Ms.Gwartney's class

i dont talk a lot about my job, mostly because it's not really interesting.  i am an administrative assistant for the special education department which covers 2 school districts.  i push papers, send emails and can make a mean spreadsheet.  i've never worked in a school district or had anything to do with special education (not counting one of my previous managers...).  so this job has given me a pretty healthy dose of ignorance and i am doing my best to muddle through as i learn new acronyms and laws, etc. 
well today i had occasion to visit a class at one of our elementary schools.  the teacher, ms. gwartney, and i have corresponded via emails often for various requests and she has invited me a number of times to walk over to her classrooms.  i have put it off for a couple of months because truth be told, i was scared of what i would see.  her class contains the most severely disabled kids in the county.  all are nonverbal and for the most part immoble. 
she took me around the room and introduced me to each student.  obviously they were all completely adorable.  the first one, a little boy, is 13.  he has cerbal palsey and was folded up in a swing of sorts with headphones on chewing on a teething toy and moaning to himself.  he looked to be content, although the teacher explained that he was a bit fussy because he didnt feel well.  last friday, in this class of 6 kids, they had 11 incidences of diarreha that soaked through clothes.  this one little boy alone had a gran mal seizure which caused him to throw up and soil himself and the swing while also rendering himself unconscious for about 30 minutes, during which time the teacher had to hold him. 
another little girl was sitting at a table staring intently out of her right eye into a plastic ball that lights up.  when the teacher called her name to introduce her to me, she turned to stare at me with that right eye while her left eye was completely clouded over and pointing a different direction.
the little guy i was most anxious to meet is sean.  i did a feature on sean for the district newsletter.  two years ago, the post newspaper did a story on sean and his family because the make-a-wish foundation had granted him what they believed to be his wish: a trip to disney world.  sean can not speak or walk and only recently has he been able to somewhat feed himself.  he has an extremely rare brain disease, among other things, that is pretty much progressively turning his brain into mashed potatos.  yet somehow, in this classroom, he has made some pretty extrodinary progress.  as i say, he's mostly off the feeding tube and is more responsive than he used to be, he can sign a couple of things.  sean's condition is such that he was only given 4-5 years of life - total.  he is 5.  when his teacher asked about the newsletter feature to find out when i would be sending it, i told her that it would go out today.  "good!", she said.  "his dad is leaving for deployment next week."  ..........can you imagine?  there have got to be so many "what if's" in that house that i wonder how there is any room left for the people! 
students aside, the teacher herself is clearly someone special.  you don't often see people who love their job as much as she does.  she told me that she retired from another school district after 35 years only to return to this district to do the same work 4 years ago.  she glows.  truly, she glows.  she sees God every day in these poor sweet kids and there is not a single doubt in her mind that her day is as full of love and service as it possibly could be.  to me, that room was full of intensity and fear; to her - love.  it's just amazing.