Harts in Durham

Well, we did it. We successfully got our kindergarten cutie off to her first official day of school.

(I promise she's happy. We had a "moment" right before this picture was taken. 😉)

If you've been following here for any length of time you know that we homeschooled both girls last year. And while it was a decision that made a lot of sense for all of us at the time, it became really obvious that it wasn't right for our family long term. And if I'm honest, it was a really hard decision and I spent a lot of time beating myself up over it. I just kept hearing this voice in my head telling me "good moms homeschool," "good moms sacrifice for their kids,"

But you know what? Good moms homeschool because it's what's best for their kids. And plenty of other good moms (my mom included!) send their kids to school because it's what's best for their kids!

I really did like the idea of homeschooling and giving my kids an education tailored to their specific needs. But in practice it was really hard–on me because I was working straight night and I was just beat and on my kids because I was constantly fighting fatigue and wasn't giving them the best of me. In the end, there a lot of reasons why we just couldn't continue and after a lot of prayer and a lot of talking to other moms (especially my fellow adoptive moms), we decided to enroll the girls in school.

So, this year instead of ordering a bunch of curriculum and prepping for a new school year here at home, I'm running around purchasing school supplies from a list, attending open houses and planning pick up and drop off times. So far the girls seem to be transitioning really well and are super excited about their first year in school.

On Thursday last week, we sent our Kindergartener off to her first day of school. I'm going to be honest here, I don't think I slept well for about 2 weeks leading up to this. If you're at all familiar with parenting adopted kids, you know transitions can be tricky at best and downright nightmarish at worst. So, because I'm a mom and I think this is what we do, I spent a lot of time worrying about the worst. But I can't say enough good things about the school Teddy is attending OR her teacher this year. After her open house on Wednesday, I felt so comfortable and so much more at ease dropping her off on Thursday. Not that that stopped the tears as I was driving away, but I was completely assured that she was in good hands.

For her part, Teddy did incredibly well. I think she had a small case of the jitters going to bed Wedesday night, but she woke up Thursday ready to get going–spurred on by a batch of blueberry muffins ;).

We got to rest up a bit over a three day weekend, and the hit the ground running for real with a full week of school this week! I am so excited about all that she's going to learn this year and even though I'll miss her (and her big sister) here at home with me, I know that we are doing the very best we can for each girl!