Potential Adoptive Parent's Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the desire you have placed in our hearts to give a home to some of your children. Thank you for the beautiful home that you are helping us to create, and may it be a haven of love and comfort to the children you share with us. Father, if this is not your will, and if we will not do it well, then please use your power to stop it now. We do not wish to cause harm. We wish to bring peace. If we have the strength within us to be the kind of parents needed for someone out there, then please use your power to bring us together. Help us find the right children, Lord -- the ones we can touch and raise and share your love with. The ones we can meld and mold; the ones you have saved from an unimaginable life to a life everyone dreams of -- life with a family who loves and supports you unconditionally. Holy God, give us strength to do the things that need doing to make our life safe and nurturing for the children you have planned for us. Keep our hearts pure so that all the honor and glory for this incredible blessing goes to you. Give us patience, Father, and help us be the kind of parents you are to us. Help us be strong, consistent, supportive, loving. Help us be wise, comforting, nurturing. Help us to discipline them in ways that will benefit them the most. Help us teach them all the things that matter. Help us always to hold up Your light as the one they need. Help it shine brightly Father, through all the chaos they have known so far. Be with our children, who are waiting, somewhere, for parents like us. And Father, though I recognize it may take many hard days and weeks and months and years, I pray that you knit us together as a family -- with bonds that can never be broken. Give us strength and grace and forgiveness when we make mistakes and help us to admit them and move forward with a better tomorrow than today. Bless their hearts, Father God and keep them fertile and fresh and soft and malleable. Plant the seed of your love in their hearts, and help us to water and fertilize and cultivate and give these children back to you one day as hearty vines bearing fruit for you. And help us realize that every good and perfect gift comes from you -- and to be thankful for that gift even on the hard days. Be with all those who will touch our application and visit our home and help us choose children that are right for our family. Guide them with your wisdom and give them your spirit to help things work out for the good of all. And Father, if it is not in your will for us to be parents, then please give us the strength to bear the sadness and to continue to love all the children you place in our path without murmuring or complaining. Your will be served, and help us to always honor you with our mouths, our deeds, and our lives. Bless the waiting children, bless our waiting hearts.

Through Jesus' power,
Amen

Adoption. . . .the long and winding road

This summer we went to visit social services to find out information about adoption. We had an interesting meeting with the social worker, who gave us an application packet and a list of stuff to gather.

Two months later (and a ton of time talking about, "What exactly was your happiest/saddest childhood memory? " What was the happiest/saddest moment in our marriage?" "How much are we willing to deal with in the way of physical/mental/emotional/behavioral disabilities? What ages are we willing to accept?? It's not a little like going shopping at a clothing store (not to be offensive, but. . .) There are so many things to decide, so many decisions to make. It can be a bit overwhelming. Do you listen to your heart or to your head? Do you totally sacrifice who you are and have been together for 19 years to become someone totally different? And how does that even work? We've been together. . . alone. . . .19 years. . . .how that will change is not even capable of being put into words!!!!!!!!!! Scared? yes. . . .Excited? Definitely. . . .Nervous? More than I can say . . . . Overwhelmed? Most assuredly. Committed? 100%! Still scared? Uh-huh!!

So Friday we meet the social worker again. And the next step after that is the home visit. Now the panic really begins. . . .we have much to do and time is of the essence -- please pray that we can get enough done that she can see that we can make a wonderful home for some children, and then to give us the wisdom to choose rightly for our sake and the children's sake!

Things That Mattered Today (a blog-lift from Katherine -- my own take)

~Shania's smile when I told her how proud I was when she came in and did her work without jumping up and down like a jack-in-the-box -- that smile would stop traffic, and often stops my heart!
~The quiet time in the car -- a rare commodity these days -- nice to have some time to listen to the quiet, pray, enjoy music without conversation (Not that I don't love commutes with Shane, but it's nice to be alone sometimes, too. . . .)
~The time with friends over a good Mexican meal -- sharing good news, classroom frustrations, laughing, just being together -- how I miss that!
~Jolena stopping by my room just to say hi --she was my assistant for 2 years, and now she and I are both working with someone new. . . she was a good friend, and it's hard to maintain the friendship with busy work . . . .
~Tabitha telling me that she's tried some of my strategies for the classroom -- and they worked!
~Being with my ADK sisters and making plans and sharing concerns
~The devotional thought I shared with my ADK sisters about struggles and change
~The song knocking on the door of my mind on the way home -- inspired by the devotional thought I shared with the ADK sisters
~The idea that I can still be creative when I have time to be quiet and still
~The excitement in my classroom today over their own share of "pirate treasure"
~The look on Thomas' face when I introduced him to "Mr. Fletcher"
~The card we signed for Angie, struggling with cancer
~The email from my college roommate with a family concern
~Stopping in the back parking lot at the library and reminiscing about my 3 years there -- good years, good people, nice job, wonderful experience


Yes, life is full of its own reminders that it is good. Reflection is good for the soul -- it reminds us of the positives in our life and motivates us to work out the negatives. . . .Looking forward to what matters tomorrow!

