A Teacher & A Cop...Perfect Life??? Ummm...Not Exactly

One of the hardest things about my daily life is the persona it seems to have.  When people find out I'm a teacher, the first thing they ask is, "What do you teach?"  When I reply with "EC, also known as Special Education," their reply is always the same, "Oh wow.  You must have a heart of gold and incredible patience."  Well....not exactly.  I'd like to.  I strive to and pray about that a lot!  When asked what my husband does, people often reply with the same type of answer. "Wow.  He must be such a wonderful man.  That's such a hard job to have these days."  When people meet us together, which is rare due to the amount of time we actually have together, we often receive comments such as, "What noble professions you both have.   How wonderful!  I bet that makes for such a wonderful life." Well....not really.  First of all, we both have chosen careers that are mega underpaid, but that's a whole separate blog one day. :)  We have also chosen careers that don't allow us to see a whole lot of each other.  Dereck works 12 hour night shifts.  I work 8+ hour day shifts.  We do this right now because it's what works best for Peyton at this point in her life.  However, Peyton and I are often faced to spend holidays without Dereck, which is incredibly hard for me.  I think that often times we feel that we must live up to this perfect persona of a teacher and a cop life.  There's even a TV show, so I hear (as I don't watch much besides Nick Jr. these days), that is about a teacher and a cop and a fairytale romance between them.  Fairytale???  Hardly.  The hard reality hits me in the face everyday as I pass my husband in our short, small hallway as he is leaving for work while I am just getting home.  Then again in the mornings as I rise and shine to get myself and Peyton ready for school and he is bedding down for the day after working all night.  It's a hard life.  It's a life of a lot of sacrifices.  I'd like to complain about it, but there's not a whole lot I can truly complain about. I love my job.  My students are amazing and always somehow end up teaching me more every year than I have taught them (ironic, right?).  They are more fun than I ever imagined and I get to laugh (a lot) every day!  And to think...the state pays me for this!!!  Not a lot, but it's still money to have fun while working.  Dereck loves his job as well.  He's really good at it.  God has allowed us two careers in which we wake up (albeit at different times of the day) excited to go to work.  We are actually doing what He has made us to do.  I'd say there are not many people in this world who get to say that everyday.  And with that has brought me incredible closeness to God.  He reels me in each day as I pray for my students in my car on the way to work.  He reveals to me all day long with each laugh and surprise my students give me that this is where I'm supposed to be.  Would I rather be home with Peyton everyday, being a stay at home mom?  I sure would.  However, God does not want that for me right now.  I have to be at peace with that and I'm slowly learning to.  And as for that fairytale, perfect life???  It doesn't exist.  God has also revealed that to me.  Life is what it is and I have to make the best of what I've been handed.  Through a close relationship with Christ, I am able to do that.