unbalanced

Lately annie has been having a hard time at school. well, i say lately, but it has been an up and down battle all year long! not exactly as i had hoped or imagined! all in all though, it hasn't been bad, but if you ask annie how school is, she will get a pained look on her face and say, "it's okay..." maybe we are better off moving to another country so i can homeschool her. or maybe it's just the teacher or maybe there's a crazy kid in her class that says little mean things to her or maybe it's just natural growing pains or maybe it's a spiritual attack! i don't really know, so we are just praying through it and trusting God to take care of her. if nothing else she has learned this year that mommy and daddy don't have all the answers and they can't always make everything better. she has had to face fear on her own and tell God he has to handle it! she has been fabulously brave and i have been so proud of her. many times she has picked herself up and said, "okay, tomorrow is going to be a good day...i know it!" School and kids can be brutal and yet she is willing to face Joey every day who tells her that jesus and heaven are just a made up story. she loves him anyway and has fun with him. she says she feels bad for him too because his parents have lied to him. then there is sweet, chubby alan who annie has personally decided will know jesus before they part ways. then there's kate who is cute, fun -loving and sassy! she says all sorts of crazy things! the other day annie got in the car and says, "MOM..we can't vote for mccain, Kate told me today that mccain kills tan people and we are kind of tan and if we vote for him, he is going to kill us!" But annie is enamored with Kate, so annie is learning to not believe EVERYTHING everyone tells you! so we have had so many great heart to heart talks this year. she is so much fun to talk to now! recently when she was again having a grip of fear about going to school the next day i asked her why...she said, "i don't know mom, i just feel so unbalanced." she used her hands to show me one was higher than the other. she explained there was too much school and not enough mom time. sweet girl! so we talked about some ways we could get more time together. well just this week, she hopped into the car after school and she says, "guess what?? we get summer vacation!" i said, "yep!" she said, "you knew about that??" as if i have been holding out on her all this time! annie is always amazed that i know some of the things she learns at school. well amazed, but also skeptical...like how could i know all that...i'm just the mom! so anyway, she looks at me and she says, "i cannot WAIT for summer vacation...now that's balanced!!"