I wanted to thank everyone for all the help, love and support you guys gave us as we prepared to leave Denver. From packing to cleaning to dinners to bottles of wine, etc., you guys were amazing. It sucks to say goodbye and you all made it a little easier (and harder sometimes too!). It was overwhelming to see how many people we love and how many people love us and the kids. So thank you for all of that. We miss you all already.
Now we are at a new phase. No more goodbyes (hence the adios, adios) and we're ready to start with the "hellos." Right now there's a part of me that wants to climb into a little hole and take a nap for a week or two, but I know that really work. The people at the kids' school have been so nice already. Everyone knew they were coming and we all felt very welcome. The owners of the business have been great too. Getting our house in order for us (Grace had brand new hot pink curtains and Charlie had blue and orange broncos curtains), getting things fixed for us quickly (we had no water the first night we were here...) and making us feel at home. We're still figuring out lots of stuff and finding things we wished we had brought with us, but we're doing good.
We are meeting lots of new people. Employees of the business, teachers, parents of kids at the school, etc. Pray for us to have the energy and the memory to be friendly and to remember people's names.
I have a story about Charlie & Kevin I wanted to share. Yesterday we went to the school to buy uniform shirts and to meet their teachers, etc. If you know Charlie, you know that he can be extremely shy. He doesn't really like new things, new places, new people. He is a kid who likes to sit on the sidelines and watch stuff before he jumps into it. He also hates being the center of attention. So...we head to the school and buy the uniforms. We meet Grace's teacher first (the school thought her first name was Sophia instead of Grace so they were calling her Sophia :)) and then Charlie's teacher stuck his head in her room. She was very excited to see Charlie and exuberantly asked him to come meet the rest of the class. This, of course, shut him down completely. He didn't want to go, didn't want people to stare at him, just didn't want anyone to know he was there. However, the whole class was so excited about "Charles" getting there that they couldn't help but look and point at him. They had made him a sign and everything welcoming him into their class. For someone like me or like Grace, this would be awesome. For someone like Charlie (who is like Kevin), this was worth than death. So, he runs out of the classroom and towards the car (much like my dream where he ran away...). I didn't know what to do and was ready to just leave, but Kevin took him aside and just sat with him near the classroom. Under the window, actually. That way, he could hear what was going on, without being too close. Eventually some groups came outside to do reading group and Charlie just sat and listened. And then he actually joined a group, was reading with them and answering questions. After reading time, he wanted me to come in the room with him to listen to the story being read out loud. We did this and he raised his hand to answer several questions. We left after this and he had changed from being completely freaked out to talking non-stop about his teacher and the kids in his class. I was so thankful for and proud of Kevin and his ability to understand our shy child and help him in a way I definitely could not. I was also thankful for the way the Lord orchestrated the reading groups, etc. to work out in a way that made him feel more comfortable.
Sounds like every step is a big step. Glad there's already been some progress with the kids!
ReplyDelete-Josh and Andrea