Class of 2012

This year I was blessed to serve 235 high school seniors.  This was my first year working full-time outside of the home since becoming a Mommy 9 years ago, and it was full of challenges.  There were many days that I begged God to allow me to go back to being a stay-at-home mom.  I yearned for the days when my life consisted only of cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring, and all the other things that I was still doing but now they were in addition to my responsibilities at work. 

Life as full-time mommy of four working outside the home often felt unbearable, but I knew the God that called me to my work with these Seniors would sustain me and give me exactly what I needed to meet their needs and the needs of my own family.  Was it a sacrifice at home on many days?  Yes it was, but what ministry does not call for sacrifices?  I knew that God had an amazing plan and all I had to do was obey and do what He called me to at that moment.  And for this school year, it was these Seniors.  

Although my job called for a lot of changes at home, He assured me that the things my children were missing out on we're being filled with things they needed to learn.  Lessons about diversity, compassion, mercy, resilience, and hard work.  The Seniors became a part of our family.  They filled our Friday nights with football and shared Christmas in our home with us.  They even helped our sweet Olivia to fall in love again with her birth country and realize that it really is cool to be an African!  When I say that they gave us way more than we ever gave them, I mean it!  

The challenges of the year were magnified by the circumstances these students experienced.  The diversity of the class was far reaching, the class consisted of students from the ghetto to the upperclass suburbs and from Sudan to Germany to Iraq.  Many days  it was as if these worlds would collide.  It was evident that many were taught racism at home, and struggled to overcome that racism and learn to appreciate and differences.  There were days that all I did was help kids keep from fighting 

Other days, heartaches and loss led them to be united as one. As high school freshmen they had experienced a school shooting in which a student was killed in the school cafeteria.  This school year they endured many more losses...the loss of one who was a cousin, brother, and friend, the loss of another who was a younger classmate, water boy for the football team, and friend, and finally the tragic loss of one of their own, a fellow Senior who lost his battle with cancer.  

As one of the adults charged with leading the students through these difficulties, most days I felt ill equipped and unworthy for the job.  However, I constantly found myself seeking guidance from the Great Comforter.  I remember reading 2 Corinthians 1:4 shortly after the death of my father and knowing God was comforting me in my loss so that one day I could share His love and comfort with others during their times if loss.  It truly felt like this was part of what I was created to do...very much like a dream coming true!  

Of course, like all school years, they fly by quickly and before you know it, the end is in sight.  From spring break until graduation, I logged way too many hours and spent very little time at home or sleeping.  I yelled at kids, cried with kids, and begged them to delay partying and smoking (and sometimes even hours at their jobs) in exchange for hard work, fast food, sleepless nights, and, ultimately, a high school diploma.  Many days I did not see how I could ever endure another year as Senior Counselor.  I was exhausted to say the least.  However, by May 18th, most of the kids pulled it off and walked across the stage to receive their high school diploma. Many were the first their families to do accomplish this feat.  It was one of the best moments in my life, very surreal and unforgettable. 

I am full if gratitude for the God who gave me the opportunity and all the Seniors who let me be a part of their lives for this moment in time.  As the summer days pass by, I continue to think of them and know I will probably do so for a long time.  In fact, I hope I always remember them and the lessons I learned from each of them.  In my heart I know there will never be another Class of 2012.  I was blessed beyond measure by them, and  I pray they will each find happiness and peace in the journey ahead of them and maybe even success along the way.  God speed to the Class of 2012!

Flying to the OC Again...

     So today, hubby and I boarded a plane headed to the west coast.  Southern California is my third favorite place on earth (first favorite place being home, second being Africa).  I love California and have learned so much from the funky state.....lessons coming from both the southern and northern parts of the state.  Some I love to share and others I am not quite willing to share.        I love to visit Cali, but must admit I was not excited about this trip.  Having just completed my first school year as a full-time working Momma, I long to spend endless days with my babies.  I want to snuggle on the couch and sit poolside listening to their laughter (& screams while fighting....just keeping it real), but I know that all will be waiting for me at the end of this week.  For now, I will embrace this trip.  Time, as my brother so thoughtfully reminded me, to reconnect with my spouse and rejuvenate after a difficult year.  My hubby just said he wondered yesterday if I was going to make the trip and had even suggested I apply an additional estrogen patch to help me calm my emotions.        Thankfully I swallowed my uneasiness and boarded the plane.  As I engulfed my thoughts in a book written by the author of my favorite blog, I have already found purpose in this trip.  You see she is this amazing mom who always reminds me to find beauty in the unexpected.  As I read about her journey of growing to love the imperfect (not as if any of us are even remotely close to perfection), I remember my first trip to California.  18 years old, fresh out of my freshman year of college, and ready to conquer the world one mission trip at a time.  At orientation the leaders tried to instill in us our purpose of "spreading the Baptist spirit"...for real!  Not the  love of Jesus, who loved everyone, especially the dirty, hopeless, sinners,  but the spirit of a religion that taught me to judge others for their actions, as if my sins were so much less wrong than theirs.          Thankfully, however,the churches I worked with in Orange County that summer taught me about sharing Jesus with others by learning to love like Jesus.  Loving the homeless man while remembering that I was a sinner just like him but he was the unlucky one whose sins landed him jobless, alone, and hungry.  Loving the ghetto kid who fights because he doesn't know any other way and remembering that all he, just like all of us, needs is someone to believe in him and his ability to overcome.  Loving the addict who deals with the cruel disease of addiction that robs one of life just like cancer does but often doing so without community and facing it all alone because they are seen as weaker than a patient fighting cancer.        That summer, 15 years ago, changed me.  I returned to Tennessee with a totally new understanding of religion and life (and deadset on never being a "Southern Baptist" again). It was a defining point in helping me find my purpose and my place in life.  The unexpected beauty I found that summer in learning to embrace differences and not judge others, gave me the freedom that I would need to step out and do bold things God would later call me to.  I am forever grateful for California and all that it has taught me in life and am thankful to be getting away for a week of rejuvenation.  I can already feel refreshing sense of renewal wash over me.  I needed this week and I know I will be a better momma, wife, daughter, sister, friend, and counselor because of it...