Today is national speech-language-pathologist (SLP) day.
I have the pleasure of knowing the greatest SLP in the world. Yeah, I may be a little bit biased, but you know what, that's okay. She felt called by God to be an SLP at a young age despite not having any desire to even go to school.
Mallory, I am so proud of you for pursuing your calling from God. I know I say all the time that I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, and maybe you didn't know the answer to that question at that time, but you did know what God was calling you to and you went for it! I couldn't be more proud of you.
I followed you and you let me.
You were able to get into the number-one school in the nation. You made so many lasting friendships through undergrad and through grad school. You let me share in those friendships and I am eternally grateful for that. Your friends quickly became my friends and I love each and every one of them so much.
Then we had us guys. Our girls were smart and went to school and had a vision. We just gathered and talked about these “ideas” that went nowhere! But you know what, that is okay. We loved it and I love those men. How cool is it that now these men are married to your friends? What a blessing it has been to see them grow into married couples and now a couple of them have a baby!
You took a leap of faith by moving to Des Moines while I was away at military training. We thought maybe we would end up in Des Moines, but it was very clear that we were supposed to end up in the Iowa City area.
We thought that we would grow up with Harvest City, but God had other plans.... that's a story for another day.
It is so incredible your faithfulness. To God, and to our union. We are faithful to each other. We did the hard thing and moved all the way back to Iowa City, well actually Coralville, and you started your career in North Liberty at Enrichment.
You've been the longest-tenure SLP at the North Liberty office of Enrichment. Sonia loves you. Your coworkers love you. The clients who you have helped shape and continue to shape love you tremendously.
God has blessed us both with Enrichment. Can we say that He has enriched our lives? haha get it?! I know... that was bad... and obvious... okay I'll stop.
You guys just moved into a new office where it's much bigger, nicer, and it's actually owned! Such an incredible move. AND you got Laurie and Bri into the door to work there. Now their lives can be Enriched too. What a beautiful working from God.
I loved the season of having one car. What a joy it was to be able to take you to work some days and pick you up. To live in the tension of me wanting to listen to music, and you finding it completely unnecessary for your seven-minute drive. 😆 To be able to pick you up at work and either ask you how your day was, or just ramble on about my random days. 😆
We had fun doing that. But now you scoot. And you know what, that's okay. You're a badass!
People listen. If you know someone in the North Liberty area with a kid who could benefit from speech therapy, take him/her to Enrichment. Preferably Mallory, but all the ladies there are great. 😉
Being an SLP is more than just helping a kid say a certain letter. There is a lot of therapy involved. There is a lot of development that an SLP helps a kid out with. Talking is just one aspect of our voice.
Praise God for SLPs!