I have been rather stressed out lately about our housing situation. Our house now is less than 900 square feet. With 3 children now and one more on the way, we needed to find something bigger. We aren't quite ready to buy a house yet and didn't really want to move into another rental for a few years before we purchased a home, but couldn't find another option. Until my parents' purchased their house. It was all approved and we were going to be moving into the parsonage for a few years. However, the details didn't all work out and we were back to square one. We had pretty much decided to just stay in this house and save the hassle of moving, but God had another plan.
Why is it that we as humans think we need to be in control of everything and that God certainly couldn't handle a problem so big as a large enough home for us? For a few days, I was at peace about where we would live and put it in God's hands, but then I really started to have doubts and was very upset that our previous plan didn't work out. But God had a reason for that. He had a more perfect plan that we could have never imagined.
See, there is a man in Ithaca who believes in God, but tried to take care of everything himself. On Tuesday, April 28th, he told his wife he just couldn't do it all anymore and was going to give it to God. His problem? He has a large, 2 story, 4 bedroom house that no one is living in right now and in his retirement years, doesn't feel he has the energy to keep up with it anymore. Where is this house you ask? Well, it is about 2 acres away from my parent's new home. On Thursday, April 30th, he tells his wife he just feels he should go by and see if he can meet his new neighbor. As luck would have it, my dad and Alexandar are outside on the quad and he introduces himself. He lets my dad know that he doesn't live in that house, he and his wife live in town. He's been thinking about renting it out, but didn't want to post anything because he wanted to get someone good in there. Hmmmm..... my dad then responds by saying that his daughter and son-in-law were possibly looking for something, but hadn't really decided what their plans were. Are you seeing where this is going? Good. You are smart. You can certainly catch on quickly. However, there is sooo much more to the story.
See, while this house has new siding and almost all new windows, it does not have an updated inside. The carpet is shag, and the wallpaper and all the coloring is from the 50s-70s era. What makes this story absolutely amazing is that the owner wants it all updated and Shawn is phenominal at all of the building "stuff." But it gets even better. We (but mostly I) have free reign as to what we want to do and HE WILL PAY FOR THE MATERIALS. But it gets even better. (I hope you aren't tired of reading that, because there is at least one more of those) Shawn will also be paid for all of his time he spends working on the house, including some of the lawn care. (Did I mention there are a couple of out buildings sitting on 6 acres?) Our rent money is not needed to make a mortgage payment, so if we work off our rent in the month, we don't owe anything. But it gets even better. (Told ya) At first, when he spoke to my dad, he was not interested in selling it. However, once talking to us, he thinks in a few years he might want to sell. Oh yes, and our rent will go towards the down payment.
See? God had a perfect plan. We can certainly see this house as our first home. The kids went nuts over the property and Isabelle is old enough to understand that we will be living next to Nana and Papa. What's nice is that there is plenty of land between the two homes, so we neither of us feel like we're living on top of the other. I could have never dreamed that I would get to live in our first house before we were able to purchase it, totally redesign it and update it, have someone else foot the bill, AND pay us to do it.
Thank you God. We are so blessed.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Many may recognize that post title to a very familiar children's book, which pretty much sums up our day yesterday. Two little things might have changed the course of my day slightly... my purse and extra blankets. Intrigued? Read on...
Usually Shawn takes Isabelle to school, however, this week and possibly for the next several weeks, he will be filling in as a supervisor and going to work earlier, which will not allow him to take her to school. Other circumstances dictated that I would need to bring both boys with me as well. I must admit, I was a very prepared Mama. A toy bag was packed, a small cooler with plenty of extra milk, juice, and snacks for the boys was ready. They were diapered, dressed, and ready to go in time to take sissy to school. But two little boys simply cannot be entertained inside of a car while it sits, waiting to pick up sister from school. So, my plan was to take them to McDonald's for pancakes and let them play in the playland for a few hours while we waited. (sidenote: Izi is in school for 3 hours. It takes nearly an hour to drive down there. As a conserver of gas, there was no way we were driving all the way home to turn around and drive back down)
I was feeling pretty good. We got off on time and everyone was quite content. We were far enough down the road that Isabelle would have been late had we turned around to go back when I realized I had forgotten my purse at home. Alright, no driver's license... I'll just drive extra careful, watch my speed. No cash... I'll head down to our bank real quick and pull some out and just go to a different Mickey D's. Unfortunately, my perfect Plan A turned into a very acceptable Plan B, which went horribly arry upon turning down the road to Isabelle's school. All of a sudden, my content children were not so content. It started when Benjamin lost his morning milk all over his blanket and pjs. Alexandar did not appreciate the sight, sound, or smell, and decided to toss his milk all over his blanket and pjs. Fortunately, Isabelle held it together, although she was not thrilled to have to walk past them to get out of the car. I went in the school and wet down some paper towels. The very nice secretary recognized me and brought out some trash bags. I cleaned them the best I could, stripped them down, had the windows cracked and the heat up as I tried to figure out a Plan C. You haven't forgotten that I left my purse at home, right? Because I certainly had not.
