Thursday, February 23, 2012

A Week In The Life: Tuesday

Before I start, allow me to set the scene. It's late Monday night and quickly approaching early Tuesday morning. I was laying in the darkness, trying to take deep breaths to keep the stress at bay, and I could hear our mouse boldly sniffing around the room (Let the records show that he's not stealthy at all. He has actually climbed onto my dinner plate when I set it on the floor for a moment, and he didn't even have the decency to look guilty about it.) Before long, I started to feel overwhelmed and the tears just starting prickling, then they started gathering, and then they started spilling over. Soon after I started turning my stress into liquid form, my roommate attempted a graceful trip in the pitch black to the restroom, and succeeded on the way out. On the way back in, however, she accidentally bumped into the stool where I have been keeping all my hoarded dirty dishes. Luckily nothing broke but I know, I have a problem. Anyways, I heard a sniffle. Then when she got up to her top bunk, I heard another sniffle. So of course I asked what was wrong. Silence. Sniffle. "Are you cryyyyiinng??" I asked. I heard a faint "mhmm." Pause. Then I started laughing. "Me too!!" I said, still giggling. It didn't take long before we were both cracking up. The lights went on, we got some music going, and we whipped out the Old Maid for a few intense rounds. There was also a miniature dance party that mostly consisted of me showcasing my moves accompanied by my scarf. We also briefly discussed breaking something but we can't afford that, so we decided to talk awhile before attempting the whole sleep thing again. So basically, I danced my way into Tuesday.

Five hours later, I was really wishing that I had the foresight to take sleeping pills instead of trying to remedy my insomnia with card games. Live and learn I guess. Well, our impromptu midnight rendezvous also affected my roomie Lucia, because she was essentially mute for the first two hours after rising. She was showing a few signs of life, thankfully, and I got a grunt or two at some point. Well then off we went school.

I understand that with every job, some weeks are hard. And some days inside those weeks feel more or less impossible. Perhaps this seems a bit dramatic, but God dragged me through the day. Some of the kids literally seem to get their slates wiped clean each night. One girl called me over, pointed to her page, and swore she had never seen a problem like that before, even though a few days prior she had successfully completed multiple pages identical to it after extensive explanation. These are the days when I can't deny that this is beyond my abilities as an imperfect, unqualified teacher. There is no limit to how many times I will explain things, nor is there a limit to how many smiles I can give them, simply because I know they're struggling far more than me. At the moment when I think I will stumble over another explanation, or my smile will falter, God fills my heart with the image of them leaned over their desk, furiously erasing and writing, erasing and rewriting, erasing and staring at their smudged pages. He breaks my heart for them and gives me the will to fight for them. Thanks to God, I got through.

Following dismissal at two, my five older girls joined me by the stage. The Jehovah Shalom Mission School is located in the gym of the Alexandria Christian Academy so our amazing principal has joined our two schools on Thursday mornings for a group devotion. On each one of these mornings, the students are encouraged to prepare devotions for their classmates. My girls wanted to go this week, and they really wanted to perform the Everything skit by Lifehouse (I recommend Googling the original if you aren't familiar with it!). Today was our first practice, and we had two boys from ACA helping us put it together. Rehearsal went along splendidly and even though I was exhausted, I was feeling very uplifted as well.

We walked the girls back across Alexandria to Jehovah Jireh Haven where Abby, Lucia, and I went in for a quick round of hugs and kisses.

And then, it was back home. Chicken noodle soup for dinner, along with a few episodes of The Mentalist from my computer. I do believe I earned the right to be a little lazy, although I had the best intentions to do more with my afternoon...but alas, bed just seemed like the more favorable option. Forgive me for getting off schedule!

And as usual, please keep us in your prayers!

No comments:

Post a Comment