~upon knowing the way home~

A good Sunday morning to everyone out there and greetings from Hutchinson where the thunder is rumbling, the lightning is flashing and the rain has poured down overnight.  How badly the moisture, this "gift", is needed and we take every bit of it that we can get here in the Great Plains.  Many of you reading this live in parts of the U.S. that are equally dry or perhaps even drier than we are here.  For every single drop, for the least of these things we give much thanks.

It's 5:10 in the a.m. and except for Oblio the "roundhead" prowling around the house, it's pretty quiet here.  The ceiling fan's whirr and the music of the "True Oldies Channel" are the only noises to be heard in this place.  In 24 hours things will definitely be making a change.  In the summer of what is soon to be my 58th year, life as I have known it will be taking quite a turn and I'll be going down some new roads in a place that is far, far away from here.  I'll be living in a new state, working at a different job, and making friends with an entirely new group of people.  It can at times be a little unnerving as I stop to think about it but the one thing that calms any uneasiness, any fear is the knowledge that I will not go through this new part of life alone.  In His own perfect timing, because He is way smarter than I would ever profess to be, God sent the right person into my life.  And you know, when the "Good Book" says in Ecclesiastes that "to every thing there a season and a time for every purpose under Heaven"?  Well, they weren't kidding.  May 21, 2013~marks the beginning of the season of the rest of the lives of two kids from the "land of long ago, and far, far away."  And those two kids, now well into their 50's, are sure glad that they didn't give up hope.

It seems like forever ago that I took that first journey out to Montrose in the middle of winter time.  I remember my good friend, LeRoy Willis, questioning my sanity and reasoning for driving in wintertime conditions through the Colorado mountains to visit this guy named Mike Renfro.  As I read his comments on my Facebook page, I had to laugh as I envisioned the ornery grin on LeRoy's face as he figured out just why this "flatlander" was making such an arduous journey.  Later on, he would ask me if Mike and I had intentions to marry one another.  "LeRoy if we ever do, you will probably be one of the first to know", I replied back to him.  In mid-April when Mike and I had decided that we would be married in late May, I contacted LeRoy to tell him the news and also to ask him yet another question....."Would you be there to give me away in marriage?"  And come this Tuesday, that dear friend will be the one who does just that.

LeRoy and I during the autumn of 2011~He and his dear wife, Anne, had just come back to Kansas for a brief stay before returning to their "warm weather" home during the winter time, the desert southwest.  They had found an indoor trainer for my bike and had brought it back for me to use while "old lefty" was healing and getting ready for another surgery.  The Willis's are two very fine people and my dear friends.

As I prepare for the last two days of school, the final "stint" of my life as an educator, I've come ever more to realize just how important kids have been in my existence here.  I have loved them, ALL of them, each in their own ways.  Not one has been more important to me than the other.  I am so glad that my current group of students, the 200+ children at Lincoln Elementary, will have been invited to be there when Mike and I are married less than 72 hours from now.  I have asked a few of them to help us that day and graciously they each said "yes".  Here they are~

Emma and Matt have been in my reading rotation groups throughout this year at school.  I have seen their struggles and challenges in reading but I've also seen much improvement on their part.  They have come a long ways and with the help of their own classroom teachers, they have made it.  With tears in my eyes, I want to tell you something.  It's "true confession" time for this teacher.  My dear friend Emma, talks non-stop sometimes.  I have found myself growing impatient and telling her that she had to be quiet or only listening half-ways to what she was saying to me.  I'm ashamed of that, really I am.  I didn't always get along with Matt and he and I "butted heads" with one another off and on for nearly the first 3 months of school.  As a student, he didn't always make the best of choices.  As a teacher, I didn't always react in the best way that I could have.  There was much room for improvement on ALL of our parts, mine included.  About November, I had Matt and Emma read the book "A Taste of the Blackberries", a story in which one of the main characters, a little boy named Jamie is bitten by a bee and dies from the allergic reaction to it. 