I no longer could drive down to the bank because I needed to go inside to get cash (only diapered boys now) as my debit card is missing. I can't take them to get a new outfit = naked boys. They threw up, probably don't want to eat. However, on this last point, I was very wrong. They started chowing down on the raisins and granola bars as soon as we started moving. My best bet was to drive over to Shawn's work, see if he could help me out in some capacity. Oh, did I mention that I don't yet have a cell phone? Yeah, crappy day not to have one.
Since Shawn had meetings and inspections to do and couldn't leave the office, he gave me his debit card, I got what I needed and took the boys home. My wonderful parents left their moving for a few hours (they just bought a new house and are trying to get things situated) and went down to pick up Isabelle while I took the boys home, got them a bath and settled. The only upside to the day? I had time to put the ham in the oven, get sweet potatoes and green bean casserole ready.... make a salad and cut up some fruit before I had to head to work for the afternoon. What a wonderful dinner to come home to!!!
Usually Shawn takes Isabelle to school, however, this week and possibly for the next several weeks, he will be filling in as a supervisor and going to work earlier, which will not allow him to take her to school. Other circumstances dictated that I would need to bring both boys with me as well. I must admit, I was a very prepared Mama. A toy bag was packed, a small cooler with plenty of extra milk, juice, and snacks for the boys was ready. They were diapered, dressed, and ready to go in time to take sissy to school. But two little boys simply cannot be entertained inside of a car while it sits, waiting to pick up sister from school. So, my plan was to take them to McDonald's for pancakes and let them play in the playland for a few hours while we waited. (sidenote: Izi is in school for 3 hours. It takes nearly an hour to drive down there. As a conserver of gas, there was no way we were driving all the way home to turn around and drive back down)
I was feeling pretty good. We got off on time and everyone was quite content. We were far enough down the road that Isabelle would have been late had we turned around to go back when I realized I had forgotten my purse at home. Alright, no driver's license... I'll just drive extra careful, watch my speed. No cash... I'll head down to our bank real quick and pull some out and just go to a different Mickey D's. Unfortunately, my perfect Plan A turned into a very acceptable Plan B, which went horribly arry upon turning down the road to Isabelle's school. All of a sudden, my content children were not so content. It started when Benjamin lost his morning milk all over his blanket and pjs. Alexandar did not appreciate the sight, sound, or smell, and decided to toss his milk all over his blanket and pjs. Fortunately, Isabelle held it together, although she was not thrilled to have to walk past them to get out of the car. I went in the school and wet down some paper towels. The very nice secretary recognized me and brought out some trash bags. I cleaned them the best I could, stripped them down, had the windows cracked and the heat up as I tried to figure out a Plan C. You haven't forgotten that I left my purse at home, right? Because I certainly had not.
I no longer could drive down to the bank because I needed to go inside to get cash (only diapered boys now) as my debit card is missing. I can't take them to get a new outfit = naked boys. They threw up, probably don't want to eat. However, on this last point, I was very wrong. They started chowing down on the raisins and granola bars as soon as we started moving. My best bet was to drive over to Shawn's work, see if he could help me out in some capacity. Oh, did I mention that I don't yet have a cell phone? Yeah, crappy day not to have one.
Since Shawn had meetings and inspections to do and couldn't leave the office, he gave me his debit card, I got what I needed and took the boys home. My wonderful parents left their moving for a few hours (they just bought a new house and are trying to get things situated) and went down to pick up Isabelle while I took the boys home, got them a bath and settled. The only upside to the day? I had time to put the ham in the oven, get sweet potatoes and green bean casserole ready.... make a salad and cut up some fruit before I had to head to work for the afternoon. What a wonderful dinner to come home to!!!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Newsboys!
