Jake had a great first week of school! Each morning he couldn’t wait to eat, get dressed and head out the door. The first day of school I walked with him to his classroom and he was all smiles. We saw his teacher and Jake ran to her door. He walked in, looked at me and said “bye mom”. It was great! Every morning after that first day as we would pull into car line Jake would smile and say “I love school!” Any nervousness I had before that first day or during the week was put away quickly when I thought of his smile.
The morning of the first day of school it was dark, cloudy and rainy. Several months ago, what seemed like out of nowhere, Jake became afraid of cloudy weather. He becomes so anxious and nervous. He has to put on his noise reduction headphones, weighted blanket and then another blanket on top like a fort so he can’t see the clouds. And if it rains or thunders Jake screams and cries. I don’t remember an incident that triggered this, it seems as if one day he was fine with the clouds and the next he panicked. Before Jake woke up I saw the clouds and the storm that was to come through and it made me so nervous for him. I wanted his first day to be as stress free as possible. As the rain began to fall I didn’t know if I would be able to get him out the door. As soon as Jake woke up he looked out his window (something he does every morning) and began to cry. He paced around the house and kept looking out the window and checking the weather on his iPad. Finally I was able to get him on the couch with all his gear so he could relax. He stayed like this for 30 minutes and the entire time I prayed the storm would pass. After 30 minutes Jake got off the couch, looked out the window and smiled. He said with a huge smile “the storm is moving, I’m ready for breakfast”. I was so relieved and by the look on Jake’s face; he was too! We were able to get to school on time with little to no anxiety. Thank God!
It’s hard for me sometimes. I want to protect Jake and not let anything that causes him anxiety come our way but, like the storms, I can’t. All I can do is ride it out with him and pray that it will be over soon.
All in all both kids had great first days of school. My only daughter started her last first day of high school. She was super excited to finally be a senior! And because her school started later that day I was able to grab some pictures of the both of them.
Praying the rest of the year goes as well as the first week!!
Oh and because I’m super proud of my daughter and all of her hard work; this is one of her senior pictures 🙂
Our Journey with Jake 
Beautiful children. Happy that had great first days of school!
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