The Big Leap!


Bitter sweet... is saying goodbye to elementary years as a parent forever soon. Both sons will be in junior high next year! Wonderful to have a year of healing with my sons. Anyone that knows me and knew my life with Uel knows that we visited the Wichita Mountains often and have camped in over 33 states, Canada, and Europe with the kids. 
 Nolan was assigned a teacher that was a little "old school" but has a heart of gold and is so dedicated. Without even knowing our background,  she led my kids to places that have significant meanings to our past. She doesn't know this, but my friends, former students and family in Dublin and Stephenville do. I literally found myself at Camp Grady Spruce (Dublin friends will smile about that), the Wichita Mountains (Uel and my old friends will smile), and the JFK museum(many of my former students and people who know me know I collect JFK memorabilia). We couldn't attend her campouts at Sid Richardson (I have 3 brothers that are eagle scouts and Uel is one also) due to custody arrangements. I knew the night I met her, she was extremely special. Nolan and Zeke had to start a new school this year and has had a rough 2 years. Praying and asking God each day to show me how to fix the situation, I knew that I had to put my career aspirations and needs aside for them and we needed a lot of help. We had a rough start this last fall as a family. In fact, The night of meet the teacher I didn't even have custody of the boys. They were still visiting their dad on the nursery in Stephenville. I felt horrible going to meet the teacher without my kids for the first time. As an educator, this felt so wrong. As a parent, my heart was broken. Yeah.. the feeling of failure overwhelmed me. When I met Ms. Luppy,  she introduced the schedule of the year to parents and told us about all of the field trips.  I did have tears in my eyes because many of the things we so miss about living in the country and memories from the past that included camping in the Wichita Mountains, the debates over Camp Grady Spruce in Dublin, and I wondered why was God putting these events in our lives? He did so to heal my family, show me where I might of been wrong about a few things in the past, teach me a few lessons about myself, and placed people in my path to help make that happen. For that I am eternally grateful.  



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