Glimmers of Grace

After a long week I now feel like I can start to breathe again. There are still many things running through my mind haphazardly, but this is my new norm unfortunately. What made this week rough was a whole collection of events. Here are some of the difficult things that happened on Wednesday:
1. A nearby school went on lockdown for several hours because of 4 shooters being on the loose. The police eventually caught all 4 and thankfully no students were injured or killed.
2. We had a middle school student who was shot and killed in her own home. It is heartbreaking to have such a young person be a victim of violence. Our middle school staff has been great about looking out for the other students and making sure they have extra emotional supports available.
3. I had planned to stop by Walgreens on my way home from work but couldn't because there had been a shooting and it was roped off by police tape. There have been so many shootings this week that have hit close to home and it is disheartening. However, it does make me glad that I am involved in training and educating young people so that they do not turn to violence and crime as many others in their neighborhoods have done.

What made this week at all redeemable is that one of my students went into emergency foster care with her siblings. This was completely by God's grace. The state wasn't planning on taking the kids but because of bad communication within family services, no one could reach their father by the time the kids were supposed to go home Wednesday. We have been fighting for a long time to have the children taken away from their dad and I'm praying that steps will now be made to take permanent custody away from him.

The family that took my student and her sister are members of a church that works closely with our school. The husband heads up the church's foster and adoption ministry and is going to be a great source of information while I try to figure out what to do about starting foster care.

Wednesday I also found out that I am getting my anticipated raise which will allow me to start saving up for my own place so I can eventually take foster kids. I think my next steps are to start taking foster parent classes and to look for someone to take my place in my current apartment anytime between April and June.