the last day

Friday - the big last day of (local) school.  We have a two month break before school starts up again in late August.  [Still waiting to hear if the girls got their names on the class roster at Peace Elementary... we should know by mid July.]

We made thank you cards and prepared small gifts for the teachers.  LOVE these ladies (3 per class).... oh my are they so kind, so patient, such encourage-rs of our children and our family.

Lydia with Liu Laoshi and Fu Laoshi before the final goodbye hug.

Julianna and Lydia headed down the stairs for the final time.

[Yes, I was fighting tears at this point!]

We stopped on the second floor landing to say a special goodbye to the headmaster, Wang Yuanzhang.  She's the one who made this whole deal possible - schools here are booked up early and when we moved into the neighborhood all the seats in her classrooms were taken.  But she opened the doors to our family and squeezed two more little people (Julianna and Lydia, then later Isaac) into her ranks.

She's hard to read and very reserved, so it took me a while to figure out if she even liked our family, but this last day she was so full of good words for us and just overflowing with gratitude that our three had been her students.  Conversations like that one are so encouraging to me - people SEE Jesus in our family, and we have so many opportunities, so many chances to say, "it's not me, my love is inadequate, my patience is limited, it's Jesus in my heart.  He changes me."

At the bottom of the stairs, showing off how "big" they've grown since they started at this sweet little place.  John Paul in the picture because he loves to be in pictures.  And that's his "big" arms :)

The seven at the gate.  The university where Matt teaches is a 2 minute walk from the school and he was on campus ... perfect since I would have missed some sweet goodbye conversations if I'd been chasing the little boys.

We stopped at CoCo on the way home for iced treats.  It was a super hot day (we hit the pool after naps) and CoCo is a fun way to celebrate. 

Proud of these three.  Locals often ask if our kids go to international school.

We often answer "well, it wasn't an international school until we showed up" :)

Starting this fall we'll be taking our international flair to a new preschool (Isaac) and elementary (Julianna and Lydia).