Why we came to India!

Deciding to go to India was a very difficult decision for our family. We learned about Rising Star Outreach (RSO) from good friends of ours, who gave us a movie to watch about RSO. We loved the movie and thought the mission of RSO was very inspiring. We continued on with our lives, looking for a new house to purchase, Steele working hard at his job, which was going very well. Our same good friends later mentioned that RSO was looking for new Managing Directors for the program in India and asked if we would be interested in being considered for the position? We said we would be interested, but would first like to learn more..after all India was the last place we thought we would end up! In the meantime, we continued going about our daily routines of basketball, wrestling, soccer, piano, school, work, etc. However, as busy as we were..RSO continued to be in the back of our minds. So when Becky invited us to a dinner during Padma's tour of the US, we were excited to learn more and to meet Becky and Padma (founders) in person along with Amy Antonelli (executive director) and many board members. We were initially just going through the motions..keeping an open mind while learning about the program and India..not really looking for a change. But something about RSO kept drawing us in more and more..something difficult to explain. We loved meeting Becky, Padma, Amy, board members, and past volunteers and learning more about RSO India. We continued to converse with Becky and Amy and then had the opportunity to meet Ron and Joyce Hansen the acting Managing Directors of India in Provo while they were visiting family. We loved meeting the Hansen's and learned a lot about their experiences and what their day to day life in India was really like. Soon after, while Steele was on a business trip..Becky called and offered him the position. That was the first time we realized that we had to decide if we really wanted to move our family to India! We felt good about taking the position in India, but things didn't make sense in other ways to move our five children, leave a nice home, job etc..and go to a foreign country where we heard there were a lot of risks and a place where you should not take a family. We heard things like, our girls are going to get kidnapped, personal belonging will be stolen, we will get all kinds of diseases, if we get in a car accident we will be left for dead, etc. It was a very difficult decision to say the least, and up until a few weeks before we were still having doubts of whether or not this was the right thing for our family..but as you can see we decided to follow our feelings instead and left for India soon after. Looking back, we are glad we took the leap of faith and are grateful for the many things we have learned so far. Leaving the comforts of America behind was very difficult, but I know that we will have many experiences and memories that will be worth everything we left behind and more..the things we gain here will be priceless!