Day 28: It Started With a Letter | Faith Finds a Way

One heartfelt letter has a way of opening the door to a much bigger conversation.

Today I share another beautiful letter from my dear friend Rebecca, this time honoring the intervention specialist who helped shape her son's early school years with patience, compassion, and unwavering encouragement.

That simple act of gratitude leads us into a conversation about remarkable teachers, a memorable evening spent sharing dinner with our new parish priest, and why I believe hope for the next generation may be stronger than we sometimes realize.

Sometimes the best conversations aren't planned—they simply unfold one thought at a time.

Transcript

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Good morning everyone. Welcome to another edition of Ten Unedited Minutes with Marlena. How's everybody? It is Saturday, July 25th, and I'm looking at my um setup here a little funny because as you may or may not know, I have my my phone camera going for YouTube. I use my iPad for uh vertical shoots for the reels, and then my computer records my audio. And I don't know what it is, but like my face looks rounder on my phone camera than on my iPad. And it's it's like throwing me, man. Like I don't anyway, anyway, let's get started, right? So, like I said, it's Saturday. Um, beautiful day. This podcast is sponsored by my dear friend Rebecca Conklin Kleibomer. And Rebecca agreed to sponsor two months worth of my episodes, and I decided to dedicate 60 episodes to Rebecca. And for the first half of that, I spent a little bit of time at the beginning of each episode um just kind of loving on Rebecca, sharing a special fond uh memory of our friendship. And then the second half of her sponsorship, I saved for um love letters. So back in 2019, Rebecca took the entire month of February, which is the month of love, and every day that month, she did I say 2019 or 2017, anyway, she uh decided she was gonna write a love letter to somebody that she loved and to somebody who was very special in her life. So I decided to take the last half of her uh podcast sponsorship and read each one of these love letters because I kept them with the intention of putting them in a book someday for her. And we all know how projects around here go. So anyway, today we are reading the letter she wrote on February 10th of 2017, and it's to Miss Tamara. And I hope I'm pronouncing that right. Dear Miss Tamara, Max's entry into his school career was a little like a space shuttle re-entering the atmosphere at the wrong angle, fiery and all kinds of alarms going off. Thank God we encountered you in a teacher with all the right stuff. There was no problem that you weren't able to address, no end to the tricks and treats you were willing to try, no limit to your willingness to hold our parent hands too, and teach us what Rebecca, I'm sorry, but you have a typo in here and now it threw me off. I'm gonna read that again. There was no problem that you weren't able to address, no end to the tricks and treats you were willing to try, no limit to your willingness to hold our parent hands too, and teach us what this was all about. You were our oxygen, our son, our radar to navigate the universe of teaching a child who was differently wired, and you loved our son, you loved him. Max loves you to the moon and back, he asks to see you every day, and he still considers your classroom his real school. He is doing very well at the ready at the ready program, and his teachers and therapists there are absolute superstars. They give him all that he needs to, and the bounds they are developing will serve him well wherever his future leads. But you never forget your first love. Maybe not every kid gets lucky with his first teacher being the first one he will love, but Max did. First love sets the bar. They wake up that magnetism inside you that will fix your needle on the true north of love your whole long life. Max loves you because he trusts you. Mr. Fred Rogers said it all those years ago at a congressional hearing. One of the first things a child learns in a healthy family is trust. You earned that trust the moment he saw your silver fox hair, a coif just like his beloved woo grandma. And you solidified that trust with every hug, every toy, every bagel, every alphabet letter, every song, every bit of assistance after that. He knew he could come to you and receive whatever he needed and that you would give it to him freely and openly and with love. I hope that his love isn't just a selfish one. I hope that he senses that he has something to offer you too. He must. He has to be responding to your delight, your sincere signals that he has made your day. You help our son want to be a loving person. Coming into your classroom was like having gravity restored in our lives. We were no longer floating aimlessly, powerlessly, unsure of what kind of obstacle we would bump into next. You helped us chart a course and gave us the tools to embark on that journey. We shall be ever grateful to you for that. Max and I love you, Miss Tamara. Always Rebecca. I love these letters. I just love, love, love these letters. So if you're new to this, Max is Rebecca's son. And um as she indicated a couple letters back, that he has autism. Max is the absolute sweetest, most intelligent boy you will ever meet. And this letter really highlights the importance slash love slash, I don't know what the word is, but of of the of an intervention specialist. And um, this last year I started substitute teaching. I've talked about it on here before, and I've subbed a couple times for some intervention specialists, and um it's not easy. It's definitely not for me. Um, but I I too have experience with them from our daughter, who, as I said earlier, had a seizure disorder when she was younger, and we had