Meet my Village!

There is an old African proverb that says, in a variety of different ways and languages, that it takes a village to raise a child. This belief and mentality I witnessed first hand in Uganda. They believe that children are the responsibility of all the members of the family, and sometimes all the members of the village. This is a concept that seems to have distanced itself from our culture. Mainstream society appears to be competitive, success driven, money hungry and cut throat at times. It seems like more people are concerned with themselves then the good of the whole. While that may be true in the mainstream that couldn't be farther from what i experienced today.

I have worked at the same school for 7 years now. In that time i have learned a lot and made some incredible friendships. I have always known that i was one of the lucky ones because not only do i love what i do, but i enjoy going to work. There are a lot of people who are grateful because they have one of those, but very few people have both. This morning is a perfect example of the caliber of people i work with everyday and why i am one of the lucky ones.

Thursdays are staff meeting days and while i don't mind staff meetings, i don't like having to be at work early because if you know me at all, you know I'm not much of a morning person. AND yes... i know that will have to change! SO My mom had called me earlier in the week to see if she could borrow my camera for something at work. She also mentioned that she would be at my building Thursday to help with a computer problem and so she could just get it from me then. Little did i know that these were all lies!! So this morning i had to be at work even EARLIER so that i could get her my camera and still get into my meeting.

When i got to work, at about 8:14 for our meeting at 8:15, i went straight to the office and handed her my camera and head into the library. As an incentive for arriving on time, my principal does a raffle for prizes. If you're there when your name is called, you win. So at the end of the names, she said oh wait.. theres one more, and called me. She asked me to stand up. At this point I'm SO nervous because I'm SURE they are going to do something to embarrass me about my 30th birthday tomorrow. My PE teacher stood up, who is a great friend that ALWAYS gives me a hard time about SOMETHING, a filled me in on what was going on. When she started talking i thought for SURE it was going to be them picking on me. Because while i work with an incredibly thoughtful staff, i also work with some pranksters. SO i wasn't quite sure what to expect. However what happened next was never even on my radar as a possibility!! She said a rhyme about something that had coca cola, and ended with all we care about is bringing home Lola! AND at that moment everyone stood up, unzipped their sweatshirts or took them off to reveal that they were all wearing green bring Lola home t-shirts.

I was SO surprised and overwhelmed that of course, I just started to cry. One of my teacher friends Sally, who was responsible for the making of the shirts then told me that there was more green in the room then just the shirts. She handed me an extremely large amount of money that they had fundraised for me. AND then i was crying even harder. Sometime during this moment, my dad walked in, and i didn't know he was coming either. On a predominately female staff, and big guy kind of sticks out. SO wondering who was in her school, my principal asked who he was and that is when i realized he was there too! My mom and dad BOTH were able to sneak out of work to enjoy this with me. Turns out that my mom didn't really need the camera at all... she just needed to make sure that i brought it to capture this moment.

I feel so incredibly blessed and thankful because I know that without a doubt it is going to take a village to raise Lola. A lot of time leading up to my decision about whether I could realistically adopt this beautiful little girl was spent trying to figure out if i thought i could be a single parent and would that be enough for her. I already knew was I have an extremely supportive and amazing family both biologically and chosen. However, I realized today that my "village" is large and my blessings are many. There are no words to express my gratitude and I am SO excited to bring Lola home and introduce her to this amazing village.

Here are some pictures from today...

Me and Sally

Me getting my t-shirt

Some "villagers" who didn't make the group shot BUT are VERY important just the same.

This was an incredible way to start the day! I am and will be forever grateful for this moment and i can't wait for Lola to meet our amazing Pleasant Hill Family.