it gives me hope

as a teacher, you have to be prepared to be the emotional support for some children.

it broke my heart when a couple of months ago one of my students cried all day because her parents were getting a divorce. it was a very hard time for me as a teacher. to be the right support and say the right things to help in any way possible. it was a lot of responsibility, but hey, that's what i signed up for.

that particular student is doing well. she knows her parents both love her and i think for the most part they are doing a pretty good job handling the situation for their kids.

well, today i am speaking with another student, emily. emily is wonderful. she is a reader, she does everything right, all the time. she is very sweet. in fact, during stations today i was watching a pair at their table as they were trying to work through an argument about a pencil. the boy was crying and the girl kept explaining why she picked up the pencil that lay on a different table and didn't think it was his. during the exchange, emily walked by, saw the boy crying and asked what was wrong. as the girl explained about the pencil, emily calmly walked over to the pencil can where 24 exact pencil replicas sat. she picked up a pencil, walked back to the table and handed it to the boy. such a problem solver! while two kids can't move past who should have a pencil, she just adds another pencil to the bunch. now they each have one. wow!

emily happens to live down the street from me and i was asking her today if she had figured out which house was mine. she explained that she had not and was not staying at her house right now. i was a little scared when i asked why. she looked away and then began her sentence,

"well...my parents...they are..."

my heart started beating a million miles a minute. i could just feel the tears pooling in my eyes. i could not imagine any pain on another of my students. i couldn't imagine any pain on emily.

"well...my parents..they are...they are celebrating their anniversary in mexico together."

what?!

wow. people who stay together and have a good time with each other. i am happy to find that there are more and more couples out there who have been married, have children and will still take off of work to celebrate their anniversary with each other on a fantastic get-a-way.

it makes me even happier to marry the man i love and have a wonderful future with him.

it gives me hope.