my heart.

I just had to share a few things that have touched my heart this week.

For those of you that don't know, I work with Kindergarden at Hickory Hills Elementary. It is a district 1 school, which means a lot of them may not be able to afford food, so the school let's them eat breakfast and lunch free. So as you can imagine, there are quite a few kids that may not be as blessed as us. It truly breaks my heart daily to see/hear what some of these kids go through. But boy can they brighten my days too!

As I was walking up to the office the other day, I noticed a girl staring at the tree that we have set up in the front. Now let me tell you, it's pretty... but it ain't that purdy, if you know what I mean. Nothing special at all. But she sure thought so....

I looked at her and whispered "beautiful tree, huh?" She looked at me with the biggest eyes... "I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life. .. I just hope one day I can have something this beautiful in my house". My heart broke (of course, I instantly go home begging Paul to give our tree to this family, which he kindly tells me no, but maybe we can buy them one when the sales go on after Christmas) :)

A lot of our kids have never seen Christmas trees, and it's so exciting to get to see their little faces light up around this time of year.

(Another sweet thing that happened) Today when I walked into my class, Ms. Russell had bought my favorite cake (red velvet), had the kids sing happy birthday to me, and had each kid make me a card. They were SOOO excited to share their cards with me they could hardly stand it (aka: had to put a few kids in time-out unfortunately, for pushing and whatnot). I had a few kids they came over and hugged me for so long, I had to literally pull them off with all my might. "Mrs. Stippich, I love you so much and hate when you aren't here." (Heart breaking again). It was so special of them to think of me, and I made sure to tell them that they were my best birthday gift this year. 

(first of all, like how I am creepily poking from behind the card??)

This card was from one of my students. One of the reasons I loved this card (well obviously I love it cause he drew a picture of him and I, DUH) But the other reason is because he couldn't even spell his name at the beginnning of the year, and in the card, ALL by himself he wrote.. "happy birthday Mrs. Stippich. I love you. Have a great day- (and signed his name)" WOW. How awesome is that!?!?!

Hope this brings some joy to your heart, and remember how blessed we are for all we have!