New Beginnings

So much to blog about, so little time...

Baby Grrl's biggest (foster) brother and the apple of my eye, whom I will call Le Yum this day, started a new (one day per week for homeschoolers) kindergarten today. He was excited until yesterday, when he told me he didn't want to go because he has already been to kindergarten and he knew everything already. So we talked about how he has to show that he is READY for first grade and then he can move on, and then he was good to go, especially when I reminded him they were homeschoolers, too. YAY!

We arrived early to the new site after taking DH to work, and we sat in the gym waiting for everyone to arrive. In assembly, after they said the pledge of allegiance, one of the facilitators asked if anyone had any announcements or anything to share. Yum raised his hand! (If I had been sitting beside him I would have pulled it down, LOL, but I was giving him his space since he is FIVE AND A HALF.) So then he said, in a very quiet little voice I have heard maybe twice from him, that he brought a book called C is for Centennial for Tell & Show, because his mom couldn't remember which letter was the one of the day! The facilitator then asked him to STAND UP and introduce himself (in front of a gym full of strange peers)! He then became one with the floor, so I introduced him. We were both wearing green and I was proud to announce my tall, lean and handsome young man with an Irish name on St. Patrick's Day; but alas, it was all too much for poor Yum. He c r a w l e d over to me and then somehow managed to attach himself to me like a leech, legs and arms wrapped around my body and face buried in my neck! I think he was close to tears, so I whispered to him that everyone was saying welcome and clapping, so he turned around and went to sit by one of his new classmates. Shortly after that I had to vacate with Shy Mouse (who was not being shy) and Princess Loudmouth, and I ended up getting into a great convo with another mom who has adopted two "children of color" so I missed it when the kids walked by us on the way to their classroom.

Several minutes later, one of the kindergarten teachers thanked me for letting Yum go off to class all by himself. (Hey, why didn't I think of that?!) It's all in how you spin it, so I simply said, "No problem!" and smiled. I peeked in and saw that while he was fidgeting and squirming already, Yum was actually sitting in the back row quietly and listening to story time (and the teacher was actually READING the story, not just playing a book on tape!) so I felt free to go. All of our paperwork was transferred from the site he attended last year, I had filled out a sheet of emergency contact information, and I had paid for his slice of pizza and juice (once a week won't kill him, right?) so it was clearly time for me to set off on a new adventure of parenting 1/3 less child one day a week. So far it feels like 2/3 more work-- as Yum is quite helpful with entertaining his younger sibs, and he's a natural leader who organizes activities for the entire family-- but it's all good (or it will be next week when Aunt Flo is not visiting, Baby Grrl doesn't have a cold, and it isn't 35 degrees outside). It will certainly be much easier to go to the Children's Museum with two chitlins instead of three, especially because Yum has pretty much outgrown it and would rather go to the Museum of Nature & Science.

Needless to say, I am counting the minutes until I can pick Yum up. I hope he will tell me he wants to go back. Sometimes I think I ought to send him to public school but in my heart of hearts I know the classroom is not the ideal learning environment for him. I often think about what he is learning on this family journey in foster care, and I know it is an invaluable education that cannot be taught but only lived. He has already learned that we are all the same inside, that skin color does not matter, and that love can help heal even the most severe of physical and emotional wounds. That's more than some of us will ever learn.