a transition

It's official. We have enrolled Collin in a Mandarin Immersion Preschool. He will be there three days a week, and the whole thing is completely in Chinese. He will be home with me the rest of the days, and I suppose I will be speaking to him more in English, though actually, maybe not. He's been at his current daycare part-time for the last 2.5 years. I am a bit sad to see him transition out of a place that he's become so familiar and comfortable with. Since the daycare is just downstairs from my work, this transition will be the first time we are not in the same building for almost all of the time! I will miss being able to randomly stop by and see him throughout the day. Alas, they grow up so fast! I am excited about this new preschool too. I'm glad he will be immersed in another language (and culture)...and am excited for the ways he will learn and grow there. I of course have my reservations too - how will I feel when he comes home singing Chinese songs instead of English ones? How will it impact him that most of his peers and teachers are Asian now? Will he have a hard time transitioning into a completely Mandarin-speaking environment? When I look at the bigger picture, I know that it doesn't matter all that much where he goes to preschool. Likely, he will not retain too much Chinese when he gets older anyway, and in the long run, he will probably be fine having gone to either a Chinese or English speaking preschool. But, as I am learning, so much of parenting is not about the destination (will he retain any Mandarin in 10 years?)...but more about the process. What decisions do I make as a parent about how I'd like him to learn and grow in his early childhood? What kind of learning environment would I like to put him in now (regardless of whether or not he retains it 10 years later)? How does this change or shape my parenting and teaching on the days that he's at home? For me, these questions are not so much driven by a future goal, but they are more about how I would like to parent and raise my children in the present- what I might envision home life and school life to look like for our family today. As one of my former co-workers use to say - parenting keeps you in the present. The past is fleeting and easily forgotten...the future is uncertain and unknown. And so, we live in the present and remember that God is in control. Today, I look forward, with excitement and a little nervousness, to this next transition in our family life.