School Starts Early

This last Monday we started our first adventure into bilingual education. Arol is 9 years old but is just now learning how to read and write. He is always excited to have lessons with Michael and I but a few nights a week was not getting him to the level that he needs to be at. That being said I was able to get him enrolled in Nashville School, a sister school to my own school, and have him start in 1st Grade there to catch up in time for him to be in 2nd Grade this coming February. Nervous doesn't begin to describe how Arol felt the days leading up to his first day. His anxiety reached a level of acting out that we hadn't seen in him before and finally he told us that he wasn't going to go. Michael and I marched up to his family's room the night before his first day and were determined to here him say "I am going to school tomorrow." Since my Spanish is well mostly nonexistent, Michael did most all the talking. After lots of "We love you" and "You can do it" like phrases he finally agreed to go on one condition, I go with him. So the next morning we headed to school and he went nervously into his classroom, Michael and Amber left after shedding a few tears and I sat for 7 hours praying that all was going well in the classroom. Come lunch time he ran out of the classroom to sit next to me and I told him he should go play with his new friends, not me. He did not want to do that. But then as if we were in a Disney movie his new classmates were calling his name and he went running to play with them. The rest of the day went great and so did the rest of his first week. I was so relieved to see the new kids accepting Arol, stepping into a new school, a new language, and children who live in an entirely different world than he does was not easy. We know this will be a difficult road for Arol but we pray we are making the right decision about his future. Please keep him and the other kids at Breaking Chains in your prayers as they embark on this new and challenging journey.