The challenge of teaching that book arises because by its very nature, the subject of death and dying has to be addressed.  We spent a lot of time talking about the new vocabulary words in the book, words like funeral home, grave, headstone, casket, pall bearers, and memorials.  It's a book that can easily be read in less than a week but we found the discussion of it so interesting that we took the better part of a month for it.  For some reason, and really I believe it was a "God thing", the 3 of us connected with one another and as the book went on, I found myself understanding those two students and another young man named Tre, a little bit better.  My heart softened (ok, ok almost to the point of mush) to young Matt and for dear Emma, I FINALLY started listening to her, I mean REALLY listening to her.  They both had a lot to say and when I finally realized that all I needed to do was just stop trying to be in control of everything and give part of the ownership of learning back to them, things got a lot better.  I have told them both many times, that our turning point was when we all "met in the middle".  I was able to gain their respect by showing mine to them first.  What a lesson it was for me to learn that day and in my 35th year of teaching to know that it wasn't too late to make a change in myself in order to bring about the best in learning for those two students.  Come this Tuesday, Matt and Emma will be a part of our wedding as they read the "love" verse from the Bible found in First Corinthians 13.  It's a tricky one, filled with words that are difficult for young people (heck even old people) to read, but I have all the confidence in the world in those two kids.  I told them that I will be there to help them, that it's going to be just like reading it in class.  The only difference is that their teacher will be married.  I'm sure proud of them and all of the kids there.  What a blessing I have been given, to know so many students over the years.

And of course, on the subject of everything happening for a reason in this life, my bike accident of August of 2011 allowed me to make a connection, a special friendship with two young people who will also help us on Tuesday as the flower girl and "keeper of the rings".  Nadonna, a little girl from our school, and Darin, the grandson of our school secretary, both broke their arms shortly after I did that year.  We went through the long and difficult process of healing together.  They both got out of their casts within a few months while I went on to another surgery and an additional 3 months in a cast.  Unfortunately dear Nadonna broke her other arm a few weeks back at school and is now sporting a new cast.  Life happens like that but as I have said many times to Nadonna, "It gets better."  Those two kids were the like the best and most powerful medicine that I could have ever asked for during those trying times.  If I felt "down", and believe me there many days like that, all I had to do was to talk to one of them.  We stuck together, the 3 of us and encouraged one another when things got a little tough.  Nadonna, Darin and I made it and we did so because we knew we could not, should not, and would not give up.  I love those two so very much and will always remember them and the times we went through together.

The Brothers Mitzner, Darin on the left and Kodi on the right.  How could a person NOT feel better?  Just look at those two cute faces~

Nadonna and I~between the two of us, we had one good pair of arms :)  I will never forget this little one and the wonderful gift of her presence in a time that was very rough for me.  

Well, this is it~the day before the "day before".  I have much to do yet before tomorrow arrives and if it doesn't get done, well I guess it just doesn't get done, right?  Today will go quickly and in just 24 hours from now, Mike will board a plane and head to Kansas.  When he touches down in Wichita, my son Grahame will be there to meet him and hopefully by 3:00 he will have arrived in Hutchinson.  What a wonderful feeling it will be to finally see him HERE and to know that we will soon be married.  It's been a long wait but he is surely worth it.  

This will be my last blog post for a while.  Once we are settled in our new home together in Colorado, I will write again.  Having finished my bucket list for here in Kansas, I have already developed a new one for life in Colorado.  I have no intention of stopping the practice of "living as if I was dying".....I have come to realize, most thankfully, that each day of life is a gift to us.  Every day that passes by without us acknowledging life's brevity is a day that is lost and never to be gotten back.  My dear friends and family, please do something today that you have always wanted to but just never got around to it yet.  And please remember, sometimes those things don't cost us anything but our time.  What are you waiting for?  Get out there and do it!  I'm not your boss, remember, only very bossy and I love you guys one and all.  

Michael Duane Renfro~see you in my part of the world tomorrow!  I love you and I am ready.  It's easy to find us, just go 611 miles east...you can't miss it!  A place they call "Kansas".

                                         ~the way home~