I remember singing "I'm Not Ashamed" in front of girls camp when I was a teen counselor back on Chicago Central District. Much to our parents' dismay, my brother and I enjoyed all of the loud bass and drums and cranked it up as loud as we could. My, how times do change when you get "old" and are the parent!
While I have been to a couple of Newsboys concerts in the past, I was quite excited to be able to attend one this past Friday. I heard about their tour, Bring One Win One, about a month or so ago on the radio. The fact that this was a FREE concert ($10 suggested donation per person) had me very excited and right away, I knew I wanted to take Isabelle. Well, on Thursday, my mom and I decided to take the afternoon off (after taking the morning off to go to the salon) and took Isabelle shopping. Family Life Radio happened to be on site in Lansing at the Christian book store and we stopped in to register to win a four pack of front row tickets and backstage passes to meet the band. Well, Isabelle spun the prize wheel for me and I scored a beautiful aqua FLR hoodie. I however, did not win the tickets. But, I was let in on a little secret... the next morning, they would be in Saginaw from 6-10AM and if you brought some canned goods, you could secure 2 floor seats. They had been announcing on the radio that once the tickets ran out, you would be out of luck as they were first come, first served basis. They would try to keep track and announce when all tickets were gone so you weren't standing there or driving in and then find out the tickets were gone. I know how many disappointments Isabelle faces that are beyond our control and she was sooo excited to go that I decided I would get up early and drive over to get the tickets.
Unbelievably, I was like a kid at Christmas and barely slept past 3:30 AM, finally got up around 5:40 and was out the door by 6:20AM. From here, Saginaw is an hour drive. I did manage to get 2 floor seats so I knew Isabelle and I would be guaranteed seats. Daddy would have LOVED to come with us, but with as late as he is from work, he couldn't make it, so it became a special mommy/daughter time. I didn't know they were giving away another 4 pack of front row seats and backstage passes, and went ahead and registered again. I have never won anything on the radio, drawings, or anything else and did not expect this to be any different. Things went downhill from here.
Shawn called me around 9AM to say that Isabelle was sick and I needed to drive down to pick her up so he could continue on to work. Her school is nearly an hour south of where we live, so I left immediately. I was thinking that I had gotten up so early and gone through all that trouble, only to have a sick little girl that couldn't go to the concert. Even though I was thinking at that point that we wouldn't be able to make it, I kept the radio on and had all of my family listening just in case I did win. They would be announcing the winner by 10 AM. At 9:53, I had picked up Isabelle and we were listening as they drew............... MELISSA GRAHAM, from St. Louis! I glanced back at Isabelle and screamed, "THAT'S US!!! WE WON!!!!!" Isabelle was excited and I nearly drove off the road!! I just couldn't stop thinking all day that I had actually won something and was going to be sitting right up front!
My parents ended up coming with Isabelle and I and we all took our ear plugs (shhh, don't tell the Newsboys) and Isabelle absolutely loved it. I bought her a shirt to have signed by the Newsboys since we would get to meet them afterwards (did you know they now charge $25 for those things??) It was such an amazing concert and this group is really doing so much to make a positive difference in our world. If you are interested in supporting their cause Global Tribe, or want to read that Michael Tait will now be the lead singer, please visit the Newsboys site.
I know Isabelle will remember this concert for many years to come and I am so very glad that I sacrificed a little sleep and my ear drums to make it happen for her. After all, what are parents for?
While I have been to a couple of Newsboys concerts in the past, I was quite excited to be able to attend one this past Friday. I heard about their tour, Bring One Win One, about a month or so ago on the radio. The fact that this was a FREE concert ($10 suggested donation per person) had me very excited and right away, I knew I wanted to take Isabelle. Well, on Thursday, my mom and I decided to take the afternoon off (after taking the morning off to go to the salon) and took Isabelle shopping. Family Life Radio happened to be on site in Lansing at the Christian book store and we stopped in to register to win a four pack of front row tickets and backstage passes to meet the band. Well, Isabelle spun the prize wheel for me and I scored a beautiful aqua FLR hoodie. I however, did not win the tickets. But, I was let in on a little secret... the next morning, they would be in Saginaw from 6-10AM and if you brought some canned goods, you could secure 2 floor seats. They had been announcing on the radio that once the tickets ran out, you would be out of luck as they were first come, first served basis. They would try to keep track and announce when all tickets were gone so you weren't standing there or driving in and then find out the tickets were gone. I know how many disappointments Isabelle faces that are beyond our control and she was sooo excited to go that I decided I would get up early and drive over to get the tickets.
