End of Year Celebration

Today was Camden's End of Year party at school and I was able to go - and better yet, Camden wanted me to go! Woo Hoo!!! When I got there, I noticed he had a medal around his neck. He came running up to me so excited because he received the medal for being first place in the Mileage Club for kindergartners at his school. His love of running paid off. On Tuesdays and Thursdays in PE, the kids run laps for 10 minutes. The PE teachers keep track of how many laps they run and he ran 399 laps - the most out of all the kindergartners. Go Camden!!!

We had a great time celebrating the end of his Kindergarten year - hard to believe I almost have a first grader!!

Camden and his teacher Ms. Harl

Camden and his best friend Casen

Tonight, I attended the Windfern graduation. Windfern is the school I have worked at the past year. Honestly, it has been an interesting year. I have learned a lot about myself and my job. I have realized that I don't think the administrative role that I was working towards is where I really want to be. I miss seeing kids. At Windfern, I only see ten or less students a day. I spend a lot of time on the computer working on CPR stuff and updating our Health Services handbook, among other things. I am missing interacting with the kids. I have, however, bonded with a few students. I will tell you, the majority of students at Windfern have lived a life you nor I could ever relate to. They have lived under bridges, been brought up in homes where they do drugs with their parents, witness abuse or have been abused, have been in jail, the list goes on. To say the least, they are worldly - I have learned a lot from them including a lot about drugs - who knew there were soooooo many different types of marijuana???

A few of the students have found their way to my office and we have really gotten close. One of those is a girl named Kat. She has lived quite the life in her 18 years and will tell anyone about it so that they can learn from her. She has been addicted to drugs, has a mother who is addicted and a dad who is a recovering alcoholic. She was finally getting her self on track and had talked a lot about going to college and eventually nursing school. She is very smart, so she would not have a problem reaching her goals. Several months ago she came to me concerned she may be pregnant. She checked in with me almost daily until a week had passed, and she still had not started her period. I convinced her to go and buy a pregnancy test that afternoon with her cigarette money and she promised she would come in the next morning and give me the results. The next morning came, and the moment she walked in my office, she didn't have to say a word, the tears said it all. She had no idea what she was going to do. It was a rough few days, she came in daily to my office wanting me or someone to tell he what to do. She knew it was not a choice anyone could make, only she could, but she needed information. So for several days we had to talk about her options - keeping the baby, giving it up for adoption, or abortion. She knew without a doubt that she could not give it up for adoption, that was not an option for her. So we discussed abortion - can I tell you, that was one of the hardest things I have had to do as a Christian and as a school nurse. To actually show her videos and discuss with her all about abortion and what she should expect should she go that route . . . . needless to say, I didn't sleep well for a week. She had morning sickness, so was in the clinic daily and daily we would talk about things. After about a week or so, I noticed she no longer smelled like smoke and was no longer tearful - gratefully she had decided to keep the baby! I am proud to say she graduated tonight with her friends and family present and has plans to go to college in the Fall. She and I have had many discussions that she can be the one to break the cycle in her family and work to give her child the life she did not have. I can't wait to see what the future holds for her.

Kat, Me and Paris