A Teacher Who Made A Difference

I cried over this lady at church yesterday. I was thinking about ditching church. I think I knew it would be difficult and if I just didn't show up I wouldn't have to say goodbye right...um wrong. Even though J wasn't going he made me go. I said my goodbyes to everyone and honestly I was doing fine until I had to say goodbye to Peaches' teacher Sister R. The back story on this is that when Peach first moved out of nursery to sunbeams it was a nightmare. She had a best friend Skylie and they were a handful. They wouldn't sit in chairs, they were always climbing under the table in class, they didn't listen. I knew about this because people were always telling me how terrible they were. Then sister R got called to be their teacher. She was a God send. She would get under the table with them, she would play horse with them and let them ride on her back, she would play twirl skirts, she would tell them stories of her dogs with pictures, she would bring activities related to the lesson, a big snack with water ever week, and on holidays she'd go all out. It should come as no surprise those girls loves sister R and sister R loved those two terrors along with the other two girls in the class. She was always telling me how much she loved them and what a blessing they were to her. Now all my friends love Peach. I can't tell you how many friends I've had say, "of all your kids Peach is my favorite," and it isn't hard to understand why they say it. She is quick to smile and fun, she thinks of everyone as a friend, she is polite, she is exceptional nice, but at that time when everyone just saw her as extra work Sister R's love insulated my heart from their comments and warmed my soul.

When it came time to switch teachers at the end of the year I was exceptionally sad and then they moved Sister R up with her girls! It has been so great. Just a few weeks ago she took all the girls out to Chick-fil-a, to the nail salon to get their nails done by her nail tech so she could meet "her girls", and then to her house to play with her puppies. She was showing me the pictures as I picked Peach up and I thought, " Oh how I love this woman," but I managed to get through the conversation without crying. Then I walked down to the clerks office to have our records send to our new ward. (Ward is the congregation you go to decided by geographical boundaries...records are kept on all the members of the church, they have contact info and the dates of all your ordinances....baby blessing, baptism date, temple endowment date, marriage date). Sister R's husband was in there. He was trying me how much she was going to miss us and skylie who moved last week and I tried to tell him how much I loved her and what she meant to me and I just lost it. Big ugly sobs, I had to cough three times just to get my breathe enough to apologize. I love sister R so much. I hope she understands how much her simple service of love will always mean to me!