First day of school full of unexpecteds for Mum

Today my boys started school again - for the second time this year. First in Australia in January and now here in Japan at the Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ).

Firstly it felt like any other day. We've been waiting for this red-letter day for a long time, but all was relatively calm (if you don't count our nearly 8 y.o. dancing in the hall at 6.30). In ample time we walked out the door and ambled five minutes down the road to school. Cool hey!

When we got there the boys didn't know what to do. So many kids in the playground. So few that they knew. So many parents milling around. I was overwhelmed at how hot it already was at 8.15! Thankfully at 8.25 the whistle blew (the playground is small enough that a bell isn't necessary at that time) and all children disappeared. Mine disappeared with hardly a farewell, so keen were they.

The next ten minutes were my surprise. Within moments I'd run into people I hadn't seen for a year or more. One family we knew from our church here but didn't realise our kids were in the same class. Another family we'd first met at our son's Japanese kindergarten five years ago, but are now at CAJ. I saw two special ladies with whom I'd shared deeply at a women's conference back in 2008. And an Australian lady came up an introduced herself to the apparently famous Australian on campus - me!

I'd realised that I had the morning (first day was a half-day only) to myself, so had planned to do some boy-free non-food shopping, but those plans were quickly changed when a Canadian friend asked if I was free now. She was busy inviting people over to coffee at her house to welcome a lady from her mission what had just enrolled her children at CAJ for the first time and was therefore new to the community. I said, "Yes, actually, I am free."

So I spent the morning with a bunch of other ladies. We sat around all morning, catching up, getting to know one another and sharing. We prayed too. It was fun and special.

The group itself was interesting - Taiwanese, Thai, Canadian, Brazilian, Australia, US and Japanese Christian women, all fellowshipping around a table. This is one of the joys of missionary service. We laughed. I also nearly cried a few times.

Somehow the whole day got a bit emotional - good and bad. Excitement at that my boys were finally all at school here in Japan. Shock at the realisation that I could suddenly change plans, if I wanted to, without discussing it with or explaining it to anyone. I shared about an issue close to my heart with a friend and became teary. I heard about a 7th grader whose Mum had been killed a couple of weeks ago by a car as she walked to the train station here in Tokyo and deep emotions began to rumble. My new middle schooler stayed nearly two hours after school for a cross country meeting and practise and coming home so excited his words wouldn't stop long enough to eat lunch at 2pm. My nearly 8 y.o. becoming close to hysterical with excitement midway through the afternoon.

Then the straw the broke the camel's back. My husband came home from school, rescuing me from death-by-crazy-children. Soon after he reminded me that we needed to call a special number in Australia to activate our new credit cards (replacements for expired cards). He did it himself and succeeded easily. I tried and failed dismally.

To confirm my identity I had to give them certain information - pretty standard stuff.  However we've moved and not a mere cross-city move. Before we left Australia we'd gone to the bank and changed all our details so that everything went to my parents' address. So I gave the operator the details I believed that the bank already had. Partway through the exchange I looked at the letter which came with our credit card and realised with horror that it still had our old address on it. Therefore, I'd presumably been giving her incorrect information.

Believe it or not, in the background of the operator there was a large amount of noise - more than in my house. Apparently her colleagues were celebrating something or other. So I found my self shouting over the noise and getting more emotional by the minute.

She couldn't, for security reasons, say to me, "I'm sorry, but you've given me the incorrect address." That simple phrase would have helped a lot! After a bit she advised me to go to my nearest branch to check my details with them!!!! I practically shouted at her, "But I'm in Japan." "Oh," she says and put me on hold again.

When she came back she said told me I'd have to hang up, check my details (in less polite language it would read - 'get your answers sorted out, you incompetent') and call back later. At which I burst into tears, hung up and raced to my room, sobbing. Gasping-for-breath type sobbing.

I could hardly fathom why I was so upset. Probably it was the insinuation in my mind that I was incompetent on top of an already fairly emotional, hot day.

Thankfully my husband eventually came up and talked to me, reassuring me that I wasn't incompetent, merely still under quite a lot of transition stress. Then he cooked dinner. I stayed lying down, reading until dinner time.

So, that was my day. Not your ordinary run-of-the-mill day. Thankfully!

Oh, and the boys had good days, from what I can tell. I asked people to pray for them. But forgot to ask people to pray for me.