Better late than never

I am so behind on posting, which I really wouldn't care about, but so much has happened lately that I don't want to forget!

We had preschool orientation last week. It was just for parents. The Husband stayed home with the kids while I went up to the school. It felt like the first day of school for me, too. I was nervous. I actually dressed well [ ;) ], putting on a nice skirt and top instead of shorts and a t-shirt. I walked into the chapel, didn't see anyone I knew, so I just took a seat. Then the parents of one of Little Man's classmates from Parent's Day Out came and sat behind me. Whew! It was nice to see familiar faces. A few minutes later a woman patted the seat next to me and said, "Is this seat taken?" I said,"no," looked up, and saw - my neighbor! She didn't realize it was me when she sat down, too funny. Her son and Little Man are great friends, and he is one grade above Little Man, and it was great to see her. Instant relief! The headmaster spoke for a few minutes, he said he thought we were probably all relieved that school was about to start and glad that our preschoolers would be out of our hair. I was thinking, "Boy, you don't understand at all, nothing could be further from the truth." I was hoping the next speaker would be a little more inspirational, and wow she didn't disappoint. At first she had a few jokes, and she was truly funny. She started off by talking about the movie Forrest Gump, and how, many years before the movie was made, she coined a phrase similar to the movie's famous, "Life is like a box of chocolates." Her phrase is, "Life is like a box of crayons. " She talked about the evolution of the crayon box. It started out as a box of eight, then as more crayons were added, it became a box of 16, then 24. Now we have boxes of 64 crayons, even 124 crayons. She also talked about how nowadays the name of each color is printed in English, Spanish, and French, and how there is a Crayola Color Hall of Fame, where retired colors go. So crayons, like life, change, and we have to change with it. She took the analogy a bit further and said that a crayon box has but only one direction, printed next to the sharpener on the back of the box, and it reads, "tear off paper before sharpening." How many of us, as children, actually followed that one direction?" she asked. We usually just crammed that crayon on in and made a big mess, paper and all. Again, life is like a box of crayons. It was very funny, I wish I had actually written this last week when I could remember all the nuances of the speech. At the time I thought to myself, "I like this lady."

I can't even remember her name, or her position, but she is fairly new to the school, and she talked about how she decided to take her current job while attending last year's parent's orientation. She talked about how she had already been offered another job, and had her heart set on it, when she had the opportunity to interview at Little Man's school. She decided to see what this school was about, interviewed, and was open to but not set on taking the position. She asked if she could attend the orientation day to get a feel for the teachers and staff, and so she did. She started off by saying she watched the parents and orientation, which was good, then she attended a staff meeting, which was boring and not so good, but it was the event that occurred after the parents left and the meetings were over that she knew her heart belonged at this school. She said that, at this school, the teachers and staff have a dedication ceremony the afternoon of orientation. They come to the chapel and sing and pray. They hold hands, they build each other up spiritually, and they pray for our kids. Not as a group, but for each child individually. This person told us, how, before the ceremony, each teacher writes the name of each child in her class on a piece of paper, places the names up on the alter, and prays individually over each name. Oh wow, that kind of got me. A stranger praying for my son, praying for a happy school year. Praying (for my son as an individual) for learning to take place, for friendships to be forged, for personal growth to occur. I'm not ashamed to say I cried right then and there. I looked over at my neighbor and she was doing the same! I mean, how freaking sweet is that!? You won't find that at any old school. I was sold! Let the school year begin! I know my son will thrive in an environment such as this. Thank you, God, for pointing me in the direction of this school and making the road to it a smooth one.