(This post is dedicated to the kindergarten teacher both of my boys were blessed to have, and dedicated to every single member of our ABA Team. Thank you for your magic.)

Dear Teachers:

Thank you. This holiday season of giving thanks and gratitude, we absolutely put you high on the list of things we are thankful for. THANK YOU.

Yes, I’m talking to you.

If you are a teacher (or Therapist or tutor or BCBA admin or anyone responsible for teaching our amazing children.) Thank you. For your patience, even when you don’t think you have any. Your endless creativity, I wish you could see you the way we do.  Thank you for your resourcefulness at making the impossible work. For your drive when it comes to putting it all together daily.

Thank you for thinking about my child in Target because you saw something that is just so them. For walking around with glue stick in your hair and a Velcro pec stuck to your butt, but not caring because it’s all in the name of learning. Thank you for laminating and cutting til the cows come home. Thanks for geeking out about new visuals and timers and velcro dots and reinforcers you can’t wait to deliver. Thank you for working after hours and before hours and everything in between. I wish I could lighten your load.

Thank you for believing in my child. Sometimes even convincing me it was possible when I didn’t before. You are incredible.

Thank you for sometimes worrying you aren’t doing enough. The teachers that think that – ARE MORE THAN ENOUGH. It’s part of the beauty of your relentlessness, sometimes it makes you question yourself. You can stop. You are amazing.

Thank you for advocating for our students, especially when it’s hard and uphill and feels hopeless and endless. Especially for the kids who have no other advocates. You may anger admin, or ruffle some feathers- or make people talk about you. But at the end of the day- you do and say what matters. And few things in the world matters more greatly than your sacred work.

Thank you for following your calling. I know this includes sleepless nights and burn out like no other. I wish I was Oprah so I could but y’all a car and a trip or an island or something. You deserve it. Thank you for your willingness to start it all over again each Monday. Ready to try the 112th thing, after the first 111 different things were a bust. This might just be the time it clicks. Thank you for constantly learning, and staying open to new ways of thinking. A skill you teach so beautifully by modeling it every single day.

The skills you instill in my child will last beyond the years they are with you, they will last their lifetime. Thank you  for your heart, the way you work to understood each student and the way you recognize the gifts they bring into your life. What a legacy you are creating, every single day- right there in the midst of the profoundly ordinary days.  It may not often feel like that, but it’s true. It’s so incredibly true.

Thank you isn’t enough, but thank you. You are cherished and you are amazing, and you don’t hear that nearly enough.

So Much Gratitude,

A Grateful Momma

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Chrissy Kelly

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