Anticipation

Summer for the Jollys is nearly over.  Sloan and Christina meet their teacher on Friday and start school on Monday.  I start orientation on Tuesday.  Mary Katharine doesn't start school until the end of August, but has already started volleyball practice every day.  These last few days of summer are filled with activities.  We are helping many families move to the mountain before orientation starts, registering cars and getting drivers licenses, and fitting in as much play time with friends as possible.  Even as we do all this, our minds are starting to turn in preparation for next week.

Sloan and Christina seem excited about their school, and we talk about it often. I have learned with both of them that excitement prior to an event does not remotely mean excitement the day of the event.  In anticipation of extreme 1st day anxiety (common to both of them), we are trying to ease back towards a more structured bedtime and wake up time. This has not been popular with ANY of us. Christina has become increasingly clingy, and Sloan more edgy.  OK, I admit I might be slightly more edgy too! 

We all wonder if we are up to the challenge of a new year in school - adjusting to new teachers, handling the workload while still having fun, and figuring out what our new routine will be.  Mary Katharine worries about homework (we hear it is fierce at SAS), Sloan doesn't enjoy any change, Christina wonders about reading and writing well enough, and I wonder if I am capable of being a student again with all of the reading, studying and papers.  It's really kind of funny.  We finally realized that all we had to do was trust God and the move here would be OK.  We gave up control, gave up our security, and moved to Sewanee for 3 years of school.  Yet, we are now succumbing to FUD about the upcoming year.  Leaving everyone we knew and loved, moving several states away, and giving up financial security - that was all fine - new school, not so much.  Why do we do this to ourselves?  God is God and we are not.  He has all of this under control.  Therefore, the plan for the remainder of the summer vacation is less worry, more prayer.  Hey - sounds like a plan forever!