Catching up

I haven't even been home a week yet and it has been CRAZY! I figured I'd do a little catching up before I start on my Kenya posts.

It's been an emotionally and physically hard almost-week since I got home from Kenya. It's hard to talk about it and it's hard not talking about it. I truly feel like I left my family and have no idea when or if I will see them again. I compare everything here to there. I can't get the images and the memories out of my head and it's hard to focus on anything else. I am really hoping to get some pictures and stories posted by this weekend so I can share with you at least a glimpse of some of my experiences.

You know how I mentioned that nasty bruise and all the swelling that happened to me on the way home? I was planning on getting it checked out on Monday. On Sunday I felt fine and we went to church. After church we went to lunch with some people and long story short, our BF teacher and good friend Beury, was concerned that I might have a blood clot after hearing about and seeing my foot. She called her friend who is a doctor and he was actually at the hospital working in the ED. She described my bruise and previous/current weird symptoms to him and his words were "If it were me or my wife, I would go straight to the emergency room." Apparently blood clots aren't something to take lightly. So off we went. Seven hours and a horrible hospital experience later, it was confirmed that I do not have a blood clot. The doctor used some fancy words for the reason behind all of the swelling I'd had in my feet and legs. I was correct in my assumption that the bruise and the swelling were not related. Turns out that nasty bruise is a hematoma. What in the world?! How I got that hematoma is another long and unnecessary story. But let's just say I'm not scrubbing that bad boy in the shower anymore because it hurts. BAD! I have no idea why the bruise was there for so long before it started hurting but I am thankful that it wasn't this painful in Kenya. The whole "stay off your feet" thing isn't really working out because I have yet to figure out how to be a teacher and stay off my feet. Which brings me to another thing to catch up on...

Teachers started back to school yesterday. I knew all last school year that I would most likely be teaching a "regular" class this year but I didn't find out 100% what grade I was teaching until 4:00 on Tuesday. I will be teaching 4th grade. I wanted either 4th or 5th so I am excited about it. I am taking the position and classroom of my good friend Kristen, who is not coming back so she can stay home with her sweet baby girl, Grace. She left me a lot of her things and I am so thankful for that. Between meetings and moving into a new classroom, I have been extremely busy the last two days. I think I am going to have to stay tomorrow until they kick me out. Our school is doing things a little different in the upper grades this year. Teachers will be taking either one or two subjects and team teaching. There are five 4th grade teachers so we have a team of three and a team of two. I am in a team of three and am teaching math (my favorite). So I will teach math to my class and the other two classes on my team, one teacher will teach reading, and the other teacher will teach science/social studies. Since I will be teaching the same math lesson to three different classes, the planning load will be much lighter. I know this approach will have its negatives, just like most things, but overall I am very excited about it. I will have to learn a ton of new logistic type things that I haven't had to do with special education before so it's going to be a hectic and very busy fall.

Paul's high school soccer team had their first game on Monday night. The season always starts off with a tournament, in which his team won last year. This year it's not going quite as well. That's all I'll say about Monday's game. Last night went much better but was a close win. They play again on Saturday and then there will be two games a week for the rest of the season. I will be their biggest fan, cheering them on at every game I can possibly get to.

Last night after Paul's game I went over to my good friend Abbie's house. She and her husband have recently become foster parents to twin four year old boys. I couldn't wait to meet them. They are absolutely precious and my heart just smiled watching Abbie and Chris with those sweet boys. This is one of the hardest, most selfless decisions they will have ever made and I admire them very much for that. They don't know yet what the timeline will be for fostering them but I know whether it's weeks or a year, they will have been a huge impact on their lives. Please be praying for Abbie, Chris, the boys and their biological parents.

I think that's all for now. Is 7:00 too early to go to bed?