Whew, that was a tough one. But we made it through! We are far from out of the woods but at least I now know for certain that I have not, in fact, wrecked him. One of the best moments of the day was when I was telling him how proud I was of him and he smiled and said “I’m pretty proud of myself too.” Bam!!! One major score for building-self-confidence-in-your-child!

At tuck-in tonight the fears were already creeping in again. Wednesday he has a different teacher. The mornings will be tough for a while. But we will survive them. I know that for sure.

As for sweet Helena, she sure dropped out of the spotlight throughout this ordeal but she deserves a whole lot of praise. Her ability to rise to the challenge in this has been amazing. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that on day two of the new school in a foreign land would I be saying to my seven yr old, “How do you feel about riding the bus alone? Your 10yr old brother has come completely unglued and so I can’t be here for you.” Ok, I may not have used those exact words but that is essentially what happened. After lunch, I put her on the bus and off she went to school, all by herself. And she says she can do it again in the morning.

Who is this kid!?!? 

She is giving all of us the grace we need to get through this. And she is equally proud of herself. “I need to face my fears too Mom, I’m ready to do this.” Now do you see why we need to buy her a pony? 

As for Manolo, his day being the new kid went well too. He’s working with a cultural stew of fellas, building a Polo facility, and once again finding that speaking Spanish is more helpful than anything. He came home tired, dirty, sun burned and thirsty and much, much happier than after his one cameo at Starbucks.

I remain the one still unsure of the rhythm of my days but at this point that’s okay with me. The business of loving my kids is taking everything I’ve got and that feels like exactly where I need to be. 

I promise that this emotionally heavy stuff will come to an end soon and we can happily return to tracking the happy trials and tribulations of these mexi-Canadians abroad.