My baby boy,

I’m exhausted, so this is going to be rather short. I’ve been worried I would miss my alarm every morning so sleep has been horrible.

Did I tell you how Uncle Brandon wrote you a card for your birthday this past year? I opened it, but I haven’t read it. It’s actually sat in the driver’s side door of the van, out of the envelope, and I see it every day. I want to read it, but hearing other people say things about you seems to break me even more.

Well for whatever reason today, I grabbed the card and put it in my purse when I headed into work. I felt overly confident, although I don’t think that’s the word I want to use, and thought maybe I could go ahead and read it. However, I couldn’t do it. Instead, I filled my free time stapling a ton of papers together and putting goldfish in snack bags.

I thought of you today when I saw one of the kids and the choice they made in the classroom. One of the kids was having a rough day and was just upset and crying about everything. They wanted to go home, but couldn’t. I sat and talked with them out in the hall to try and get them to relax a little, but my words were meaning nothing. Once I noticed my efforts were failing, I went over to call the school guidance counselor to see if they could go down and see him. He had a group of other kids at the time and couldn’t, but it ended up okay.

Once I got off the phone with the guidance counselor, a child took it upon themselves to go over to the crying child, took them by the hand to back in the classroom and helped them with what they needed. It was beautiful and absolutely made me think about your time in school.

I love you more than anything.