Satisfactory

Today Brent and I attended our first ever Parent-Teacher conferences. I've read on other blogs that many parents stress this time of year. Despite the fact that life has been tough lately and one of our kids in particular is really struggling at home, we sauntered into our conferences stress-free and ready to share with, learn from, and collaborate with our kids' teachers. That's just the kind of school it is. As we expected, we walked away loving their school even more. In the spirit of November and giving thanks, today I am thankful for:

• Teachers that genuinely know, understand, and cherish our kids individually for who they are right now.
• Teachers that don't get offended and are right there with us when we emphasize that our goals for our children are not academic right now.
• Teachers that want to know more. Teachers that want to understand what trauma and institutionalization do to a child's brain and how they can help our kids grow and succeed.
• Teachers that are more interested in seeing an individual child make progress from whatever point they are at than where they should be according to the standards or their peers.
• Teachers that compassionately try to empathize with and understand two rookie parents parenting two great kids with some really tough challenges.
• An entire school that prioritizes the social-emotional health of children and knows that kids who learn how to communicate and interact in thoughtful, healthy ways with their community are kids that will succeed in life.
• Kids that, despite all the transition of their lives over the past nine months, are making huge gains: learning to make friends, learning to read, sharing during magic circle, opening up, and learning how to count money and tell time.

In this crazy process of building a family it can be so easy to forget to step back and look at how far everyone has come. Yes, things are rough. Really rough. But things are still moving forward too. Sometimes progress means things getting worse before they get better.