I know I don't usually post about current events, but what happened in that Connecticut elementary school on Friday morning is one of my worst nightmares. As a parent and as a teacher.I just can't get it out of my head. My thoughts aren't clear. Sentences aren't complete. It is one of those things that makes me cringe and my eyes well up with tears every time I think about it. I can't stand thinking of how frightened those little people must have felt in the moments it was all taking place. I can't stand thinking of how desperate the teachers in those rooms must have felt. I can't stand thinking of how the parents of those twenty children must have felt in those hours that passed as they waited. How they will be haunted by it always. Can't stand it. And the teachers. And the principal. They could not have imagined anything worse happening in their school. You can have the best "safety plan" in the world, but in the end, evil exists in the world. And sometimes it finds its way in. You just don't think it finds its way into elementary schools where there are babies away from their parents. Where their parents thought they would be safe. I am sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that we will hear many stories of heroism from those teachers and staff in the coming days. I will focus on that. The goodness in those people and not the evil in that crazy man. I will pray for those families that lost someone... a child, a mother, a sister, a friend. They were all somebody's most important someone.

So today, I will snuggle these two a little tighter. Let them stay up a little later. Let them have one more cookie. In the end, having them here with me is the most important thing of all.