My Newest Blessing

As many of you know, a deadly tornado came through Millbury, Ohio on June 5th. It destroyed the high school of the district that I teach in and it caused over 1 million dollars worth of damage to my building, Lake Elementary. But even worse than that, it killed 6 people and devastated countless people. One of those people is Madison (AKA Maddie) Walters. She lost her Mommy, Daddy, little brother, Hayden and her dog. She was the only survivor in her family and she had some serious recovery to do from her own injuries. Maddie now lives with her aunt and uncle and her twin cousins, who are just one year younger than her. They are an amazing family with a very strong faith. You can read about her story on her CaringBridge website that her aunt maintains. You will need to sign up and create a password, and I suggest that you have tissues nearby. The picture above came from this site.

The reason this affects me is not just because I teach at Lake. Maddie is going to be in my 2nd grade class this year. I had heard wonderful things about her from her teacher last year and also from anyone who knows her. However, when I found out she was in my class I had mixed emotions. I was worried that I wouldn't know what to say or how to be all that she may need. Her whole world was altered just a few short months ago. I am a person who becomes very emotionally involved when I hear of tragedies and I had cried many times for Maddie. This just seemed like a role I wasn't sure I was prepared for.

Yesterday I met with Maddie, her Aunt Amy and Maddie's cousins, Abby and Evie at Mel-O-Creme. Her teacher from last year, Mrs. Miller, also came with us. On my way there I was going over in my head what I should say. I just wasn't sure. Should I just act like it didn't happen? Should I just talk about school? Should I ask her how she is feeling? Should I talk about my own family when she just lost all of hers? I was a little nervous when I got there. Mrs. Miller introduced me to everyone when I walked up to the picnic table with my ice cream. From that moment on it was very comfortable. This little girl and her family are absolutely amazing. If I was in her place I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to smile. She was so sweet and polite. She smiled and played with her cousins. I can tell she is going to be a fabulous student. Mrs. Miller had told me that Maddie was her all-time favorite student and that she is everything she hopes her own daughter will be. That's pretty high praise from a teacher, but I can totally see where she is coming from. I only spent an hour and half with her and I already love her. Her aunt was very open and they all talked about her parents and brother. I don't think I will have to be as cautious as I thought in the classroom. I was worried I would have to be careful about saying "Ask your Mom and Dad...." This is something that is said all the time but I was afraid that would be hard for Maddie. She has a very inspirational faith in God and a family who is doing all that they can for her and I have no doubt she will heal physically and emotionally.

I came home from the meeting and I talked with Wes about our own faith. He attends a Catholic church and I attend a non-denominational church (when we actually get there which isn't often since the girls were born). This really doesn't work for our family and it isn't the best for our girls. We need to decide to go to one church as a family unit. He said he would consider going to Mainstreet Church and seeing how he feels about it. This is the church that Maddie goes to (as well as tons of other people that we know) and I think we at least can give it a chance. I do have faith in God, but my relationship with him is no where near what it should be. I also want my girls to be confident in their beliefs and know that He is always with them. If Maddie can trust that everything will be okay and that she will see her family again after all that has happened to her, then I know that I can too. I feel so blessed to know her and have her as a student. I think this will be a year I will never forget and one that will teach me so much. Thank you God for this most wonderful eye opener.

Hodge Podge

Here is a quick update of our last few days....

Thursday night I went over to my brother's girlfriend's house for an Uppercase Living Party and so Wes had to feed the girls dinner and put them to bed. This particular day Mya refused to take a second nap and so she was exhausted come dinner time. She fell asleep in the high chair and Daddy snapped a pic. He said he was feeding her cottage cheese and she was opening her mouth and chewing but her eyes were closed. LOLHe also snapped a pic of Stella sleeping because he thought she looked so cute all snuggled up with her babies. Remember how I said she is a hoarder? She always has stuff in her arms.Friday was the first below 90 degree day in like 2 weeks. It was actually a high of 79 and so we thought it would be a perfect day for the zoo. So we loaded up the girls and met Uncle Craig there with Will and Sophie. He had the day off and decided to join us. It was not ridiculously crowded and we had a nice day. We packed a picnic lunch and spent just about 2 hours there. It was the perfect amount of time. I am so excited to take the girls there when they are Will's age because he loves the zoo. They are interested but they can really only pay attention to the animals that are huge or are moving around. I didn't get any pictures of us looking at the animals but just a few quick ones during lunch. To keep Will sitting down while he and the girls were eating we played a guessing game. We gave him a few clues about different animals and he would guess what we were talking about. He loved this and was so good at giving clues to us. Most 3 year olds could maybe come up with a few clues but one would probably be what the animal was. He never did this and his clues were great. For example, "I'm thinking of an animal that is green, he goes in the water, has a long face and tail and a scratchy back"......did you guess a crocodile? My nephew is a genius.....however he then described an "animal" that was wearing a yellow shirt and a necklace and had gray hair....did you guess Aunt Casey???? Did the gray hair throw you off? Me too! I then said "Uhhh Will, what color hair does Aunt Casey have?" and he laughed and said "brown".....what a goof!Then on Saturday Wes, my mom and I took the girls to Pearson Park to swing since they had such a good time swinging at our reunion last week. These swings were not nearly as nice and actually the girls liked sitting sideways in them so they could face each other. After they got bored with swinging they wanted to get down and walk in the mulch a bit. Mya was a bit adventurous and attempted to walk down the little slopes that they carve out so your feet don't hit the ground when you are swinging (I hope you know what I mean). Most of the mulch is kicked out of these spots by peoples' feet and so it is mostly dirt. Well she took a little nose dive when she was walking down and this is what she looked like. LOL She didn't cry at all she just looked a little surprised. We cleaned her up right after we snapped the picture but this has to be one of my favorites of her. Then Stella and Daddy found some leaves to swing around and she enjoyed rubbing them in Daddy's face!Finally, today we drove down to Findlay to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa Rethman and Aunt Kayla and Aunt Mo for dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Yummy!!!!! The girls were a riot. They loved dancing in their high chairs and blowing kisses to everyone. Twins always attract attention and they certainly had everyone at the tables around us smiling and asking about them. Please excuse Mya in this picture.....she looks like a hot mess. She took out her hair clip and she just wanted to play with Aunt Mo's phone and wasn't too happy when we took it away so she would look up.We took some family pictures outside afterwards. I hate that somehow the same people are always left out of pictures. We seriously have like 2 or 3 pictures of Nancy (Grandma Rethman) with the girls, so we fixed that today! ;) Now if we could just get Mommy in some pictures...(hint, hint Daddy!)They loved playing with Grandpa too! They were running back and forth between the benches and climbing up and down. It was a lot of fun and thanks for the delicious meal!