We HEART Kindergarten

The Lord blessed our day with goodness as we "released" our firstborn to the "Big, Bad" Public School System. I know the angels watched over him. And the text updates from my sister, the music teacher, sure were awesome. :-)

I was surprisingly calm throughout the morning - no tears at all!! My heart was a pitter-patter, though, as he was getting dressed. It was a bit of a reality check as I thought "we are making history today"! We now have an official STUDENT in the family. He's GETTING DRESSED FOR SCHOOL! OH MY GOODNESS!!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!!

And then I went and made a cup of coffee and started to calm down.

Big J was very excited to go to school. The Open House was a great idea. He enjoyed meeting his teacher - who looks like the perfect teacher to me! 50ish, grandma'ish, sweet, but strong disposition. Can we have her all 13 years? The Lord knew . . . . all this time, HE knew.

There are only 17 students in the class. Another blessing!! I'm very, very happy about that. I know there will be a lot of testing going on at the beginning of school and a lot of time is needed for the teacher to get to know the students - so I am especially pleased about the class size.

Soooo, he came home and absolutely LOVED school. I knew he would. I had to pull information out of him, for the most part. I've heard that this is "the way boys are". :-) I guess I better get used to that. He remembers things randomly and just starts talking about it, which I think is cute. Like today he said "When the teacher said that the girls are coming tomorrow, the boys said that girls are disgusting, but I didn't say that". hee hee. (The boys went on the first day, and the girls go today - everyone goes tomorrow.)

I am so thankful that God has put my son in this school, in this class and that He has given me a peace about EVERYTHING. I know that this teacher has experience and that whatever my son's difficulties may or may not be, that we can certainly work together to achieve a successful first year in school and that is extremely important to me.

Here is REALITY: holding onto my firstborn and my coffee (he's doing a silly face! ornery boy)

Less than 24-hours to Kindergarten!

The Open House is upon us tonight. I'm trying to take it all in, one step at a time. My firstborn will be sitting at his desk tomorrow morning in his Kindergarten class with 16 other kids - no wait. Less than that since the first day will just be the BOYS of the class! The second day of school they have the girls of Kindergarten, then finally on the third day of school our beloved Kindergarteners will be combined!

So I cheated . . . . my sister teaches music at the school where my son is attending and I BEGGED her to let us see his classroom before all of the other moms and dads get there on Open House night. Come on . . . let me use my family while I have the chance . . . and besides, Open House only lasts 1 hour!!! And my husband can barely make it there in time with his work schedule. That's a complaint I have with the school (not my husband's schedule, but their lousy 1-hour open house), but hey, I'm still in kleenex mode right now. But we have not met the beloved teacher . . . so that is tonight's agenda!! My sister has already warned me not to discuss the history of my son with the teacher, like some parents do. OK, she didn't tell ME not to do it, she just said that there are parents that do this, so I took note.

Wow, I don't even know how to put words to how I feel. I'm some kind of nostalgic mess with a dab of excitement for my son's future. He keeps asking me questions about what school will be like. Once he got word about what a principal is, he got a big worried look on his face . . . . and his latest concern is that he will end up in the principal's office. WOW. He is my son . . . . the worrier. Even after I explained that as long as he's a good boy he won't be in the principal's office, he is still concerned about it. I think he's afraid that he'll accidentally do something wrong. But then again, I watch him with his 2 year old brother . . . . there are accidents . . . and then there are "accidents". uh, huh.

Prayer Answered - Hallelujah

We received the BEST news on Sunday afternoon:

We found out our kindergarten teacher has been assigned! I have been praying over this constantly, as I KNOW that it is very important for my son's first year of all-day, everyday school to have a patient, compassionate, understanding, as well as a very experienced teacher. I have been worried (I KNOW, very, very bad of me!) unnecessarily. I have a notecard on my desk and made it a point everyday in July to pray over the decision process of the school administration to pick "the perfect teacher for our son". (Actually my prayers go back further, but I daily committed it in July, knowing the decision was more forthcoming.) But God knew my heart, and He knew who I wanted . . . .

Who I wanted is exactly who we got for Big J!!! I'm on an incredible "Cloud Nine" experience. I'm so thankful that God has given us this woman to be our son's teacher. There are other issues involved with the other teachers that I just didn't want to have to go through. Not that God couldn't work those other issues out and teach me lessons on that as well, but I'm glad He chose this teacher. As my prayer request was answered "the perfect teacher for our son". This is not to say that she is a perfect human being - and I get that! The funny thing is, I've never even seen or met the woman! I'm just going on intuition and . . . . GOD HAS SPOKEN.

Post . . . WHAT??

We had a great time in North Carolina. I love the ocean so much. If God were to lead us there to live someday, I would have absolutely no problems with that! But for now, that is not in His plan. It is good to be home, though. A 12-hour car trip with two little kiddos is just about as insane as I can handle. So when my husband suggested maybe a vacation to Florida . . . I was like "Uhhh, NOOOOO!!" (I have a fear of flying . . . maybe I can work on that for the future, but for now, I will not get on an airplane.)

I still feel like I'm in a bit of a post-vacation haze. I looked at the calendar today and realized that school starts for the kindergartener in TWO WEEKS. I'm not ready for that. Seriously . . .