Journey To Josie: First Day of School

We did it.

We survived our first day of school.

It was harder than I expected it to be. When we decided to enroll Josie, I figured I'd be anxious about what it would be like for her, worried about her making friends and finding her spot among a group of kids that had already been together for five months. I didn't put much thought into what it would feel like for me. For the last six years we have spent nearly every day together. That's a lot of hours spent side by side. The closer we got to today, the more my heart started to ache. I knew I was going to miss her so much.

Last night she cried a lot.

She was scared and really didn't want to go. I was pretty dang close to calling the whole thing off. After promising that I would stay with her until she was ready for me to leave and telling her we would talk about it more in the morning, she finally settled in enough to fall asleep.

This morning she woke up ready to go.

It was like all her nerves had melted away with the bright desert sun. She talked incessantly as she got ready, changing outfits three times before settling on one of her favorite dresses, complete with fancy pearls.

Andrew and I walked her to class. She had on a brave face, but we know her well enough to know she was still anxious. We met her teacher and watched her make a couple new friends before she gave us a tiny wave, letting me know she was OK for me to go.

When I picked her up, she was exhausted.

I can't believe she didn't pass out on the way home. She didn't love it the way I had hoped, but her concerns were totally normal; she didn't know how to do the review game, she didn't get in the class with her neighbor friend. However, there's a class pet she gets a turn bringing home and they have three recesses, so it all evened out in the end.

She loved her class and made a ton of buddies and all of the sudden I knew we made the right decision. We celebrated with pizza and frozen yogurt then headed home for our first dose of real homework.