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Do you know what your purpose in life is? Have you ever thought about why you are here? Have you ever asked God "Why?"
God has always lead me to work with children. As a girl scout I volunteered at Lighthouse for the Blind and the Center for the Retarded. I taught tennis to disabled children in wheelchairs and swimming to the blind.
My first job at age 14 was working in a Montessori School across the street from my house in Montrose (Houston TX) I was at that school every minute I wasn't in school myself. I loved teaching them new things and putting them down for nap and singing them to sleep. At 16, the irresponsible owner would leave me alone for hours with the kids, Illegal I'm sure, but I loved those kids and God saw to it that there was never an accident. In the evenings I babysat some of those same children, sometimes staying weekends with them while their parents were gone. By the time I was a Senior in High School the Montessori had closed down and I was acting as the day nurse for a wonderful women named Leah. She had ALS and I spent days with her cooking, cleaning administering her medications, and sitting on her bed writing down the memories she wanted to leave behind. Taking care of people was definitely a drive in my life.
I had my son two months after my 19th birthday. It changed my life. I learned that being grown up and responsible for that beautiful bouncing boy wasn't going to be easy. I had not completed Nursing school at St. Thomas University. I had no marketable skills and I married a man who became unemployed soon after Adrian was born and made excuse after excuse for not getting a job. I had to trick him into applying for food stamps after I had to go begging for formula and diapers for my son at a food pantry. Soon after that I ended up leaving Adrian in a daycare for 12 hours a day to be the day nurse for a quadriplegic young lady my age.
Life at home was ugly, and when my parents said they feared that the husband was getting ready to cross state lines with my son and that I would lose my son because states tend to keep children in the state the paper work is filed. My sister and friends came and moved me out within a few hours while the husband was out. I was staying with an ex-boyfriend's fiance, Terri, in a one bedroom apartment with all my boxes stacked along the walls.
Terri worked at the Center for the Retarded and suggested that I apply for an instructional aid position. I loved working with the profoundly disabled. Best of all my son went to daycare in one of the classrooms with about 7 other kids of teachers and I only paid $20 dollars a week. Adrian and I continued down my broken road. I moved to a teaching position with the over 21 year olds. I was in my element. It wasn't work for me. It was joy! When the teacher of the behaviorally involved profoundly disabled was murdered I volunteered to sub. Turns out God had a plan. I became the teacher for that class and with God's help made huge changes in the lives and behavior of my students. (stories for another time)
When Adrian was 2 and 1/2 God sent me Russell Huff. Three years later I was married and quit the Center for the Retarded to go to SHSU for that elusive degree. During this time I was Adrian's cub scout leader and volunteered as a P.A.L. (Parents Assisting Learning) at my son's school. I knew that I would not go into nursing. God wanted me to be a teacher.
People make plans and God laughs. Within a year and two months I was pregnant with Julie and we were moving to Austin. One thing led to another and I was blessed to stay home and had two more girls. College was on hold again. I was blessed to be an Angel with the Gabriel Project and occasionally God sent me young girls considering abortion and I helped them choose life and find the resources to keep the child or give the baby up for adoption.
A few years later a little coal fire power plant in Carlos Texas hired Russell and we moved to Singleton TX, I was blessed to begin a girl scout troop at Anderson-Shiro Elementary and co-led that troop for 6 years. I waited till my youngest was 6 months from starting school and I returned to SHSU for my Education Degree.
I have been teaching for 5 years. I have been blessed to touch the lives of many children. God has used me to make a difference in children's lives. He has given me an opportunity to work with the parents of students in my district this year and I believe that teaching parenting classes is God's will as well.
On this broken road called life, God has been there to catch me and put me back on a path to make a difference in someone life. That is the purpose of my life.
