Lydia's first day

This morning Lydia went to preschool for the first time. Over the past few months Matt and I have talked and prayed, wondering if this was the right time for Lydia to start school. In my mother's heart, she still seems so young. She still is so young!

I want to treasure these years and invest in them well. So I hesitate to send her to school. I want Lydia (and our other children) home, with me :) But we also feel strongly that Lydia needs to learn to speak Chinese. We believe this is super important for a lot of reasons, and though we cannot guarantee that any particular thing we do will result in a child who is able to interact with the local culture, we do think that school attendance helps tremendously in that endeavor.

In Lydia's case, the situation is intensified by our upcoming 6 month stay in the US. If Lydia didn't start school now, her next opportunity would be January 2011. So, after much discussion and prayer, today was the day.

New students wear name tags for the first few days to help teachers quickly learn names.... reality is, I think most every adult on the school property already knows Lydia (thanks to her big sister's almost-celebrity status) but she wore the name tag anyways.

Matt takes care of school drop-off duties, so Lydia hopped up on the scooter with her big sister and off they went!


Lydia can be hard to read sometimes, and I really did not know what to expect. Part of me feared that it would be a complete disaster. Lydia has strong opinions, and if she decided she didn't like school, it would have been a long morning (and a long semester, for that matter). But I was also hopeful that it would be 100% success. She's out-going, loves friends, and talked enthusiastically every time we mentioned school.

Guess what happened? (that's her, standing at the school gate before classes started this morning)


She loved it! LOVED IT! Matt said she marched right into the classroom like she owned the place, didn't even look back to wave goodbye. I picked her up at lunchtime and she ran right to me, beaming from ear to ear. (This is pretty much the exact opposite of Julianna... school was not an instantaneous win with her.)

Now Lydia and Julianna both attend school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings (same hours, their classrooms are right next door to each other). Julianna will also go on Fridays, just like last semester.

Part of me wonders if Thursday will be a little tougher. Maybe the "I love school" thing is a passing fancy? I hope not!

We are so proud of you Lydia!