First Day Musings

It's funny - the way you don't notice how you smell until you get home from work.

Right now, I smell like a mixture of sanitizers, soaps, drool, pediasure, sunshine, fresh air, plastic, rubber, curiosity, confusion, cleaners and learning.

I started my new job today!

I'm a special ed assistant at a school for kids with exceptional needs. When I say "exceptional needs" what I really mean is: I got really excited today when I met someone going to school there who was verbal. There are more wheelchair options than there are cars on a used car lot, if you don't have a g-tube (that's a feeding tube for ye uninformed) you are not cool, and you pick your boyfriend based on whether or not he can answer your questions by batting his eyelashes. (Who doesn't swoon for a boy with long lashes?)

I couldn't help asking God, "Why? Why did you make kids like this?" 

There isn't an answer for that question.

You know what?


The kids don't care.

They don't even ask that question.

They accept what they've been given in life - and they grin about it. They are not like me: pots that ask the potter, "Why did you make me this way?"Instead, they accept that they exist the way they exist - and that that's somehow just right.

I saw so many smiles today - from kids that have trachs and feeding tubes and can't sit up on their own - because they're fully confident in the care they're receiving and have no questions about why they are the way they are.

That's a lesson for me.

"I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content [because] I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." - Philippians 4:11&13