Phone Calls and Weddings

My summer has begun! I packed a suitcase, grabbed a back pack, and boarded a plane to Pittsburgh. Kirstin got married (no big deal), so I had a busy week of last minute planning and "to-do" lists and pick-ups and deliveries (all while battling a sinus infection earlier in the week), had a wedding celebration, then packed my bags again and loaded a car to Detroit. We made it! 

During the process of Jen and I figuring out if/how we were getting to Detroit this summer, we would keep each other posted whenever "Detroit called". If I got a call from the nun I was in touch with, I'd call Jen up all exciting saying that Detroit had called me. When Jen heard she got her internship with a woman at University of Michigan, she called me up and exclaimed that Detroit had called her. So it seems that Detroit is calling us, first in a figurative sense, and now in a literal one.

After weeks of asking Detroit to "call us maybe?", we finally got a call last week and found a place to stay and a place for me to serve on a consistent basis. We will be staying at Hostel Detroit, which comes highly recommended from literally everyone we talk to in Detroit about housing. They asked us to manage their garden (um yes please) and take on some night management duties for very reduced rent for a private room. Thank you, God. Hostel Detroit is near Corktown, which is apparently a great area of the city right near Michigan Central Station. Wow. My heart literally can not keep still! I can not wait to explore!

I will be serving at the Capuchin Kitchen 7:30am - 1pm every day. The kitchen is tied with an urban farm and a bakery that is run by ex-convicts. Obviously, since I'm in love with prisoners and vegetables, I am super pumped. Another answered prayer.

I am so anxious to get into the city. Jen and I are not able to stay at Hostel Detroit until next Monday, so we are biding our time at her gracious Aunt and Uncle's house in Grosse Ile, an island right to the East of the city. It's adorable, and hearing their stories of Detroit and listening to what their friends do in the city makes it hard for me to sit still in my seat. After years of yearning to be here, I am so close. I am very curious what my initial impressions of this city will be, especially considering I came from New Orleans which is blighted and divided in it's own way. My expectation is major blight, blocks and blocks of abandoned plots, people hanging out on the corners lending to seriously precarious bike commutes, racial divides, young hipster artists taking over small sections at a time, big ideas and plans from young architects and entrepreneurs....we'll see how it all measures up.

Until then....Picture updates!!

Getting tough for the D

Road tripping

We made that canopy!!

 

 

Exchanging the vows

Building the canopy for the ceremony