Moments of wonderful

So many difficult moments these last few weeks. Moments when my eyes filled up with tears and my heart squeezed closed in my chest and seemed to stay that way. When my breath was frozen and stuck in my throat. When the air seemed to push in around me and my brain felt trapped in a vice. But then between these difficult moments there were moments filled with wonder.
Like when my niece called me on the phone to let me know her science fair project was due in February so could she please borrow my incubator in January to hatch some chicks.

Or when a girl in my class brought me a beautiful bouquet of red tulips (my favorite)

Or getting to meet this adorable boy
And take pictures of his adorable selfAnd watching his sweet sister kiss him and dance around him and call him "Co co".
When I put up the vocabulary chart and students kept laughing and trying to work the words "predict" and "confirm" and "overseas" into our everyday classroom conversation. Or when I said "It's time to stop writing." And one of my hardest, least-interested-in-academics 4th graders moaned because he didn't want to stop. When one of my new colleagues said, "Thank you for staying here" after I was offered a position back in Ferndale (which I declined). Or almost everyday when Mark muted the political conversation on the TV he loves so much to listen to me talk about my day. It has been a hard couple of weeks. But each day there is joy and wonder and cause for celebration. And I plan to revel in the wonder of all of them.