Tag Archives: metrolina

End of year

I am so proud of Faith and Wilson. They finished out the school year in amazing ways. They both got awards in various areas and proved that they could excel in being both a student and a friend.

Wilson received an award for media and PE (not surprising). In his kindergarten class, his teacher gave him the “Bubbly personality” award. She described him as being a friend to everyone and skilled at bringing others into the group and making them feel comfortable.  Wilson is such a sweet little boy with such a big heart. He is rough and tough on the outside, but inside he truly cares for others and is a friend to all.  I saw this first hand when I went to school to have lunch with him one day.  Wilson could invite one friend to sit with us and he chose a little boy that he had said many times that he didn’t particularly like. I was surprised by his choice. Later on I asked Wilson why he chose this little boy to eat with us and he said, “because he doesn’t usually get chosen and I wanted him to get a chance to sit with a friend at lunch”.  That is my little Wilson.

Here he is all ready for his kindergarten graduation and with his fabulous teacher, Mrs Fields.

Faith received two awards. One was for Art, again, not surprising.  The other award was the Fruit of the Spirit award for Goodness. I loved her teacher’s description for the award, “You model His goodness by doing things God’s was instead of the way everyone else might do them.”  Faith sometimes told me about how the kids at school would say something mean or tease another child. One day she said, “I would never laugh at someone like they do.”  That is why she won this award. :)

It was difficult for Faith to switch schools this year, but she did it with style and confidence. I am very proud of her success.

Here she is with her teacher, Mrs. Vandergrift…..

Our family had a great experience at Metrolina Christian Academy.  The kids enjoyed the school year and they learned a good deal both academically and spiritually.  I am very proud of them both.

Schools Decision Update

As you know, when it comes to which school the kids attend next year we have many options to choose from, sort of.  There are many options but not all of them have worked out.  The options have become more and more narrow as the weeks have gone on.  First, the kids did not get into Union Academy, which is a charter school in town.  Then, they both were offered a spot at Metrolina Christian Academy.  I had applied here during my short, but very real panic attack back around Valentine’s Day.  I freaked out because I realized that they may not be going to a Christian school, which is what I love most about Faith’s school now.  The woman from Metrolina called me one Tuesday and said that I had four days to decide whether or not I wanted to enroll them for next year or else the spots were going to go to the next child on the wait list.  (We had already bumped Wilson down a spot once before because we didn’t want to commit.) I had to decide whether or not to spend the deposit money to enroll the kids at Metrolina when I didn’t know if we were going to move into a good school district or not.

I am usually able to hear fairly clearly what God wants me to do in life.  I have no trouble knowing what He is telling me what to do each day, where to work, if we should move, etc. This decision, however, stumped me.  There were so many factors: money, religion, us moving, us selling our house, public school districts, leaving CDS, etc.  I had a really hard time separating out all of the many factors that were contributing to my indecision.  I think I cried for a majority of morning that Thursday, which was my last day of decision making.  I felt like I was determining the rest of their lives with this one decision.

I had to tell Metrolina by 3:00pm whether my children would be going there or not.  I prayed that God would make it “abundantly clear” what my decision should be.  Even at the end of the day, I was still unclear, and I still am, somewhat.  I continue to wonder – Did God tell me months ago to “wait”, but I didn’t and now I have caused all of this strife in my life by not waiting?  I will never know. What I do know is that I was emotional about this decision for many, many reasons.  Probably the biggest reason is that I am a mom and I want the very best for my kids – just like every other mom on the planet.

A couple of events helped make my decision clearer (and the fact that at 2:45pm my mom and Tom both said “Enroll them!”) :

1- I cried every time that I thought about them going to a non-Christian school.  This is not because I thought that they would be miserable or mistreated at a public school, but because I love the community of the Christian school, I love that the teachers pray for their students, and I love they look at each student as a child of God with different strengths, talents and weaknesses.

2- In Bible study I read the verse. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  2 Corinth. 4:18  This spoke volumes to me in regards to spending the money on private school vs spending the money on a house and vacations.  I may not be able to see with my eyes the value of a Christian-based education, but I will see it in eternity.  I will know that I have given them a solid foundation in Christ that is immeasurable in earthly terms.  The vacations and a nice house are not what are most important in this life.  (Although, I am sure that God will provide for those as well.)

3- My mom went with me to the school to tour it one more time.  I was going to go alone, but since I was such a basket case of emotions I thought it would be best to bring someone along with me.  I value my mom’s opinion on just about everything (especially on Godly and financial matters) and knew that if she left thinking it was a good school then it must be one.  The tour was given by a woman named Monique who was so sweet and kind.  She knew my struggle to make the decision and empathized with me.  At the end of the tour she held our hands and prayed for me, my children and my decision.  Later that afternoon, my mom said that they should be going to Metrolina because it is important to send them to a Christian school during their formative years.  Coming from my mother, and my accountant, that was a big vote of confidence that we would be making a good decision both financially and spiritually for our family.

4 – I didn’t want to leave it all up to us moving and being able to change school districts.  (Maybe  lack of faith on my part, but no one likes the unknown.)  I didn’t know where we were going to move or even if we were going to move to a new house this summer.  I didn’t want to send them to the school that we are currently zoned for due to the school’s late hours. I wish that there was a school that had only a 4-5 hour day.  That would be perfect!  I would love to homeschool, but I know that I wouldn’t be very good at it.  The day would end with me saying, “Oops, we didn’t get to our work again today.  Oh well.  Maybe tomorrow.” I have a vision of what a homeschool mom and family are, and we are not it – well organized activities, maps on the wall, a flourishing garden, well attentive children, etc…..not us!