some pretty special intervention specialists as well early on in Haley's um educational career. And yeah, they they're teachers in general have so much of my respect, especially after this year of subbing. Like my that level of respect has dramatically increased. But intervention special in intervention specialists, they're amazing. They have a big job ahead of them and not an easy job a lot of times, but I always admire how they always have this different outlook in life, right? So beautiful, beautiful letter, Rebecca. Thank you for writing those and um thank you for just being an amazing friend to me. So what are we gonna talk about today? So yesterday I had our priest over for dinner. Um, as I said before, he wants to visit as many um parishioners' homes as he can because he's brand new to Bluffton and he wants to get to know the people in the parish. And I just think that's really cool. So last night we it was our turn, and we hosted him for dinner. I made lasagna, uh Texas toast, salad, and we had I made a rhubarb crumble for dessert with ice cream from the local ice cream place. It was delicious, but it was so much fun. He is so nice. We I'm excited. I'm excited to see what he does for our parish, what he brings to our parish. Um, and yeah, he's a super cool guy. So we were talking a little bit last night um about education and our educational system, and um he said something that I agree with. He said that they are trying so hard to take God out of our schools, and that's really sad. However, I was able to reflect on that a little bit this morning. After reading this letter, it kind of brought that conversation back to the forefront of my mind. And I think it's I think it's terrible that they are taking um religion out of our schools. Um but I do want to say that I think it's great how the kids, the students, are the ones in this movement. I feel like there is a national movement of our younger generation. And by younger, I mean 16, 17, 18-year-olds um professing their love for God. Just this morning, I'm scrolling on Facebook in um on our local, like, it's called the Bluffed and Buzz. So it's our local Facebook page where you know you post all the town news and gossip and all that. Somebody had posted um photos on there of four young boys doing a Bible study in our gazebo, right in the heart of our downtown. Last night at like nine o'clock at night, they're sitting in this gazebo, Bibles in hand, and just talking about God. And it's beautiful to me. One of those boys stood up and gave um a testimony in front of our youth group uh a couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago, and you you wouldn't have seen that. You wouldn't have seen that five, six years ago, which is sad, but but the beauty of it is is you know, that's God working, guys. The devil, whoever, is trying to take religion out of our schools, but look at that, God is putting Himself into the hearts of the very people that it's affecting and and finding a way to overcome that. I grew up in a very religious, I shouldn't say religious, a Catholic community. Uh probably 98% of the people in my hometown are Catholic. And so when I was in elementary school, it wasn't deemed a Catholic school, but we had religion every morning and we went to mass every Friday, and we actually had um some nuns who taught in the school. I didn't have any nuns for teachers, but my older brother did. And I had uh Sister Norbertine was my religion teacher in the first grade, and um that laid a really good foundation for my religious life and my relationship with God today. And so I in thinking of my own children, I have two daughters, and the one I I try to get her to come back to church, and she says, just not religious, mom, or just not religious. She is, you know, my my granddaughter's not baptized yet. And um, yeah, it I'm gonna be honest, it kind of bothers me, but it's her choice, right? And I think that is a product of, you know, in in her high school era, middle school era, it was it religion was not talked about in school. Like there was they had one class once a week where we had to sign a paper and they could go across the street and um go to uh it wasn't it wasn't mass, but it was like a religion class. And then I made sure that my kids were involved in youth group. Um it was with youth for Christ, so it was kind of a non-denominational youth group, but they um pursued kindness and you know, God's word. And, you know, my daughters, they're believers, you know, they pray, they turn to God when they need, you know, when when they need something like we all do. But, you know, their relationship isn't as deep as what I would like it to be. And, you know, that is my responsibility, but um I just know that God will take care of them. I just know that. So yeah. So we need to get our religion back in schools, and to circle back to that, I think God is doing it on his own. So keep it up, okay? Alright, guys. 13 minutes long enough. It's Saturday. What am I gonna do today? I think I'm gonna bake some cookies. I have been um having a hankering for these white chocolate chip cranberry cookies that um were my favorite when I had the dough hook. So I think I'm gonna make some of those. My kids love my monster cookies, so I'll probably make a batch of those. And I have been wanting to perfect my chocolate chip cookies. Lately, they've been coming out like either sticky or they just kind of fall apart. So I need to work on that. Um, so yeah, that's what I'm gonna do today. Later on, I'll go to church, and that'll be my day. Alright, guys. I love you. Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca, for letting me read these love letters every day. Thank you for being my amazing friend. And um, yeah, I love you guys. Pray for me. I pray for you every day, and we'll see you tomorrow. Bye.