I was nervous for my 6 year old to change schools so close
to the end of the year. I was worried that he wouldn't fit in.... that he would
be the weird kid from South Korea and everyone would talk about him, but no one
would sit by him. And that he would get lonely and then maybe a little angry
and we all know where that leads.... listening to noise that he calls
"music" and spray painting naughty words on local stop signs. I
already had a plan to inspect under his bed at least occasionally for
contraband items and enroll him in a Mozart appreciation class.
As it turns out, I didn't need to. I was supposed to take
him to school on a Tuesday. You may
remember that my entire family got some horrendous flu bug within hours of
arriving in this country. So I waited an
extra day to enroll him in school. A few
children were already waiting at the kindergarten door upon our arrival.
Immediately, they started asking my son if he was the new student they were
expecting. Very shyly, he told them that he was. And by very shyly, I mean that
*I* had to do it. One girl ran off
to the play ground and in less than a minute another boy came running over at a speed that would normally indicate a
fire or a snake. He ran straight up to my child and without pausing for a
breath he said, "You sit next to
me. My name is Spencer.** Your last name is Bell. That's a good name. We're
going to be best friends forever."
And in an instant... everything was suddenly going to be
just fine. I didn't even go inside with them.
I'm not exactly a Spencer type person. I've never run up to
a complete stranger at top speeds and given them a hug and told them that
everything is going to be okay and even better, it's going to be amazing and
wonderful and then, on top of that, given them a free friendship for the
taking. I've never done that. But I was
so very grateful for a little boy that did that for my son. I resolved right
then and there to make him cookies. But... you know... not in a way that would
make his parents call the police because they thought I was trying to kidnap
him or something. And also, not like these cookies because they are kind of, a
little bit on the "not super cool and tough and ruggedly happy boy"
side.
Click HERE to see the tutorial for the flower bouquets.
** Not his real name. His real name is Nicest Boy In The
Whole Wide World. It's kind of a lot of middle names if you ask me, but his
parents are obviously raising him extremely well, so I don't feel it's my place
to judge their choice of names.
