These Shoes

Back in August, our whole family opened a new chapter in our life story.  This chapter would have our youngest in school full time.  It would have our oldest challenged in 3rd grade  And it would have me leaving home for the first time in 6 years to start working again as a teacher at the kids' school.  With great anticipation, and gleaming new shoes, we dove into this different chapter.

Today, we close that chapter with the same bittersweet feelings you experience when any great story comes to an end.  We are eager to open the next chapter: a summer jam-packed with fun plans (starting tomorrow already!).  We are thankful for the wonderful year we had-- especially for teachers who taught not just math facts, science lessons and spelling words, but also how to have a good heart, be a disciple of Christ, and strive to do our best for God's glory. We celebrate all we learned, how much we grew and how we were blessed each day with the health and energy we needed to tackle its challenges.  Yet, we bid farewell to a routine that has been REALLY good for us for 10 months now.  And I am left to contemplate how I can feel so happy to be done working for a few months, yet so sad to say goodbye to each of the sweet students who take a piece of my heart out the door with them.

We may feel a bit like these first day of school shoes today-- sorta sad and a little worn out.  But, we are ready to swap out the old school shoes for some summer flip-flops and see where the next season's journey takes us!