New Job/New Chapter

This summer my family has had a couple of really neat stories unfold. As all of you know, I've been gearing up for the past several months for my little baby girl to start kindergarten. As my only child, I was not ready for this transition at all. Emotionally I was fighting with the fact that it was going happen.

We have a perfectly fine school right down the street from us. But I just knew Ella wasn't supposed to go there. I started exploring other options, but there weren't any doors opening in any direction. But I still knew without a doubt that Ella was not going to go to that big, bad (not really bad, I'm being dramatic)school that she was zoned to.

I work on staff at our church and in May our pastor sent us an email letting the staff know that we are going to be opening up our doors to a Montessori school that has planted it's roots at a nearby church for the past 35 yrs. This school was needing to change locations and after much prayer, our pastor opened up our church to become that new location! I was with all of the ladies on staff at the moment and thanks to smart phones, we all got this amazing news at the same time. We all have kids that were in preschool or going into kindergarten, so we were just giddy thinking about this possibility!!

Another part of this news was that our pastor was giving staff half off tuition. Awesome, right? Everything is falling into place so perfectly!! So I thought...

I went home and told Heath with much jubilation, but he was not so excited. He thought this would be an incredible opportunity, however, his exact words were, "Why do we need to pay this much a month when there is a perfectly good school right down the street that is free?" Spoken like a true provider. :-) My bubble was burst, but I still knew that this was somehow going to work out.

A couple days later, I was talking to our pastor's wife about it. She advised me, with much wisdom, to call the principal of the Montessori school and just ask her if she has any job openings. Our pastor's wife was speaking from experience because she taught just a couple of days a week at this exact school when it was at the other location and both of her children got to go there for free!

I immediately called and got to speak directly to the principal (who is the sweetest person in the world). She was very honest and said as of right then it looked like there were no job openings, but that she would be in touch as thing settled down a little from all the craziness of having to pack up a school with a history of 35 yrs at that location.

So I waited about 3 weeks, hoping with everything in me that there would be an opening. When I finally heard back from her this is what she said, "I'm not sure if you are interested, but we do have ONLY ONE position available, and that's the music teacher position." I could not believe my ears. I have no idea how I responded but I know it was with much excitement. If I could have chosen any position, it most definitely would have been the music position. It was just so perfect! Come to find out, she had already spoken with our pastor to make sure I actually knew something about music and he told her I would be a great fit.

So here we are in September and Ella is currently going to the Montessori school. I was able to keep my part time job at the church because I only teach 1 day a week! And Ella is literally 30 yards away from me at all times! She gets to ride with me to work each day and ride home from work with me. It's really a dream!

I never could have thought this up how perfectly it worked out! And I'm so thankful! "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

Ella's 1st Day of Kindergarten!

Ella (and mommy) had a great 1st day of school! The anticipation was definitely worst than the actual day. I really like to build things up in my mind, so I was anticipating a melt down (from me, not Ella), but it never came and here we are on week 3 and still doing well.

We talked Kindergarten up a lot so that she would be really excited about it. For weeks leading up to the first day, she kept saying that she was really nervous to meet her teachers and new friends. So on the Saturday before school started, Ella and I volunteered in her classroom helping her teachers set up. After that, she was golden.

Ella's school didn't start until Wednesday of that week, so Monday night was Meet the Teacher. Since Ella had already met her teachers, she got to meet some new friends. While we were still there, she came up to me with a huge smile and said, "Mama, I made some new friends!" And that was all it took. Not a single other butterfly in her tummy.

The next day on Tuesday, we went to Target to get a couple last minute stuff and let Ella pick out a new toy to celebrate starting Kindergarten. Shocking that this is what she picked! :-)


Wednesday morning, I went and woke Ella up early with a bit of a lump in my throat, but overall ok. She was so excited it didn't phase her that it was SO early. However, it only took about 3 wake ups for her to be done with waking up so early.

Sweet girl all dolled up and ready to go.




Our dogs kept getting in the pictures. I was trying to shoo them away, but Ella wanted to play. She loves her dogs.








One reason for my emotional stability that morning, was because it was a bit chaotic. When I went to start my car, the battery was dead. We were already running a little late, so after transferring everything over to Heath's car it was full speed ahead to get there on time! We also were going to take Ella on a donut date that morning, but we ended up having to skip that part and she had to eat her donuts in the car on the way. All this to say, I'm kind of thankful it happened that way because it didn't give me much time to sulk. And it was still a great morning.


Walking into school.






See no tears! You would've been proud of me. :-)


The teacher, so kindly, let me snap a few pictures of her in the classroom even after she had started teaching.


Ella is going to a private Montessori school this year, so the classroom isn't set up like a traditional classroom would be.

We couldn't be more thrilled that she has this awesome opportunity. It is a really COOL God story of how it came about for her to get to go to this particular school. I can't wait to share it with you.