Noah's Rainbow

  October 23, 2020 To my Rainbow Baby, Today, I am 22 weeks pregnant! The storms of last week have calmed, praise Jesus. On Saturday, the union and the school board came to a tentative agreement, and all parties voted to ratify the contract on Sunday. I was able to go to school to retrieve my keys and computer that evening, and returned to my classroom Monday morning to resume teaching my students. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to be back in my classroom in my 7 and a half years of teaching at GLHS! Even if all I saw were my students' little squares on a virtual call, filled with nothing but their Google icons, I was overjoyed to be doing what I love to do, what God has called me today. This past week was our last in distance learning for now. This coming Monday we will begin our new model for Hybrid learning. I feel comfortable with the technology plan in place for the most part, although I am certain there will be a lot of extra time needed to meet the needs of all my k

  Listen to the post here Let’s start with a vocabulary lesson today. The English teacher in me wants to make sure we all have a clear understanding of some words that are vital to today’s thoughts :) Personally, I struggle a great deal with Biblical words that seem to mean the same things and are often used interchangeably in Scripture. Two such words are “shame” and “guilt.” I have always treated these words as synonyms, and in a lot of ways they are. But this past January (feels like a century ago, doesn’t it!), I was in some professional development at school, and the speaker- who was presenting on trauma-based teaching- said something incredibly profound about the difference between these two words: Guilt is thinking, “I did something bad.” Shame is thinking, “I am a bad person.” In this light, they become incredibly unique from one another. Based on these lines of thinking, guilt is something that we can move past, if we rectify the bad thing we have done. However, sham

  October 16, 2020 To my Rainbow Baby, Today, I am 21 weeks pregnant! This has been one of the hardest weeks of my career. I have gone through the losses of students and colleagues, had opportunities to lead new programs fizzle out, and have spent the last 7 months trying to figure out how to teach in the midst of building closures and a global pandemic. Both nothing I have experienced in the last 8 years has prepared me for this week. Since summer, our school district has been trying to figure out how to start this school year in a way that provided a strong education to our students while keeping students and staff safe from the rapid spread of this disease. My school also needed to negotiate a regular working contract for this school year on top of coming to agreements on working condition plans for distance learning and hybrid models. The fluctuating numbers in Ohio caused some of these plans to start and stop suddenly because of the need to shift to virtual plans before school eve

  October 9, 2020 To my Rainbow Baby, Today, I am 20 weeks pregnant! How in the world did we get to the halfway point already, little one?? I cannot believe all that’s happened and all we’ve been through in the last 5 months- more like 3 years- to get to this point! The weeks seem to click by faster each week, and that is both exciting for me (because I cannot wait to hold you in my arms) and terrifying (there is SO much to do!!). Your daddy and I accomplished something big this week- we named you! We have a name picked out for if you are a girl, and another one if you are a boy. We are mostly keeping them to ourselves until you arrive, but I love them both so much. They make you a part of our family, with names found in our family tree, and they also have special meaning for all we have been through to bring you into this world. You’ll carry the honor of being our Rainbow Baby forever, and that makes me so happy to honor God’s blessing in this way. It has been a wild week for us, so I

October 2, 2020 To my Rainbow Baby, Today, I am 19 weeks pregnant! Oh sweet baby, we got to see you this week! Two days ago, I had my first ultrasound with the OB. I haven’t laid eyes on you since week 7, when you were a tiny little peanut with a fast flickering heartbeat. Two days ago, just shy of this 19 week marker, your daddy and I got to see how much you have grown, and my heart is just so full and amazed at all that has happened in my belly in 3 months! You look like a little person in there now! We saw your arms and legs squirming, your little mouth moving, the four chambers of your heart and the hemispheres of your brain! We even have a picture of the little imprint of your ear! Your dad and I just kept looking at each other and smiling so big at how you are growing and moving away. The last time I was at the OB’s office, the nurse struggled to keep your heartbeat within range and I guessed that you were a wiggle worm- boy was I right! The doctor found your legs and feet when s