Twists and Turns of Life

Just a quick update note. School started and my class is sweet and has some major characters which, of course, means I'll have some super stories. One of the first is perhaps one of the sweetest things I have ever heard. One of my first day of school activities is to take a blank puzzle and give each child one piece. They decorate it as they desire and we talk about how each one of is is like the piece we drew on. Then, we put the puzzle together and discuss how we are all a community and each piece/person is important. (Perhaps it is a touch abstract for 7 year olds, but they usually get it...) Then, one of my students said, "What if someone is absent? Should we take their piece out of the puzzle?" I posed the question back to the class, and one sweet little girl piped up with "Even if they're not here at school, they're still in our hearts." Adorable.

Right now, though, I'm sitting in the comfort of my parents' living room listening to mom butter her bagel. Sadly, my Gma West passed away on September 1, 2008. She had been sick for about a month, and it is good for her not to be in pain anymore, but bad for us to not have her more present in our lives. When I started teaching, Grandma gave me an old-fashioned school bell she had used while teaching. Now, at BBIS, I use that bell to call my class to morning meeting. I know she would have loved to visit me in Berlin, and now she can hear her bell and join us for Morning Meeting each day.

Being back in the US has brought a flurry of emotions and I just don't know how to answer the question, "How are you?" It's wonderful to see family and friends, terrible to miss my gma, relaxing to only speak English, but nerve-wracking to think of the time with my class I'm missing. In addition to all of that, even though Jason and I have been talking daily since mid-May, seeing him in person makes getting to know one another even more real. He makes me happy. My blog is a bit too much of a public place to tell more, but send me an email, letter, or let's go for coffee and I'll spill.

I'll be here in Ohio until Saturday.