The first day of school and the start of a trip down memory lane...

Today was Graham's first day of school and I have to apologize up front as I have no pictures of him in his classroom-this Mommy forgot her camera at home! Graham marched right in and immediately made himself at home. He got right down to business playing in the giant play house and "grilling" some meat on the patio. It's fun for me to watch Graham's "spunkiness" and observe how comfortable he is just diving into new situations. There really isn't much that scares him! 30 minutes into the class, the Mommies go into an adjoining room for discussion time with a parent educator and the kiddo's remain in the playroom with their own teachers. The door between the rooms remains open and the kids are allowed to come and go as the please. I really expected Graham to join the adults but he didn't. He came racing in once and at first I thought he was upset. Then, he placed on my lap a toy train and a bottle of bubbles. I reached down to take them and he immediately took them away from me, started laughing, and went back to play. I guess he just wanted to show me which toys he thought were cool for the day! I'm so proud of him and how much he's come out of his shell! Since I don't have any pictures of him at school, I thought I'd include a few from the rest of our low key day.

Grandpa Greer gave Graham this old keyboard for him to play with. Graham climbed up on the couch with it and began to type for quite a while. I sat down next to him and he pulled the keyboard away. I guess he had some urgent business to wrap up!

I thought Halmoni and Halabeoji would especially appreciate this photo-after dinner the boys played the piano!

On a completely different note, I need to warn our readers that today starts a trip down memory lane for our family and over the next few days, I'll be writing a lot about what was happening a year ago. This blog will eventually be turned into a book for Graham, so this journey into the past is just as much for him in the future, as it is for all his fans. Only because a year has passed, am I completely able to admit this and now laugh about it, but exactly one year ago tonight, I was a complete emotional mess. One year ago, I sat on the couch sobbing my eyes out, absolutely convinced that Graham was never coming home. Poor Jeff, just sat and listened, not really knowing what to do or say. I tried to go bed, but was unable to sleep so I grabbed a book and headed to the couch so as not to wake Jeff. I distinctly remember what I was reading-a book about a family adopting a little girl from China and I distinctly remember what the chapter I was reading was titled "It's always darkest before dawn". That title seemed very fitting for my mood. I was feeling like things were very dark and I knew that eventually things had to get better, and eventually our phone would ring with that magical call, it was just a matter of when. Too bad I didn't know that it was only a matter of mere hours before that call would come and turn our world upside down...