Preparing for a new school year

The school supplies have been purchased, there are new tennis shoes all around, teachers have been met and clothes have been laid out...all that's left now is the first day of school.  All four kids will be at the same school for one year...Sophie Kate in preschool, Grey in Kindergarten, Jacob in 3rd grade and Cooper in fifth.


At times our life gets put into one of two categories: before SK was born or after SK was born.  I don't know whether that's good or bad but it just is.  So before SK was born, I was pretty active in Cooper and Jacob's classrooms, not room mother but just available whenever I was needed.  I went on field trips, helped in the classroom, did things here and there for the teachers, etc.  Since SK was born, there hasn't been much of that...at first we were just in survival mode and then that shifted somewhat into constant doctor visits and therapy appointments which I tried to do when the boys were in school.  


I remember being told by parents who had gone before me that it would get better, that eventually I wouldn't be sad all the time and things would slow down and we would find a "new normal."  I hated those words "new normal" and I hated just about any advice I was given b/c I didn't want to live with this.  Well, it has happened, what they said was true.  Things are better, we aren't in survival mode anymore.  We have found a "new normal," we don't have multiple doctor visits and therapy appointments every week.  


We have a nurse now and Sophie Kate goes to preschool and gets lots of her therapy there.  Our doctor visits have gone from every 4-6 weeks to every 6-12 months.  I am going to have some free days every week this school year.  


I remember talking to someone during a particularly down time well over a year ago and they asked me what is something that I used to do that I have not been doing SK was born that I would like to do (does that make sense)? Well, my answer was I used to be up at the school from time to time.  I want to go back up there and volunteer in my boys' classes.  I know some of you may think I am crazy, but sometimes you just want to do normal stuff, stuff you used to do. 


So, for the first time in 3 and 1/2 years I was able to sign up (with confidence that I could actually do it) to help in my son's classrooms.  I am going to be a guest reader, I am going to help my Kindergartner with fun Christmas crafts, I hope to go on field trips and I plan on having lunch with my boys whenever I or they want me to all while my baby girl is being well cared for.  What a blessing, I am so thankful, we have come so far with this girl of ours.  I never thought this day would come 3 years ago.  My friends who are struggling through the places we have been, I am praying for you, it will get better.  Keep doing what you are doing, you are doing your best and it will get better.


Isaiah 64:4 "For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, who acts on behalf of the one who waits for Him." 


Now, I am putting my baby boy on the bus the first day of school, granted he will be with his brothers, so if I survive that it will be all downhill from there, ha ha.  I'll let y'all know how it goes. 


Thanks for checking in on us.