It is the first day of 4th grade for Sky and the first day of me not working this school year.

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I did go back to work last Wednesday, for 5 days, and got as much done as I could to help students and families with health needs be ready for the new school situation, and for when we return to in-person learning.

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But, I have a 4th grader at home, and while Mark is working from home, he’s doing just that working, and in a lot of meetings. So him managing Sky and remote learning all day every day is not realistic. Currently I’m on leave that protects my job, once that expires I don’t know what will happen, but I do know I’m a mom first no matter how much I love my job and my co-workers.

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I keep going back to the years spent waiting for a match in our adoption process. My mantra was “It will be the right birth mother and the right baby at the right time”. That same mantra (adjusted to fit each new situation) got me through being laid off while I was on leave after bringing Sky home, helped me embrace being a stay at home mom, lead me to working for the school district and finding the perfect job for me, in the best school, with the absolute best co-workers. I don’t know if I will be able to preserve my job and be home for Sky for the duration of COVID and remote education. But I do know that whatever happens with all of this it’ll be what needs to happen, at the time it needs to happen, and will lead me to the exact spot I’m meant to be.

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So far today the system students log into crashed first thing in the morning, and it was a scramble getting breakfast and all the on-line stuff figured out. Since there was no independent work posted for her (which is what her mornings are supposed to be made up of) Sky and I ended up in one of her alternate classrooms…her tree house…to do some work in one of the many work books I stocked up on over the summer.

This whole experience is a learning curve for everyone, and has created a lot of big life changes for a lot of families. I don’t know what life will look like at the end of all this, but I trust it will look exactly how it’s supposed to for our family.

Sending good vibes to everyone…lets make the best of this school year that we can! And, good luck and much grace to all the teachers out there!