Difficult week

It’s been a difficult end of the week for us. Vincent has been preparing for a couple of months to participate in the Kentucky United Nations Assembly at a Louisville hotel (pictured above) , where he was to help represent Guatemala, a county he’s actually been to. He persuaded his colleagues to propose a new global water-quality-improvement program, after noting how hard we tried not to drink any water in Guatemala. But through a complex series of events and mediocre grades, short finances, and bad decision-making on his part, as of this morning he will not be participating in the three-day event that starts this Sunday. This unfortunately is somewhat par for the course with some of his infrequent forays into extracurricular activities.

Like many Americans these days, we’ve been struggling with finances. Even with help from family members and a tax return that I just completed that was essentially even, we faced a particularly tough financial week. Gas going up to $3.35 a gallon and even milk increasing doesn’t help matters.

With several big projects (including one I wrote about yesterday) underway and – as of tonight – down two staffers, people in my office are overworked, stressed out, and – occasionally exhibit poor decision-making. We said good-bye with a lunch out and cake to a ten-year employee, Charlene, who is retiring, but Monday morning will face an increased per person workload. I have applied for the position vacated by our new manager (who moved over to the manager’s position), but – no matter – what happens with that – we’ll be short staff for several months, at the very least.

Almost weekly out-of-town trips to visit colleges, church and other activities, an early-morning trip to Indianapolis this morning for Stephanie, and – frankly – even keeping up this blog have left us running ragged without enough sleep and other rest. All three of us have fought late-spring illnesses and nagging shoulder and back problems have bothered me.

Keeping things somewhat in perspective are the challenges that one of Stephanie’s students’ family faces. Stephanie met Thursday with half a dozen of her colleagues and the student’s mother. This student has moved schools four times recently and has exhibited academic and behavior problems, experiences visual hallucinations, and shows sign of anxiety, while his mother has struggled with depression and his whole family copes with living in a foreign country (and state) that is increasingly hostile to immigrants.

In one of those occasions in which Stephanie can appropriately feel like she is making a difference in people’s lives, she helped steer the meeting of her colleagues in the right direction and then followed with church friends who may help point this student and his family to helpful mental health resources.

Maybe we’ve had a bad day or a bad week, but other folks have had a bad year. And maybe helping lighten other people’s loads we can begin to lighten our own.