School is official back in session and this is a year like no other in a few different ways.

First of all I got a new job. I still work for the school, but instead of working with adults with special needs in the high school I am working in a school based day treatment classroom at the junior high.

If you google what that means you probably won’t find much (at least I didn’t when they told me that was my job and I tried to figure out what that meant). SBDT is the most intensive program in our district for students with emotional and behavioral health concerns. Children in this program have struggled to maintain behavior that is safe or fit for a traditional classroom setting. My job, along with a team of two other paraprofessionals, an intervention specialist and a therapist, is to help these students overcome some of these challenges that have disrupted their education. So it’s an intense job. I will be getting a lot of training and I will take all the prayers! I do believe God placed me here for a reason and I am hoping to make a difference. I know that my coworkers geniunly care about these kids as well so I am thankful for this unified team.

Now onto the Busch kids! Elle is in 3rd grade and is doing cheerleading for the first time this year. She is getting so tall, but she’s still the baby of the family, especially since she is the only one that is still in children’s church.

Elle goes to the elementary school with Ezie. Ezie is in 6th grade. His class is the last group of 6th graders to be at their current building. They are building a new junior high and it will include 6th grade when it opens next school year. He’s also in youth group now which is hard to believe.

SJ is in 8th grade. Similar to Ezie she will be the last group of 8th graders to go through her building because they are shutting down that school when the new junior high is ready. SJ also just started fall soccer.

Z is a Junior in high school now. I know children grow up and become adults. All of us adults did this! Somehow it still seems unbelievable when it happens to your own babies. Z is excelling musically and academically. We are hoping he can find some kind of job soon to float cost of gas and spending money for when he hangs out with his friends. I am trusting the right job will fall into place.

So that’s the whole shebang. I took these pictures on Sunday before church as a bit of a practice round before school. I have taken photos with my professional camera at the beginning of every school year and I wasn’t going to let this job get in the way of that. This isn’t the first time the first day of school photos weren’t necessarily  on the same day as the first day of school. Thanks to staggered start dates, different schools (including when SJ was at OVV) we’ve always kind of picked a day for pictures. They did wear these outfits other than SJ who chose her shirt, but then ended up hating it. Don’t get me started on how picky that teenager is! Also Elle always wears her hearing aids to school and she doesn’t have them in these pictures.

I’m really happy with how all the photos turned out. I only have one year left of first day photos with all four of them, so yes I color coordinated and yes I am savoring every last drop of having them home. I am going to close out this blog post now before I get too emotional. Thanks checking out this update.