Back-to-School

Tomorrow is the big day!  School was scheduled to start this past Monday, September 10th.  But a week before that day, the government announced that the start of school would be postponed a week and start on Sept. 17th instead.  Strange, huh?  Then again, we've been in Romania almost a year now and have come to expect these type of strange occurrences.

This past spring, with the help of our language tutor, Flory, we went to Școala Nr. 12 and registered Carter for Clasa Întăi (First Grade).  The process was fairly simple, although we're pretty sure Carter is the first non-romanian child to register there since they weren't sure how enter a different nationality into the computer! 

Școala Nr. 12

Last week, we met Carter's teacher at the parent/teacher informational meeting.  Her name is Doamna (Mrs.) Lăcrămioară and she seems very kind-hearted.  In preparation for school, I've been conflicted about whether to pray for a teacher that speaks a little English or not, so I have simply asked the Lord to provide the perfect teacher for Carter, whatever that might be.  As is turns out, He gave us a teacher that does not speak any English.  Surprisingly, I left the meeting feeling very much at peace about that.  I know it will be difficult for all of us, especially at the beginning, but I also know that Carter will be forced to communicate with her in Romanian, and that's our main goal for this year!  

We left the meeting with all the information we needed about school supplies, uniforms, the first day, etc.  Once again, Flory was kind enough to come with me to the meeting just to make sure I understood everything correctly.  I was able to follow most of the information from the teacher, but I did get lost a few times, so it was great to have Flory there as back-up.  

This past Monday Carter and I spent the morning shopping for school supplies.  We had such a great time and were able to find everything we needed.  Carter was so excited about all the new stuff, and I must admit...I was too! (I guess it goes back to my years as a teacher, but I get pretty excited about new school supplies)  Later in the week, I took Carter to the seamstress shop to get measured for his uniform.  Once again...a new experience for us!  His uniform won't be ready until Tuesday, so we'll have to improvise for the first couple of days.  

At the meeting, his teacher talked about starting the year off with a "festivitatea de deschidere" - basically a morning where the parents come to school with the students, the students bring their supplies and receive their manuals for the year, everyone takes lots of pictures and has a great time!  Both Flory and I heard the teacher say this would happen on Saturday, Sept 15th at 9 am.  So, yesterday morning we loaded everyone up and headed off to the "festivitatea de deschidere"...

Well, we were wrong.  The festivitatea de deschidere is on Monday, the first day of school.  I don't know exactly where the mix-up occurred....if I had been by myself at the meeting I would just chalk it up to a language failure, but Flory had the same thing in her notes about it being on Saturday.  Oh well, it really doesn't matter, and probably was a good way to prepare us for many more misunderstandings along the way! 

So, tomorrow is the first day of school, but Tuesday will be his first day at school by himself.  We would greatly appreciate all of your prayers for Carter, especially tomorrow and Tuesday.  Right now he is very excited, but I think it is safe to say that he will be slightly overwhelmed by the end of the week.  Please pray that he is able to understand his teacher, that he will learn to express his needs in Romanian so that he doesn't get frustrated, and that  is able to find a good friend in his class.  Check back later in the week for an update!