First Day of School

Did you hear about the woman who just left her children with complete strangers in a foreign country? That gets close to what it felt like to leave the girls at school today. And yes, I got teary, of course, because I am me, but only after I turned away from saying goodbye.

Wearing their school shirts from home like armor (we had all their friends and classmates sign them on their last day of school), they marched down the hill to a day certain to be full of confusion and apprehension. But they're kids, so it will also be filled with giggling and goofing and running around school halls in their socks, and best of all, making friends.

I will be very relieved to gather my brood at the end of this day. It's going to be all I can do to not wring every juicy detail out of them. I'm picturing the walk home, climbing the stairs up to our house on the hill, and hoping that they will choose to share the many new and amazing things they did with their day. And I will breathe a sigh of relief and smile.