Tomorrow

Lately we have noticed the kids language and desire to understand words really growing. Often when we say something they will stop and ask us what that word means. This past week or so, Anna has been asking me "Is it tomorrow?" At first I was confused by this, but then realized she wants to know if today....is the tomorrow she has been waiting for....did tomorrow finally arrive? When thinking about "tomorrow," it is always in the future, but when I answered Anna, I had to give a "well yes and no" kind of answer. At some point, doesn't tomorrow...or the future eventually arrive? The reality is yes....and our reality has arrived...tomorrow has come! I remember a few years ago as we were driving down the interstate and Mark and I were talking, I realized that the year Bethany would start college is the year the little ones would start Kindergarten. Hmmm one child off to college, the others just starting on their educational journey. Trust me, when realizing this, it makes you suck in your breath while you process this. Holy cow, what would that be like? By the way, for what it matters, I figured this out before there was even talk of adopting Arrayah.

Well, tomorrow has arrived....sort of. Bethany graduates in just a few weeks. She knows the exact number of days, but I couldn't tell you for sure. Needless to say, we are busy preparing for graduation and all that it involves. We have final band concerts, final choir concerts, various senior recognitions, honors convocations, sending out the graduation invites, making memory boards, watching old VHS tapes of Bethany when she was little (and crying), ordering food, getting decorations figured out, etc, etc, etc. It is time and attention consuming!

And then.....tomorrow arrived! Thursday afternoon, we had our very first Kindergarten school meeting. It was a transitional meeting for Arrayah to discuss her medical and educational needs. We met one of the four Kindergarten teachers...that's right people, 4 sections for every grade! The Freeling kids will be separated and have their own individual classroom experiences! Next week, Kindergarten registration happens and the kids will have a short assessment to determine abilities. The week after that is Kindergarten orientation, which is followed the very next day by preschool graduation, and three days later, Bethany graduates from high school. Um, did I mention a couple of days ago, we had to schedule Bethany for New Student College Orientation at UNK? Sometimes it feels like a bit of a ping pong match...back and forth, one extreme to the other :)

Now listen, I am not complaining, I am just taking this entire experience in and observing this unique situation we have. I know other families have older children, with younger kiddos, but typically there are other children in the middle to fill in the gap. Us...BIG GAP! I guarantee you, we will NOT be re-using Bethany's graduation decorations for our kids that graduate next! And what will that be like, well to put it in perspective, Bethany will be 31 years old then. There is a chance, our kids will be Aunts and an Uncle when they graduate from high school...so weird to think of....but that's in the future, you know...tomorrow! What I do know, is there are lots of exciting changes coming for our family and if we blink...it will be here...and we will be asking ourselves "Is it tomorrow?"