In the end, all of these things added up to help make my decision clearer than it was that morning.  We decided that we would enroll Faith and Wilson into Metrolina Christian Academy.  As the weeks have passed, I am feeling more and more comfortable with our decision.  Faith and Wilson both know that they will be going to this school in the fall and are excited to be together.

The bottom line is this:  God is in control of ALL things.  I have to have enough faith to trust that God is going to provide the money for the upcoming year(s) of private school.  I need to trust that He will take care of my kids no matter where we live or where they go to school.  Even if we change our minds this summer after we move, I know that my children will be taken care of and that they will learn to know and trust God in their day to day lives.  I am thankful that we have the ability to make this type of decision. Never in a million years did I think that this would be something that would be an option for our family.  I know that we are very blessed….no matter where we end up.

Schools

One of the biggest stressors in my life right now is where to send kids to school next year. Although I LOVE the school Faith is attending this year, we can’t afford to send two children there and Wilson will be entering kindergarten next year.  We have decided to not send Faith to Covenant Day next year (which she doesn’t know yet).   We may not even tell her until this summer when we finally know where they will be going.  We have sent Faith to the Rolls Royce of schools and I am afraid that it will be hard to find that community and love of a school again.  I know that it is time to say “goodbye” to Covenant Day and I am prepared to do so, but it is still a hard thing to do. 

 In Charlotte, there are endless options for schooling:  very expensive private schools, expensive Christian schools, less expensive Christian schools, charter, magnet, and public schools.  So many choices that it is overwhelming.  Here are what we are choosing between for next year….

 Option 1: I have entered both Wilson and Faith into the lottery at Union Academy in Monroe, NC.  This is a charter school that is about twenty minutes east of us.  I have no idea what the chances of getting in are.  Wilson has a better chance for kindergarten, but Faith’s chances are even slimmer, assuming that there is even an opening for second grade.  I won’t know if they get in until March 9th when they have the lottery. 

 Option 2:  Metrolina Christian Academy.  It is a Christian school in Indian Trail, NC that is about half the price of Covenant Day.  We can get both kids in for what it cost us to send Faith to CDS, however, we are still paying for private school.  As I have written before, I have anxiety about paying for school and often compare what we could have done with that money to what I got for schooling.  Still, what we paid for Faith to be happy these last two years has been priceless.  She has had small class sizes and amazing teachers that love her as a child of God.  I was talking to another mom about how my cousin Maddie is very set in her faith and how she talks about it at the public high school that she attends now that she is out of private Christian school.  We compared Maddie to my friend’s daughter who has been in the public school since second grade.  She said, “I think [my daughter] has been in the public school too long and has learned to pretty much just keep her mouth shut about her faith.”  That saddens me.  I don’t want my children to get beat down into submission and keep their mouths shut when asked about their faith and belief in God just because no one else believes it or because it goes unspoken.  Hence, my dilemma about spending the money and sending them to a Christian school. 

  Our last, but not least option, is to send them to the public school.  The only problem with this solution is that we don’t know which school district we will be moving in to.  We won’t know that answer until after we sell this house and buy another house (which is a completely different source of stress all together).  There are many, many great public schools in our area, so this would not be a bad choice either, I hope.  It is just the most vague choice since we don’t know where we are moving….or even IF we are moving.  It depends on how quickly our house sells. 

 As Tom has said, “We can’t make a bad choice.”  We are blessed to have the chance to make such a decision.  Over the past few months I have prayed about this decision and I feel like God has been saying, “Wait.”  So I have waited.  I have put this decision on the back burner and I have done nothing –  I have not even really thought about it.  But time has continued to go on and I have gotten impatient with waiting.  Last Friday I had a mini panic attack outside of the Trader Joes.  I called Metrolina Christian to see what their enrollment was like for next year.  They have one space in second grade and a short waiting list for kindergarten.  I immediately thought, “Great!  Now I have waited too long and this is not an option for us any longer.”  I was in a small state of panic.  I called Tom and we agree to apply to the school “just in case”.  So much for patiently waiting.  The one good thing that came out of this panic was that I realized how important it was for me that the kids go to a Christian school.  Maybe it is because we had a such a wonderful experience at CDS and I don’t know any different.   I may have the same experience at a public school.  I don’t know.

All of this is to say that there are many unknowns in our life right now:  Where are we going to live? Is anyone going to buy our house? Where are the kids going to school next year?  Will we live in the country or right next to another house?  So many questions…. all I know is that God told me to “wait”.  I am waiting. And waiting. And waiting.  If I think too long and hard about all of the options and unknowns then I will completely give myself a coronary.  I have to put it in God’s hands and trust and know that He has it all under control.  The other day a verse popped into my head that I had memorized 4-5 years ago.  It is Philippians 4:4-6, “Do not be anxious about anything.  But in everything, with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God,  which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” 

 I need that kind of peace.  I am one of the most indecisive people I know.  I have a hard time ordering from a large menu – so many things to consider:  How much does it cost? Does it match what I want to drink? Is it healthy? Can I cook it at home?  Arggghhhh!  If I can’t decide on what I should eat then how can I decide which house to buy or where to send my kids to school??  Thankfully, God knows the answer to all of these questions.  I just have to listen and take the baby steps that He tells me to take so that I can walk in the right direction.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.”  Proverbs 3:5-6