THE FIRST DAY OF THE LAST WEEK - Part 1

Today marks the first day of the last week of school - not just before Christmas break, but the last week of school at North Love Christian School for our four children as we make the big move to Washington.  I have been looking towards this week with anticipation and dread simultaneously.  The swirl of activity during this last week of school includes four class Christmas parties with donations of party supplies and gift exchanges, semester exams, a Christmas program and homemade shepherd's costume, church caroling, and the production of 80 chocolate covered pretzel rods for teachers, neighbors and church folk.  Then there is the actual preparation of our own family Christmas celebration!  Someone stop the merry-go-round, please!  Perhaps it's a good thing all this is going on.  It will keep me distracted from the deeper emotions ready to sprout at the realization that I will no longer have the joy of watching the story of each of my children's classmates unfold.

So many chapters have been written before my eyes during these nine years since our oldest started school.  Relationships have been forged and joy have been gifted to me through these ever-growing and changing grins.  

Is it strange to say that I am happy that I am sad.  Sad to leave these kiddos but happy that I will miss them because it shows that I put effort into each moment God gave me with them - that I was connected to something worth while.  From helping out with holiday parties to planning birthday parties and sleepovers.  Little outings with friends here and there have etched their names on my heart.  And though it feels more like they are bolted to my heart on account of this weight on my chest - I am glad to have known them, to have them be a part of my own children's stories and to have their names woven into the pages of my story as well.  It's a great adventure:  loving and living as Jesus.