First Day of Kindergarten

Well we survived the first day of Kindergarten. This morning I got up early to fix Sofia some muffins for breakfast and I got ready to tiptoe down the stairs at 6:20 and here comes Sofia fully dressed in her uniform and her SHOES on! What a precious girl, she was ready to start the day.

Our teammate Alison came and stayed with the boys at the house while they were still snoozing so we could totally focus on Sofia. Our other teammate John Mark came as the "one-man camera crew" and did awesome. Our teammates are incredible and have become the surrogate aunts/uncles, grandparents etc... for a lot of our family events.

So...armed with an extremely FULL backpack, her uniform and her snack we set off to school. I was a nervous WRECK!!!!!!! Sofia seemed fine and all I kept telling myself is "don't cry Stephanie, don't cry" (at least not until she can't see you.) We drove up and it was MAD traffic. All the parents were lined up and dropping there kids off at the gate, WHAT??? There was no way I could just take my little girl to the gate and let her go in by herself. Another mom realized I spoke English and we both were saying that we were NOT going to settle for that (I know who do we Americans think we are ah :)??) So we talked to a teacher and we were able to "escort" our crying kids to their classrooms. Because we just found out Friday that Sofia was in school, I hadn't seen her classroom, met her teacher or anything. Sofia was a champ all the way up until it was time for her to separate and then it all went downhill. She latched on to my leg, then Lee's chest and finally after a few minutes we walked her into her classroom and said goodbye.

My heart tore in two and all I kept thinking to myself was "PLEASE God just bring her one friend." I prayed so much for her heart the night before and even talked to her about my desire for her look for the kids that might not have friends and never to let anyone be alone but as I left her in her classroom it hit me that she might be that kid for a while. I guess we all go through our growing pains though.
Well God answered our prayer. When we picked her up she looked happy and content. We took the kids to a bakery to celebrate (the Davidsons even brought up BEAUTIFUL flowers for Sofia, it was so sweet) and for her to tell us all about her day. I asked her if she met any of the little girls and she said "no", slowly I felt my stomach churn. Then I asked her why and she just said matter-a-factly "they didn't talk to me." Quickly though Sofia said "but mom, I met a boy named Claudio and I talked to him in Spanish and he's 6 and we talked a lot." I wanted to go find that little boy and buy him a happy meal, I was so excited. Lee talked to the teacher later today and she talked about how her and Claudio hit it off and talked a lot. We also found out that there is one other English speaker in her classroom, a little boy from England.

Long story short, Sofia had a good day and I didn't cry too much. Lee did great too, telling Sofia "don't worry it's ok to cry, daddy cried too when he went to school." All I kept thinking in my head was "should you tell her it was like everyday for 2 YEARS!" HAHA.

God has been gracious and we just continue to pray that God can use Sofia to be a light in her Koala Kinder class and can God's little hands and feet at that school. We will have the video soon of her first day but it takes a while to put together so check back later. In the meantime here are some pictures of today.
Thanks for all the prayers.

The backpack so full I couldn't zip it up!

In front of the school (Sofia still somewhat happy at this point)

Sofia with her box of about 1000 school supplies I had to find in a 48 hour period!

Walking the green mile :)

Daddy's smooch always makes things better

Sofia-not so happy anymore

Isn't she adorable???