A Trip to the Principal's Office

The Principal Needs to See You.....

Some of you know that I'm a teacher. I've had the good fortune of teaching at the same amazing school for the past 5 years where we treat each other like family. No....really. We do. And we've had plenty of reason to do so in just the 5 short years that I've been there. You see, we teach at a school where kids come to us with lots of extra "stuff" going on at home. A lot of our kids don't ask what's for dinner that night, they ask "if" there is any dinner that night. Many of them don't get hugs when they walk through the door, they get yelled at. A school like ours requires very special teachers. Ones that care DEEPLY about children - especially the ones that are rough around the edges. Those are the fine folks I get to got to work with and call "family" each day.

And then there's MY kids. The students I get to teach all day. I am blessed to work with kids whose families come from so many different places from around the world I've lost count. They've come here for a better life. For freedom. For safety. For an education for their children. It's the best job I've ever had. I get to teach children English, knowing that it will change their future (and many times their entire family's future as well.)

So why go on and on about my job on an adoption blog? Because I got called to the principal's office this past week. (I know what you're thinking - this can't be good!) He told me to close the door and then he placed this envelope on his desk in front of me:

Then he said, "The person who is giving this to you wants to remain anonymous. They said they just want to 'pay it forward'."

I opened the envelope to find ten $100 bills. I was instantly flooded with gratitude and began to sob. I mean, who would do this for me? The sacrifice it meant. I don't know if you've check out a teacher's salary lately, but we're still near the bottom of all college grads. :(   It still makes my head spin and tears instantly leap to my eyes even still as I think about one of my hard-working coworkers family members making this level of sacrifice to see to it that a little boy that they haven't even met gets to have a mom.  What this one person has done embodies my favorite verse about caring for orphans.

Hosea 14:3  ....for in you the fatherless find compassion

P.S. I have been delayed in publishing this post because we are CRAZY busy try to pack and make sure our 5 other kids are being taken care of when we leave the country next week-- YIKES!  Anyway, in that short few days, I have had multiple other individuals at school just walk up and say, "This is for your new child, congratulations!"  I was also handed a beautiful card that had been circulated throughout my entire school building. Members of my school family had written such kind words and people had once again contributed so generously to help this little boy come home to his Mama.

I'm so very blessed to have these folks in my life. :)

I haven't had a chance to total it up yet, but I think we may be able to cross off the "Charitable Orphanage Donation" line item!!


Thanks so much for supporting us.  We appreciate your continued prayer for our journey.


~Brooke