Having dinner with my previous manager and co-worker this week made me realize how much I miss all my old clients! I was so thankful they could update me on how they're doing. I especially miss my little ones, and of course the nonstop bubbles, Play-Doh and Candyland.
It's been a definite adjustment working at a high school. Everyone thinks I am one of the students (the staff stop me in the parking lot all the time). The school system is a complete 180 from the private practice world. There have been so many times that I have felt ineffective, inefficient, and wasteful of taxpayer dollars! Sometimes I end up doing things barely speech/language-related and pridefully think, "This is not what I'm here for." I want to see immediate progress, but God has had to remind me that it's not about me.
During these times, it's been helpful to remember how I am even here. It's so easy to forget, to take things for granted and become self-entitled. When I quit my job in August, I planned on taking a break and going on missions. But a lot changed for my family a week later. I really, really, really wanted to work in the school setting so that I could maintain an income for my family, while having longer breaks to see my parents in Asia as well as missions. It would be perfect! but also impossible. I quickly realized that I didn't have the school credential and it would take months to process. The school year would start in a couple weeks, so it was pretty late to get hired anyway. I let go of the idea of working in a school completely and did not even apply.
The following week, on my birthday! my (now) supervisor contacted me about an opportunity at a school in Fremont. I had interviewed with her over a year ago while still in Boston, and she had kept my application on file. She said that I didn't need a school credential, since I would be contracted through their company. Within a couple weeks, I was a speech therapist for the school district I grew up in.
I am amazed by God's sovereignty and provision, and how he makes the impossible possible so simply. All in all, I am thankful for work through the ups and downs, because God uses it to humble me every single day.
