WEBVTT 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:16.755 My name is Nancy Vande Hei, and I'm a student in the master's, program for mental health counseling here at Divine Mercy University. 00:00:17.855 --> 00:00:19.955 I am a mom of 11 children. 00:00:20.415 --> 00:00:24.675 My youngest is 11 and my oldest is almost 30. 00:00:25.055 --> 00:00:36.000 So when I began the program, it was a bit of a surprise, to myself that I would be starting a master's program after having been out of academics for about thirty years. 00:00:36.380 --> 00:00:46.675 I had been a stay at home mom most of those years, had homeschooled my children for thirteen, and had just come out of teaching part time in Catholic education. 00:00:46.735 --> 00:00:49.555 And I just did not know where the Lord was leading me. 00:00:50.495 --> 00:00:57.235 But I heard about divine mercy, through some podcasts and some other Catholic media sources. 00:00:58.120 --> 00:01:04.120 And two words kept swirling through my mind when I considered where the Lord might be leading me in my life. 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:06.700 And those words were healing and hope. 00:01:07.320 --> 00:01:09.580 Healing and hope kept going through. 00:01:10.255 --> 00:01:23.155 And so, my husband and I prayed about it and determined I should just apply and just see if maybe this program might be a way that the Lord was asking me to help bring healing and hope to people in the world. 00:01:23.600 --> 00:01:26.420 I especially had a heart for other moms. 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:38.660 There were some times, in our marriage and in our parenting journey where I had felt really alone, where I'd really been struggling, where I felt really down, where I felt like a failure. 00:01:40.355 --> 00:01:42.455 And I didn't know who to turn to. 00:01:42.755 --> 00:01:46.775 Many times I kept a lot inside and that wasn't so good for me. 00:01:47.155 --> 00:01:51.095 It wasn't so good for my marriage, and it certainly wasn't so good for my children. 00:01:51.840 --> 00:02:01.060 And it was through, finding a really good counselor and some good prayer support that I had found my own personal healing. 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:08.395 And the Lord had really brought me on a journey where I was ready, and I felt like at a point in my life where I wanted to be there. 00:02:08.615 --> 00:02:11.515 Perhaps for some other moms who were going through those moments. 00:02:12.855 --> 00:02:29.680 But, I had no idea that being a part of this program and everything that I learned was not only to help prepare me for future clients I could work with, but that the Lord really had me on a continued journey of healing and help for myself. 00:02:30.725 --> 00:02:46.025 I found that through courses like the human development class, through the courses that tied in philosophy and theology, really deepening my understanding of what it means to be a human person. 00:02:46.700 --> 00:02:48.880 What does it mean to live a life of virtue? 00:02:49.580 --> 00:02:52.480 What does it mean to live out my vocational callings? 00:02:53.660 --> 00:03:31.430 All of these things really helped me to further find even deeper healing for myself and really helped restore a sense of hope, hope that I could make a difference in this world, hope that I hadn't utterly failed as a mom or as a wife, but that I was a fallen person who'd been redeemed, that God had made me good, that nothing I had ever done or not done ever changed my inherent dignity and value, and that I could help others by really seeing that in them, by accompanying them. 00:03:32.395 --> 00:03:38.495 So as the program continued, I found myself growing so much. 00:03:38.875 --> 00:03:43.535 I found, myself showing up as a better wife and a better mom. 00:03:44.410 --> 00:03:54.750 We had a lot of challenges in our family in the almost three years that I've been with Divine Mercy, including three moves, all of them to a different state. 00:03:55.210 --> 00:03:57.975 And there were times when I just didn't know that I could do it. 00:03:58.215 --> 00:03:58.875 I wanted... 00:03:59.015 --> 00:04:01.655 I wanted to just take a break or maybe it just... 00:04:01.655 --> 00:04:03.255 I thought I discerned wrong. 00:04:03.255 --> 00:04:04.715 Maybe I shouldn't be in it. 00:04:05.175 --> 00:04:11.655 But everyone who knew me from my husband and children to friends and my own mother were like, no. 00:04:11.655 --> 00:04:12.555 Don't stop. 00:04:12.680 --> 00:04:14.140 You're meant to do this. 00:04:14.200 --> 00:04:15.020 We'll help. 00:04:15.720 --> 00:04:29.175 So I'm so grateful to all of the people in my life who supported me on this journey, who didn't think I was crazy for in my 50s to do something very different, to go back to school after thirty years. 00:04:29.875 --> 00:04:34.535 I'm especially grateful to the donors of Divine Mercy University. 00:04:36.355 --> 00:04:44.750 And without those, financial supporters and without the scholarship that I received, I couldn't have done the program. 00:04:45.610 --> 00:04:48.350 I mentioned earlier that we have 11 children. 00:04:49.370 --> 00:04:52.410 We've had three marriages since I've been in the program. 00:04:52.410 --> 00:04:55.870 We've had kids in college and younger kids in Catholic education. 00:04:57.095 --> 00:05:04.555 And when we looked at the program, as much as I really wanted to be a part of Divine Mercy, I didn't know how we would make it work. 00:05:05.255 --> 00:05:09.035 So my husband just encouraged me to apply for the scholarship. 00:05:09.530 --> 00:05:19.870 And when it was awarded, we were so grateful and we have been, all along because it has made it possible for me to not only start but to complete. 00:05:20.970 --> 00:05:59.475 So going forward, I'm gonna be working with Catholic charities in the Diocese of Green Bay, and I'm really looking forward to accompanying anyone, any of the clients that come, whether they're adults, couples, perhaps adolescents, or even children who just needs someone, someone who can accompany them and see their value and their dignity and their worth, who knows the power of healing and hope, you can hold that for them and just walk with them as they move toward that in their own life. 00:06:00.095 --> 00:06:00.995 So thank you.