The Seven of Us

Every day. Every day, I see things that I hate. Things that make me raw. Don't misunderstand:  Life is good. Very, very good. But there are still injustices. And in teaching, you see things every day that hurt your heart a little. You see kids struggle to do things--simple things, like add and subtract--that you and your own children did easily. You see kids struggle to hold a pencil. You see kids who don't have pencils, who, at the age of eight, get themselves dressed and ready and walk to school, all without a parent  to help. You see teens who have built walls higher than the Great Wall of China. lest they become vulnerable by letting you in, which, of course, is where you need to be in order to truly help them. You see a beautiful little boy, hungry for a woman's love and attention, because his mom isn't around much. (You know that he has an amazing, dedicated father who is one of the best people you know. And you wonder how his dad's love and care isn...

It's been a whirlwind school year. I know that is true of every year, but wow! We started school knowing that Kenna was having a hip issue. She injured her hip in April 2015 while running in a track meet. We just thought it was a strained hip flexor. She rested for about 6 weeks and it felt much better. In June she started playing volleyball again, and by mid-July it hurt. In August Mark McDonald finally diagnosed impingement. At that point I knew she probably had the same issues that my friend Steph Harms had and would probably need surgery. Still, we were trying to schedule an appointment with Dr. White, the surgeon.  We had to wait till the end of September, then do an arthrogram (MRI with dye injected so that the tear in the labrum would show). By mid- October we had a diagnosis and a surgery date, which was December 22nd. Most of the school year has been marked with visits to the surgeon and Ron, her awesome physical therapist. She is healing amazingly well but we do th...