After a lot of encouragement

Several of my friends have a blog and have been telling me for sometime now, I need to start one of my own. So here goes...

I have so many exciting things going on in my life right now. I could not be more blessed. These past two weeks have been the most exciting two weeks in my teaching career (I have only been teaching for two years, but working at the school for four).I have ALWAYS wanted to be a teacher, and never once doubted that it wasn't for me. My students are amazing, they are all very different. I teach seniors, so I have 130 18 year olds that are about to enter a world that isn't always nice. These past weeks my students have made me become more aware about how important teaching is, and not just because the curriculum. Of course I want them to master the objectives and goals I have for them with reading Beowulf or The Canterbury Tales, but more importantly it's exciting to watch them grow, think on their own, and show it in their writing. I feel very blessed to have a part in each of their lives, even the ones I can't wait to get rid of by the end of the class period :)

This week a boy in one of my classes took a HUGE step. He has a rough life and did some amazing work, which he has never done before. This of course, made me cry (yes, real cool to seniors) but at the end of class he said something that has stuck with me all week. He stayed after class and said, "Did you start to cry because I made you proud?" Of course I answered yes and went on and on about how proud I was of him. As he left my room (a kid who never speaks up), turned and said, "No one has ever been proud of me". Right then and there so many emotions came over me. Guilt, because it's the 9th week of school and I had just reached out to him, sadness that at 19 he feels no one cares, and then conviction to show Christ's love to my students. While I can't "witness" to my students, I have been praying that my actions might represent Christ well so my kids might see a difference in me.

Anyways, my personal life is filled with excitement as well, but we will save that for another post. If by chance you are bored enough to read what I have to write, I am sure you will grow tired of hearing about how wonderful Stephen is and how awesome our life is... hehe. So we will have that for later... There you go girls, my first post, count it. :)