Sunday, January 17, 2016 I attended the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Banquet hosted by UNC Chapel Hill's Diversity and Multicultural Affairs office in partnership with the MLK Jr. Corporation. At this event, I was surprised to see the mom of one of my former students. She gave me an update on her daughter's first year of college, even sharing that she made the Dean's List. I was so proud of her. Sadly, though, the mother also shared that Adrian Long*, one of her daughter's classmates who was also a former student of mine, suddenly lost her mother during the winter break. I was in complete shock and just could not believe it. The mother apologized for laying this news on me at this event, but I was thankful to know because I had not heard.
I had recently seen Adrian's mom at UNC's Student Orientation over the summer. Adrian was among the newly admitted into the Tar Heel family. Both of her parents accompanied her to UNC and participated in the parent events. When I saw Mrs. Long*, I promised that I would look out for Adrian while I was there, and that maybe I'd take her out to lunch some time. She said Adrian would love that.
Not long after the summer orientation, I saw both of Adrian's parents again, during move-in weekend at UNC. Adrian's parents were always present and involved throughout her education. So it was no surprise to see them ushering their baby girl into her college experience.
This was the last time I saw Mrs. Long. She was the proud parent of a first-year Carolina student.
This past weekend I was cleaning out my closet. For those that don't know, I left my career of teaching to go to graduate school. Because the transition from a teacher to a student was so swift, I failed to go through all of my teacher stuff and just dumped a pile of papers on the floor in my closet. For some strange reason, I decided to clean up those papers over the weekend. And oddly enough, I just so happened to find a letter from Mr. & Mrs. Long.
As part of my ninth grade English syllabus, I asked parents to tell me about their child. I wanted them to share anything that they thought would help me better teach their student. Mrs. Long typed a one page letter about Adrian and had signed it on behalf of her and her husband. It was a beautiful letter about Adrian's personality, her academic strengths, talents, and her support system.
God placed it on my heart to reach out to Adrian so that I could give her this letter from her mother. I emailed Adrian about meeting, and based on how our schedules are set up, February 3, 2016 was the best day. I met Adrian while she was studying and passed the letter on to her. I shared the context and that I felt in my spirit that God wanted me to give her this letter, that her mother would want her to have it.
Adrian read the letter to herself, smiling and even laughing lightly. She was thankful to receive it. We met briefly, as I did not want to further disrupt her studies.
When I got home, I sat in my car trying to process what had just happened. Then I checked Facebook before getting out. One of the first posts I saw was from yet another former student wishing Adrian a happy birthday. I immediately started crying. I had no idea that today was her birthday. Look at God!
I texted Adrian, told her that I didn't know it was her birthday, and asked if I could write about this wonderful act of God. She said yes.
No one but Him could have orchestrated this story--from the chance encounter with the parent, to finding the letter in a pile of papers, to delivering it on what should have been Adrian's first birthday without her mother. Oddly enough, Mrs. Long found a way to be there. And to God be the Glory!!
#inpurpose #onpurpose
*name changed
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