Tender Mercies

On Tuesday, the girls will be starting their 2nd new school in just as many years.  Last year, changing schools (and cities, and wards, and houses) with such short notice was stressful.  They handled it really well, and I know they will be able to handle this change really well too.  But, I know that even though they handle change well and make friends easy, it is still hard on them and stressful and a little nerve wracking.  

When we moved into this house and ward 9 months ago, we knew we were going to switch them to this new school come September.  We knew a lot of the kids at church went to that school and we hoped that they would make friends with them, so that by the time September rolled around the adjusting wouldn't be as hard.  Sure enough, each of them have made friends with kids at church.

This new school is huge.  It is a K-9 (which I love) and there will be just under 1000 children.  Each grade has 4-6 classes, and so we knew our chances of having some church kids in their classes would be pretty slim.  But we still hoped and prayed for the best, that there would be some familiar faces in each of their classes. We were especially worried about Isabelle.  She seems to take big change the hardest.  She is also the one who has experienced the most change out of all the girls. She had Kindergarten here in Edmonton, then we moved to Calgary for grades 1-3, which was really hard on her. It took her about 6 months before she started sleeping properly again when she started grade 1. Then we moved again on really short notice for Grade 4, back up here to Edmonton. It was an unexpected change for everyone.  It was in the old school she went to in Kindergarten, but of course kids change, some had moved, and it really was different for her. I think she adjusted ok, but still, the poor girl has gone through a lot of change in her school life. I think the whole thing has just left a bad taste in her mouth, so to speak, about changing schools. I also think that the older you get, the harder it is to change schools and all that.  (She will be going into grade 5.)

We were able to see their classes and teachers online this past weekend, and we found out that each of them has at least one child from church in their class!  Isabelle somehow, miraculously, has each and every one of the kids in her church class, in her school class too!!! And, the teacher who is teaching Izzy's  class was Lily's teacher last year from their old school.  She transferred over, and so Izzy will not only know several of the kids in her class but the teacher as well.  We found out that my friend whose 3 younger kids are the same age as my 3 older kids, are all in the same classes!  It is too funny and just an amazing coincidence. 

We actually really feel like it is more than just a random coincidence.  I really feel like Heavenly Father had a hand in all of this, that he knows our kids and he knew that they could use that extra bit of encouragement and familiarity.  They are all playing community basketball together in the fall too.  Ben is going to coach the younger group. AND, on top of it all, we found out that Olivia got into the preschool close by and will be in a class with 2 other kids from Sunbeams at church as well!  Back in January, Ben went and stood in line for 3 hours to be told that the preschool was full and that we would have to put Olivia's name on a wait list.  Then they emailed us in early August to tell us she got in.  It seems like a great little preschool, and it was by far the cheapest one I've seen, plus we don't have to do any kind of fundraising or bingos, and they provide the snack!  We were praying and hoping she would get in there as well, and we feel like our prayers were answered. 

We are feeling really happy about where we chose to live and the amazing ward that we are a part of.  We hope that we can stay here for a long time.  We really feel like we are where we are supposed to be, and our kids are where they are supposed to be too. We are grateful for a Heavenly Father who loves and knows our children and their needs, and who has answered our prayers and looked out for them.