Friday

The boys' school has chapel every Friday and parents are invited to attend.  So Ashley and I stayed to go to chapel with Ryan today.  It was really nice!  It was in the ELC lunchroom.  We prayed and sang a welcome song.  The very lively PE coach led us in singing God is good all the time-with motions.  Ashley had a ball, clapping and dancing in her chair.  Then the principal read a story by Katie Couric about new kids at school.  The school's chapel theme for the year is Be Loving.  The principal talked about 1 Corinthians 13 and emphasized being patient and kind.  It was a really neat program and I was proud of Ashley for mostly sitting still and quietly. 

We were going to walk Ryan back to class and I was so surprised to see him walking toward us with tears in his eyes.  He said that he wanted to stay with us.  This is the first time anything like this has happened since we've been here.  We talked about what great days he has been having at school and that Ashley and I were going home and he wouldn't want to miss PE and fun the rest of the day at school.  He settled down pretty quickly and I peeked in on him before we left and he was fine.  I guess he got to thinking about being new a little too much after the story.

Ashley and I came home, did a few things, and now she is having an early nap so that we can all swim when the boys get home.

I had to laugh at a conversation that Scott and Ryan were having in the backseat of the van coming home one day-about people in their classes and how it's hard to remember their names because they are different.  Scott said that there were he and 2 other "pink-y skinned" people in his class and they were all new to Brent this year.  Then Ryan pipes up and says that he is the only "pink-y skinned" person in his whole class.  We are definitely in the minority at the school but that is part of why we thought this would be such a great experience for our kids-to learn that everyone in the world isn't just like us and that it is fun to have lots of new and varied friends-whether there skin is pink-y or not.