The countdown is on

Well, it's official. Will has been assigned a classroom teacher, Mrs. Freshwater, and she officially gets to spend a good chunk of her day with him. sniff sniff. His teacher has been teaching for 30 years and she is just perfect for Will. Will didn't want to leave the open house as he was so excited to be in a real Kindergarten classroom. Today he informed me he will be on the bus going to school in 4 more days. He has actually been counting down for about 30 days. In addition to the days countdown, he wanted to calculate the hours this am. OK little Einstein, this countdown thing is making mommy very sad.....but happy too as he has come so far. Tuesday is the big day. At 645am I will have no children in the house. I'll admit I have a huge list of things I have been wanted to organize and accomplish without being interrupted, but I will miss the lazy mornings of letting Will wake up as he pleases and having no rush to get out the door. Jaymie started school on Thursday and really likes her teacher. That's always a good sign for her. She was put in the same class as her best friend here, so that was also a help. This is the only year that Will and her will be at the same school. I'm sure she will look out for her little brother! I believe we made a good choice in sending Jacklyn to the private school for HS. She really likes it and is enjoying being on the tennis team. So far, she is 5 for 5 in both singles and doubles. Another school year starting off in full gear... At least I'm not sending any off to college yet!

Visitors

We had some visitors from FL visit us last week. In two weeks we have visitors from CA, and the week after that my dad is visiting from MN. I guess when you move to a warmer climate, visitors flock. We don't mind though. The more the merrier. The pic is of Will and his Uncle George. Will loves his Uncle George.

Starting HS

Well, it has happened. Our oldest starts HS today. She didn't want me to take her pic, so you see here a pic of her taken a few weeks ago after she placed second in a tennis tourney. Jack is attending a private school for HS. It just felt right for her for now. She only has 24 in her whole 9th grade class. Not sure what the boy/girl ratio is. She is playing on their tennis team and has already played her first match and won in both singles and doubles. The team won as a whole too. Hononrs Geometry, New Testament, American History and Literature are the classes she is tackling this sem. Jeffrey and I are very proud of our firstborn. I hope she comes home from school today saying she loved it.

It is amazing to me, but obviously not surprising how adopted children respond so differently to attachment related issues. I follow several blogs where some struggle with attachment, even when they adopt their children younger than 12 months. I can remember the struggles we had with Will by reading some of the social workers reports, but they really were very minimal. I have been mulling over what Will thinks of certain things. He will sometimes make comments to me like "How old was Jacklyn when you got Jaymie?" Almost as if he believes we all go "pick up " our children. But other times he will say he was in my belly, or I came to get him in Africa. Some children who were adopted at the same age as Will have said they miss their family. Never have I heard Will mention anything of another mother or father or something similar in that matter. I hesitate if I should ask...? Has he suppressed memories? Or do I just let him figure it out with his own timing. I wonder if he has family left behind? This whole topic breaks my heart. Am I doing him a dis service by not sitting him down and saying "hey, you were adopted and you had another mommy /or daddy that loved you very much." Or is his little mind too young to take that? He is off to Kindergarten in 27 days. Is he going to hear others say to him, why is your mommy white and you are brown? So many unknowns just mull in my head as I let this little man go out into the world. I'm going to be a wreck when he gets on that bus! And Jeffrey isn't even going to be around to be my shoulder as he will be in Washington at Bankers school again. For today, I will let Will open up when he is ready to. I just want to be prepared to say the right thing for the questions he may have.