Not just any old Monday...the first day of summer school

I would first like to say Thank God I have 3 beautiful healthy children who are all capable of growing up to be quite fantastic and smart young people. so that being said here goes the first day of Kindergarten. I have heard mother after mother tell the stories of how difficult it is to hand your child over to a caregiver and just pray that they will find there class, not go home with a stranger, follow directions, not get lost in a crowd of children they have never seen before, but this day has put those unfathomable stories into a reality. I have dealt with my share of hard things, enduring high school, miscarriages, Jonathan's asthma diagnosis at 3 months, Griffin's surgery at 16 days old, and HELLO! 3 labor and deliveries with out drugs. I know pain I know hurting for the child you wish could just be healthy. I know there must be harder things in life but for me this day is right up there with the toughest.

We have been talking up a storm about school with Jonathan. There is a list of things to go over with your kids before they begin classes the first day. I though wow if I have to teach him his address and how to spell his name and how to write every letter in the alphabet, along with his phone number, parents names, his name and never to go anywhere with a stranger then what will his teacher do all year. I am so glad I have taken the time to do so here is why:

We get to school and I walk all over the whole place looking for the right place to take him. We go to the office and find a teacher there to help kids find the way. They tell me his class has moved for the day until some "issues" are fixed so take him to the end of that very long hall. That class was empty so I go back to the office and say oops try again now where is his class. they so oh downstairs. So we go down the other hall and down 2 flights of stairs to the basement. as I stand in line waiting to check him in and make sure he is OK I hear the teacher ask "what is your name" (I stand back to let him be big) he does fantastic. "Jonathan Hendrix" he proclaims. "HI Jonathan How do you get home after school?" his teacher asks. He thinks for a split second before remembering something I have drilled into his head. "OH, my mom will pick me up" while this is happening I am looking around, across from the classroom I notice a trash can and we all can smell the rankness coming from the ceiling. 15 feet from where I am trusting a teacher with my child is a broken sewer line just then someone flushes the toilet upstairs and more poo and well... sewage escapes from the ceiling. I am thinking are all these people really OK with this? they are just dropping off kids with open sewage falling from the ceiling 15 ft from the children? Really? as I tote the other 2/3 of the children and the stroller back to the top of the steps. my mind is turning my stomach is tossing and I stand at the top of the stairs perplexed...Is this real? am I really supposed to leave him here with open sewers and strangers?

I go to the car I call Matt (uh don't call the plumber daddy if his kid should go to school with open sewers not the answer I was looking for) hang up call mom have a rational, non judgemental conversation, and decide to chat with principal. Conversation short, plumber is there working, custodian staff is cleaning up, teacher closed the door, kids are not in the same room all day, I will call after lunch and see how it is going and make a decision if he stays the day or I go get him.

after lunch the school calls me just to make sure he is not supposed to ride the bus and that I really am coming to get him at 4. 'Yes' I say 'I will be there' sewage issue has been resolved kids are upstairs in a temp class while downstairs airs out until the morning.

So Matt gets home early and we go on up to make sure we get a good spot in line so pick him up on the first day. (note: Matt wanted to go by himself to pick up Jonathan but I freaked and could not figure out why we couldn't all go, I want to pick him up too from his first day of school) about 5 minutes before school is out I send Matt to the front doors where kids come out and we all drive around the circle drive to get kids principal making sure kids know who the are riding with, I cant see, Matt disappears, I drive to the front of the line see his teacher and the rest of the class sitting on the sidewalk, still can't find Matt, don't see Jonathan...hmmmm Here they come from the side of the school where the buses load. Jonathan gets in crying, AGAIN good thing mommy was there too because I sent Matt to the door otherwise he would have sat in the car waiting for Jonathan to find him. Well it seems Jonathan and his new friend took off from the class in the mess of children and got on a bus. I have no clue if they take roll before the bus takes off and I think if they had an extra kid left at the end they would have brought him back to school, but jeez come on, he could have been 'lost' for hours and we would have had no clue what happened to him. big talk, big lecture, again son you do what mommy says and teacher says not little people friends. that is how you get lost. I think it sunk in but if you see an amber alert tomorrow you know it did not!

So in short today I have learned:

some of my fears were not irrational and well I don't know the full lesson here but I love my children more than anything on this world and I know that God loves them more than me, so I am trusting Him that tomorrow when we get up and I take him to school again, He is watching and guiding us all (and I will be informing his teacher that she lost one today.) YIKES! that was close. Is it over yet?!

Now I am going to go to bed or at least tuck my kids in bed and watch TV so I can stop the Monday craziness and hope Tuesday is a little less traumatic for all involved.