Time to Change the Title Again

First it was one summer in Appalachia, then two, a third... and then I took the leap to move here (Eastern Kentucky) for a year.  And now, BIG SURPRISE I'm almost 2 months into my second year.  Everything about my work, or really I should say "service" is more or less the same.  I just renewed my agreement with AmeriCorps for another year.  And now is as good of a time as any to reflect.  On the year I spent here, the year to come, and what will come after my time as an AmeriCorps member comes to an end.

What I do at the Housing Development Alliance has been extremely rewarding, and I feel that I have continued to learn and grow.  Although I have at least some interaction with all of our clients that go through our homeownership program, I have yet to have a client that I had the initial contact with complete the process.  Many have started, and are now in one of the various stages.  Some of them are working on their credit to bring their scores up to the point where we consider them "eligible" and we think they will likely get approved for a mortgage loan from one of our lenders.  They are working diligently to get to that point, so they can start on the next step (where I also have many clients)- looking for land.  Clients may or may not like the land we have to offer as potential sites to build, and understandably, people can be picky about where they want to live for the next 30+ years.  Others (but not many) have cleared all of those hurdles and are in the construction stage!  A client that I helped start the process with is tentatively scheduled to close on her house sometime in late November or December.  That will be a very exciting milestone for me, and I glad that I stuck around long enough to see it!

Outside of what I do with the HDA, I have continued to get more involved in the community.  And I have met and be-friended so many of the lovely people in my corner of East Kentucky that it will be very difficult when the time comes to leave this place.  I've come to really love and appreciate small town life.

Well that's all for now, my current effort is to write shorter, more frequent posts.  So hopefully I'll be writing again very soon!