Sandy Hook

The shooting at Sandy Hook has really hit home for me. I have always been shocked by all the shootings we hear about, but I've always had that mind set that it wouldn't happen to me. Yes, I go to movie theaters so it could happen there, but probably wouldn't. I teach third grade so I've never worried about my safety. I don't teach at a high school or college so I thought I was safe. But this shooting has made everything seem so much more real...

Yesterday as I was watching all the coverage, the news reporters kept interviewing a third grader. All I could do was imagine one of my babies on the TV after something like that happening at our school. Then there was a story last night about a 1st grade teacher locking her students in the bathroom and telling them that they were going to get Christmas. She thought they were going to die. She didn't want the last thing they heard to be gunshots. I can't imagine being in her shoes. But I would have done the same thing.

We get caught up in "all the outside stuff" that goes along with teaching. We get caught up in the stress of it all. But at the end of the day we are there for those kids. We are trained on how to keep the safe. We know what we are supposed to do, but no one ever thinks they are going to have to use that training. It just breaks my heart.

I was off yesterday to have some more tests run but all I could think about was hugging my babies! I can't wait to get there Monday morning and just hug them. The students who survived at Sandy Hook just had to grow up really fast. They are now facing things that no one should ever have to face, much less an innocent child. I just pray for these families that their "normal" was just stolen from them. They will never have that normal again.

I've spent the last 30 minutes reading over all the reports from yesterday and in any one of them, it could have easily been our teachers, our principal, our school. It makes me sick and just absolutely breaks my heart! But I hold on to the fact that God is good. He is comforting those who lost loved ones yesterday.

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good" Genesis 50:20

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33