Unbelievably, I was like a kid at Christmas and barely slept past 3:30 AM, finally got up around 5:40 and was out the door by 6:20AM. From here, Saginaw is an hour drive. I did manage to get 2 floor seats so I knew Isabelle and I would be guaranteed seats. Daddy would have LOVED to come with us, but with as late as he is from work, he couldn't make it, so it became a special mommy/daughter time. I didn't know they were giving away another 4 pack of front row seats and backstage passes, and went ahead and registered again. I have never won anything on the radio, drawings, or anything else and did not expect this to be any different. Things went downhill from here.
Shawn called me around 9AM to say that Isabelle was sick and I needed to drive down to pick her up so he could continue on to work. Her school is nearly an hour south of where we live, so I left immediately. I was thinking that I had gotten up so early and gone through all that trouble, only to have a sick little girl that couldn't go to the concert. Even though I was thinking at that point that we wouldn't be able to make it, I kept the radio on and had all of my family listening just in case I did win. They would be announcing the winner by 10 AM. At 9:53, I had picked up Isabelle and we were listening as they drew............... MELISSA GRAHAM, from St. Louis! I glanced back at Isabelle and screamed, "THAT'S US!!! WE WON!!!!!" Isabelle was excited and I nearly drove off the road!! I just couldn't stop thinking all day that I had actually won something and was going to be sitting right up front!
My parents ended up coming with Isabelle and I and we all took our ear plugs (shhh, don't tell the Newsboys) and Isabelle absolutely loved it. I bought her a shirt to have signed by the Newsboys since we would get to meet them afterwards (did you know they now charge $25 for those things??) It was such an amazing concert and this group is really doing so much to make a positive difference in our world. If you are interested in supporting their cause Global Tribe, or want to read that Michael Tait will now be the lead singer, please visit the Newsboys site.
I know Isabelle will remember this concert for many years to come and I am so very glad that I sacrificed a little sleep and my ear drums to make it happen for her. After all, what are parents for?
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Scary Night
I'll skip to the chase and start with the ending: everything turned out ok. Now you can breathe much easier as you read about our eventful evening that we certainly hope does not repeat itself until after at least 37 weeks gestation.
Wednesday was an ordinary enough day. I was busy working, but didn't think I had overdone anything. I drove down for Isabelle's parent/teacher conference and had a very good chat with her teacher. Towards the end of the conference, my belly started tightening and you could see it on my face. She did not yet know we were expecting, and so I told her what was going on. I had felt a few Braxton-Hicks contractions within the past week or so, and didn't think much of it..... at first. I continued to have them however, and it was very frequent. Being that I'm only 14 weeks along, I was starting to worry. Shawn was not able to make the conference and attended by speaker phone. He was picking up Isabelle, and we met about 10 minutes away from the school. By this time, I had been feeling this tightening for about 20 minutes, and they were sometimes closer than a minute apart, but never more than 2 minutes apart. I started to panic, as most pregnant women would at this point, and as I was driving to meet Shawn, my mind raced to worst-case-scenario: That I would need to be transported to the hospital (which is about 20-30 minutes away from Izi's school) by ambulance. I kid you not, there was an ambulance in the parking lot of the park-and-ride where we met. Which of course, only confirmed my worst fears. I had Shawn call his mom for my doctor's number, which was on our fridge. I ended up calling the answering service twice because the on-call doctor did not return my call which is highly unusual for my doctor's office. In the meantime, we drove down to the hospital because by this time, I was still experiencing the contractions at very close intervals and it had now been over an hour. By the time they stopped, they had continued for 2 solid hours. They checked everything over to be sure there wasn't any type of infection and it all came back negative. I already had a regular doctor's appointment scheduled for the next day, which made me feel a whole lot better.
