Turn the Music Down and Listen Up

This week has brought about exciting news in our lifes. As I mentioned a while back, I lost my jobs. Since then I have been looking for jobs, and was even offered a job, but nothing felt right for our family.

During this time, I made a half joking comment to Brendon and Rachel about needing to rent a space at their house to start a preschool. They thought it was a good idea, and while it has not worked out to do it at their house, it started the ball rolling. The next thing I knew my mom and I decided we would do this together. We were looking at spaces to rent, deciding on program hours and ages, and planning daily schedules.

In all of this, the weak link in the equation was the location. We found one space to rent, but it did not feel right and I was getting a bit discouraged. One day, after we had gone to view the other rental space, I decided to get on the phone and start calling churches to see if anyone would be interested in partnering with us in this endeavor.

About the third call I got lucky. The West Linn Lutheran Church was interested. They had talked with another preschool and a charter school in the past about similar ventures, but they did not work out for one reason of another and they were excited for us to come see the space and talk it over.

The space was/is just perfect. They has a big rec room, a theater room, a dramatic play room, an art room, and a library and while we did not need nearly that much space, it the possibilities were really exciting. The only problem is that we would have to submit a proposal with our planned use and proposed monthly donation and wait for approval of the board.

On Thursday the executive board met and voted to move forward with the project. There are four more members of the full board that do not attend the executive meetings that still need to vote, but when we heard from the pastor on Friday she indicated that she did not think this would present a problem at all. She felt that it would be fine for us to move forward in securing our insurance, licenses, etc.

By the end of next week we should have full confirmation from the board, but it looks like we are starting a preschool! The next step is to get the word out and work towards full capacity. I can't tell you what a blessing this is for our family and I am so excited to move forward.