04/24/09

This is a tulip that was about to lose its petals. It made me think of a lily. I thought it was interesting looking so I photographed it, of course.


Today has been a hard day.

I found out this morning that one of my former students killed himself yesterday. I taught him eleven years ago. He left our school after Middle School and I saw him a year and a half or so ago at the restaurant where he was working. It was so wonderful to catch up with him. He said he was going to come back to school to visit and he shared with me his plans after he graduated from high school last May. Apparently something went terribly wrong in his life. He recently had made some bad choices in life and was in a bit of trouble. It saddens me to think that life became so bad for him that he didn't think he could keep going. My heart breaks knowing that just a short eleven years ago I taught him and now he is gone. I have been praying for his parents and sibling today. I can't imagine what they are feeling.

Not long after I found out about my former student, we received word that one of our parents at school was on life support because of complications from a surgery. She wasn't expected to live.
I just saw her at church this past Sunday! My heart just broke again... it made me want to just go in a corner and shed the tears that were welling up in my soul. The thing I kept thinking was that the Lord knows and sees the whole picture and we have to trust Him through it all.

On a lighter note, right now I have seven 8/9 year olds in my house (including our two) to celebrate Wesley and Mikayla's birthday with a SLEEPOVER! It is the first one they've had like this so we are all experiencing "new ground." lol I recall some 30 years ago having the same kinds of birthday parties and the "torture" my parents endured. So... it is the least I can do for my own two. Let's just hope they don't decide to stay up until 3:00 in the morning and then decide to go outside and not tell me. I did that when I was about their age with all of my friends who spent the night. We followed Daddy out to the barn and helped him get up the cows for the morning milking. You can imagine the shock my mother felt when she got up to check on us in the middle of the night and we were all gone.... Needless to say we all got in BIG trouble and then were grounded from each others birthday parties in the near future. lol I think I'll just bolt all of the doors shut and throw on some alarms or something....