Now for the only comical moment of the evening: The doctor in triage asked about constipation because that can simulate contractions. As that was not an issue, she went on to tell us she was the "Poop Nazi" and didn't think enough people paid attention to colon health. We both about lost it at that moment, and are still making jokes about the "Poop Nazi." The other possibility was dehydration and over-exerting myself. I'm leaning more towards that explanation, but my regular doctor is still going to do a cervical ultrasound to be sure of no other problems.
The following night, I did start to feeling the contractions again, but I had a drink and laid down and let Shawn handle the rest of bedtime. Since then, no tightening so I'm just trying to take it easy and drink plenty of fluids.
Wednesday was an ordinary enough day. I was busy working, but didn't think I had overdone anything. I drove down for Isabelle's parent/teacher conference and had a very good chat with her teacher. Towards the end of the conference, my belly started tightening and you could see it on my face. She did not yet know we were expecting, and so I told her what was going on. I had felt a few Braxton-Hicks contractions within the past week or so, and didn't think much of it..... at first. I continued to have them however, and it was very frequent. Being that I'm only 14 weeks along, I was starting to worry. Shawn was not able to make the conference and attended by speaker phone. He was picking up Isabelle, and we met about 10 minutes away from the school. By this time, I had been feeling this tightening for about 20 minutes, and they were sometimes closer than a minute apart, but never more than 2 minutes apart. I started to panic, as most pregnant women would at this point, and as I was driving to meet Shawn, my mind raced to worst-case-scenario: That I would need to be transported to the hospital (which is about 20-30 minutes away from Izi's school) by ambulance. I kid you not, there was an ambulance in the parking lot of the park-and-ride where we met. Which of course, only confirmed my worst fears. I had Shawn call his mom for my doctor's number, which was on our fridge. I ended up calling the answering service twice because the on-call doctor did not return my call which is highly unusual for my doctor's office. In the meantime, we drove down to the hospital because by this time, I was still experiencing the contractions at very close intervals and it had now been over an hour. By the time they stopped, they had continued for 2 solid hours. They checked everything over to be sure there wasn't any type of infection and it all came back negative. I already had a regular doctor's appointment scheduled for the next day, which made me feel a whole lot better.
Now for the only comical moment of the evening: The doctor in triage asked about constipation because that can simulate contractions. As that was not an issue, she went on to tell us she was the "Poop Nazi" and didn't think enough people paid attention to colon health. We both about lost it at that moment, and are still making jokes about the "Poop Nazi." The other possibility was dehydration and over-exerting myself. I'm leaning more towards that explanation, but my regular doctor is still going to do a cervical ultrasound to be sure of no other problems.
The following night, I did start to feeling the contractions again, but I had a drink and laid down and let Shawn handle the rest of bedtime. Since then, no tightening so I'm just trying to take it easy and drink plenty of fluids.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Cute New Sayings
Alexandar is increasing his vocabulary daily, adding sometimes 5 and more words a day. Benjamin has several new sounds that are sounding more and more like words.
But yesterday does top all of the "where did that come from?" things Alexandar says. In the afternoon, he started replying to everything he would answer yes to by saying "yessir" and today he has added "no sir." Now, when I lived in Georgia, I would talk like that all the time, but we live in the north and people look at you funny if you say that. I would really love to know where he heard that and what caused him to start saying it, but there is no way a 2 year old can tell you that information. It does not matter to whom he is speaking, but every time he would say yes or no, it now ends with a "sir."
Another adorable thing he was saying the other day concerned cookies. Now, I'm not a big one on letting the kids have a bunch of sweets, but I had some rice krispy treats and let the boys share one. The step stool was out in the kitchen for some reason or another, and Alexandar was standing on it by the counter. Grandma was over as I had been working as was just home for lunch and was out in the living room. Alexandar has a bite or two and starts literally shouting, "I wuv cookies, Gamma. I wuv cookies, Gamma." It was the the cutest thing.
But yesterday does top all of the "where did that come from?" things Alexandar says. In the afternoon, he started replying to everything he would answer yes to by saying "yessir" and today he has added "no sir." Now, when I lived in Georgia, I would talk like that all the time, but we live in the north and people look at you funny if you say that. I would really love to know where he heard that and what caused him to start saying it, but there is no way a 2 year old can tell you that information. It does not matter to whom he is speaking, but every time he would say yes or no, it now ends with a "sir."
