games. I love playing cards, but Freddy's not very good competition :)

I made us Blackberry Basil Ricotta Pizza for dinner. Fresh berries are hard to come by here, but it's a repeat recipe that I couldn't get out of my head, so I decided to try it with [thawed] frozen blackberries. It tasted the same! WHY did I wait so long? 

I grew the basil on my front porch. While it smells and tastes like basil, the leaves are teeny and unlike any basil plant I've ever seen. I'm planning to start some new seedlings inside and see how that goes. 

After dinner, I Skyped with my family. My 3 yr. old nephew was showing off his strider bike (???) prowess. Then, joined by fellow missionary Johanna, we capped off our day of restoration with well-earned frozen yogurt after a very non-restorative struggle to find a parking spot. Note to self: avoid Sweet Frog on holidays or take public transportation. 

Until next time, blessings!