Amanda's 1st Day of School

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The day has finally come...and almost gone. What a day it was! I was concerned about Manda getting up at 6:30. To our surprise, she was up at 6:00 and could hardly wait to get going. Her battlecry for the day was "Big school...here I come!!" I kept thinking "Big school...here comes Manda!" She was so excited she could hardly contain herself. I had my moment last night as I laid down to sleep. That's when I usually have "moments". But this morning went well. I think the hardest part was getting Zach out of her classroom without her lunchbox! For some reason, he became very attached to it. But it really wasn't that bad. Although, I really think he missed her today. At one point this afternoon, during his "I'm tired but I refuse to take a nap" period, he kept saying he wanted Manda. He seemed so sad. I'm kinda glad she has the next couple of days off. For those of you who don't know, they stagger the beginning of kindergarten so the teacher only has 6 kids in class each of three days. Then on Thursday, all 18 kids will be in class together. I've realized tonight that I'm a lot less ready for this than I thought. It's going to be really, really strange not to have her here during the day. It's enough to make me think of homeschooling! I can't believe how fast my baby girl is growing up. I'm already starting to regret all those times when I took advantage of her ability to entertain herself. I know it's not the end of the world, but it is the end of a chapter, and I'm going to be doing a lot of praying! Speaking of which...I was really bummed yesterday at church, because I wanted to take her to the front of the church during the Invitation time and pray for/with her and maybe have JT pray for her, too. When the time finally came, she threw a fit, and John and I figured it wasn't worth a fight. But, nevertheless, I was very dissapointed. We asked her this morning when it was time to go if we could pray for her. She said yes, and she bowed her head and closed her eyes. I could hear, as John prayed, little noises she was making like she was happy. It's hard to describe, but I knew she was beaming. I prayed a special prayer with her tonight at bedtime as I held her. I was so encouraged when she joined me and prayed in her own words. Today has been a good day...bittersweet...but a good day.

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