We’ve been engaged all spring. But that’s not the only change that’s come our way during this time, nor is it alone on the horizon…
Just before that fateful day on Crissy Field when Jerry proposed, April announced she was moving on from her legal-strategic role at Unitus. It was time to design a more fulfilling career and develop skills extending “beyond microfinance” (though still focusing on serving the bottom of the pyramid). Since mid-March, she’s been busy with outreach and learning — about everything from impact investing, to myriad new social enterprises, to how many many trail miles she can hike in a week (answer: a lot). This afforded her opportunities to consult, attend conferences at leisure, discover weekly wildflower changes and travel to places like Boston, NYC and Kansas City, Missouri (if this last one seems unique, keep reading).
Although we haven’t traveled internationally in recent months, we have discovered some all-time favorite getaways in our own backyard — like Cavallo Point Lodge. A divine sojourn there and to Sonoma, coupled with special gatherings with our “family of choice” have been highlights of the season.
After several weeks, April finally figured out what she’s meant to do next and announced she’d be joining WaterPartners International as Director of its WaterCredit initiative. WaterCredit represents a unique opportunity to put microfinance tools and access to catalytic capital to work to address the needs of the poor for clean, safe water. WaterPartners is one of very few organizations globally that’s pioneering scalable, sustainable financing solutions to meet one of humanity’s most basic and widespread needs. She’s excited to be an early trailblazer and advocate in this blended “H2O + MF” space. (Oh, and WaterPartners’ primary U.S. office is in Kansas City — though she remains based in San Francisco. Hurray!)
Up next for both of us is travel. Destination: Jordan, with bonus stops in the English countryside and New York City. We’ll be teaching the next installment of IDLO’s law-and-microfinance course series on the Dead Sea, then heading south to explore Petra and hang out with Bedouins in the Wadi Rum desert. You can track our footsteps and observations on Twitter — Jerry here and April here.
After the Middle East, April has trips planned to Africa, India and Bangladesh; Jerry heads to Denmark; and we both somehow will find our way (together) to Rome this fall. (No, not for a secret wedding in a village chiesa.) So it’s good we’ve been able to catch our breath closer to home.
A lot of challenges have faced us already this year, which we’d like to think have made us grow and become a stronger couple. Now, it’s time to take that and “dive deep” into this next chapter and series of adventures!