School status - Drew

We worried and worried for weeks about the first day of school for Drew. The day before we went to school for orientation, to meet the teacher and check out the classroom. I even took the teacher, Mrs. Pfeiffer, aside and asked her to talk to Drew and gave her some info about him. Mrs Pfeiffer is really great. She chatted with him for about 10 minutes! In the end we felt we had done everything humanly possible to make Drew feel comfortable. We even had a discussion with Drew the night before that it is ok to be scared and if he thought he was going to be sad to tell one of us so we could get the girls away. I explained that I didn't want them to copy him when it came to their first day. He said he understood and would try to be brave.

The morning of the first day I woke up with a big knot in my stomach. We had to get everyone up hours earlier than we had since we arrived (getting on Belgium time is a whole other story that is not worth the space but suffice it to say we did a lousy job getting the kids on Belgium time as quickly as possible). Drew was immediately miserable. We backed off, regrouped and tried again and were successful through breakfast...then the tears began. Rick swept him away and did some evasive/persuasive maneuvering. I did damage control.

Everyone happy again we get to school and into the classroom for some first day pictures. Drew surprised us all by smiling happily, giving us big hugs and then running off to play. Rick and I gathered the girls and walked out with our mouths hanging open. No tears, no complaints, no clinging, nothing! And he has loved it ever since. By day two he was hugging his teacher.