Principal’s Office

I wasn’t expecting to find myself in the principal’s office this morning, but there I was.

We woke up late this morning and rushed out the door to get to school on time.

I was still in the sweatshirt I slept in, and when I took a quick glance at the mirror on the way out, I saw the mascara under my eyes.

I thought, “That’s okay. Just dropping off the kids and heading straight back.”

Note to self: Wash your face when you get back.

Aubyn left her water bottle in the car, so I circled the building thinking I’d see someone I knew that could run it in to her.

Nope.

So I pulled in and ran it into the front office.

I’m fine. Everything’s good. I can do this.

On the car ride, for the first time, things felt almost normal since Bronson’s tragic accident

And then Aubyn started explaining to our neighbor what picture she was putting in her locket.

When she showed Gibson, he said, “That’s Bronson?”

“Yeah! Do you know him?”

“No, but y’all talk about him all the time! Every time he drives by and y’all are at our house, you all scream and run out to the road to say hi. Hasn’t he been, like, at your house every day? Why are you putting a picture of him in your locket?”

And then Aubyn told him the story.

Cue my tears.

But it was soothing, because in the moments before I was thinking that I didn’t deserve to be so sad.

He wasn’t my child. He wasn’t my closest friend. He wasn’t family.

But how Gibson said it reminded me that our closeness was not made up. He was in our every day lives. He saw me laying around the house doing nothing. He saw how we interacted with our kids, on our good days and bad. He was Justin’s right hand man and probably talked to him more than I did some weeks.

So I’m in the school and I handed over the water bottle.

Doing good.

Asked about absentee forms.

Somethings twinging but still good.

And then I heard someone behind me say, “You don’t look alright. You doing okay?”

And there was the elementary school principal pushing a cart standing right behind me.

I tried to get out the words, “It’s been a hard couple of days” as normal as I could, but I failed.

She is a pastor at heart and asked me if I wanted to go talk in her office.

I wanted to make up an excuse or brush it off, but something in me said to say yes.

So I did.

She left her cart right where it was and I followed her to the principal’s office.

It’s so much better being in there when you’re not in trouble!

Bless her. She silenced her phone that was buzzing. People were walking by and she politely directed them to where they needed to go.

The school day was just starting, but here she was ministering to me. Fully present.

We spoke of the kids and how they were handling everything. She specifically asked about Edley.

I bragged on her teachers who have been nothing but supportive, even reaching out to me over the weekend to check on us.

She listened. She leaned in. She prayed.

When we interviewed for the school a year ago, I found myself blubbering in her office and had no clue why. I asked Justin this morning when I became this weepy girl? It’s silly at this point.

But you know what?

I needed to cry in her office, both a year ago when we were moving the kids…again, and today.

She has a calming presence but also an authority to her as well. And not from her job title as principal, but as a believer.

For those that ask why we chose a Christian school, this is why.

Thank you Mrs. Hackett for loving my kids so well and for sitting with me this morning. That one act of kindness has given my heart peace.

As she said, “God wanted you to come inside this morning.”

And so He did.

Now I’m going to go wash my face…