He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress and for his children it will be a refuge.
Proverbs 14:26

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Day 18: First days, forgotten 5 year olds and lots of sister love

September 1, 2016

What a day!  Started out great with all 4 girls finally starting school... It's kind of been staggered over the last few weeks, but Anabelle finally had her first day today and she was super excited!
("These are my excited faces, Mom!")

Unfortunately the day kind of went downhill from there.  Well, not completely.  I had a great morning with a dear friend followed by strolling through the mall shopping with the same friend, and then panic.  Here's my post from Facebook to sum it up:  

And then there was that time you're shopping at the mall for shrugs with your dear friend (because those are important) and you happen to check on the time your 5 year old gets out on her FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN and you realize that she got out of school (and got on the bus) an hour ago and you are at least 30 minutes away from home and your husband is not home either. And you call ALL THE PEOPLE and they finally answer and confirm that she is riding around on the bus and "Oh, you're not home? But they will drop her at home soon." FOR THE LOVE, THIS I KNOW! (meanwhile your sweet friend talks to you about all the things to distract you because she is such a calming precious presence- I love you Craig N Jeanna Adams) and you stay distracted and do not lose it. (big deep breath). Then you call the school again for the 47th time after getting home and they say she is still on the bus and they will drop her soon (it has now been almost 2 hours) and then more time goes by, more time goes by and you call again and they say she will get on the elementary bus in 10 minutes and they remind you again that kindergarten dismissed early today at noon so you should have been home then to get her! FOR THE LOVE. Then sweet, non condescending lady says she has her in her office and do I want to talk to her. Yes please. "Hi Mommy." "Bella! I am so sorry Mommy wasn't home!!! Were you scared on the bus for so long?" "Yes ma'am." Cue all the tears. There will be ice cream in that child's future. Lots of ice cream. For all the children. Because ice cream fixes everything, right? Even forgetting your child on the school bus in a foreign country? I'm done now.

Yeah, so that pretty well sums it up.  One of my biggest fears since my girls all starting riding buses in a foreign country over 6 years ago has been that I will somehow miss their bus arrival at home and leave them stranded.  It finally happened!  Well, not the stranded part.  Thankfully the bus monitors were actually very much on top of the situation as were the school secretaries once they finally figured out what crazy American lady was talking about.  

Sweet little Anabelle had quite the story to tell...

(I definitely didn't find it quite this funny)

Neither did Abbey apparently...

But Anabelle got painting lessons with Maddie out of the deal and later lots of ice cream...


Our after school debrief of the day.  It's still pretty hot here but afternoons in the shade of the porch are lovely...

I definitely have a post about sisters swimming around in my head but this day has already been way too emotional to manage that tonight.  

Let's just say I am so thankful for my girls and the way they always have each others backs.  Even if they have been driving me crazy with the fighting and bickering or all the words spoken under our roof daily.  (I know I may have mentioned that a time or two...)  Watching them I see what a gift sisters are to each other and I love that.

Even if it's something as simple as getting the popcorn kernel out of your little sisters teeth even after she stole your popcorn (which happened to be your dinner) because you are apparently the only one in the house that can be trusted with such a task...

 (can't you just see that AB is oozing with trust?!)

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