First times..

Today I had a lot of first times...
The first time the boys went with their bikes to school, scary! I was driving around town at lunch to see if I can find them riding their bikes home and found Emilio pushing his bike with a flat front tire. I was glad I saw him, Luca by his side and drove him home, managing to squeeze his bike in my little car. He was apparently showing a class mate one of his cool jumps! and broke the tire.

For the first time.. Eddie is gone for nine days. We were all sad when he lef t, it's hopefully not to lonely. I was thinking, that I don't even know how to call an ambulance in french, but let's not get to negative...

For the first time.. I had coffee with Veronique, the church secretairy. She took me to this very beautiful mark et and we sat next to it in one of those typical french cafes you see on TV. She is such a Godsend! I told her about our lifes here and she started to cry, because she know's how it is when you are a newbeginner and don't really know any body. I was very touched by her compasion! She walked me back to my car and offered to pray for me, so in middle of busy downtown the two of us stood their and prayed together. It was just wonderful!

As I told before, the boys changed school. I couldn't continue with th e driving and took them out of the international school into an bilingual school here in Brumath. I went up to Emilio's classroom to talk to his teacher, at lunch Emilio mentioned that he had a hard time understanding this morning and that his teacher wa sn't nice to him. I had to drop off some stuff any how and his teacher seemed happy to see me and talk to me also. He is the principal of this small school, I would say close to sixty and seemed quite strict and regiment. He said that we're having a pr obl em with Emilio. He wouldn't understand a thing and I told him that he is understanding french. I was so surprised! I said, yes he is, but he should keep in mind, that Emilio isn't FRENCH, he had french immersion in Canada and is dealing with german as a n ew language to learn as well. He continued showing me Emilio's book, were he was suppose to check mark the answer to the story the teacher read. He marked to many of them. The teacher continued saying he also has a problem with Emilio's handwriting, because it's not the french way and we should just put him in a different school. It's hard to discribe the whole thing, but believe me, the way he talked about him was so mean, right infront of Emilio and the things he called a problem where real jokes. So I asked him why it is a better solution to put him in a different school that is all french? That makes no sense, I have to bring him to school right, I continued...maybe he understand you better by christmas, but this is his second week in school in F rance. I was so shocked, that he had no compasion or knowledge or any heart and that he was just putting my child down. When I was protesting, he softend up and said, well let's see, I don't mean to kick him out, we just have to wait....
I was so mad, whe n I l eft school, I had to fight back my tears. I was told in the international school that newcomers need three years to feel comfortable in the french school system.
Maybe I shouldn't have moved the kids, maybe it was a mitake and the international school wou ld just have a better understanding what children who deal with new languages need.
I feel so sorry for Emilio, I'm praying for him that school wouldn't be a struggle and he's ending up with .....( I can't think of a suitable name!) as a teacher.
My init ial reaction was, that I just want to move to Germany and put the kids into an Montessori school. When I prayed about the whole thing I had peace that God is fighting my battles he's there with my children in the classroom. Amen!

Talk to you tomo rrow!yo≈