Rollercoaster Week

This week has had so many ups and downs that I'm starting to feel a little bit sick. LOL. First my students were great. Then they all went crazy. Thankfully, most of them have returned to the good side. In fact, I'm really looking forward to my 8th period class today, and I normally despise them. :) J. made her one-month milestone of no cutting on Wednesday but celebrated by going to the movies with L. She even called me that night because it had been a great day for her. Unfortunately, Thursday morning (J.'s 18th birthday, no less) L. started a huge fight that ended with an IM from J. (to L.) saying she wanted to kill herself. It said something to the effect of, "I can't live without you. I WON'T live without you." It literally made me want to throw up. It breaks my heart to see one hold so much power over the other, especially when I don't understand it at all. Please pray. At this point L. may need more prayer than J. I think she may be more messed up than I ever imagined.

Back to the good. My student Jonathan (that I mentioned in the last post) came and found me today during my conference period to give me my Christmas card. What was on the front? A nativity scene. What did the inside say? "May God bless you this season." I couldn't help but smile. Bless his heart. He's so curious.

Well, my team is about to have our little Christmas lunch. See you back here soon!

Last Week of School for 2008

Yay! Only 4 more days of school before Christmas break! :) It should be a pretty easy week; my regular English III classes are finishing The Crucible; my pre-AP class is reading Frederick Douglass's autobiography; and my PSAT class is working online. Later in the week, my regular students will begin an essay, so that will end the week on a quiet note for me! ;)

I got an email from Sandy (the girl whose mother pulled her out of our school) this morning. It was very sweet and reminded me of all the reasons why I'm a teacher. I also got another chance to share my faith with a student after school. He is a junior, recently "came out" to his family, and is very confused about God/church/the Bible. He flat out said that he does not know anything about how it all works, and that he feels like he is already going to hell because he's gay, so what's the point of church? Please pray for me as I hopefully get to continue this conversation. He is very inquisitive, so I'm pretty sure he'll be back. This isn't the first time we've talked about God. His name is Jonathan, so please remember him in your prayers.

Let's Play Catch-Up!

Since it has been a looooooooooooooooooong time since my last post, I thought I'd let all of my readers (the 2 or 3 of you out there...LOL) know what I've been up to.

1. Classroom Missionary - Unless you are a teacher who really strives to get to know your students, you really can't fathom what goes on with them outside of class. Please pray for me and anyone else you know in the classroom. Our kids face issues that we could never even dream of. J is back at school after about 2 months. She says she is finished with cutting; she has, however, resumed contact with L. While J was in the hospital program, I had another student whose mother withdrew her from school to punish her. She is now living with her grandmother in east Texas. Sad, sad situation.

2. Finishing My 1st Semester of Graduate School - Yes, I survived. My last class was the week before Thanksgiving. Praise the Lord - I got an A in both classes!

3. Travelling - I was able to time my trip to B'ham just right. Jack Wesley Farmer was born there as I was boarding my plane in Dallas. :) It was so exciting to be there just a few hours after he made his entrance. I am also thrilled to say that I got to watch Grace in action at a soccer game the next morning. She is fierce! So impressive. Additionally, I got to see their mom, Kerry (one of my longest-running friendships - we go back to 3rd grade!), and their dad, Wes (love him!). Kerry's parents and sister were there, too; they are like family. I love 'em all!

*I was also able to attend MSU's Homecoming football game. Fun weekend!

*I travelled back to MS a few weeks later for Thanksgiving. I had more fun with the Ellis-Farmer family, spent time with my actual family (LOL), and just enjoyed seeing people. I will be back in 11 days. :)

4. Painting - Deanna and Vicki have finally convinced me to try to sell some of my art work. My school is having a craft fair this weekend. Here is what I have painted to sell so far:

I am dying a slow and painful death in graduate school.

On a happier note, I will be at home in Columbus this weekend. :)

Long Time, No Post

Sorry it has been so long! For some of you, it has been a really long time because you only check the blog when your feed reader tells you to, so you never noticed the blog became password-protected for a while! LOL. I have since decided to get rid of the login process after trying several different ways to search for this blog. Without knowing the actual title of the blog, I couldn't find it.


Anywho...back to the real post. J is still making progress and still living with her father. She definitely has bad days, though, so please keep all of us in your prayers. She went to church with us again last week, so please be especially diligent in praying about that. J and L have been "officially" over for about two weeks, and that has caused a least a few setbacks in J's progress. She is VERY upset about the breakup - hopeless, depressed, etc. PLEASE pray...I cannot tell you enough how very much I covet your prayers for this situation.


