...Our Russian Angel: When the Teacher Calls (gulp)....

*Ding*

I hear that familiar sound coming from my phone indicating there is a text message.

"It's Mrs. Temple. Can we talk?" appears on my phone screen. My heart starts racing and I'm thinking back to what Kristina told me about her school day. It's Monday, my usual day off, and we are successfully plowing through all the homework. What could her teacher want to talk to me about?

I casually ask Kristina, "How was your day, honey? Did everything go ok? Have you forgotten to tell me anything?" Kristina confirms that it was a good day so I text back "Yes - in 5 minutes, ok?"

It's been a really tough 7 months in 3rd Grade. (Hence, no blog posts since September ~ a direct result of how tough it really has been. But more on the way - soon!) Kristina has been trying hard but having difficulty staying on task and concentrating --- and 3rd Grade is when so many new concepts are introduced as well as essay writing and providing evidence to back up answers. Homework has taken up to 4 hours per night (not exaggerating).

I called back Mrs. Temple, Kristina's 3rd Grade teacher. (Let me preface everything to say that we love Mrs. Temple. She has been accessible via e-mail, cell, meetings after school, meetings before school, and she initiated getting Kristina additional help at school when she saw her struggling.)

"I wanted to let you know that because Kristina has been working so hard and showing tremendous progress in the last few weeks, I am going to award her with an Academic Achievement Award at this Thursday's school award assembly. But please, keep this a secret, as I want it to be a surprise for Kristina."

For those of you who know me well --- yes, I started to cry on the phone. Seriously - what parent does that? It has just been such a hard year, and so difficult to see her struggle. And to hear your daughter say "I'm not smart" --- has really broken my heart on several occasions. She *is* smart. She just learns differently and I think the teacher finally started to learn that.

The awards ceremony was only 3 days away so I scrambled to try and get off of work early in order to make the ceremony. I wasn't worried - we were going to be there no matter what.

The morning of the ceremony (April 14), I made sure that Kristina wasn't wearing her usual jeans with the holes in the knee or stained t-shirts. I arrived with a few minutes to spare and Jon barely made it - but we were there for this most proud moment - her first official award since Kindergarten!