I was born and raised in the beautiful “Big Sky Country” of Montana. Trading snow for sun, I attended the University of San Diego (USD). I was an English major (reading books on the beach), and minored in both Spanish and Leadership Studies. I was lucky enough to have met my future husband, Patrick Kenny, as a college student. Post graduation, I lived in Colorado while Pat attended the University of Denver. Soon after his proposal atop a mountain in Boulder, I moved to Chicago to begin my studies at Catholic Theological Union (CTU) as a pastoral MA candidate for Intercultural Ministry.

After my first year of graduate school, CTU granted me a sabbatical so I could pursue a calling I felt to international volunteerism. My then-fiancé so generously allowed himself to be coerced into committing to work at Amigos de Jesús (ADJ) – a home for children in rural Honduras. In the month of June 2013, Pat graduated with an MA in Sport and Performance Psychology, and the two of us ended our long-distance engagement with a wedding near Glacier National Park.  Less than two weeks after saying “I do,” Pat and I landed in San Pedro Sula - unsure of what the next 13 months would throw our way.