This week has been interesting, and as I look back for a moment, I realize a few things. First off, being a mom is fun. Moms everywhere, you just can't say "Easy for you to say!" to me after this week. I know momhood is a bigger deal than my week's sojourn in those shoes has been, but it's fun to give goodbye hugs and welcome home hugs, to use the "You have my care and compassion" voice and the "I don't want to have to tell you again" voice, to read stories and to check homework, to be in charge of getting dinner on the table and checking the doors at night and drying tears and laughing at jokes. Secondly, being a working mom is tough. To get myself and four young'uns out the door--clean, fed, dressed, supplied, and happy--on time challenged my typical can-do attitude as I enter my classroom every day. I can't help but idealize the sending-them-out-the-door, still-in-my-sweats image of being a mom.
Anyway, I share all these details journal-style to say that today is a day of looking back and reflecting on the last few things I've learned, as well as looking head and setting some goals. It's the last day of the third quarter of the year, and two weeks of holiday lie before me just head of the fourth and final quarter of my first year of teaching/my first year of Africa/my first year away from home. I think some reflection is warranted.
I've learned that I can do more than I thought I could. For a good month this quarter, I was convinced that I couldn't make it; I thought I'd crumple and fold and fail. I truly wanted to give up. When the Christian has nothing to lean on, when her emotional and mental supports (those that she constructed for herself) are demolished, she's reminded of something she thought she knew: everything she does can only be done in the strength and blessing of Jesus Christ.
