Day 13

Today was the last day of homeschooling the kids. I was in the office attempting to fix the internet, and Bonnie made breakfast for the kids, then took them on some errands.
We are going to buy a Toyota Avanza, a small minivan type car that seats 6, perfect for us. We have to turn the rental car in tomorrow after dropping the kids off at school. Then we have to wait until the car dealership gets the car ready. We would have picked the car up the day we saw it, but we plan to sell it back, and there were cosmetic physical problems with it that having kids would make them worse, and we want to sell it back for as much as we possibly can.

So Bonnie took the kids on some errands while I tried to fix the internet at my home office. When she got back, she picked me up and we went to lunch at the same restaurant we went the first day we were here. The cheeseburgers were really good, so we went there and mostly ordered cheeseburgers at the restaurant… During the lunch, our second child’s class FaceTimed us, and he was a little shy about talking to a lot of people. He doesn’t like being put on the spot, and gets really shy.

After lunch, Bonnie took the kids out for a couple errands and then to the park. I walked up the hill and bought a couple rottiserie chickens and vegetables from the produce stand. I made chicken soup for dinner. Bonnie made chicken soup the last couple times. Needless to say, when the kids said what they were grateful for tonight before bed time, three of the four kids said they were thankful for “mom’s chicken soup”. One of my kids said it wasn’t very good, but that I was the best baker ever.

As we were putting the kids to bed, reality was starting to really sink in with them. Their joyful bravado melted into solemn contemplation. Asking their mom questions about whether they know enough Spanish. Our oldest broke down talking to her grandma tonight over FaceTime, she said she didn’t want to speak Spanish anymore, and wanted to go home. It made me feel really sad. Later on that night one of the kids had me lay with him in bed, and he laid out a very logical impassioned argument about why he was worried about tomorrow.

He said, everywhere he goes when we are at home, he is surrounded by people who love him. School, home, activities, people love him. Through glassy eyes he looked me in the eyes, and told me he’s going to a place where nobody loves him. I returned my own glassy eyes back to him and told him that if he is sad, that he can ask to go see his sister and give her a hug, or one of his other brothers. If that doesn’t work, the school can call me, it’s a ten minute walk from our place. He turned away from my gaze, slowly nodded an acceptable nod, then remained silent for a while. I didn’t miss the tear that rolled down his cheek, today was a very hard day. I really hope they enjoy their first day. In my experience it’s the night before the second day that’s hardest, because they know what to expect. That’s all for us tonight, pray they have a very fun easy day in school, and that their classmates are patient with them, and their language capacity.

Here are some photos from the day.