After a lovely Christmas holiday in New Zealand, a visit from a kiwi cousin, and heaps of play dates we were all ready for school to start.

Before I tell you about Lana’s first day back, I’ll take this opportinity to explain that things here run a bit differently at the beginning of the school year. Last year Lana was in Class 1J. No there are not 10 classes for year 1. This is actually what I thought when I first saw her class was going to be 1J last year.  I figures there were class 1A-1J. Nope. Here classes are labelled by the teacher’s last name: IJ for Ms. Jasper, 1B for Mr. Barnes. It is a bit of a pain when the teachers get married and change their names but keep their old class name.

This of course has little to do with this year, but I thought I’d clarify that difference.

Well, now you know she was in 1J last year. And at the end of the year she was asked who she would like to have in her class this year. She picked three of her mates friends. Knowing the kids she had in class I was confident that she’d be happy if any of them ended up with her this year. They were really a super group of kids. And this 1J is where she would start the day on her first day of school 2010.

You see, here you do not know which class you are to report to until the first day of school when the principal gathers all the returning students from one year and reads a list out informing them which class they are to report to. Exciting? nerve-racking? A bit! And what do they do with the kids who are new to the school? They start the next day. I know. It’s different.

The days leading up to her first day were very exciting. All the unknowns had not really hit her as I think Lana really had faith that her friends would end up with her. She woke up on the morning up with a HUGE smile on her face. We had a celebratory breakfast and got on our way. I kept rechecking that we hadn’t forgotten something: morning tea (snack), check, lunch, check, hat, check. She asked if she could bring a small teddy bear in her bag with her. This is something I don’t normally allow, but I said it was fine so long as it stayed in the bag.

Half way to school she asked if I had packed her bear. Nope. All of a sudden it hit. I did the wrong thing and told her it was her responsibility to pack her things for school. She responded with, ” You know I get nervous on first days.” She was right.I was wrong. I could see the look on her face.  The one where as a mother you know everything is going to be alright, but you also know it will be really difficult to convince your child of it. I could have run back home to grab the bear, but then we would have been late. That is NOT something Lana likes. So I had to manage with what we had.

We stopped in our tracks and I reminded her of The Kissing Hand story. I took her hand in mine and kissed her right hand. Telling her that if she felt nervous she had only to put the hand to her cheek and there would be a kiss from me there. I also reminded her that last year her dad had kissed the other hand and that I was sure there were some kisses left in it. She sweetly responded, “There are. I saved some up.” We talked the rest of the way about all the scenarios: having the friends she requested to be in her class, having other friends in her class or being assigned a class with no old friends (I emphasized the unlikelihood of that). We talked about new opportunities to make friends. It was very tangible for her because when we arrived in Australia she had a very difficult time adjusting to this new place. That is not so distant in her memory. And now she has lovely close friends. I knew she understood the possibility of a ‘happy ending’ even when things started out differently than you wished.

When we arrived she went straight to her old line-up spot, with her old mates. I left her as, “Happy as Larry”.

Having faith in her (& God), I passed the day feeling like everything would be alright. And at pick up I was happy to see that my little girl was beaming. I am happy to report that she has three of her good friends in her class and that even though many are in other classes we are all (mums included) going to remain close. A bunch of us took the opportunity to go for an ice cream up the road and seal the deal that we’d all stay friends!