So, I'm sitting at the Charlotte airport as I type this. Amy had to drop me off early, so I have plenty of time to catch up on my posting. Apparently, BIRDS fly in and out of the airport constantly. I know you won't believe me without pictures, so here you go:

That's all for now. I'm going to go upload pictures on facebook.

~Kristy

Update on J

Tuesday night was really bad. J called me around 10 (maybe? I've been up late with this every night, so the time kind of blurs.) and was sobbing. The only thing I heard when I answered the phone was her sobbing and gasping for breath. She had been hitting the walls with her arms (I saw the bruises yesterday) and had also been cutting again. Her 16-year-old sister happened to be home for once and tried to get her to unlock the door to no avail. J was at the end of her rope and kept repeating that she just wanted to die so she wouldn't have to deal with the depression and hopelessness anymore.
I did the best I could to keep a calm voice, but my whole body was shaking the entire time I was on the phone with her. In fact, I was still shaking for about an hour after we hung up. But God is faithful and provided the opportunity for me to share some of my own story with her. She feels so abandoned by her mom, which is understandable because they rarely see each other, and J is home alone 9 nights out of 10 for the entire night. I was able to talk about how my dad skipped out on a lot of my life for several years and how that's when I really began to depend on God as my Heavenly Father. She had also mentioned that she felt like things would never be any better, and I took the opportunity to tell her about my dad going to jail for two years. At the time, it was embarrassing, and I didn't think it would help. Now I can see that it was probably the best thing that could've happened to him (and our relationship, for that matter). I don't know if this encouraged her or not, but it gave her time to calm down a little and get some perspective.
We talked for over an hour Tuesday night about what kind of choices she has, how I can only help her so much without parental involvement/consent, and about taking things one day at a time. To be honest, I wasn't sure she had heard a word of it; I was just trusting God to carry her through. I knew she hadn't been eating, so before we hung up, I offered to bring her some of our leftover pasta for lunch. I don't know why I did this, but I just felt like I needed to meet as many of her needs as possible.
Well, she showed up for lunch yesterday looking like crap. You could really see the struggle on her face. She stared blankly at the wall for most of my conference period. (She has senior out, so she didn't have a class to be in.) She ended up staying in my room for the last period of the day and ate ALL of the pasta. :) She was in a better mood as she left school yesterday, but I was expecting another bad night.
God took care of it. J called me about 10:00 to say that she had called her dad and told him she didn't want to be home alone...and he came and PICKED HER UP. Hallelujah! :) They went out for ice cream and talked a little before he took her back to his house. She didn't tell him about the cutting, but it's a start. She came in this morning (SO happy - I could see a difference in her demeanor immediately) and told me that they're going to make it a weekly thing. I was so proud of her for taking a step to get help.
I had dinner tonight with some friends, and now I am more than a little paranoid about this situation. I know that I have approached this with the best of intentions, but I'm not sure how well I've covered myself legally. I was under the impression that as long as I told the counselor, I would be covered, but now I'm not so sure. Please pray for me. I am literally sick to my stomach about all of it.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I apologize for my lack of updates lately. I've been struggling to teach, plan, and grade at Job #1; read, comprehend, and write about FOUR books for my two graduate classes (oh, yeah-I have to attend those classes, too!); show up and work at Job #2, which is now, thankfully, only 2 days a week; and on top of all of that, I'm now apparently a counselor on the side as well. :)
I do not begrudge the counseling job. In fact, it remains heavy on my heart and is the main reason for this post. About a week and a half ago, a former student of mine, J, confessed to me that she has been cutting herself for the last seven years. I taught her last year and got to know her pretty well, or so I thought. She has been dating another one of my former students, L (also a girl), on and off for about 4 years. They have a toxic, selfish, explosive relationship. J's mom works the night shift, and her father has remarried and lives about 20 miles away. Many, many things have built up to bring J where she is now. J and L broke up again last week, and J says she is ready for it to be final. She went to church with me two Saturdays ago, so she is obviously hungry in that area as well. J is home alone most night for hours at a time, which is not good in the current situation. She says she knows she needs therapy but is scared of being readmitted to the hospital (she went twice freshman year). While researching the topic online, I came across To Write Love on Her Arms, an organization that addresses people who self-injure. It actually linked to a counseling program in a nearby city, and I called today for info. J's dad actually lives in the same city.
Please pray for several specific things:

1. that I will speak only God's love/words to J
2. that J will follow through with therapy of some sort
3. that all of the requirements line up for the best therapy available to be possible
4. that J will avoid L
5. that opportunities will come up to share about Christ's redeeming love with J