celebrate love.

i have now been camera-less since september. i'm pretty good at stealing pictures from other people's phones, cameras, ipads, whatever. but i've been negligent lately. i'm sorry. in order to make up for some text-heavy posts, i'm going to throw some valentine's day lovin' at you - in just a minute.

this school year has been a crazy journey - we want to change the way things work in education in this country. and, we knew that there were going to be struggles and tension and pressure and hard times. it's true. and i prepared myself mentally for that. except, i prepared myself for some crazy problems that have never emerged, and failed to imagine the problems i've encountered.

on more than one occasion i made the decision that this year would be the last.

and then god intervened, like he frequently does, and showed me, ever so subtly, that no. this is a long-term project and though the fruits be slow in ripening, he's assured me that they will in fact ripen. and since he is an amazing god, he gave hope - just enough signs to remind me who is in control.

yesterday, jewel, our missionary teacher, posted this blogpost. we want these kids to love reading, to love learning and to love god. (not necessarily in that order). and after starting the year with kids who couldn't sit still long enough to listen to a story, the kindergarten class begs for books!

williams learned to write his name.

our cook has shown such a heart of service and ministry - offering of herself and her pockets, eventhough she is in no economic situation to do so. i am blessed by her every.single.day. aris can't read or write, had 10 kids before the age of 30 and still finds time to bless others. amazing.

as we ran out of kids' vitamins, i kind of freaked out. we didn't have money in the budget to buy more, and we have a number of kids who need vites. i applied for some through our mail service, and despite never, ever getting a "high-desire" product from the donation list, we received enough vitamins for the entire school for about 2 months!

and! we received enough pencils and crayons to provide for our school and our other centers. we also got some white shower curtains - which, to be honest, we had no idea what to do with. jewel hunkered down with pinterest and google and found some awesome kinesthetic learning games that were a big hit at our party today!
and during our valentine's party today, two of the teachers finally saw centering in action and were inspired. hopefully we can transform that inspiration into action to enhance learning.

and, some of this "new-fangled" education is catching on with our teachers, and one finally, i think, understood today what centering looks like! finally! and differentiated learning. i am more than excited.

and now... the pictures of the cutest kids ever: (besides mine... because i'm their mom, afterall)