School Tomorrow

And so it begins...school tomorrow for all 3 (yes three) of my children.

Carly: She is going to a two day a week program at the Goddard School on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She will go from 9-1, which means she eats lunch there (and I just packed it) This is not really for her to go to preschool as much as it is to compensate for the babysitter that I just lost so that I can do my minimal accounting job. I had used Priscilla every Tuesday since Ally was 1. We loved her, but she lives 30 minutes away. She wasn't going to drive all the way here for just one child, and I don't blame her. So I found something else and I think she will like it. Carly should be good to go. She is not too shy and pretty mature for her age and also the third child. She went for an hour the other day and fit right in. No tears.

Evan: He hops onto the Kindergarten bus tomorrow around 11. So he will be running Carly to school with me and then having some time with Mom before school. His school is only 2 and a half hours. He will come home with all the big kids at 2:30. He seemed a bit nervous tonight, mostly about finding things (his room, the bus, etc) We read the typical "night before Kindergarten" book to him tonight. I am sure they will help him and he will be fine. He is a bit quiet at school (so they tell me...and NO he is not like this at home). Jerad and I actually go with him tomorrow from 11:30-12:30 or something like that.

Ally: Ally is going into second grade. She has been blessed with another wonderful teacher I can already tell. Her name is Mrs. Hamilton. The funny thing is that my second grade teacher was also named Mrs. Hamilton. She has been following our story this summer and seems to have thought of a lot of activities to make this transition easier. She has made a lot of accommodations for Ally including bumping their art class from Friday (when Ally will be at the hospital getting treatment) to Wednesday when Ally can go. She knows this girl has the artistic side to her. She has a lot of ideas and I can already sense that she cares. She has two young kids herself. So she knows.

Ally was all set to start school. Last night I asked her if she wanted to start or not really. She gleefully said that she wanted to start school. Tonight, she went to bed and then she woke up an hour later crying. She threw up a lot. She probably throws up two or three nights a week. Of course, tonight was the night. Never ever during the day, but a lot at night for some reason. So then she started crying that she doesn't want to go to school. So now I have the same pit in my stomach that I had last spring when all of this began and she didn't want to go to school (and I didn't know that she had leukemia). It is just an awful feeling. Well this whole thing is awful, but I hate not knowing and having that stress every single morning when I first wake up. We used to do this whole song and dance and everything just to get her to the busstop. Really...school starting is nerve-racking enough even for the most normal kid, so for her it is ten-fold. It is nerve racking for the normal parent, but for me it is horrible.

Everyone at Valley will take care of her. I know. Her teacher, the nurse, the disability teacher, the principal, anyone will help her. I just have to get her there and hope she can handle it. She has been doing so good, but right now I also have a feeling that she needs blood again. We can see it on her pale face and she is bruising like a banana.

Please say a prayer that all goes as planned for her during this transitional time. I do think if she gets off to a good start it can make all the difference in the world for the upcoming year. If she just gets on that bus in the morning with no tears. Just a simple request.....