One more “first day of school” photo…

I was debating on whether or not to tell this story and well…I won. Maria and I had a great summer vacation in Tennessee this year, visiting my Aunt and Uncle and our new baby cousin, Lincoln. Upon our return home, we were informed by her mother, that she closed on the sale of her house and had moved. That was all the information we were given. After a few days, we were told that she would be picking up Maria in two weeks. That day came and went and never happened. Yesterday, Maria’s mother called her for the first time in over a month. She said Maria can come visit her during winter break. In one fell swoop, my daughter’s mother, brothers, dog, cats, school and home were taken from her. We still do not know where she is, but I believe she is in Nevada, with her long lost birth father, who presumably has some money.

When I realized she wasn’t coming back, I had to scramble to get Maria enrolled in school. I  set up a meeting at Spackenkill, which is the district I now live in. Unfortunately they did not have a program for her at the high school level- yes…she is a freshman! (Ugh!) They quickly got the ball rolling to get her back into Arlington. After several days, a couple dozen phone calls and a few emails, everything but transportation was set up and yesterday was Maria’s first day of ninth grade…ninth grade! I drove her in and walked her to her class. It’s still shocking how huge that school has become- and how big high school kids have become! We found the room, met her teacher and she had a fantastic first day. She was so happy to see her old friends and she loves her new teachers. 

Special thanks to my good friends, the Collucci’s and their amazing daughter, Brooke, who offered to take an hour of her time after her second day of school to walk Maria through the ginormous Arlington High School the day before she began classes! Maria was thrilled to have a “rock and roll star YouTuber” give her a personal tour! (Check out Brooke C on YouTube!) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAG3VrzHOmnNjrDeOpcZfFQ

Transportation is still not settled…well, apparently I am transportation for now…on a side note, Total Transportation Corp is so far, totally unreliable. It’s going to be a long and interesting year, but that girl is very resilient and has the best attitude of literally anyone I know. After school today, I gave her money to buy some school supplies with her respite worker, Emily- who by the way, is great. She came back with her supplies and a bouquet of artificial sunflowers for my mom to replace the old, shriveled, real bouquet she had just disposed of. Maria told her the artificial ones are better because they would never die and she’d have them forever…