First day of school Jamie's Mom came to school to tell me that Jamie was in the hospital and couldn't come to school but she wanted to pick up the homework so that she wouldn't be behind. As the days went on the more anxious I g0t to meet my student, Jamie. Finally the second week of school Jamie showed up to school ready to learn and completely healthy.From day one Jamie got a piece of my heart and I fell in love with her. I never understood why she was so quite and why she was so soft spoken. I tried to interact with her during recess but I could barely get a sentence out of her. The quieter she was the more I wanted to know what she was thinking and what was going on in her mind. Jamie rarely participated in class and rarely would she complain about anything. As I started to teach Math I quickly realized that Jamie was going to have a hard time with this subject. She had a hard time understanding the material and was always one to finish her assignments last or just simply not turn them in. She was probably one of the students that I easily got frustrated with because in my mind I was thinking "Multiplication by 2 digits is not that hard, why can't she just do it?". She would never come up to my desk to ask me a question and I was the one who always walked by her desk and noticed that after 15 min of individual work time she had yet to complete a single multiplication problem.After long hours and staying in from recess Jamie had finally started to understand Math. She was finally feeling comfortable with coming to my desk to ask me questions and was finally talking to me. Finally she had an assignment turned in and it was a C-. We finally have a grade in and after much hard work Jamie is smiling because she has completed and understood her math worksheet.
Jamie spent numerous hours working on a card. I didn't know who she was making this for until she came up to me and told me "Miss. Gomez I have a gift for you but I havent finished it yet... but don't worry you will get it soon." Days went on and during her free time I would always find her working on this card. Finally one day she had finished this card and she came all excited one day to school and she came up to me and said "Miss. Gomez I finished your gift.... it's in my backpack but I will give it to you at a special time". It was then that my heart melted. Jamie was putting all of her efforts to make me this card. I finally got the card that day and when I read it I remember feeling so loved. This is what the card said:
Dear Miss Gomez,
Thank you for helping me understand Math!
You are my favorite teacher!
I love you so much!
Love,
Jamie
As school kept going Jamie slowly started to skip class. Her mom always had the excuse that they had to go to the capital so it was hard to get Jamie to school on Friday's and Monday's. 5 months had gone by and her mom couldn't not bring her to school everyday of the week. As I talked to the director about Jamie I explained that Jamie was failing every single class. Jamie had yet to turn in an assignment to me and she was so behind that there was no way that I couldn't get her caught up on all the work. The more I learned about Jamie's mom I realized this precious little girl simply didn't have a Mom!! This was when my heart broke for Jamie and I wanted to do everything in my power to love her and care for her.
About 3 or 4 weeks ago Jamie's mom came to school and the Director and I had a meeting with her to tell her that Jamie would need to repeat 4th Grade if she skipped any more days of school. As I sat in the office telling her that her daughter had a 12% in Math she seemed to care less about the issue. I tried explaning to her that it wasn't that her daughter was dumb but it was the fact that she skips too many days of school and is so behind that she doesnt understand the material. During this meeting all I wanted to say to this mother was "Let me adopt your daughter." but I couldn't. Soon a week went by and Jamie missed another day of school and then another. Finally the director informed me that Jamie would no longer attend Jarabacoa Christian School. Her mom had decided that she would be better off at some public school instead of a Christian school. My heart had been torn into pieces. The student that I loved so dearly would no longer be in my class.
There was nothing left for me to do but pray that God would be there for her and protect her in her new school. I didn't understand why God would allow me to fall in love with a little girl who would just eventually not be in my life anymore. I didnt have a way to contact her and I had no idea where she lived. I just thought that I would just not see her again. It's funny how God works though. One of our spanish teachers works part-time at the school that Jamie attends which made me so happy because I was now able to ask her how she is doing every once in a while. Today my class had a pizza party at my house and I sent an invitation for Jamie with the spanish teacher. I crossed my fingers and prayed that she would make it.
Today as we watched a movie and waited for the pizza to arrive Jamie walked through my front door and before I could say anything my entire 4th grade class got up and gave her a group hug. Finally after praying for several weeks I was able to see Jamie. God is faithful and eventhough there were times that I was angry and frustrated with Him he knew the desire's on my heart. As much as God is taking care of me he is doing the same for Jamie! I have learned that I am not here because God needs my help but instead I am here because he simply wants me to be part of his work. I won't be able to fix everything and I wont be able save every kid or take care of every kid I come in contact with but my job is to show them Christ love for the amount of time that God allows me to. The rest is out of my control.
