In the last two days we have had two great breakthroughs, but oh so slowly in the materialising… One unavoidable aspect of this resettling business is definitely the patience required, which has been sorely tested, especially over the last few days.
I was definitely beginning to feel the strain yesterday lunchtime, as we still didn’t know for sure which school Alex was going to, today being the last possible day to buy his uniform. We were also waiting to hear if we had been accepted by a letting agent to be tenants in a bigger house, a house which we had visited and really liked, and was available for a very reasonable rent, within walking distance of the college where Dan will be working. We needed to know because… we have just been contacted by our container company that our container has cleared and has to be delivered in the next few days – where to? If we are still in our current house, we wouldn’t have room for more than an eighth of what is in that container! Help! I felt yesterday as if I was juggling a hundred balls, they were all up in the air and all about to fall on my head in the very near future and I had no conrol over any of them!
Yesterday lunchtime, this was the position with Alex’s school… We had been offered our third choice of school, which was OK but about a 15 minute drive away in rush hour. So, not ideal. But we had gone in person to both our first two choices. School number one said they were definitely full so there was nothing they could do. School number two said that they could possibly take him, but only if we made an appeal to the Local Education Authority, which is a bit of a long procedure and can take a few weeks… So, we were deciding to settle for school number three – with the longer drive. But, with a lovely Christian head teacher, so that was encouraging.
But I was feeling a bit disappointed as I had set my heart on school number one. Sitting in the garden with Dan, drinking a coffee, perched on some bricks – nothing else to sit on – I wondered why God would not have answered our prayers for Alex’s school, why it had to be such a complicated procedure which is so pedantic and yet the results then seem so random – and feeling that maybe our prayers, like our school applications, get ignored and we just get given what someone above deems to be right – in fact, beginning to feel sorry for myself about the whole thing… when I remembered the words of Jesus, “Which of you fathers, if his son asks him for bread, would give him a stone instead?” Thinking on this I realised, that if Alex was given a place at our school number three, this would be a good gift for us, not a stone. I need to trust God that he is giving us bread, not stones – I need to acknowledge that God knows infinitely more than I do about it all.
As this was sinking in and I was beginning to feel more confident about Alex going to the school, the phone rang… Not any of the schools – but, the Letting Agent! Telling us our credit history check had gone through OK (amazingly considering we have been living abroad for eight years), and we were accepted as tenants at the house we wanted. Great news! Hooray hooray! We can move in on the 10th September (only just over a week away!) and our container can be delivered straight to that address – and it has room for all our stuff – and two big sunny downstairs rooms, and three bedrooms so Abigail can have her purple room and Alex his red white and blue… And two old apple trees in the garden. So much to be thankful for.
Went to bed still not sure where Alex was going to school. But it was the last day to buy uniform, so, we went along to the uniform shop, and decided to just buy the standard grey trousers and white shirt, but wait on the school-specific sweatshirt. I was actually at the till, paying for these, when the phone call came from our School Number One! Telling us that someone had withdrawn, so they could give Alex a place! All we had to do is turn up on Monday morning. She said, “I’m not sure what you should do about getting the uniform” and I said, “Don’t worry – I’m in the shop now!” She was rather surprised!
I am disproportionately happy about this outcome. Dan says my emotional state shouldn’t depend so much on things like this. What can I say? I have spent almost the entire twelve months trying to get Abby and Alex places in English schools, going through plans A, B, C, D and back again. For Abby we knew eventually in May, for Alex we had to wait until two days before term starts… but they are both in wonderful schools, and that is huge as far as I am concerned! I have known for a long time that God acts in his own time, and he teaches us along the way. And I have learned through this, that God is the giver of good gifts to his children and that I shouldn’t second-guess him.
So Alex starts on Monday morning at 8.40 am. Abby starts on Wednesday morning at 8.30. It will be interesting to see how they settle in, and how they find school different here from their lovely experience of school in Uganda. They have already discovered one difference – having to wear black shoes, and socks! What was wrong with wearing broken crocs to school anyway?
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