Friday, July 7 - A Marvelous First for Caleb

Today at noon was the 1st anniversary of the bombings of the London tube and busses. There was a nationwide moment of silence at 12:00. It's strange to be here on the 1st anniversary of this event, having already lived through the first anniversary of 9/11 back home. There is a similar feeling here, but not accompanied by quite the same indignation, national pride, and searching for God. There is certainly sorrow, though. Maybe it's because this isn't the first time England has been attacked in her heart - I saw scars from WW I and II this past weekend when I went to London with Mom.

On to lighter topics now. It's 1:37 p.m. and I'm actually at home in the afternoon. This is a first. I'm usually out running errands. Audrey is watching a Dora DVD in her room on our portable DVD player (thanks again Terry & Gwen!) and Julie is sleeping in her room. We are going to go pick up her cot and travel cot this evening for 20 pounds. Cot = crib. I bought a high chair yesterday, so I think we have everything we need now. We still don't have a TV or a dryer, but we're looking into renting these. A dryer would be handy on rainy days like today.

We got Caleb off to school this morning for his first day of school. They told us to come 5 minutes after school started to avoid the rush of all the other kids coming in. As he and I were walking through the play yard to the building, he admitted that he was a little nervous, so we prayed. When we got to the office, his teacher met us there and he gladly took her hand and off they went! The secretary was very impressed that he didn't cry or act upset or anything like that. I took some pictures of him in his little uniform - gray shorts, a white polo, white socks and black shoes. I made him put his green sweater on for another picture. I would post them now, but they are downstairs and I'm upstairs using the phone line from our closet.

The girls and I will walk down about 2:55 to meet him when school lets out at 3:15.

Audrey, Julie, and I went to Audrey's school this morning. Before the child is officially enrolled and can attend, they have 3 appointments. The first is 1 hour (today) and I filled out paperwork with Audrey's teacher, Val. Val's husband Richard works with Steve and is very nice. Audrey played near the other kids - she wasn't ready to play with them yet - but was a little reluctant to leave. The next hour (Monday a.m.) will be when I read all of the policies and procedures. I will be in the staff room while Audrey plays, but she will know I will be close. The final appointment (2 hours) is Tuesday. We'll go at 10:30 and I'll leave her until after lunch. So we get a running start for when I get to leave her all morning, which will be next Thursday. She'll go M, T, Th mornings.

I'm signing off now. I need to call the TV rental place - I'm going nuts without the boob tube!