pencils and smiles

 

Last year, apart from my job at the GAP in Woodburn (where I am still working), I worked as a tutor for middle school students at Waldo Middle School in Salem in a program that took place after their normal school hours. I wanted to be able to tutor again this year, but starting nursing school threw some of my wishes out the window...which is ok because I believe God is directing my life and it is also a good reminder that some things are only meant to be a part of my life for a time. BUT!! I prayed throughout summertime and felt led to still work for the tutoring company, but as a substitute (because I love kids!). This would allow me more flexibility to say yes or no and would give me a teensy bit more cash once in a while (yay!). Anyway, my point is that this week I was given my first opportunity to sub! It was quite a drive away, but I was asked to sub at an elementary school in the Portland area Tuesday and today. And even though I am exhausted from not only subbing but from other events going on in my life, I had a blast.

Each one of these 6 kids I supervised (3 boys and 3 girls) were adorable and incredibly unique. Some of them were shy and some were nonstop hyper, but they grew dear to my heart. I am always amazed at how quickly my heart seems to attach to kids when I spend quality time with them, and so knowing I probably wouldn't see them again was hard for me, but their little faces are permanently branded on my heart. Hopefully I will see some of them in heaven, Lord willing, but for now I must content myself with thinking of their little brains working so hard on their studies as their pencils furiously erase a hasty and false answer or as they laugh at the boy in our group who fell out of his chair when he couldn't sit still any longer from boredom.

One day I hope to have my own sweet yet crazy children. I can't wait to delight in them. But for now I am happy to delight in other people's children. And in this case, I think of their cute faces hard at work concentrating on their papers, their little hands grasping wooden pencils like their life depended on it, and their precious smiles warming my heart whenever I catch them goofing off.