1 in a billion

In my ESL classroom, I have the privilege of teaching Chinese students as well as Korean. One of these is a beautiful young girl from China. This week she feels far fay away from home, misunderstood by her host family, frustrated with the language and lonely. As she sat in my room struggling to say what she feels, she put her head in her arms and just began to weep. Of all the ESL classes, in all the US schools, this 1 in a billion Chinese student sat in a class with a teacher who understood everything she was going through. I could have wept with her...as I remembered my own longing in a boarding school so far away from my family and my home. I put my arms around her and waited for the tears to stop. Another student who is her advocate, she translates for her, told me that she (my homesick student) just needs to be loved. I know this feeling...I understand this loneliness...I get to wrap my arms around her aching heart.
So when I wonder why I am here at this time, maybe it is for this 1 in a billion.