Love.

This may be long...
Every week I enjoy going into Brooklyn and Brady's classrooms to help out. In the last month in each of their classes one of their classmates has lost a parent. One to sickness and one in a car accident. Today as I went into Brady's class the child was back at school after being gone all last week. She is the cutest, shyest little thing I have ever met, she just looks so....forlorn for lack of a better word. She has always been that way since the beginning of the year. Now I don't know the whole story of her life or anything like that, but it really has hit me hard today. Brady has always played with her and done stuff with her almost everyday. She doesn't play on the playground with the other kids, but will stand by the teacher the whole time. Brady and Jarom take turns standing with her. Maybe she just needs the security of the teacher being right there, maybe her Mom had been sick for a long time, who knows. But like I said it has made me think. Good for Brady for recognizing that this little girl probably needed some help. I'll admit I used to get irritated that Brady would always talk about this little girl, thinking he had a little crush on her or something and I would always tell him to play with someone else, but maybe his manly inborn trait of protecting someone was coming out. Now I feel bad that I ever told him to play with someone else, although I don't think he has totally abandoned her. He told me she had been gone all week and was finally back at school yesterday. So today when I went to his class I was anxious to see her. I have never heard her talk, but when I saw her today she smiled and came and gave me a hug. I hugged her back and almost started to cry. What a sweet little thing, what a hard thing she has to deal with at such a young age! I just want to bring her home and let her have a mommy again!
Then here are so many kids who are alone because of bad choices their parents have made and continue to make, I can see that so much in the schools. I don't think I could ever be a teacher because you can see so much pain from these little kids who should not have to deal with it. I think too many parents would be offended by me telling them to step up and raise their kids, GROW UP people! School now is just a daycare for parents who don't want to be parents, but need someplace for their kids to go in the day. Kindergarten kids go to counseling!! Yes can you believe that. How to deal with their emotions, what to do if someone is mean to you stuff like that, I think it is so ridiculous. They are teaching 2nd graders how to brush their teeth, come on! I am so glad that my kids have good teachers this year! Brooklyn's teacher is one of a kind and we LOVE her. I like being able to check in with both of the kids teachers and make sure the kids are being challenged and doing what they are supposed to be. I think the teachers should feel a little accountability to me as a parent, I don't know maybe I am one of those annoying parents. Chas was talking to his Mom the other night and he said something like, " We don't really send our kids to school to learn, we could teach them the same things at home." First of all how sad that our kids are not learning much at school, granted they are in kindergarten and 2nd grade. So my mother in law, posed the question, "Why do you send them away from their mother for 8 hours a day then?" At first I thought, "Well one reason is for me to keep my sanity!" But that question has stuck with me for a couple of days now and I really have thought about it. I guess one of the reasons is maybe we can help someone else, maybe we could have some influence over someone to change their life for the better. Maybe I can be the one person who tells a little boy to keep trying, your doing a great job. Maybe I am the only hug they get for the day. Maybe my kids will help them and influence them for good, you never know what kind of seeds you can plant. So until the school starts totally going crazy and teaching things I don't agree with, I guess we will stay where we are and just do the best we can do.
IT seems lately like I have had a lot of realizations, some are good and some are definitely going to be challenging, but I am grateful that I know who is behind it all and who will always be there to help me.
We have a deaf couple in our ward and so the kids and I have been learning sign language, the kids love it and can remember so much more than me. We got to "talk" to them last sunday, just easy stuff, but it was fun to see how excited they were when we could communicate with them.
I've decided that people just need to feel like they are loved, doesn't matter who they are or where they came from. All they need to feel is that they are loved. And love makes the world a much better place.