Transition

Disclaimer: If you are going to read this post please read the entire post and don't make any assumptions throughout. I love my daughter and I love being a stay at home mom.

It is now September and fall is in the air! Fall is definitely my favorite season. It used to have a lot to do with the start of a new school year, even though school starts in the middle of August and summer now. This year I still love fall, but I don't have my start of a new school year.

Before Aria was in my life I was a teacher. I taught middle school talented and gifted students and I LOVED my job! Sure there were days and angry parents and frustrating students and non-supportive staff and unneccessary paperwork, but all of that was an easy push over when it came to the students I got to work with. I taught in 7 school years (with the last one cut short in January), which means 9 different classes of students. I loved each of the classes and all of the students. I had a few groups I loved more than others, but I could always find what I enjoyed about a class. TAG kids are fun, quirky, weird, brilliant, creative, silly, imagnitive, wise, sympathetic, off the wall, and just down right awesome! Honestly, I would not want to teach any other type of students.

When I was obtaining my education degree I thought I wanted to teach 1st grade. Maybe 2nd and no higher than 3rd. Then, in the spring of my senior year, my advisor asked if I was interested in teaching gifted kids. I was a part of a gifted program when I was younger and I thought it sounded like something up my alley. The job I interviewed for was a k-8 position with gifted kids, part time. I thought it was a start and I could always keep looking. After about 2 or 3 days I was hooked and I loved 8th graders! Through the years I came to realize how much I loved middle schoolers and God placed me with them for a reason! A lot of people are scared of middle schoolers and TAG students, but I embrace them and wouldn't trade them for the world!

Or the world besides my daughter. School started a few weeks ago around here. On August 12 the teachers went back to work without me this year. I cried. I am an emotional person. Then school started on August 18. I cried. I am an emotional person. I miss teaching. I miss my students. I miss my 8th graders that I taught for two years and now have TAG class with someone else. I miss the 7th graders that I just barely got to know last year before I went on maternity leave. I miss the 6th graders that I've never met, but would be my students if I were still teaching.

All last spring I was just on maternity leave. All summer it was just summer break. It took school starting again for me to realize I am a stay-at-home mom. This has been a hard transition for me. I loved my job.

Then the other day a former student of mine made a comment on my facebook wall "if only there was a way for me to do both" meaning teach and stay at home. Her comment was like a light bulb in my head that I DID get to do both. God gave me the fabulous opportunity to teach for 7 years and hopefully touch the lives of some students along the way and have those students touch my life over and over again in those years. Now, God is giving me the fabulous opportunity to be a stay at home mom and influence my daughter's life in a way no one else can. I am so thankful for my 7 years and I am so thankful that I can be a stay at home mom. I have really gotten the best of both worlds!

Aria was born about 3.5 years after I was hoping for her. Had she arrived when I first wanted to have a baby I don't think I could have been a stay at home mom. And, had we found a way to make it happen, I would have missed out on some pretty fabulous kids in my classroom. God's plan is perfect! We just don't always realize it at the time.

School starting was a hard transition for me. But I am at peace now. I love staying home with Aria and I would not want to miss a minute of her cute smiles, crazy screams, and rolling adventures around the house! Thank you God for the great blessings in my life, both past and present!