grateful tears

This school makes me want to cry .....  streams and streams of grateful tears.

It has exceeded my every expectation.

I had no idea how deeply this school would minister to our family.  So I count the blessings.

1. A small place, so easy for my new-and-learning-this-culture girls to navigate.
2. Teachers who love Jesus.
3. Classmates who faithfully prayed for the "new girls" weeks before Julianna and Lydia ever set foot in these halls.
4. An administration that wants to serve our family.
5. Familiar faces - students and families that I recognize from other areas of life here.
6. Friends! Oh so glad that my girls have friends here.
7. Simplicity.  The school experience is so much EASIER for this momma to navigate than our China school experience.
8. Teachers that communicate with grace and ease and loads of helpful information.
9. A reading teacher really investing in my Julianna.
10. Daily focused effort and desire to point my girls to Jesus.
11. Imperfection.  So glad that this school isn't perfect, it's a better fit for our not-perfect family!
12. Reasonable homework loads!
13. A van full of little boys who daily ask to "get out and go inside" at pick up.  And Jesus who gently nudges and says "Yes Laura.  Unbuckle the belts and unload them all and take them inside to meet their sisters and embrace that the process just became 1000 times more complicated.  Who are you here to serve anyways?"

See the Lydia (with pink gloves) and John Paul embrace?  Isaac (left) and Julianna (right) running down the hall.  You can barely see a smidge of Luke's green jacket above Lydia's shoulder.

Lydia's teacher and three boys in the reading loft.  Eleven first graders in Lydia's class, and this loft is a coveted classroom spot!

We only lasted a few minutes in the classrooms before we needed a little more room to roam free.  Gym/Chapel/Lunchroom here we come :)

We won't go in every day but I took much joy in watching these boys admire their sisters, and these girls proudly show off their troop of little brothers.