Another adorable thing he was saying the other day concerned cookies. Now, I'm not a big one on letting the kids have a bunch of sweets, but I had some rice krispy treats and let the boys share one. The step stool was out in the kitchen for some reason or another, and Alexandar was standing on it by the counter. Grandma was over as I had been working as was just home for lunch and was out in the living room. Alexandar has a bite or two and starts literally shouting, "I wuv cookies, Gamma. I wuv cookies, Gamma." It was the the cutest thing.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Going Crazy
My ramblings tonight stem from a status message on Facebook, reading something along the lines of "I think I just might go crazy today!" My comment was, "I've been there for a few days now... it's not so bad, just have to learn to enjoy the white padded walls!" (little did you know, Rachel, that you would be the inspiration for my blog!) So as I re-read it tonight, I got to thinking.... (probably a bad idea) how many of us moms think on a regular basis that we might go crazy? I'm guessing the number is right around 100%. But as I smiled at my comment, I began to ponder, would it really be so bad going crazy, and if not, what would make going crazy such a possible option. So, I have begun to compile a list of Pro-Reasons For Going Crazy!
1. Someone would be changing your diapers, for a change!
2. Everything would be white, tidy, and neat.
3. No more millions of loads of laundry each day.
4. When you drilled or spilled your food, you wouldn't be required to wipe it up.
5. No one will blink twice when your voice takes a higher pitch and you start talking "baby talk."
6. You are so used to being around children all day that life will not seem as if it has changed at all... you can even have the same conversations.
7. When you repeat yourself over and over again, people will just smile and nod.
8. You'll be put to bed at a regular bedtime and may even be given a sleeping pill so you don't wake up until morning!
9. Your roommate (pre-crazy state, this would be your spouse) will be just as crazy as you and won't think anything of your off the wall remarks.
and finally....
10. You get to throw a fit and your food on the floor when what is being served is not something you enjoy.
So really, stay-at-home mom's..... would it be so terrible to go crazy? I'm thinking, probably not. =)
1. Someone would be changing your diapers, for a change!
2. Everything would be white, tidy, and neat.
3. No more millions of loads of laundry each day.
4. When you drilled or spilled your food, you wouldn't be required to wipe it up.
5. No one will blink twice when your voice takes a higher pitch and you start talking "baby talk."
6. You are so used to being around children all day that life will not seem as if it has changed at all... you can even have the same conversations.
7. When you repeat yourself over and over again, people will just smile and nod.
8. You'll be put to bed at a regular bedtime and may even be given a sleeping pill so you don't wake up until morning!
9. Your roommate (pre-crazy state, this would be your spouse) will be just as crazy as you and won't think anything of your off the wall remarks.
and finally....
10. You get to throw a fit and your food on the floor when what is being served is not something you enjoy.
So really, stay-at-home mom's..... would it be so terrible to go crazy? I'm thinking, probably not. =)
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
On the Job
So I have now been officially working for just over a month now. I am spending a little more time away from home than I imagined, but it's still not too bad. What I really enjoy is on Tuesday afternoons I take the boys to playgroup, but I am getting paid to be there and mileage reimbursment for the 22 mile trip, one way. The boys are getting used to grandma being there and mommy leaving, so that makes it easier to get out the door when I don't have two boys who are whiny because mommy is leaving them. And the bonus is, I really enjoy my job!!! I only am in the office for a few hours each week, I'm driving around to meet with clients, so I don't have to stay in one spot for very long and I really enjoy my clients. They come from a much different background than I do and even teaching in a classroom, I would not come across these parents very often because they wouldn't be the ones at the school all the time. Not saying that in a negative way, but these are the parents that weren't given a chance to become educated and they have to work very hard for what little they have. At first I thought I wouldn't know what to say to be able to help these parents, but just in the few times I met them and just listening, areas for improvement jumped right out at me. Not that I feel that I'm an expert by any stretch, but that I will be able to help them succeed. In just the few weeks that I've been working with clients, I have been very humbled, moved to tears listening to one woman's story, and felt so blessed with what we have. I've always been on the other side where I see how the child comes into the classroom and try to meet their needs there. I am finding it more empowering to be working with those parents because as a teacher, you can try everything you know, but if they don't have the support system at home to back up that child, your efforts can oftentimes be fruitless. By being able to be on the other side, I am still a strong advocate for the child, but can do more to help everyone become successful. It's truly a blessing.
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