Whew...here I sit - the evening after our first day of school. I'm alone in my house, yet feel God's arms wrapped around me. Today was such a sweet, sweet time. The day FLEW by, but I tried to just take it all in. Each and every moment - I did my best to look into the faces of our students. They were precious. The smiles. The sheer joy. I even took a picture of the sun - rising over our campus on the morning of our first day of school at PCA North. I counted my blessings. I loved it when I was in the parking lot and saw a teacher who was getting our of her car about the same time as me. I told her I just took a picture of the sunrise on our first day and she say..."You're kidding?! Me, too!" Yes, we were all counting our blessings and doing our best to remember each sweet detail of the day.
If you know me - even just a little bit - you know I have plenty of pictures to share! Let me start and walk you through the day.
Fist things first - I have no pictures, but our entire faculty and staff gathered in our cafeteria to PRAY for our first day. I love the value our staff puts on prayer. We continually quote Ephesians 3:20 - realizing God is doing "exceedingly, abundantly more than we could ask or imagine!"
First of all - we wanted the arrival to our new campus to be something special! We had lots of great help - specifically in the form of the Children's Ministry Department at Prestonwood North. They VOLUNTEERED to help us! When this group said they were here to help us, they meant it! They did lots of behind the scenes details for us, plus served as greeters as families arrived! This great team even took care of our mascot, Levi!
Once inside, students and families were greet by Dr. Taylor and our PCA North staff.
The picture below is of one of our PCA alum, now a PCA North dad!
There were photo opportunities before students went to class. We were opening a new campus and had great cause for celebration and documentation!
One thing I love
is knowing the stories of the families that God brought our way! This
particular little girl (pictured below) and her family just moved to Texas from
Minnesota. They arrived a few days before the start of school. The family moved
up the closing of their home so this darling wouldn't miss the first day
of first grade at PCA North! I'm so thankful for this family - and for every family who felt God's prompting to join Him in what He is doing at PCA North!
After dropping off their children, parents stopped by the Boo-Hoo Yahoo Breakfast. I just love our North families. Almost EVERY parent stayed for this time of fellowship. PCA North families are craving time together, looking forward to getting to know each other better, and doing "life" together.
Students soon settled in for their first day of school. Dr. Taylor visited every classroom to greet students and thank them for being a part of PCA North!
Kindergarten students toured the school as they looking for Corduroy's missing button.
What a special picture this is! Miss Whitney Clark, our second grade teacher, was a first grade student on the very first day of PCA eighteen years ago! It was her heart's desire to be a part of PCA North on the first day of our new campus. She brought both her first and second grade yearbooks to share with her class! Dr. Taylor came by this classroom at just the right time. Who would want to miss this?
We had a group picture made! It was important to document this milestone day! We want to thank Mark and Kristy Lamm, professional photographers, owners of SchoolPix, and longtime PCA parents for volunteering to come and take this photograph for us! I can just see this enlarged, framed, and hanging in our hallway for years to come! We feel strongly we will be a "big" school some day. Though blessed to be able to share space with the church, we have plans to have our own building. For months, I have known I wanted this photograph made - to hang in the foyer of PCA North for years and years to come! Those of us here today will look back and say..."Remember when..."
Just as we were headed to lunch our students had a fun surprise - getting to watch some of our campus pastors and staff members take the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge!
Even lunch was special! Our PreK and kindergarten students eat in their classrooms, while 1st - 4th grade eat in our cafeteria. To be honest, the cafeteria time was one of my favorite times of the day...Shocker to every teacher or administrator who has had "cafeteria duty!" We know we won't be a small school for long, but it was so sweet having this smaller student body on this day and being able to have a conversation with them! As students were finishing lunch, we had dialogue about our yearly theme "Loving Deeply; Living Wisely."
Some of our PreK students were "pretty tuckered out" by the afternoon. Ahhhh...nap time!
Before going home, it was important to recognize the significance of each student in attendance. They received certificates of recognition for being students on the first day at PCA North!
Honestly, the day went by so quickly. Students and staff all agreed. Before we knew it, we were gathering for carpool.
The picture below is one of my
favorites from the day. It isn't posed. It just shows the
relationships already developing between teachers and students. This
photograph = PURE JOY!
The teachers and staff met after
school. We wanted to finish the day as we started the day - in prayer. We were tired; there is no denying that fact. I, for one, had hurting feet! I tried to cover a lot of ground - some of it in heels (why?)! However, at the end of the day, it wasn't about how tired we were - or even about sore feet - but we wanted to gather and say a prayer of thanksgiving.
Even the "tired" was a
joy-filled tired. Teachers were all in agreement; the day was
fantastic! We accomplished our goals: to get to know our students and to love
on them as we shared the love of Jesus.
