Blessed.

I will never understand why it takes such a horrible tragedy to make us realize how blessed we are. My heart aches for those who have lost loved ones in the Oklahoma tornado yesterday, but especially those families that lost their children. I guess being a teacher makes me especially tender hearted towards children. I had been avoiding the news all afternoon after the tornado because I didn't think I could take hearing about those poor innocent children. Finally, I turned on the Weather Channel and the very first thing I heard was that 7 children had been confirmed dead due to drowning in the school's basement. I lost it.

The most amazing part of it all is that even after loosing everything they owned, the people of Moore, Oklahoma were still thanking God for sparing their lives. Here I am with just a few days left of student teaching and I don't even have as positive of an attitude as these people. All I know is that I am glad student teaching is almost over and I ask that each of you reading this will say a quick prayer for the people of Oklahoma.

On a more positive note, I met the absolute nicest family yesterday. I contacted a woman about a printer that I saw for sale on Craiglist. Lately I have been searching for some items that I need for my classroom and this printer sounded perfect- it has a scanner, copier, printer, and can fax (although I don't plan on using that function) but my most favorite part is that it has wireless connectivity.... that means less wires which means less mess! After some bargaining with the lady we settled on a price of $25 for the printer since I would have to buy new ink which is very costly. I'm the type of person that if I wait too long to buy an item I will wind up changing my mind and not purchasing the item. Well of course this was the case with the printer and I contacted her again and told her I had changed my mind. I was not expecting her reply. She told me that if I would just meet up with her in town that she would just give me the printer. I was thrilled!

Fast forward a few hours and I'm finally home and ready to try out my new printer. Lo and behold, I open the box and the power cord is missing. I text her to see if she still had it and she did so at 8:30 at night I drove to her house to pick it up. She and her husband just recently moved here so they were outside in their garage cleaning up when I arrived. After much apologizing, she gave me the cord and I was about to be on my merry way when she stopped me and asked would I be interested in a lamp for my classroom. She showed me the lamp and it was so adorable. I had to have it! She handed it to me and told me to just take it. As I thanked her and turned to leave, her husband stops me and asks would I like to have a microwave too. I couldn't believe it! I had literally just been looking online at microwaves earlier that day. As I drove away, I felt so thankful for these strangers that had helped me more than they knew.

Even when we think this world is only full of evil, there are angels among us.