the art of God's providence...

Whew.  Just give me a minute.

Sometimes I am blown away at the Lord's providence.

Like right now.

Where do I begin?

My daughter is 4, and many of you parents know what that means... time to figure out where we'll be sending our child to school next year for kindergarten.  It's a pretty big deal at our stage of life.

And I know that how you school your child is a super sensitive subject, and everyone carries their own opinions and worldviews into what they end up choosing.  Pleeease know I'm not out to speak against any ways of schooling, because while it's very important, it's not the end-all and be-all for me personally.  For me and Marc, our worldview in recent years has been pulling us towards public school. (much to the gasps I may hear from my fellow Christian community)  There is so much beauty in being IN the world but not of it, and we were planning to be a light in a "dark" place.  (which, the schools here are not all that "dark" anyways!...)

However, there's also an amazing classical Christian school here in town.  It's a ton of money.  You can imagine.  But there's nothing like it educationally in our town.  It's from a reformed perspective.  (for those of you who know us, that's pretty rare.  And awesome when your husband works for REFORMED University Fellowship)  While it sounded good on paper, I have been emotionally torn between my worldviews-- that of being IN the world and that of providing my daughter with a fantastic education.  (much more could be said on how much we have wrestled with this, but I'll stop there...)  In my mind, neither way is RIGHT or WRONG... I don't believe it's a school or even education that saves you.  Jesus does.  And you can find Jesus just as much in a public school (like I did) as in a Christian one.

So today we took a tour of the classical Christian school.  I was so nervous, and me being the typical naysayer that I am, I drove up and mumbled to Marc, "This isn't it.  I don't think this is going to be the one."  So we prayed as we walked in that God would make it clear to us if this was to be the place for Caroline.

Now I could tell you all about how great it was-- how nice it was when the students stood up in each class we visited and respectfully greeted us in unison with "Good morning!," (and I'm meanwhile trying to imagine my incredibly spunky, independent child fitting into this...) and how blown away I was at what the kindergarteners were doing academically already.  All that was nice.

But then the Lord gave us a sign.

(And hear me out-- I'm not really big on "the Lord gave me a sign"-type language, but um, I can pretty much say with ALL certainty today the Lord gave me a sign.)

We turned the corner and entered the art room, and there before our eyes was a teacher.... with alopecia.

Just as bald as my baby girl.  No hat.  No wig.  No insecurity.

Teaching children art.

Marc started tearing up.
I felt glued into place in that moment, unable to put into words what I was thinking.
(and here I'm typing away desperately trying)

An art teacher with alopecia.  And not just a 5th grade or a 12th grade teacher that she might pass in the halls here and there, but a teacher my Caroline would see EVERY WEEK with no hair.

Can you believe?!?!  What are the chances?!?

This woman has no idea what her bald head meant to me and my husband today.  I can't wait to hear her story, and for Caroline to hear her story.  And little does she know that she and my daughter are going to be buddies.  :)

So I guess this means we'll be living dirt poor so we can afford to send our daughter there,  :)  but for Caroline to grow up in a school with a teacher and mentor that looks JUST LIKE HER???  Lord, you are so, SO good.

So call me shallow, that I might select a school based on the baldness of a teacher, but I don't care.

For now, I'm convinced this is what He has for us.