Well, here we are. Monday morning I will drop off Grayson at his classroom in his new school, and he will officially be a Kindergartner. I’ll leave him for more than seven hours in a brand new place with brand new people taking care of him. I’m a little nervous for him, but mostly I’m incredibly excited.

There is no sadness at all in G reaching this milestone, because he reached it. When he was diagnosed almost four years ago I never believed that he would eventually go to kindergarten. Any tears I’ve shed are a result of my pride and gratitude that I have an almost six year old, who despite living with a horrible disease, gets to have a life and have access to a great education.

We had his ARD yesterday morning. G sat and listened to his Veggie Tales while I signed form after form. His goals are appropriate, and the school is going to ask for a lot of evaluations and services (music therapy? Yes please!). His vision teacher from when he was a baby attended the ARD and I got choked up when I saw her, because she first met G when he was 4 months old. How far he’s come.

After the ARD we made our way to G’s classroom where the teacher, paraprofessionals and nurse all learned how to care for him. I showed them how to get him in and out of the wheelchair, change his diaper, give his medicine, and use his feeding pump.  I think they are a little overwhelmed, but they were all so sweet and thorough, I know it’s going to be just fine.

His teacher is so sweet and enthusiastic, and is experienced in teaching Life Skills (G’s placement). It takes a special kind of commitment and empathy to care for children like G, and I can tell she has it. I can’t wait for us to get to know her.

G will ride the bus to and from school, but I’ll be taking him the first few days. Bus service is definitely at the top of my list of things I am most excited about! They will pick him up at our house and drop him back off in the afternoon. And my life just got significantly less complicated.

I do feel a little residual sadness that G isn’t going back to the Caroline School this year. That school will forever hold special memories in my heart because of how well they loved and cared for G for four years. I do, however, feel like we made the absolute right decision in moving him so much closer to home and have nothing but optimism and excitement about his new school adventure.

Kindergarten, let’s do this. He’s going to rock it.

This was at Meet the Teacher Thursday night. G looks a little puny because he’d been in the ER all day getting fluids to get over a tummy bug. He will be much more enthusiastic on Monday.