Kindergarten graduation & all that goes with that.

Wow. Another school year done and in the books, as they say.

Robby took the end of second grade harder than I would have ever imagined!  He was upset the night before and it didn't get better even though his daddy surprised him for lunch on the final day.

Now, I've been dreading this day for some time.  Not because Robby is going to be a 3rd grader next year, although that was enough to send both he and momma into "noisy, wet reflections", but rather that we had decided along with Caleb's teachers to hold him in kindergarten another year.

June 5th, 2013 was simply the day that he was going to find out.

So, he goes to school, happy as the proverbial clam (as usual) only he knows that it's his last day of school this year and he is constantly asking daddy if he gets the summer off too!

A fella can dream, but I have to tell him "no" roughly 100 times and then explain why... again.  That's okay. He's getting it.

He "got" kindergarten too, but the decision was made based on the fact that he won't be able to complete everything expected of 1st graders at the end of 1st grade if we moved him on.  We want him to have a good base knowledge of everything before he starts to build on it.

I know from personal experience that if the foundation is missing, the house above quickly crumbles when the heavy rains come.  I don't want him to experience that to the degree that I did/do.

So, back to the day.  I worked a half day and left to get home and go up to school by 10am as the kindergartners put on a concert before their certificate ceremony.

The concert was fine and quite frankly, quite fun!  Let's see a few pix at this point.

This is the parade of kids to the risers.  Spot the smiling Chinese boy!

There's the dude, front and center with his music teacher in the striped dress and his K teacher in the denim jacket.

Mr. Mohning, the principal, is giving a brief talk about the kindergartners and what we're about to see and the procedures to see them in.

A huge bunch of cuties singing an adorable song!

Mr. Mohning and Mrs. Riordan handing out certificates to the students.

There's sweet little Calebber getting his certificate from his teacher!

And there's the boy with his teacher back in the classroom before the meeting we're about to have.

So we're back in the classroom for the meeting. Mom and I have already talked about how emotional we feel about the whole thing.

Remember, I said I've been dreading this for months.

We wait around for all of the other families parents to take pics with teach and leave the room.  Caleb and I are goofing around:

...when finally, it is time.

We sat down around one of the kiddos tables in the room and Mrs. Juhler and Mrs. Riordan began talking to him.  They say nearly perfect stuff to him, not lying or exaggerating, just telling him the truth the way it should be.

Dignity is life preserving and they did a wonderful job with Calebs.

At one point, I cautiously, bravely sneak a glance at Momma and notice that she's in roughly the same place as I am.  Which means that if we make eye contact with each other, it's all over.

By all over, I mean full on bawling. Woe and gnashing of teeth.  Ugly stuff.

I do not look her way again.

Caleb took it all with a smile on his face and shook his head when asked if he understood.


I had a suspicion that this would be an emotional day but I under estimated it.  Greatly.  Heck, I can't even type without crying about it now...

Caleb, undoubtedly you will read this blogpost someday.  You are a SMART boy!  So smart you scare mom and dad sometimes!  It would break my heart if you ever thought for a second you were held back because you weren't smart enough, weren't good enough, or weren't "whatever" enough.

That's crap!  You are everything we could have ever imagined and 1000 time more!

It's here that I would direct to a post that momma wrote about you!

You are amazing.  You are beautiful. You are fun. You are precious. You are SMART!  You, like your brother, are amazing in so many ways! 

But most of all, you are loved!

I've said it before and it's worth repeating another million times or more;

People always say how lucky he is to have been adopted by a family like us. True or not, we are the lucky ones that received such a fantastic little 4.5 year old boy like Caleb!

God works in mysterious ways.

Caleb, we LOVE you!!