First Day of School

Nebyat started school today. I am so proud of her. She is just so brave. I cannot imagine what it would be like to leave rural Ethiopia, everyone and everything you've ever known, come to America, to a whole new life, and start school with limited language and understanding within 3 or 4 months. We did have some convincing to do; it seems she feared being beaten at school if she didn't get the answers right. She's talked about whatever limited experience she had in Ethiopia (I'm thinking at the orphanages)and the common practice of Shwot-Shwot (sound made by hitting) for wrong answers. We told her that it is not allowed in America and had everyone who goes to school or works at a school reassure her that this would not happen to her here. Once she knew that the only barrier was the thought of Jetu being home with Mommy all to herself that bothered her. She seems to have gotten over that too.

She said her teacher is very nice and the girls in the class are nice. The boy(s) are only a little nice and one, she said is very yucky.

The teacher caught me when I was picking her up and said she is a really sweet girl and that she had a great first day and that she's going to do great. She really needed a good start and I am so grateful that things went well.

Jetu missed her sister - a lot! She did fine with mommy all day, but there were many checks to see if we could go get/see Nebyat. I plan to get Jetu into a pre-school program a couple hours a couple days a week, but I think it's good that we have a little one-on-one bonding. She tends to be less emotionally needy and so I feel like I've been focused a bit more on Neb these last couple months. As Neb is obviously ready to fly, it's time to reinforce the attachment and bonding with Jetu - it felt different today with just the two of us - I cannot really explain the feeling, but I knew it was important and I want to take some time to explore and grow that.