In it for the long haul

Apart from many years of schooling, what is the longest thing you have ever done?

Here are some numbers for me:
- 2+ years working at the same organization
- almost 10 years of being friends with this awesome lady. (whaaat?!)
- about 5 months at current address
- almost 4 years with Caleb
- almost 4 years tutoring the same kids

The last one is what really gets me. 4 years ago, I was working as an ELL aide. It was one of my favorite jobs ever. 35 hours, all the school holidays, health insurance, adorable children. When it came time for summer, there was one sweet girl in my class who had made so.much.progress. I knew with summer coming, she was going to backslide. I talked to a retired teacher who was subbing in my class.

"Do you think it would be okay if I offered to tutor her for free this summer?"

She thought about it for awhile before saying she thought it would be okay.

"Besides," she said, "You never know what kind of impact that could make on her."

So I typed up a long letter about how I'd seen the student make a lot of progress and that summer was hard for kids who had gained so much, because there was no school and kids forget. I nervously gave it to her mom on the last day of school and explained myself in Spanish.

"Okay." her mom said. "Here's my number. Call me next week and you can come over."

That day was May 26, 2011. That night, Caleb and I started dating. It was an epic day for me.

Nearly five years (and four jobs) later, our routine has only altered slightly. I tutored both the girl and her brother, but I have now recruited Caleb to help. Let's face it - I am not as cool to a middle school boy as I was to an elementary school boy. We go to the library every three weeks. ("In school library time, we don't get to look at books anymore. We just do stuff on the iPads. I miss looking at books," one of the kids said to me recently. Heartbreaking.) When we aren't at the library, we are sitting together, doing homework, reading, or having jumping jack contests. We go on "field trips" to garden stores or the art museum or sometimes to my house to bake things. They have a baby sister now, and sometimes she comes with us.

Why am I sharing this story? Well, first of all, when my girl becomes a bilingual rockstar labor and delivery doctor which is what she wants to is going to be, I want to have this story ready to share with her. (At some point during this career path, I will no longer be able to help her with homework, probably starting with high school biology...)

One of our favorite outings including feeding these fish. Fish have a short attention span. Also, biology.

But secondly, I have a short attention span. I have a tendency to jump on and off bandwagons. And I don't think it's just me. We, collectively, have somewhat of a hard time being in things for thick and thin. But, on the other hand, it's my guess that many of you have things like this. Something small that you've committed to regularly. Maybe it's a habit of prayer, or exercise, or always telling your parents you love them when you get off the phone. Is there a way we can share these things with each other? What keeps you doing something when it gets hard? I don't mean unhealthy. If something gets to be unhealthy or an obsession, you should probably stop doing it.

But just as there is a physical difference between pain and being uncomfortable, there is a difference between something being unhealthy/ hurtful and something being hard. For me, I sort of just have to feel it. There is something inside me, something in my internal compass* that always finds true north and helps me to discern my course. I call that something God, or the spark of God inside me. It's love. And it helps me to know when to set my jaw and be in it for the long haul.

P.S.** For me, this post is really linked to my last post. Because I have been inspired many times by how we are really in it for the long haul at work. And many of our awesome donors are also in it for the long haul. Beautiful. It will also relate to my next post, which you will have to wait until tomorrow to see.

*My internal compass does not work for physical directions like left/ right/ north etc. It's more of an emotional/spiritual thing.

** Can someone tell me if the P.S. is supposed to go before or after the asterisk from earlier in the post? Very confusing.