“I could barely tolerate cramps – how could I give birth? I remember joking that if it happened, I would at least need to be out of mind on pain meds. This was exciting, but also slightly surprising to Ashley, who at age 13 decided she would adopt because she was too afraid of the pain of childbirth. He invited me to dinner and we’ve been inseparable ever since.”Īfter the pair got married, Jay and Ashley learned they were pregnant at the end of 2012. My husband says he saw my big Afro and was drawn to talk to me. That particular year, I was becoming more politically aware and I learned about Chairman Fred Hampton and that he was actually from my hometown and went to my high school! I saw a flyer about the party, and decided to go. Fred was assassinated at the age of 21, so it’s a beautiful way to keep his legacy alive. “I met him at Chicago’s annual Streetz Party, held to celebrate the birthday of Chairman Fred Hampton, the former leader of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in the 60s. After a couple years there, she taught in a classroom of refugees in one of the most diverse zip codes in the U.S. After graduation, Ashley got a job teaching English in Chicago’s Chinatown.

But like most plans in life, things didn’t exactly stay on track. She chose TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) as her major in college so that she’d have a useful skill to take overseas. These early memories, coupled with her appetite for reading, fostered a love of travel and desire for discovering and learning about new cultures.Īfter traveling to Mexico as a teen, Ashley made the concrete decision that she wanted to live in another country one day. Her parents would often take her to beautiful natural spaces and travel out of state to visit family. Growing up in Maywood, a suburb just outside of Chicago, Ashley recalls her childhood as being imaginative, warm and admittedly sheltered.

Murs have a nice life zip