My Windsay is a day late and from my journal: Thought: Sometimes the biggest wins come from accepting that conflicting feelings can exist at the same time. I’ve been working with a family for a long time whose child had complex needs and faced significant barriers accessing school. Through hard work, collaboration, and persistence, this student was able to enter school and experience incredible success. Then, after a medical setback, returning to school was no longer possible. Since then, I worked tirelessly alongside others to secure nursing support, respite, and resources while trying to create opportunities wherever possible. Yesterday, I attended a goodbye celebration for this family as they prepare to return to their home country. Two children graduated, there was joy everywhere, and yet I found myself carrying disappointment too. Disappointed that we couldn’t create the perfect environment that met every single need. Disappointed that the story didn’t end exactly how I had hoped. But during the celebration, mom made a point to speak with us about working from a servant’s heart and reminded us how important it is to continue the work we do. In that moment, I realized something important: success doesn’t always look like 100% of the outcome you imagined. What we did accomplish was huge. We showed a mom that her son with complex needs could attend school, build friendships, belong in a community, and make meaningful gains. We worked together to establish communication systems and devices that could travel home with them and continue supporting him beyond our walls. Watching him surrounded by friends, teachers, and people who had supported him through the years reminded me that progress is rarely linear—and that doesn’t make it any less meaningful. This week’s win: learning that gratitude and disappointment can coexist. Pride and sadness can coexist. And sometimes the real win is recognizing the impact that happened along the way.

@Melinda McNair Love this. Summer is great for this too since all the good shows at least for me are gone. I found myself watching junk I would not normally watch and was like what am I doing? I do not need to rewatch all the Law and Order I have already watched.

Love this!

Way to go girly I still say this is an area of growth for me because I am still going day to day with what I eat. I want to say meal prep would happen but I will be honest in the summer I struggle to eat with eat. I hate prepping to not eat it. I am back to alarm reminders. Your meals look so good!!

Way to go Katherine!

Great job @Ashlynn Dohman