#10 - Substitute Teach

After much ado, I made it on a couple substitute teaching lists.

My first assignment was a God-send. Literally. I prayed to work with young students in a classroom that I could make sense of and God answered far beyond anything I could expect.

My second day - in a different school- was a drastically different experience. 

My third and fourth days were challenging, but nothing too extreme, and then I had a day far worse than I could have imagined. But with the grace of God, I made it.

And I didn't quit (like I have in the past when things have gotten tough).
And God opened up new doors.

Lately, He has blessed me with incredible opportunities at my dream school.

A school that believes in educating the whole child.
A school where students learn to love and care for the environment.
A school where each student matters and multiple levels of positive reinforcements are set in place.
A school where teachers talk about the needs & abilities of their students in uplifting, positive ways.
A school where the administration visits classrooms, knows students' names, and rides buses home.
A school where they take nature walks and hikes through parks.
A school where I feel at home.

I am so grateful to have finally listened to God's call (and my husbands ツ) to take the necessary steps to start subbing. I am so happy to be spending the majority of my weeks in a place so inspiring.

Here's the 20 more things to accomplish!
-N

#13 - Write my sponsored children monthly

For some reason I had this idea that each letter needed to be some deep, awe-inspiring piece of writing. So, instead of communicating with our girls frequently, I would put off writing letters for weeks and months at a time in order to come up with some brilliant writing. 

This is not how it needs to be. 

Compassion shared a blog post a while back that inspired me to get started. (And God's timing was perfect - as always - because it was just a few days before I planned to write January's letters!)

It gave a set of sample letters that were rather basic and direct - this was really helpful to me.

After reading their post, I sat down, wrote a short letter, & made some paper snowflakes to send along with the letter (since I wrote about how much in snowed this winter.) It felt great to get in touch with them on a more basic level, and share a small craft that I always loved making!

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Update: I also found it helpful to set aside a specific slot of time to write our girls. For example, you and your family can gather together every second Sunday after church, every first Wednesday after your favorite t.v. show, etc.

Having a plan and a schedule, even for short letter writing, has been so helpful for us actually sitting down and getting it done. It's amazing how even things that I value can just fall by the wayside because I haven't set them into my schedule appropriately.

Never underestimate a good schedule, people!

(Although this is an ongoing project, here's to 21 more things to accomplish!)
-N