I have struggled with whether to write this blog. But, because I believe in honesty and value your prayers for us, I am going to write it. It may be lengthy but stick with me. We need your prayers. Like majorly need your prayers. We have a few big things going on in our lives that we need Jesus to show up and show out in a way that only He can. Would you read about this and really pray for and with us?

1 – As I briefly mentioned before, Kinsley and Emerson are slated to be in two different schools for the fall. How did that happen? The short of the story is that when we moved last fall, they didn’t have any open seats in first grade for Kinsley at our zoned school PS 144, so they sent Kinsley to a nearby school that did have available seats (in a school that is higher rated than our zoned school which was a plus!). We were told it would be no problem for Emerson to get a spot there for Kindergarten. Then, we applied for Emerson to kindergarten and listed our choices – Kinsley’s school first, our zoned school next, and so on – thinking we would surely get PS 101, the school Kinsley is at.

The school system uses an algorithm to place students at schools and places students in this order – zoned students with siblings at that school first, zoned students next, non-zoned students with sibling priority next (US!!), and then non-zoned students with no siblings. When we received our offer letter giving us a spot, it listed our zoned school – PS 144 – NOT the school Kinsley is at, and that we were put on the wait list at Kinsley’s school. Then, we found out that they the school district had messed up and given non-zoned students with no siblings spots before us.

After talking with the school, they said we were number 2 on the wait list, and they encouraged us not to call the school district but just to wait until April, because surely not all students would take their offered spots. April rolls around, and guess what? All offered spots were taken. Then, they encourage us to wait a few more weeks to see if they add a class at another school and some students will switch. Well, that happened and we still didn’t get a spot because they had more students registered than they could have and they had to go with them first. I don’t get it. Then, they encouraged us to wait until the middle of May and surely, some students would drop out to move or for other reasons. Well, its almost the middle of May and we still don’t have a spot. I could call the school district, but it would be a huge headache and I am not sure if they would fix their mistake.

So, here’s the gist. I CANNOT have two different kids in two different schools in the fall. We don’t have a car and both schools are about a mile from our apartment in different directions. The bus drop-off for both schools is in two different locations at the exact same time. Not to mention trying to arrange for kid’s activities or parent/teacher conferences or anything else at two different locations. I don’t want to move them back to our zoned school because Kinsley has made friends and dealt with so much change already.

Would you pray for us? God is in control, He can resolve this without lifting a finger, and we know He works all things for good. Would you pray He resolves this situation in the next week and we get a call offering us a spot? Or that we would know we need to call the school district and go about it that way? If we don’t get this resolved by the end of June when school is out, they will have to start at two different schools. Pray that I would not be anxious or impatient but trust the Lord to move as only He can.

2 – I also briefly mentioned about Kinsley having to see a podiatrist. Basically, she has really flat feet (like 8 out of 10 on a scale where 10 is the worst) and her feet turn in – she isn’t having problems now other than being tired when she is active and a little bit of hip pain. After seeing the doctor, he presented us with two options – orthotics or a surgery called HyProCure. After lots of research and talking to people, we though both options were good, but were leaning toward the surgery. It has been around for over 5 years, our doctor alone has performed 200 surgeries and over 100 of those were on kids and have been successful, and they would insert a stent into her ankle area to correct the misalignment. The surgery would be outpatient, would require a boot for a week, but then no other recovery or physical therapy, and would have to be done separately for each foot. After the surgery, she would not have to wear any type of orthotics and this should correct the problem forever. If the surgery doesn’t work, they just remove the stent and go with orthotics.

Orthotics would probably work for her but would be like a band-aid on the problem, whereas the surgery would correct it, especially since her bones are still growing and she is young. Orthotics would have to moved from shoe to shoe and she wouldn’t be able to wear sandals or get help when walking barefooted, but the surgery would fix it so she would have no problem no matter what shoe.

The catch? Our insurance will cover the orthotics but not the surgery because they view it as experimental. So, $500 for orthotics versus $8,000 for surgery. Our dilemma? Other than the money, we aren’t 100% sure which route we should go and what the Lord would have us to do for her. We have had friends write us and testify to how much orthotics have helped their kids, but then we have also had friends who have given us money to our staff account already to put towards the surgery because they want us to trust God to provide the money for the surgery.

Get orthotics or trust the Lord to provide the funds to get the surgery done? Do orthotics now and surgery later? Wait on the Lord for clear direction before we do either? Seek another opinion? Ugh.

So, would you join with us in prayer for this as well? Would you join us in praying that God will make it clear which we should do? Would you join with us in praying that we would trust Him to provide ALL the funds if He wants us to get the surgery? Would you pray we would follow Him above even what we think is best?

Thank you for your prayers and lifting up some big things going on in our lives right now. We couldn’t do this ministry without your partnership.