Tuesday,  August 25th
 
I love it when my kids pray. I especially love it when they pray at night - when we have nothing to do, no where to go, no food in front of our faces. . . and they always linger a little bit longer in their prayers.

It's like prayer becomes less of a task and more of a conversation.

So when I tucked the kids into bed tonight, I asked which of them wanted to pray for us. Josu jumped on it right away.
"go for it, Dude" I told him.
and he prayed - opening a window into his 8 year old soul:
"(deep sigh) God, please help me to understand what is going on in class, because sometimes I'm confused and I just don't know what to do . . . and that is really, really hard for me" 

And now I know what I'll be adding to my prayer list for my boy this week.  

Monday, August 25th
Today we begin our hunt for uniforms.
Here's what's on my list:

Monday's uniforms:
white pants (or skirt), white sweater, red vest

Tuesday through Friday:
blue pants (or skirt), blue sweater, red vest

PE days:
full navy blue track suit with red stripes in the arms (they call those pants here in Mexico - it's like saying pants in english - but with a spanish accent.  It's kind of awesome). Also, regulation T-shirt.

Swim class:
red suit, red flip-flops, red swim cap.

And of course, everything must be embroidered with the school emblem and/or names; don't forget the swim caps.

The sidewalk in front of the school is lined with uniform vendors. Apparently some vendors are better than others; I got a tip from a helpful mama who told me to get my pants from the vendor named Señora Mari, and that the bookstore across the street that also sells uniforms is a little bit pricy, but will pretty much have everything we need.

Whoah. let's do this.

Friday, August 22, 2014
And suddenly,
my kids are going to school!

(Well, it seemed sudden . . . the road we journeyed to get into the public school down the street has had so many twists and turns, and it seemed to go on so endlessly, that I kind of settled into thinking we would just be in limbo - forever)

We dropped them off at school today - I almost cried when I saw each one of them greet their stern teachers, hold their heads high, and set themselves in the closest available seat. 
Ay. I was so proud of them; my kids are so courageous. 
 
And when we picked them up,
Selma told me "a little girl bought me a treat from the treat cart with her very own money!"
Josu told me "I didn't spend the ten pesos that papa gave me for snack time because I had to get away from the girls"
Malachai didn't say anything to me - he was too busy calling out goodbyes and giving fist bumps (like all Mexican boys do) to all his classmates

I think it's going to be a good year . . .