Check out this cool water tower on the way to Kankakee!

Thoughts about disability:
Really, special education is the same as general education should be: getting to know a specific student's unique needs, abilities, preferences, and goals, and making a plan to work towards those goals. You just don't have time to look at as many students because they are VERY different from each other instead of "just" unique. For instance, one of my students is unable to purposefully move anything but his head. So we have to help him with anything his hands have to do (like glueing, which is what I helped him with today), and hold anything he would like to see up because he can only move his head side to side, not up and down. But another one can do basically everything for herself, is learning functional sign language and her alphabet, and just needs help to develop the strength, willingness, and attention span to do the glueing I just mentioned. Sometimes it's hard for me to keep it straight -- which students need support, and which ones I need to start encouraging independence for.

But this is the cool thing I just learned this week. :-) God treats us like we're each "special ed". I ran into this really cool verse in Isaiah on Tuesday:
"Behold, the Lord God will come with might,
With His arm ruling for Him....
Like a shepherd He will tend His flock,
In His arm He will gather the lambs
And carry them in His bosom;
He will gently lead the nursing ewes." Isaiah 40:10,11
The chapter is talking about how we humans are helpless but God upholds the world, brings justice, and saves His people. And in the middle of telling how strong He is, it suddenly talks of Him caring for His sheep like a nursemaid takes care of an infant. He gathers, carries in His bosom, gently leads... that's some pretty tender care. Requires a lot of stooping from His high position. Not only that: I was the most excited that He takes into account individual needs. Look at that: He doesn't lead the lambs and their mothers; He carries the lambs because they don't have the strength to walk, and leads the mothers gently because it is good for them to walk, they just can't go the same speed as the rest of the flock. Knowing that God looks at us and makes necessary accommodations for our conditions was such an encouragement to me on those days this week where I just wanted to say, "alright then -- whatever -- take care of yourself!" I want to look like Jesus, and this is one little way I can do that.

So the lesson for this week: patience. Patience to think about someone besides myself when I was sick, patience to be flexible the day it rained so hard it flooded out most of the staff parking (it was pretty exciting! announcements over the loudspeaker every two minutes about more people who had to move their cars... calling the police station so they wouldn't ticket the cars parked on the road), patience to sit and watch dozens of cars go past before a break comes so I can bike across the road, patience to try and understand life from the other people's points of view instead of getting frustrated that they haven't "grown up" yet.

God loves me, and you -- each one individually. :-)