Good afternoon! Well, today? It went great. Last night Jack was so excited when he went to bed, he could hardly contain himself. He came in our room twice in the middle of the night to ask if I’d put this quilt back on his bed cause it kept falling off. He was so restless (and to be honest, so was I) that his covers couldn’t stay on his bed! I woke up thinking “I need to get a plastic spoon outta the trailer instead of a real one for his lunch” or “did I write his name on that?” I woke up a bit after 6:30a and you would have though it was my first day! I was all giddy and excited, couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I give all of that to God! He helped me hold it all together this morning! We got ready, ate breakfast and stood on the porch for a bit before meandering to the end of the driveway. Bean and Mikie accompanied Jack and I to the end of the driveway while Papa stood on the porch holding Molly. Bless Papa’s heart, he came to watch Mol and Mikie so I could hop in the truck and go to Jack’s school to see him get off the bus. It worked out so well!

Anywho, back to Jack – there he was standing at the end of the driveway anxiously waiting. Then we see it, the flashing yellow lights. I’m about coming outta my capris cause I’m so excited for him (a total God thing). As The bus pulls up, I kiss Jack’s head and Jack gets right on, beaming. He plops right down in the very front seat, scoots over to the window and waves. It was so cute.



From there I left home and headed to Jack’s school to wait for him to pull up. There were all sorts of gnats flying around driving me nuts and I ended up knocking my own glasses off trying to shoe them away! Stand there, stand there – then comes his bus. I walked over (wanted to run) and watched as he got off the bus second. He says “No body sat with me, but that was ok,” and he continues walking with the kids to the playground. As he walked away, that’s when my mom emotions came into play. He turned around once to wave, then twice more just to see me. I waved every time. As he walked and turned to where I couldn’t see him anymore, I stood there like a blank page. Nothing on my mind except, “does he need me? Is he gonna turn around and come back to me?” There I stood… He didn’t come back and was outta sight and with as much as I hated to move my feet from that very spot, I turned and walked away. Not without looking back a few times just in case, but he was gone with the kids, as he should be. I made the walk past the buses and into the gravel parking lot, hopped in the truck and the tears just streamed down my face. You know the difference in a cry where your face gets all crunched up and you’re mad or sad? This was different, the tears just rolled down my face uncontrollably. The scrunched up face didn’t come until I hit the intersection leaving school. Then I just let ‘er rip. I called Erk in absolute tears, but he knew I’d be that way :)

All in all, I am so thankful to have held it together while in his sights, and as the day has worn on, it’s all good. But that is HARD and there is no handbook for how to handle it. I am so proud of him though, the little dude showing strength and independence walking away from mom and into a whole new little life just for him…