~and God knew~

The sweetest young lady left me a message on this blogging site after she had read a post that I'd made about a week ago.  I recognized her right away as one of the 18 students I had when I taught the 4th grade at Olathe Elementary in Colorado.  She is now a 7th grader and I have a feeling that in the years to come that young lady will do some very special things with her life. She thanked me for all that I had done to help her and told me that she was thinking of me and decided to check out my blog once again.

It was the kind of message that every teacher wishes to hear.
I loved that whole class and young Marissa was a part of it all.

That first year of teaching in the mountains of Colorado was the thing that saved Mike and I. We said it many times throughout the course of the 9 months of school that year.  I was having a tough time adjusting to life so far away and removed from the life I was used to back in Kansas. Mike and I had only been married 3 months.  I wasn't really happy, in fact I was mostly just sad.  I wasn't used to all of the changes that I'd gone through since Mike and I stood under that basketball goal at school to be married in May of 2013.  Going back home to Kansas seemed like the only sane thing to do.  To say it was tough is really an understatement.

It was beyond tough.
It was downright almost impossible.

I'll never forget the day that I learned a position was open for that school year in this marvelous place called Olathe.  I had seen the town many times as Mike and I drove up to Grand Junction and the Grand Mesa sometimes.  We had never ventured off the highway to see what it was like but I remember thinking it must be a good place.  I had no idea that I'd soon be spending a whole lot of time there.

I called the principal and asked him if the job was still open and much to my delight, I learned that it was.  Within 3 hours after my phone call, I had already been interviewed and offered the position.  With only 1 week remaining before school would start, I had to hustle and get things ready but I made it in plenty of time.  

That school year was a blessing to me, in more ways than one.  I had never taught fourth graders before but I knew that I could do it.  The only thing that was unfamiliar to me was Colorado history but shoot, I just learned along with the kids.  It worked out pretty well all things considered.

We went through the nine months together, those 18 kids and I.  We grew as a classroom community and as such, all of us learned to get along with one another and to help each other along the way.  I found fourth grade was actually kind of easy to teach and what I didn't know, I asked questions about.  I knew that I could visit with either of my partner teachers about those things that I just didn't quite understand.  They were always there to assist me. When the year was finished, I felt a bit of sadness in knowing that our time together was completed.  At year's end I would send them on to the fifth grade and I would end up taking another position in the building as a first grade teacher.  We still saw one another as the following school year came about.

I left Olathe Elementary in May of 2015 just as those original kids of mine were ready for the 6th grade.  I got a hug from each of them as I left.  I didn't forget them and I had hoped they would not forget about me.  Marissa's comment took me back in time and I saw in my mind the once very lonely school teacher from Kansas, who had now found a purpose in this new life in the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Colorado.  

"You helped me with a lot of things, so thank you!" she wrote.

Although she didn't realize it, or any of the other kids as well, it wasn't me that helped them.  It was them who helped me.  As a matter of fact, to say that they helped me is another one of those understatements.  

They saved me.

I think of those dear and precious people who were there for us at school each and every day. The more the school year went on, the less I seemed to need to go back home to Kansas.  I had found a real reason for being there and a purpose in my new life.  Mike became my students' own "Mr. Renfro"and perhaps the fondest thing they would remember of him is all of the snacks that he would make sure they had.  Mike knew,  just like I did, that you can't fill a child's brain up with knowledge if their bellies are on "empty".  

It worked out.
Just like it was supposed to.

Every once in a while I hear from kids that I have taught over the past nearly 4 decades.  It makes me feel good to know that they still remember their old teacher and all the times that we had together.  I always wish I could have done more for them all but one thing is for sure.

I know in my heart that I did everything I could.

Thanks Marissa for reminding me.  
Mrs. Renfro still loves you kids so very much.

I couldn't even imagine it!  The very first field trip that I took Marissa and her classmates on that year took us deep into the mountains.  I thought about all of the kids that I've taught over the years and how excited they would have been to go on a field trip to a location such as this.  I am sure that I was "wide eyed" the entire time.

This was just one of the views we saw that day as we traveled to our destination.  This was taken in January, long after our September field trip.

Here we are at the very end of our first day together.  I was meant to be their teacher.  They were meant to be the ones to save me.  God knew.