The night before, we were all giddy with excitement! Really, Jake was bouncing off the wall in sheer happiness about FINALLY getting to go to school! We got his backpack out, colored the picture of the horse he was supposed to bring, laid out his clothes, planned breakfast and said "goodnight."
3:30 am. Phone rings. NEVER ever a good thing. I looked at my phone, saw it was my mom and just knew. I knew that my grandfather had just met Jesus and it absolutely BROKE my heart! I was supposed to see him in just 2 days. Jake and Pierce were supposed to sit in his lap in just 2 days. I just knew he was "holding on" for just 2 more days.
So I was up crying until about 5:30am and then was finally able to go back to sleep. Jake woke up an hour later... ready for school! :)
I put on a happy face, fixed his breakfast of choice- "chicken eggs" and bacon, threw on some clothes... not even remembering the ones I had laid out, all the while saying to myself, "i'm not going to cry, i'm not going to cry, i'm not going to cry- this is such a HAPPY day! my grandfather is in NO more pain, hooked up to NO more oxygen, able to walk and even RUN and is face to face with JESUS... AND my baby is starting school! This IS a good day!"
We got to school and Jake was totally ready. We had been the week before a couple times to an open house all the while knowing it would help him because we would be gone for a month before he was able to go back.
He went right in, found his favorite little place to play... with cars and trucks of course. And when one of his teachers walked up to me, I completely fell apart. She knew we were going home to "say goodbye" so I told her that it had just happened. We hugged, I wiped away my tears, smiled and went to paint for a few minutes with Jake. I really think that if my grandfather hadn't died that morning there would not have been any tears coming from my eyes about Jake starting school. I am just thrilled about it and I know that he is ready and that makes me so proud!
Mark and I said goodbye and Jake wanted to "watch us leave" so he went and sat in the big window and waited for us to pull out front and wave goodbye! So precious!
When I came to pick him up I found his class all sitting underneath a big tree listening to a book. Jake was perfectly still- thank you Jesus :)! His teachers all said he was great. One said, "full of energy", one said "such a sensitive little boy" and another said, "very inquisitive."
We are looking forward to a second "first day of school", including more pictures in a couple of weeks!
Breakfast of choice- "chicken eggs", bacon and "ornoage juice"
"bye mommy and daddy"
So glad you wrote all that out for this post. You'll be glad you saved the details here. What sweet pics of the first day. Love the "chicken eggs" and the pics of him watching you drive away. I'm impressed. You've raised a sweet confident little boy! Can't wait to see more school pics! btw...those didn't look like "fisher price" planes! uh...awesome!
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