Last year, I took pictures of my oldest daughter and shared a couple tidbits with the teacher as I dropped her off, but that was it. Our biggest concerns were if her best friend would be in her class (she was) and what she would wear on the first day of school (a frilly leopard print skirt with a kitty graphic tee, of course).
This year was different. In the past year, our first son became old enough to enter kindergarten and we adopted a sibling group of three, including two who are school-aged this year.
But more than dropping four kids off at four different classrooms, this year is different because the conversations go deeper than tidbits in doorway chats with each teacher. I hand wrote four letters this year, each describing special needs and response plans and traumatic histories and preferences for early childhood projects and… and… and…
Yes, we still took pictures at the door, and we still picked out the perfect ensembles, and we’re ordering pizza tonight to officially celebrate the end of summer, but it felt different. All week I found myself on the verge of tears, because trust isn’t easy to come by for me. I know my kids and their quirks and their needs and their diagnosis but…
What if I forget to share something really important with Robbie’s teacher?
What if I seem like that crazy helicopter parent, just another overbearing kindergarten mama, to Philip’s teacher?
What if Patience’s strong front makes her teacher think all is well even if it’s not?
What if Jocelyn gets lost in the midst of all my advocacy, simply because she doesn’t have a label or diagnosis that warrants as much attention as her siblings?
And let’s not even get started on Zoe’s evaluation next week followed by an IEP meeting two weeks later and this Sunday’s promotion to new children’s ministry classes for each child and the launch of our preschool program for our little girls during my Bible study. I’m already a mama on edge, so let’s not go there.
Can you relate? If so, I’d love to pray for you. Truly. When I read these verses,
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)
I am encouraged but my faith is still so small that I wrestle with anxiety over my own requests, even as I share them with the Almighty One. When I turn from my own circumstances, though, and pray over the needs of others, that’s when His peace washes over me and when Christ teaches me to trust beyond what I feel.
So to serve you and to quell my heart’s anxieties, it would be my pleasure to pray this week over what’s happening in your hearts, lives, and schools. Leave a comment below!
(And if you have a moment, stop to pray for someone else here too. Maybe that’s what your heart needs, just like I know mine does.)
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