Last Day of School

This was the first day of school back in September..

And now the last day of school!

New glasses since the fall, two front teeth that grew in and a few more that fell out---2nd grade is in the books!

And my little girl graduated from Kindergarten and is off to 1st grade--I'm gonna miss her during the day so much!!

Off to the Kindergarten bus stop after lunch for the last time

One of the many things I loved about half-day Kindergarten were the bus drivers. Wyatt had a great one and Sadie's was no different--we even liked her better than Sadie's teacher!

Ms. Shirley was SO wonderful and the kids just adored her!

It wasn't just the kids' last day of school this year, but it was also their last day of school at Liberty Ridge. The kids both had some difficult things come up at school this year and we have always considered sending them to New Life Christian Academy, but in the past we just didn't feel the timing was right. As things started to unfold this year, we both immediately thought of New Life. As we started to look into it, we discovered that Wyatt's class has had a waiting list for the last two years (meaning that there are kids that have been wanting to get in but haven't been able to because there hasn't been room). Matt and I both weighed the pros and cons of public vs. private school and neither of us could come to any conclusion. We prayed about it and neither of us could come to any conclusion about what was going to be best for our kids. It was at this time that our entire family was studying Genesis in BSF. As Matt and I read Genesis 24 (especially vs. 12-14), we realized that we hadn't been praying as specifically as we could be. So we both prayed that if the Lord wanted the kids at New Life, that they would both get in. We knew there was a good chance Sadie would get in but Wyatt was more of a long shot. We chose not to tell many people as we really wanted to put our trust in the Lord and have him make the decision clear to us. We have friends with 'connections' at the school that could have gotten the kids in for us and we have friends who might have issue with us leaving the public school and going to a private school, so we really wanted to rely solely on the Lord and allow Him to lead us.
We got the letter that the kids both got into New Life about a month before the end of school. We didn't tell the kids immediately as we wanted to wait until we could talk about it together, but we had told the kids that we were considering it and that we'd all be praying about it. We visited the school and the kids had interviews with the principal. Wyatt had been honest about not wanting to switch schools because of all the unknowns--friends, routines, lunchtime, car pickup, etc. Sadie was excited about the prospect of a new school with new friends and being able to learn about Jesus at school. The interviews went well and, ironically, Wyatt wore the two New Life t-shirts that the principal had given him to school the next few days. And he immediately assumed they would be going to school there. I'm not sure why he did this, possibly to prepare himself for a change, but I think it helped when we finally told them.

I was actually a bit nervous about telling the kids and I was a bit nervous as well---although change doesn't usually bother me, this was a lot of change--but I kept reminding myself of how the Lord had answered our very specific prayers and that I needed to trust Him, not my fleeting emotions about something. We sat down to tell the kids and Wyatt immediately dropped his head to the table while Sadie got all excited. Matt began talking through all the normal emotions Wyatt might be having about a new school and change and how Matt dealt with his family moving when he was kid. We both had been expecting this from Wyatt and my Dad happened to arrive at our house at this very moment (he was in town for a work meeting). He quietly joined us at the table and as Matt kept talking to Wyatt about dealing with the changes, Wyatt lifted his head up and said, "I'm not worried about all that. I just don't want to wear a uniform!"

We were so relieved to hear that this was his biggest concern! And as parents, we are SO thankful that the kids will be wearing uniforms! So many blessings--it puts everyone on the same level, it takes away the pressure of name brands, it makes shopping easy and it eliminates any clothing discussions before school! Woohoo!!

There are still some unknowns but thus far, the kids have been talking about their new school openly and telling our friends and family about it and they seem to be pretty positive about it! Praise the Lord!