The First Day

Today was a big day! Dallin is heading back pre-school for his first day, it is my one year work anniversary, and the girls first day at a new school.  Drew was so sweet to stay at home a little longer this morning to make sure we had a great start to the day. Good thing too, because it was one of those mornings where I was anxious and just wanted to hide under the covers! The girls were up in a jiffy, though, and were soon showered and dressed for their day.  Dallin even got dressed by himself too- once his undies got turned right side out.  What a big boy!

The kiddos each received a back to school father's blessing from Drew and each one was so beautiful.  I was definitely in tears- sometimes it is overwhelming to know that someone, our Heavenly Father, loves my sweet kids even more than I do, which hardly seems possible!  It is was humbling and powerful to hear their sweet blessings and beautiful to witness.  I am so glad that we are not in this alone.

 The kids were also excited to discover the message written on their mirror, although Dallin was appalled that I had the nerve to write on the mirror (!).  It is the scripture from Phillipines 4:13, " I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me." in both Spanish and English. 

 The girls were excited to ride the red bus to school this year, aka the mini-van.  Yes, we are rocking it mini-van style, though we like to pretend that it is an autobot and we have to thwart all of the other decepticons on the road.  It makes for a much more interesting drive.

 We also had a great talk about our goals for the first day.  I told them not to worry about Spanish, but to try and each make a new friend.  And the best way to make a friend is to be a friend.  Lauren, sometimes has a classic scowl that she likes to resort to in frustrating or confusing situations and I really wanted her to focus on smiling so others would want to be her friend.

 I walked the girls into the school and helped Lauren get situated in her class.  She begins the day in Spanish and she got to pick a cubby/locker, put her lunch card in the bin for casa/cafeteria, and get settled in. Abigail was all to ready to give me my kiss and make her way to her class.  What a big girl! And that was it.  I let my eyes water up as I left my babies in a brand new school and headed the three blocks to work.  The seed was planted and it's up to nourishing it now.

I was very nervous to pick the girls up and see how their first day went, but what a relief to walk into Melissa's classroom and find them both playing puppets with a new friend with big smiles on their faces.  Lauren was very pleased to report that she had made two new friends, Daisy and Natasha.  She sits by one in Spanish half of her day and the other in English. Lauren did say one boy yelled at her twice when she was misunderstanding Spanish, but she didn't seem to let it bother her and seemed to realize that it was more his problem to be yelling. Abigail made several new friends including a girl named Ana from Guatamale who doesn't know any English.  She said they were helping each other since Abigail doesn't know any Spanish.    Abbie is convinced this is the best day of her life thus far and I am so pleasantly relieved for a great first day.  What a blessing!

A Change

Tomorrow our girls will be attending a new school.  We have decided to transfer the girls to the Spanish dual-immersion school, Evergreen Elementary.  It has been a difficult decision and one that we didn’t make lightly.  All summer I’ve been going back and forth- it can be hard to decide between two good choices!  I have had a huge range of responses to this decision possibility from my friends, family, and members of the community, ranging from super excited and supportive to pure shock and disgust.  I have appreciated the dialogue, but thought I’d share some personal reasons why we decided on Evergreen.

1. My sister teaches at Evergreen. One of the biggest deciding factors is that my sister is teaching fifth grade at the school.  This relieves so much worry I have about the transition and the girls are so excited to see their aunt everyday and help in her classroom after school.  So many of the kids at the school know Melissa or their siblings have been in her class, so I think it will help the kids make friends, too.
2. Evergreen is closer to work.  I am working part time at the architecture firm downtown now and I can see Evergreen from my office.  My job is flexible so I can drop the girls off and go to work, eat lunch with them during my lunch break, and pick them up after school when I get off.  Convenience (or really, time) is always a big factor for me.
3. Abigail has been accepted into the Hi-Cap 4/5 class for the district that is housed at Evergreen.  The ratio for the class is amazing and it will be great to have her extra challenged.  She loves doing special projects and research and I think this class will cater to that.
4. Evergreen is dual-immersion and the girls will be learning Spanish.  Abbie is thrilled and doesn’t care that she’s years behind.  She really wants to learn and I think this will provide a great challenge for her. She is so motivated and hopefully can start learning the basics quickly.  Lauren, however, is not excited about learning Spanish, but I really think she can do it and will pick things up without realizing it.  We are supporting and learning from home as well, but I’m not planning on pushing the Spanish academically.  I’m planning to focus on encouraging her to make new friends and I think the Spanish will come as she has a good attitude. The Spanish program continues through middle school and beyond and what a blessing it would be for the girls (and me) to be bilingual.
5. The girls will learn about other cultures and experience greater diversity.  This is a tricky pro that could easily be a con.  They will definitely be the minority- I think only 2 in 10 students are white, but I think that is a valuable experience to have and an opportunity to learn about cultures from other parts of the world without having to move there.  The girls already have such a positive outlook on different races and ethnicities and I hope this will only increase that.
6. Evergreen has great extra-curricular activities.  These are beneficial because they are either before or after school and at the school so they’ll be mostly convenient for our schedule, and a great opportunity for the girls to make new friends and have positive experiences at the school outside of class.  They offer so much, and the girls are most interested in choir, guitar, dance, art, and Girl Scouts.  Narrowing down the choices will probably be the hard part!
7. There are other little perks as well including Art as a specialist option.  Lauren is most thrilled about that.  It will be taught in Spanish, but it is something she loves so it might help her attitude with Spanish in general.  A couple other little things they’re excited for are the provided healthy snacks everyday and the fact that the gym has a climbing rock wall. I also think it’s great that I know some of the staff and appreciate their warm welcome and confidence in the girls' transition.
8. The change will challenge Lauren.  This is the most difficult, but I think most necessary aspects of the choice to go to Evergreen. Lauren really struggles with change and is easily frustrated when she doesn’t understand something.  I know it might seem crazy to intentionally put her in a stressful and new situation with a language she doesn’t understand, but I can’t stop thinking that this challenge will help her in the long run (and it’s the long run that I’m keeping in mind.)  I know it is going to be hard.  I pray it won’t be too hard.  I really believe that weaknesses can become strengths and I want my little girl to do hard things and to know she can do them.  It’s true that it would be so much easier to stay with what she knows, to cater to her wants and her comfort zone, but this seems like the perfect opportunity to really help her grow.  Part of me is still terrified- scared of her getting too frustrated, worried that's she'll have a hard time making friends, afraid that she’ll get teased and bullied, and of course the fear that she’ll resent me forever.  But, another part of me whispers the affirmation that she can handle this and that this change will provide her with skills that will make her a better person and me a better mom.  

And so I am planting a seed. A seed of faith that this transition will be what's best for them and for our family.  This is the beginning of their story.