Summer's End.

Tomorrow our new school year begins.
I am filled with excitement and nerves. Hesitation and anticipation.
Will J. make friends quickly?
Will he adjust to the new routine?
He has grown up so much this summer.
Will he revert a little and recover quickly?
Will A. adjust to being without her mommy, or will it be the last month of school and she's still crying when we part each morning?
How will "potty trained" translate to this new place?
How will the busy mornings ever work?
It is hard to get everyone ready and out the door, especially when you still have to do so much for each child...
Will they have friends that they already know in their classes?
A. is convinced that FAFE and JOOLYA are in her class.
Will she be ok when she realizes that they aren't?
Will their teachers like them best? (they oughtta, they are so very cute)

My heart is so torn to leave them.
I don't want to let them go for even a second...
I cannot even imagine having a full time job. I mean seriously, if I miss them, all I have to do is run over to their class and steal a hug.
10 times a day, if I need to...
I feel like a crybaby because I know I have it so much better than most working moms - but I don't care what your situation is, it is still hard to leave your children.
Expecting it not to hurt when you leave them with someone else is like telling the sun not to rise...
It simply cannot happen.
Several times today, I found myself thinking, "I just won't go to work tomorrow. Yeah, I just won't show up.... It will be fine."
I guess if it's that bad for me, Miss Coushie Job, it has to be so much harder for my other working mommy friends...

We had a terrific summer.
It was everything a momma can ask for. We spent so much time together.
We made so many memories together. I love them so much!
I cannot tell you how being their mommy has changed me.
Not just as a person, but as a child of God.
There are certain things that I was never able to fully grasp as a child, but as a parent - I feel like I come a lot closer to understanding the fullness of God's love for us, His desire to bless us, and how very badly He aches for us when we fall.

As we turn the page, I pray that God will be our steadfast guide.
That I'll not let myself forget for a moment why I have been placed there. I have been given a unique position to be among the first influences for God in those little lives. Let my actions and words reflect God's love and desire for relationship with them.
Let each child leave my classroom feeling loved and special.
Help me Father, to be a light in my job and in my home.
Father, where I fall short, make up the difference. I pray Your strength, Your grace, Your patience, Your mercy be infused in my soul.
May my home and my own children not suffer a moment because of this added mantle.
Abba, where I cannot be enough, You are enough.
Thank you for your Word, which is my compass.

Ephesians 3: 14-20 (New International Version)

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that
Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp
how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more
than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us...