Before giving a summary of my day, I wanted to thank those of you who sent through messages of encouragement last night and this morning.
We got to school @ 8:30am (a little earlier than planned) to meet with someone on an unrelated matter before preparing myself for the drive in. Gabi found the separation difficult, albeit we have tried to build up to this. I have prayer time with Ben's teacher before school tomorrow so we'll see how tomorrow goes.
Shortly after arriving I dropped into an Induction Workshop for some new-starters and was pleasantly surprised to see one of my neighbours there––he has joined us on a 12-mth contract.
Throughout the day I had briefings and sorted out paperwork, as well as started reading material to get familiar with the role. I ensured I made time to have coffee with one of the team to get an insight into her both as a person and a colleague (the latter being from the perspective of how I can best integrate as the new manager without disrupting the ongoing smooth flow of the operation). She has been with us for 33 years and plans to retire at the end of this year, so I half-jokingly told her my plan to suck every bit of information from her brain by then. I'm grateful in advance for her wisdom and reputation for having a strong work ethic (I got to observe that today for myself).
I bumped into a few colleagues including someone who I probably haven't seen for around 15 years. Amazingly he has recently started in the department in the same job I also started in (in 2004). Although he and I had worked in different police task forces in Sydney those many years ago, we knew each other because we had travelled together during joint operations.
I wasn't there to collect the kids, but the feedback was positive as to how they coped. As I said earlier, I didn't get away until nearly 5:00pm. On the way to collecting the kids it suddenly dawned on me (especially when I saw a vehicle identical to Maria's in Israel) that Maria won't be home to welcome me/us. In addition to that immediate emptiness, I also felt the loss of not coming home to the things she would lovingly prepare for afternoon tea and dinner (all that hard work, which I too often took for granted).
Upon collecting Ben we were invited to dinner. I decided to accept (thanks Karen) as we were only going to do baked beans at home (I hadn't fully planned for today - but am about to put some things aside for tomorrow).
Because of the dinner, chat and prayer, we didn't get home until around 8:00pm. I quickly got Gabi into bed and took the opportunity to have a lengthy father/son chat with Ben.
