I'll admit it. The first day of school made me teary.

She did it! Jordan had her first day of Kindergarten and we all lived to tell the tale. Okay – that’s probably over stating it, but I had hoped the first day of school would go well. Jordan and her teacher worked together to help her classmates understand her limb difference.

So here’s how it went…. Let’s start back with the day before the first day of school. We have a family tradition that I started when Cameron was heading into Kindergarten. We go to a nearby indoor play area and take photo booth pictures together. This year was Jordan’s chance to take the pictures for the first time.

We played, we went out to dinner for a special meal and we had to have our favorite local ice cream before the night was done. We were exhausted, happy and very excited about the new school year.
So, I decided to interview Jordan about what she thought about Kindergarten:

There’s a lot of dancing in Miss Jordan’s world these days.

Fast forward to the morning and both kids woke up ready to go! I got to start work a little late so I could walk to school with the kids and take their official back to school pictures:

Dropping Jordan off to school was harder for me than I expected. I was feeling solid, proud and ready to send her on her way. We walked her to her hallway spot and there were all kinds of little kids doing double takes when they saw Jordan’s princess helper arm. She didn’t seem to notice but to me, I felt a little overwhelmed for her. That’s when I felt a little teary. Jordan was looking shy but not scared. And when Randy and I left her, she was totally okay.

I picked the kids after school and had to take them to work since I had to attend a speaking engagement. So before I left, I caught this post-Kindergarten interview:

She’s a dancer I tell you.

I got an email from Jordan’s teacher letting me know that at the beginning of the day, none of the kids noticed Jordan’s difference until after she took her helper arm off. There were so many questions that the teacher read Jordan’s book to the class and let her pass around her arms and hands. Jordan told me she thought it was fun.

This morning, she was ready to do it again. I think (fingers crossed) we got things started in a good way. Now we just have to power through 12 more years of public school and at least four years of college. No pressure!