Milestone Moments

I tend to get overly emotional about those "milestone moments" in life, you know - first steps, graduations, awards ceremonies. Oddly, though, the emotion often hits well before or well after the event rather than during the event itself. Trent, "Why are you crying?" Me: Sniff. "Junior ring ceremony." Sniff, sniff. Trent: "Sam's in eighth grade." Me: "I know. Can you believe it?"

The first day of school was like that. Kindergarten for Paul, high school for Sam. Big deal moment. Lots of moms were crying. No me. I got all my crying done on Monday. By Wednesday I had my war face on and my excited-yet-very-chill speech memorized. "Kindergarten is fun. High school is fun. Fun but in a relaxed, not at all overwhelming sort of way." Cheerleader-meets-surfer-dude. "Hip, hooray, man. Keepin it real, you know. Rah."

Sam desperately wanted a couple of adorable brother-sister first day of school pictures. Paul, who normally basks in the limelight, wanted nothing to do with pictures. I also wanted pictures of course, so I could look back on them next week and cry, but didn't want to make it into a big deal. So this is what we got:

We're all super excited about the first day of school, can't you tell?

Trent was in charge of taking Paul to school on Wednesday because Paul is much braver with him than with me. Trent walked him into class then Paul said, "Daddy, go. Paul listen teacher." I stayed out of sight at school all week, which wasn't easy because I work in the same wing of the building! I felt like I was on a kindergarten duck-and-cover mission. I had to reconnoiter the hallways before moving from point A to point B, hiding in stairwells if anyone resembling a kindergartner appeared.

But now I'm all emotional because Paul had a GREAT week! I got reports throughout the day from my undercover agents: "Paul was all smiles at lunch." "Paul watched the other kids then played with a friend on the monkey bars." "Paul showed his 'I Can' items to the class." And, get this, Paul got a 4 (out of 4) on his FIRST memory verse test! (And it was a true 4, not a teacher-giving-grace 4 - I asked! ('Cuz we knew that he knew his memory verse at home, but would he say it for the teacher? And/or would he change it to his made-up version he thought incredibly hilarious (had to do with tooting, don't ask.)))

Parents of adopted older children miss a lot of firsts. We didn't get to witness his first steps or hear his first words or exclaim over his first lost tooth (although we did get pictures! Thanks, SB!). We didn't even get to experience his true first day of school - he graduated preschool last December and started level 1 in January, months before we met him. But we get to rejoice in so, so many "second firsts", those first time milestone moments with us, his second family who will cherish these moments forever.

Sam got her adorable brother-sister first day of school picture, after all!