2 Bags & 2 long awaited roles

Every afternoon I trade in this bag:



for this one:

Each one of these bags is important to me.
Each one of these bags fits a role I fulfill: Teacher & Mommy
And each one of these bags took a long time to acquire.

When I graduated from college I anxiously applied to school districts and then waited to be called for an interview.  And waited. And waited.  It wasn't until almost two years later when we decided that God might have a home (and a job for me!) in Arizona that I was able to start my teaching career.

I find it ironic that my goal of becoming a Mommy also required me to wait. And wait. And wait.  It wasn't until we had been trying for 2 years that we chose to start the adoption process and then 8 months later were blessed with our son, Nathan.

I was not born a patient person. And yet God has molded and shaped my character by making me wait.  By waiting to become a teacher I was able to learn and acquire skills from other experts in my field that laid the foundation for my teaching practice.  By waiting to become a Mom I have found it so much easier to cherish the small things and everyday moments with our son.

I have always considered myself to be a passionate person.  When I only had the title of teacher, that's where my passion was focused.  Everyday I found myself excited to go to work and privileged to be paid to do a job I loved so much.  Now I find that I am also just as passionate about my role as a Mom.  I love watching our son grow and learn new things.  Each new stage is proving to be more fun and more exciting than the previous one.  And sometimes it's hard to find enough passion to fuel my role as a teacher and my role as a Mom.

In a perfect world I would be able to do it all.  I would be a great teacher and a wonderful Mom and my passion would be equally shared between the two.  So for now I find myself waiting again.   Sometimes I'm waiting for a burst of passion to fuel a new idea or lesson at school.  And other times I'm waiting for the bell to ring so I can race home to the little boy I am so passionate about being a Mommy too.

But if I've learned anything about waiting, it's this:
in the end, it's always worth it!