Next week is Thanksgiving. We are all anxious to start celebrating the Holiday Season. This is ‘OUR’ time of the year. While we try to remain calm and let Thanksgiving happen without jumping straight to Christmas – I will make an admission. Our porch still looks like Fall/Thanksgiving. Inside, our Christmas tree is up and ready to be decorated. What can I say, WE LOVE CHRISTMAS!
The Christmas magic….the most Wonderful time of the year. Busy days, lots to do. Fun with friends and family. We enter this Holiday season, grateful. And of course, very Thankful. After a tough previous year at school for Ethan, this year we have Teachers that believe in him. Teachers that understand he has a right to an education. Teachers that treat him as a gift, not a burden. Teachers that are willing to go the extra mile, not dodge and weave to avoid doing right by Ethan. What is doing right? Giving him a chance to show what he can do. Giving him the support to help him ‘get it.’ It is amusing to hear lazy people say “he can’t” and to hear hard workers say “we won’t give up.” Those who won’t give up, always make the connection and Ethan learns loads from them. Ethan even shocks me at times with what he can do. You generally find what you are looking for. This year, his Teachers expected him to succeed and learn…and he has. They have my heartfelt thanks and deepest gratitude.
So how do you say “Thank You” to these Precious Teachers? How do you ever make them understand what they have done? Good and bad? Well, the bad – God will take care of them. But the Good, my heart overflows for them. You just want to hug them when you see them and say “Thanks again for another good day.” Every day that passes, my heart is so full. It makes me want to freeze time.

“God, can you make this year last extra long? Can this year please drag on? You see God, because of these Teachers, I don’t have to worry. I don’t have to hurry home to ‘cry it out’ today. I don’t have to beg these Teachers to do their job. To care. To give a kid a chance. A chance to learn so that he can grown up and be an independent member of society. So that society doesn’t have to carry the tab for taking care of him. So that a kid like Ethan can grown up and be able to take care of himself. So that a kid like Ethan can be proud of himself. So that a kid like Ethan can, dare I say, have a good life.

So as we count our Blessings this year, we count Ethan’s Teachers twice. Their commitment to giving every kid a chance means the world to us….and to many other families.

Psalm 139:13-14
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

We are all ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’ We are all important and special. Different, Not Less.

God loves us all and wants what is best for us. What a Wonderful World it would be if we all wanted what is best for each other.

This year, we will enter the Holidays already in celebration mode. God is Good.