{"id":4979,"date":"2018-05-13T09:58:23","date_gmt":"2018-05-13T17:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.touchalifekids.org\/?p=4979"},"modified":"2018-05-13T09:58:23","modified_gmt":"2018-05-13T17:58:23","slug":"looking-back-and-looking-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/touchalifekids.org\/looking-back-and-looking-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Back and Looking Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Today\u2019s post is written by Touch A Life\u2019s Development Director, Rachel Brown. Read on as she shares her thoughts about our first 10 students graduating from senior high school and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.touchalifekids.org\/get-involved\/global-family\/education-sponsor\/college-fund\/\">heading to college<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4996\" style=\"width: 760px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/touchalifekids.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_2984.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4996\" class=\"wp-image-4996\" src=\"https:\/\/www.touchalifekids.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_2984-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_2984\" width=\"750\" height=\"499\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4996\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rachel with Moses. Photo by Nancy Borowick.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I joined the Touch A Life team in January 2009, and I can\u2019t believe that nine and a half years have gone by since I began my work as a staff member for this amazing organization. While there are so many memories from my trips to Ghana (nearly 15 in total!) that I cherish so dearly, the ones that stand out the most, certainly, are the ones that relate to watching the children grow up\u2014the moments when the children achieved a goal, or learned a new skill, or tried something bold and brave. Sometimes they failed, but more often they soared. The TAL children have always inspired me, and they have taught me so much more about life than I could ever teach them.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4997\" style=\"width: 760px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/touchalifekids.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_2991.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4997\" class=\"wp-image-4997\" src=\"https:\/\/www.touchalifekids.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_2991-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"499\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4997\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rachel with Moses. Photo by Nancy Borowick.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"\">In early 2009, Touch A Life had just rescued our older children\u2014Gideon, Emefa, Albert, and more\u2013the very same ones who will now be graduating from boarding school and heading to college in the fall. I feel like a proud mama witnessing a life-changing event; my heart is so very full at the thought of all that these amazingly resilient teenagers have accomplished. I love them like they are my own, and I can\u2019t wait to celebrate this milestone event, cheering them on from the United States.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4998\" style=\"width: 760px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/touchalifekids.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_2035.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4998\" class=\"wp-image-4998 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.touchalifekids.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_2035-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"499\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4998\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jonathan, Emefa, Ma Beth, Mary E., Gideon, and Rachel<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s post is written by Touch A Life\u2019s Development Director, Rachel Brown. Read on as she shares her thoughts about our first 10 students graduating from senior high school and heading to college. &nbsp; I joined the Touch A Life team in January 2009, and I can\u2019t believe that nine and a half years have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Looking Back and Looking Forward - Touch A Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/touchalifekids.org\/looking-back-and-looking-forward\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking Back and Looking Forward - Touch A Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today\u2019s post is written by Touch A Life\u2019s Development Director, Rachel Brown. 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