Thursday, August 26, 2010

The Final Word About Dublin


Mikayla is going to Dublin Christian Academy! It's the miracle we prayed for! When I said at the beginning of this endeavor that it would take a miracle for her to go, I wasn't kidding. Terry already has an extra job to make ends meet as it is. Soooo, as most of you know, I applied for a scholarship. She got one covering 60% of her tuition. We got really excited over that, but after looking at what was left to pay...well, let's just say, we still needed a miracle. I almost brushed this idea off as way too pricey for us, BUT, we decided to go ahead and do up the paperwork needed and then we visited the school on our vacation. LOVED it!! You should have seen this kids big brown eyes light up and stay lit throughout the entire visit. Had a wonderful meeting with the administrator and headmaster. Had a great tour of the place with the secretary. Went home and waited to hear from them again. See, after he met with us and then Mikayla separately, the administrator said that he would look at our financial situation again. After several agonizing days after returning from vacation, we could stand it no longer and Terry finally broke down and called them to check on the status. They called right back and said that they had upped the scholarship to 75%. Excitement took hold of us again as Terry took out his trusty ledger and pushed numbers around. There was/is room and board, fees (for every little thing, it seems), books, uniforms, and little things that you need when living away from home, to pay for. We prayed about it, and literally had to shrug our shoulders because it was sooo out of our hands. I went ahead and started looking for books and uniforms finding them on ebay and used book auctions. I would find a book that she needed, watch it for days with bated breath, and then bid in the last seconds to get the cheapest price. I listed some of my used homeschool books and sold them, too, using that money to buy her new ones. I figured that the Lord was at work here. 75% off tuition is nothing to sneeze at and if the Lord wanted her to go even at the last moment, she would be ready. As of today, all her uniforms have been provided, one complete outfit from Nana, a bedroom set bought by Grandma, and all her books and school supplies have been purchased. The school let us set up a twelve month payment plan even though the billing for that starts in June. They also combined the registration fee into the twelve month plan, meaning that we don't have to come up with all of that next week. One of our close friends came over the other day to buy some used curriculum from me and paid way more than what I was asking so that we could pay the music fees. Is God at work here?? Oh, I have NO doubt whatsoever! There have been some difficult things come up that almost derailed us, and we realize that there are more hurdles to jump and some tight days ahead until tax season, but God has made it possible for her to go. She is ecstatic, anxious, sad, and dying to go right now, all at once. AND she is recovering from having her wisdom teeth out. Ah, there's another little piece of our miracle. This oral surgery was not within our ability to pay for. We hated it, but we applied for the state healthcare in order to get it done. It was supposed to take forever to get scheduled. Mainecare was supposed to take forever to answer the request for the surgery, and there was supposed to be all sorts of red tape and I don't even know what all, that had to happen first. But, we got the consult done, and they accepted our letter of acceptance from Mainecare in place of the cards that hadn't come yet. Then, they told us that mainecare had to approve the surgery and said that it usually took three months or more to get said approval. Well, I have to admit to calling and unashamedly bugging them, but they finally scheduled it for September 8th. I called two more times to bug them and got it scheduled for the 23rd of August. Done and healed before school starts!!! YAY! Yet another part of this miracle that convinces me that God has been working on this before we even thought of it, is this: Terry felt, at the beginning of 2010, that times were going to be uncertain, so he paid all of our bills ahead for the entire year and set the rest aside in a savings club. I thought it sounded good at the time, but now? I can only say that God must have put that in his head to do. Don't we serve an awesome God?!
PS. You can check out the school if you scroll down to our "links we like" and click on Dublin Christian Academy. Be sure and check out the Chorale's pictures. You can find them by looking for photo albums and then Chorale Tour. Mikayla will be joining them this year!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Another Word From Dublin

We visited Dublin Christian Academy when we went off on our little vacation and found it to be quite nice! It is exactly what we feel Mikayla needs. We had a wonderful interview with the administrator and headmaster, and the secretary took us on a full tour. She also answered many questions and explained things as we went. The administrator also met with Mikayla separately from us. On our way out, Terry spoke to him more about finances and he said that he would review our situation again. Today the call came and they have now awarded Mikayla a 75% scholarship!!! We are scrambling around to see if we could possibly send her this year. There are books to buy and uniforms as well. All very pricey. Keep praying!!!

A Little Getaway


We joined our friends for a day at Storyland.