Trials - literally

I just got back from a trial where one of my former students was a defendant. A few months ago, I was watching the news and was surprised to see a former student's mugshot. Especially when this student came in to my classroom to visit me almost every day. High School was really hard for her, and apparently so was the rest of her life. I couldn't stop thinking about her and the situation she is currently in. I know she doesn't have a lot of support, so I started doing some research. I was looking for where she was exactly and how to send her a letter. I finally found all the information I needed and wrote her a letter. I wasn't sure what would happen from there. Since I wasn't married at the time she knew me, I wasn't even sure she would open a letter from some one whose name she didn't recognize. But she did. She also wrote me back. We have exchanged a few letters and I decided to attend a hearing of hers. It was quite the experience. But I am so glad that I went. I know that my role of a teacher will never be over. Even though I only taught for 7 years (and it's been almost 4 years since I quit,) I know that my role as a high school math teacher will never really be over. For those curious about the case, click here. (Ashley is my former student.)

A humbling thing happened this week: Jeremy has been called to serve on our Stake's High Council. With that call came Jeremy's ordination as a High Priest. Those events have consumed most of our waking thoughts this week. We are very excited that Jeremy will be released from his current calling (Elders Quorum President,) but are feeling some sense of inadequacy and a little fear of the unknown. For those who are not of our faith, this means that Jeremy has been given some extra responsibility that usually doesn't happen to someone his age. However, we see our lives being blessed by our willingness to serve the Lord and we feel a strong sense to not disappoint Him.With Jeremy's new calling, we decided that we needed to get him a new suit. He hasn't had a suit for over a year. So we headed to Burlington Coat factory to hopefully find a suit in our price range. We were successful! We were also able to find Clara a coat for the winter for a great price. Clara loves her new coat. I had her try it on in the store to make sure it fit. She wouldn't take it off. She wore it all the way home (in near 70 degree weather.) She also wouldn't let me take it off for her nap. So when she woke up from her nap, she was pretty sweaty. But at least she likes it right? The coat came with matching snow pants, so we're almost all ready for winter. We just have to find her some boots. We looked at some boots while we were at Burlington, but didn't find any at the right price for us. Clara was so sad that she cried as we left the store. Several hours later she came up to be complaining that her feet were cold. I went to put socks on her, but she said, "No socks, how about boots?" She cried again when I told her we didn't have any boots for her to wear.