Gratitude Friday...

Last night, I got to walk in Aubrey Kate's shoes at the Four Year Old Preschool Parent Orientation.  

When the students come in every morning, they find their cubby (which moves around so they have to actually look for their name), put their backpack in the cubby, lunch box in the lunch crate and get their shape of the day out of the cubby.

The shape and color tell each kid where they sit during circle time.  The shape and color changes every day.  They'll move on from shapes to numbers and then double digit numbers.  

Once they find their seat, Mrs. Webber tells them what they'll be doing today.  Each station is color coded and there is a corresponding "key" for those stations.  Some days there are only one or two keys for a specific station.  Once those are gone, they're gone.  The stations are places like the kitchen, blocks/legos, science, counting, writing, books and a table with the teacher and the assistant.  

Aubrey Kate always wants the kitchen.  

She doesn't always get her way.  This is a source of major stress for her.

Mrs. Webber asked us if we'd heard about the key policy.  

Y'all.  Not a single parent had heard one word about it.

We've heard about it in serious detail.  Since day one.

The other parents also didn't know there had been a fire drill on Wednesday.  Didn't know there was a little girl in the class who lost her foot in a major car accident.  Didn't know they had hulu hooped at motor skills.

Mrs. Webber asked me what Aubrey Kate thought about the key system and I was honest and said, Oh, she pretty much loathes it.  

The other parents laughed.  Which is good because it's really not that funny.  But I told her we understood the system.  We understood what she was trying to do and we caught on pretty quickly.  So we'd spent the entire weekend after her first week of school reinforcing the teacher's policy.  And although she hadn't moved on to loving school, she'd moved from never going again to "it was an okay day." 

I'll take it.

As I was processing all that last night and telling Chris all the details (during timeouts and commercial breaks because FOOTBALL), I realized how grateful I am Aubrey Kate tells us all the details about her day.  Granted most of the time she's complaining about her day but regardless, she's talking.  And we need her talking.  

One day, her day isn't going to be about getting to play in the kitchen but about math and spelling and that girl who teases and the boy she wants to notice her but he seems to not even know she's alive.  And then it will be about professors and roommates and finding her passion.  Maybe even about falling in love or having her heart broken.

These are the things I want her to tell me about.  Need her to tell me about.  

So if that means, right now I have to listen to her complain about not getting the blue key to the kitchen then so be it.  I'll do my best to redirect her complaints back toward finding the good in her day.  Finding joy in someone else getting a turn.  Learning to chose happiness no matter where life puts you.  

I am so looking forward to that day.  

Father, thank you for knitting our precious daughter in such an amazing way.  Thank you for giving her the desire to share with us.  You'll change her heart someday when she accepts You as her Savior so until then, continue to guide and direct us on how to gently point her towards You and life as a servant.