Love Letter {May 2011}

Dear Tradd and Jackson, 

Today was your last day of Preschool and to say it's bittersweet is an understatement.  The entire week has been very emotional, not because I expected it to last forever, but because I literally blinked and it was over.  When a baby is born everything is measured in "firsts"...first steps, first haircuts, first beach trips and just as miraculously as these milestones happen, they are gone.  Suddenly these "firsts" become the things that fill the ordinary days.  That same baby, unsure of his steps just months earlier, is running a thousands steps a day...that same soft baby hair we painstakingly saved in a little envelope just months earlier falls to the floor of "the haircut store" to be swept away with a stranger's...that same baby runs straight for the waves instead of running from them every time it touches his tiny toes.  "Firsts" are ordinary happenings....until they start to become "lasts".

Jackson

You started Preschool at 18 months old at Holland Avenue Baptist Church.  We started at HABC because Mama's best friends, Ms. Carla and Ms. Stephanie had children enrolled there and I knew nothing about the preschools in Lexington.  It was really a time for you to play with other children your age {besides each other} and it gave me an opportunity to go to the gym and run a few errands.  Your teachers, Ms. Melissa and Ms. Lisa, were wonderful and loved you very much.  

Tradd posing with his bookbag

First Day at Holland Avenue

The next year we decided to move you to Lexington Baptist in downtown Lexington...we loved Holland Avenue, but Mama was driving from Lexington to West Columbia and back again.  I was spending an hour of time driving too and from so we just needed somewhere closer to home.  I had one friend, Ashley Jackson, who was going to be enrolling her little one, Price at LBC.  Your daddy was out of town the morning that I was suppose to be up at the crack of dawn to enroll you, so Ms. Ashley came by our house to get your forms and enrolled you when she enrolled Price.  So many times I think about how thankful I am that she was kind enough to do that for us.  

First Day of Two's

Last Day of Two's 

From the Two's with Ms. Liz and Ms. Tara, to the Three's with Mrs. Dunlap and Mrs. Boyd and finally the four's with Ms. Linda and Ms. Brandi, you have been blessed with teachers who loved you.  I know you would be different had you not gone to preschool.  Sure, you would most certainly know your numbers and shapes and even the alphabet, but these Godly women helped mama and daddy teach you about sharing, friendship, and MOST importantly about Jesus.  I do think "it takes a village to raise a child"...but I also believe it takes the "right" village.  We found it.  
  

First Day of Three's

Last Day of Three's

At your 3 year program

As with everything in life, the relationships that grow from experiences are often what you remember.  I had no idea how much my own life would be changed by the families we would meet through preschool.  As a young mother, I needed validation.  I needed someone to listen to me about potty training and naptime and tell me I would make it.  And just as God would have it, from these conversations grew friendships with women whom I now love.  They have made me a better mama to you.

First Day of Four's 

You are ready for Kindergarten.  You have asked me a million times when it starts {soon enough}, if you can take your lunch {yes}, and if you can ride the bus {no, mama's not ready for that}...You are ready to move on.  So the end of Preschool marks our first major "last" in your short little life.  


        

Your teacher, Ms. Linda

Last Day of Four's

At Your Graduation from Preschool

My precious ones, your daddy and I have so many hopes for you both.  We talk about what we think you might be when you grow up...we talk about letting you go a little at a time...and we are already praying for your spouses.  We are anxious to see what God's best for your lives will look like....from the very front row.  I love you.


Always, 
Mama