Back to school for teachers

Today is August 6th , and this is my last weekend of vacation. It's back to school for me. I welcome this new school year with opened arms. I will be a lead teacher this year. This has been about two years in the making. I've had my degree for a few years, and I worked in business when I worked for my ex-husband's company. I actually did accounting. I decided to change my career after I got a divorce. I moved from Michigan to Texas very wide eyed, and hopeful. The journey was a little longer than I expected. I hit the ground running, substitute teaching and taking education courses simultaneously. I was getting accustomed to a new city and making new friends and work associates. It was exciting and stressful at times, but I knew I'd made the right choice in moving. I took a job as a paraprofessional, partly to get experience in my field, but also because the job that I thought would be forthcoming quickly, did not materialize.

I talked to fellow educators, watched the news, and later realized that Texas was going through upheaval in the field of education precisely at the time that I was trying to break into the field. I thought, "I could have stayed where I was for this."  That was just my frustration talking. I knew I was right where I needed to be, at the right time.

Fast forward two years and I got the job I wanted. I know that God is faithful. This is huge for me. It was humbling to work in a job where I was basically overqualified. It was humbling to meet up with teachers in the teacher's lounge and the copy room and resist the temptation to prove that I was just as qualified as they are to teach, yet I was an assistant.

At times like that, I had to go to God to see things from his perspective. He kept pushing me, either through a sermon, a scripture, or even a word long sense spoken over me prophetically, that things were not over, but that they were just beginning.

This has been a time for me to grow, to understand how tough I can be in crunch time, and has been a lesson in perseverance and patience. Through faith and patience we obtain God's promises to us. I can say that I have had to live that for the past two years. I know that I have grown through this time.

I just want to encourage any single parent, newly divorced person, anyone in transition, male or female, to keep on moving forward. Things may not change over night, but they will change if you stay in faith and don't give up.

It's Been Six months since my last post... Wow!

I didn't realize it had been that long. I'm back! (to quote Jack Nicholson in The Shining). I don't know exactly where that thought just came from.

Christmas, New Years, and Valentine's Day have all past. I went home for the holiday... Christmas. I saw family and friends. As usual, I came home both happy and saddened. I knew I probably wouldn't see family again for a while. I think of what the older saints used to say in church about never having to say goodbye again, after Jesus raptures the Church out of the earth, and we join him in the clouds as believers in Christ. I sometimes wish for those days. I miss seeing my nieces and nephews grow up. I feel like they might forget me. I don't want to be the long lost auntie that they barely remember. I guess I will have to go home more often.

I want to say that I finished a divorce care class in the last few months. It was very informative. It gave me answers to some of the questions raised in one of my previous entries. I wondered why, after seven years, emotions still arise after a divorce. Some people in my class had long sense been divorced and explained that the ties that children bring can keep the emotions raw at times. Just think about it. If you had children with someone, and you divorce, you will continue to be connected to that person in some way. You'll be at the same graduations, birthdays, and weddings, eventually. If and when you have grandchildren, it will start all over again with them. That can  be daunting at first. I mean, don't get me wrong, my ex-husband and I had a civil divorce, but "forever connected" is quite a reality to face when you've tried to move on.

I think those feelings are normal and natural. No one wants to be reminded of a painful divorce, even if it has long sense been over. I really think the class validated my thoughts on the subject. I was not alone in my thinking. I think attending that class gave me some closure. It was time well spent.

I want to say thank you to all who have read my blog and responded to it. I have had positive feedback on it. I must admit that I haven't spent as much time writing as I'd like to. I don't know how authors do it. You really need some uninterrupted time to just focus on it. Life has a way of taking you in different directions. That's been the case in the last few months. I know that I have to just bite the bullet and focus on my writing. I love to read and write. I have been keeping some sort of journal for the last seven years. Sometimes I wonder if my journals could just serve as the raw material for the book.

How have you all been adjusting to divorce? I'd like to hear some of your testimonies, stories, and questions or concerns.