Hard work is paying off

The month of January has been full of confirmations that hard work really does pay off! That's a tough concept to believe in when you're in the middle of the hard work with no end in sight. Thank goodness for the times when we do get a glimpse of a reward which makes sprinting to the finish line so worth it!

Devin has been learning patience the last 7 months while living and working with Todd and Trina. They have provided an amazing environment for Devin to be able to work, save money and continue to grow while preparing for his mission. What a blessing it has been. Devin will finally submit his papers to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to serve a 2 year mission on this Saturday February 1st! Within a couple of weeks he will receive a letter in the mail which will announce the location of where he will be serving for the next 2 years. He described his feelings best the other night on the phone when he said it felt like waiting for Christmas Morning, an Easter Basket and the most amazing Birthday gift all wrapped up in one and there's no way to peak inside or guess what the gift is!

Trevor has been dreaming of playing football in college and the NFL since he can remember. Knee surgery his Junior year was heartbreaking but a necessity in order to heal correctly. He entered his Senior year with a lot of anticipation working hard to be the starting Quarterback for La Quinta High School which he proved to be very successful at. However, it became clear to the Head Coach that changes were necessary in order for our offense to be successful. Trevor's size and strength was needed at Tight End and another Quarterback replaced his position implementing an offensive running game. Heart broken but ready to play wherever his coach needed, Trevor changed positions in the blink of an eye and helped his team to a DLV Championship. It was not quite what any of us had envisioned for his Senior year. However, a valuable lesson was learned about playing for the benefit of the team even if it meant sacrificing the position he loved. Trevor hasn't lost hope of being recruited as quarterback and continues to work at the position he loves. He has been seeing little rewards as college coaches from USD, Laverne, Univ of Redlands and WNMU have made visits to see him at the High School and are interested in him as one of their 2014 Fall Quarterbacks!

Natalie also had hopes of being a varsity player this year on the High School Girls Water Polo Team. Securing a spot as a Sophomore has not been an easy task but has proved to be attainable! Scoring her third goal yesterday against Indio High is definitely pay back for a lot of hours spent in the pool. Sometimes when our nose is down making it happen and when we look up to see the results, we've come a little short of our goal! Natalie is taking three honors classes this year and set the goal to have a cumulative 4.0. Since then she has been working like crazy to achieve it! With the honors program, a great deal of extra work is required from the student both in the class and at home. I can't tell you the hours she has spent doing homework, studying for tests and stressing about whether or not she would make the grade. After her semester finals on Friday, all the grades were recorded except for Algebra II. Waiting all weekend for her teacher to post the grade seemed close to unbearable especially since meeting her goal was contingent on this last class. After a long weekend, the scores were finally posted Monday evening and she was hit with the realization that her final grade was not what she had hoped for. Receiving a B in the class instead of the A that she had been working for was a major disappointment. Sometimes life just doesn't seem fair or give us the end result we are looking for...

Although every situation does not always end in our favor, there are some that can surprise us for the good! Savannah has a teacher that is head strong about teaching the 7th graders in her Language Arts class the lesson of responsibility. When turning in assignments, students are to hand in their papers by passing them from the back of the class to the front all the way up to the to the teacher. The day after turning in a particular assignment, Savannah noticed she had not received credit and went to the teacher to communicate her concern and was instructed to check the no name bin. After doing so unsuccessfully, she was informed that there was nothing that could be done to make up for the work that had been lost. Although I did not completely agree with the teachers response, I encouraged Savannah to not look back and do everything in her power moving forward to get the best grades possible. Little by little her grade percentage moved up one point at a time. A few tears were shed along the way in desperation of the possibility that she was running out of time and assignments to give her enough points for an A. The last hour proved to be very successful and she pulled off an A by the skin of her teeth! The 4.0 she has managed to keep all year is still in good standing!

Small and simple things mixed with a lot of hard work really do make great things come to pass!