From the Mouth of Babes

This past week I " let the cat out of the bag" that we are adopting to some of my students. I teach a math class of 4th and 5th graders who are mostly girls. They are very curious at this age. I have a picture board up in my room that has pictures of family , friends, and Annabelle. They have noticed that there are no children in the pictures and have asked me in the past " Why don't you have any children?" I have always managed to dodge the subject. Some how the subject came up again last week. This time I let them know that soon I would have a baby ( they automatically thought I was pregnant). I explained to them that we were adopting a baby from Guatemala. You should have heard the screams and the excitement ( being 4th grade girls they can also be very dramatic at this age). They were very interested in the process. Some of the comments and questions I got was " Where is Guatemala?" ( I turned this one in to a geography lesson), "Why are you adopting?" ( because this is what we have chosen to do), "Will you adopt me?" ( No, I don't think your parents would like that very much), " Are you still going to teach after you get the baby?" ( I don't know yet we will see), and every story about adoption that they could remember. They were fascinated with the whole idea. An hour later I was having lunch with my principal and she said " Have you told your kids that you are adopting?" Wow! that didn't take long. One of them had gone straight to her and told her how excited she was for me. I have to admit this warmed my heart. The next day, this student came into my room and said "Close your eyes I have a surprise for you". She made me a congratulations card. I was very touched and close to tears. I told her that it was the first congratulations card that I received and I would put the card in Ella's memory book. Kids have such a way of touching my heart every single day! Like the old saying goes- from the mouth of babes. Children are born with a natural curiosity and a pure heart. If we as adults could keep that curiosity and pure heart I have no doubt that there would be no crime, hatred, racism or war. The world would be a much better place to live.