We took Tyler to his kindergarten orientation at our neighborhood school a few weeks ago (I will do another post on this), and I went into the office to get the paperwork to fill out. Part of the process of registering Tyler for school is verifying that you live in the school boundaries. As I walked in I noticed that there was a very young mom in front of me in line. The mom turned around and I noticed that she was a teen mom that I have worked with in the past, and she was registering her little guy for kindergarten too. The young mom interacted with the secretary about her lease agreement expiring in July, and the secretary got really snippy with her and talked with her with irritation while explaining that she would have to renew her lease to go to this school. I remember thinking to myself "Wow. This secretary must be grumpy today." But, then it was my turn to verify my address. I handed the secretary my proof of address and her face brightened and she treated me very sweetly. It was such a contrast to how she had just treated the young mom in front of me.
For the past month, I have been thinking about how young (teen) moms are treated. I have heard many stories from the teen moms that I work with about how they are looked down on and disrespected by adults, but I had never seen it until this encounter. I am not saying that teen parents should be treated like adults or that young girls having babies is God's best, but I do know that kindness goes a long way when working with anyone, including teen moms. Just a little bit of compassion can break down barriers, open up relationships, and you may learn a thing or two (or a hundred) about yourself.
In a previous post I wrote about a new endeavor that two of my co-workers and me were working on. On April 2nd we turned in our completed charter school application for Kairos Academy. It was only by the grace of God that it was complete. It seemed like every thing that could have gone wrong did. We had computer issues, budget issues, time issues, printing issues, detail issues, etc. I walked our 122 page application into the Office of Education at 3:45pm. However, all the details didn't get ironed out until 7pm that night. For the next few days I was expecting another email telling us that they needed something else. As I thought about all the mistakes we made I really thought we'd be trying again next year. I knew that our vision was strong, but I wasn't sure if we'd hit the 75% or more mark.
Well, we didn't hit the 75%. However...the charter school director sent us an email that said she gets to choose a school each year that has a compelling argument for opening, and she picked OUR school for her 2012 project. Wow! I am still in awe that our school has passed through the first step, even if we did get the pity vote.:) We will be mentored throughout the summer by some people at the office of education and we will work with a company that offers guidance for charter schools in the process. We will resubmit our revamped application on November 30th.
As we move forward, I've thought a lot about my motivation for all the hard work and sacrifice that is required for a project like this. At a ladies retreat this past weekend I had a long conversation with a young mom that attends our church. I learned that she used to attend the teen mom school that I used to work at. One of the first things she said to me was, "I was one of those girls that you would have thought would never make it. I was kind of a mess." As she told me her story I realized that she was the "why" I was looking for. This young mom is working full time, providing for her two young kids, and she found purpose in her life through the Lord. She has positive relationships with mature women in her life, and most of all she has hope. There may be so many teen moms that "don't make it" through high school or after, but there are plenty of teen moms who go on to do amazing things with their lives. That is all the motivation I need to keep going.