My Prayer as a Teacher

Dear Father,

Thank you for the opportunity to touch young lives daily. Father, help me to touch their hearts and lives in the way you'd want me to. Help me to show them the lighter, brighter side of education. Give me patience, dear Lord, to understand them and to reach them without hurting them. Bless me with wisdom to make the right decisions to positively impact their lives. Father, help me remember that in the midst of curriculum and schedules and all sorts of necessary evils, that I have been blessed with 26 of your most precious children -- even when they don't act precious, and even when 26 feels like 126. Help me treat them with the love and respect to which they are entitled, because they are yours. At the same time, Father, give me the wisdom to know when to push them to achieve more. I never want to let them get by with little -- help me encourage them to achieve much. Help me remember to laugh and stretch with them, to play them music and sing with them, to give them time to talk and draw and play, while challenging them to read, write, listen, think, problem-solve, do math, observe, question, reflect. . . . Help me know when I am expecting too much and when I am not expecting enough, and to fix it. Father, please strengthen me with your Spirit to shine your light as I strive to do my job. Help me to remember this calling came from You, and that it is You I represent. Lord, please forgive me when I fall short of my calling -- lift me up and help me do a better job every day than the day before. And Lord, one day in the future, if I see my former students in a new setting, if they do not remember me, I hope at least they will remember the lessons of life I taught them. Help me to remember that it is life I am preparing them for -- not a test -- and to teach them accordingly. Give me the strength to stand up against the system when it is not in the best interest of my students, and to realize my own weaknesses as an educator and seek to better myself constantly. Father, rid my Spirit of the human nature of competition and peer pressure and to allow Your Spirit to fill me completely.

Father, bless my students and help them to learn to listen and learn and practice and grow. Help them to be successful and to understand, so that they are ready for all the challenges that come with 3rd grade. . . .middle school. . . .high school. . . college. . . .life. Keep them safe, and put your protective arms around them. Help them know how much I love them, if not today, then one day in the future.

Bless our school and help it grow in its challenge to educate all our students and prepare them for life. Bless our administrators -- help them lead us wisely and make positive decisions for staff and students alike.

Through the name of Jesus, Amen.

Blast from the Past

Last week, I was at a local store. A nice young man checked us out, and surprised me by asking my name. . . I replied, "Tonnye" -- then he said, "Are you Mrs. Fletcher??" I said (hesitantly, uncertain why he was asking, and in this way. . . .), "Yes. . . ." He smiled and shook his head, and said, "I had you in third grade. . . ." Sure enough, as I glanced at his name tag "Aaron _______", and I said, "Oh, my word, Aaron -- I never would have recognized you! Goodness, but you have grown-up since third grade. . . " and, indeed, he has -- he is a very nice, very handsome young man. He's obviously doing very well -- is a senior this year, graduation looming in his future. When I asked if he was excited, he said, "Yes, and nervous". I also asked about his post-graduation plans. He hopes to major in Criminal justice and graphic design. Not surprising. He was one of the nicest young men I've ever had the pleasure to teach. How nice it was to see him, and know he's doing well, and that he remembers me -- and let me know. Hope springs eternal that there are children out there who are what they are and who they are in part because of who I am and what I do.

It is shocking -- I found myself teary-eyed. . . .why, I'm not sure. All of my children from my first 2 years' teaching will be graduating this year. I was mentally aware of this fact, but to see one of them " all grown up" when I haven't seen him for years was surprising. I'm not sure how this works that they continually grow older, and I don't. . . .:~) I guess it's just the beginning. It was my first foray into this arena. I wish they would all be this positive. . . .I cringe thinking about seeing their names in the paper because they are in jail, or dead. . .and yet, I know it is probably inevitable. . . . I'm at least glad this first one was positive.

Blessings to you, Aaron. Good luck in your senior year and graduation and college and life. I hope third grade was a good year for you.