To all who read:
Thank you for being patient. As most of you already know, Garyn started Kindergarten this year. Putting my feelings into words about this major milestone has been very difficult for me; hence my delay on writing about his first days and weeks.
The words I will use to describe my pride, excitement, disbelief, emptiness, and amazement will just not give justice, but I am going to try....
We started thinking about Garyn's Kindergarten year about a year ago. Ryan and I used many of our evenings discussing whether to send Garyn to public or private, the importance of class size, diversity, our expectations of the school, our expectation for Garyn, our thoughts of including religion in daily school teaching....okay, you get the idea.
Once we decided we would send all of our children to private, Catholic school, we visited many schools and decided on Our Lady Of Grace. We were happy with our decision, got to know many of the teachers and parents and got involved in different school activities.
HAHAHA....I laugh out loud because even though Ryan and I prepared so diligently on deciding a school for our kiddos, the Lord pointed us in a VERY different direction at the VERY last minute. (This is for another blog, but we are moving closer to the city so we had to pick a different school.) We decided on a new school in less than 42 hours of our decision to move and thus far, could not be HAPPIER with our decision. The Lord is showing our family His amazing, amazing love, and I can't scream my joys of loud enough....His love for our family is undeniable!!!!!!!
On August 18, 2011, Garyn was welcomed by the principal and teachers of St. Joan of Arc. On this special day, I took Garyn in casual street clothes to meet his teacher, Miss Cara and his fellow classmates. He was so very excited.
We entered the building, walked up a short set of stairs and with a quick left turn, THERE WE WERE.... entering his kindergarten classroom. Miss Cara introduced herself to both of us and pointed us in the direction of Garyn's welcome bag. We sat together looking around the classroom, reading the welcome packet and tasting some of the sweets from the welcome bag.
The kids introduced themselves, Miss Cara read them a book titled "The Kissing Hand," and then the best part...they played on the playground while the parents went over the 'boring' stuff. However, it wasn't all boring.....Miss Cara had each parent make a something out of model clay to describe their child. After we were finished, the kids came back to the class and sat on the rug. Once they were comfortable, we explained our 'homemade gift' to them and why they were special. To the best of my ability, I created Lighting McQueen because similar to Lighting, Garyn is a winner, he is bright like the color red, he is confident, and is thoughtful of others. We placed them along with a family picture on the window seal. It is a place where the kids can see them anytime they want, especially if they are missing Mommy and Daddy.
WOW! The hour past quickly and Garyn and I both left very excited for the next day!!
As the evening approached, Ryan and I shared stories and laughs of our Kindergarten teachers and waited for PapPap and GaGa to arrive.
August 19, 2011
The morning of the big day came very fast....we all had to wake up much earlier than we were use to. Garyn woke up (and has every day since school started) super easy, no complaints, ready to go...
Until we move, we have a drive. The morning compute to school is a 45 minute drive. Garyn's wake up call starts at 6:45 am and we leave the home no later than 7:05. However, in 1 short week, our drive will lessen by 43 minutes. So if you need help with the math....we will live a short 2 minutes from the school!!
Here is a few pictures to help tell the story of the first morning of school:
My Mom and Dad helped keep me preoccupied, but I still missed Garyn! The day seemed endless, I missed him, I was nervous for him, I wondered if he was okay, I thought about his schedule every hour, I repeated in my head several times everything that was in his lunch, I prayed that he was making friends....everything and anything crossed my mind during those hours apart. Garyn starts school at 8am and is dismissed at 3:15pm. It is the longest time I have ever been apart from him....and even though we are in a very good school routine now, I still miss him every day!!!!!
But....I must say, the smile in the picture above is the smile I am greeted with EVERY SINGLE DAY I pick him up!!! So, although I miss him terribly when he is away at school, it fills me with pride, joy and excitement to see him so happy!
I am so proud....and can not believe my baby boy is in school!!!!!
CONGRATULATIONS GARYN!!! YOU ARE DOING AN AMAZING JOB!
WE LOVE YOU!
