Julie Gumm - Author

A week of ups and downs

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Ever have one of those weeks that just seems like a crazy roller coaster and you sort of want off but you sort of don’t? It’s been one of those weeks.

We shot out of the gate with amazing news on Monday morning to the tune of a $6,000 scholarship for the kids tuition.

Tuesday morning I noticed a diamond is missing from my wedding ring.

Definitely a “first world” problem, I know. I’m really not that upset, except for I think it looks weird to have this hole there. Think a jeweler could find a cubic zirconia about the same size and glue it in? Or how about a rhinestone from the craft aisle at Wal-Mart?? 🙂 I don’t really want to pay to put a new diamond in. I guess a trip to Zales is in order to see what they can do.

Tuesday night the landscapers came out to shape up our backyard and fix some sprinkler issues we’ve had that have kept my backyard grass dead for the last 6 months. We originally had planned to put a pool in the backyard but now that’s not happening (thank you Dave Ramsey) so I decided it was time to do some landscaping over there. Excited to do some projects back there now that the weather is starting to cool off (if it will make up it’s mind).

Later that night Mark says “I think we have termites.”

Yeah, not a sentence you want to hear. Ever!

Wednesday we got new family pictures taken. I think family picture sessions are pretty  much Mark’s idea of torture. And the kids are never that enthusiastic either. Beza for some reason started out in a really sour mood and I had to hang a birthday party sleepover over her head. In no small part to Kim’s candy bribery and her great way with kids, Beza turned around quickly and started really having fun “modeling”. She’s super photogenic and was excited when Kim would show her the pics. I don’t have all the pics yet as Kim’s still editing, but I love this one. I told her I wanted casual, fun, real life and she totally captured it.

The kids are on fall break and we’ve had friends sleeping over the last two nights.

Somehow one of them still declares the days “boring” and “not that fun”.

You know, because Mom and Dad have to work and can’t entertain them all day 🙂

Delayed Answers

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Three years ago, as Natalie was starting Kindergarten, we decided to put our kids in Christian school. We knew that half way through the year Beza and Luke would be joining them, making our tuition bill pretty sizable. We had some financial aid that first year which helped but that fall I did a bunch of research on aid for the next school year.

One scholarship made available because of corporate donations (for the tax credit) was for students who had attended public school for at least half of the previous school year. There was also a household income range which we fit into. I wasn’t sure if “Ethiopian public school” counted but I figured it couldn’t hurt. That next August when we got a letter saying Beza & Luke had each been awarded a $3,000 scholarship (more than half their tuition) I’m pretty sure I cried.

I thought it was a one year thing. But then we got a letter the next spring saying we could apply for a renewal. We did and got the award again. More tears!

This year, however, we got a letter in August saying that while we met the requirements there were not enough donated funds to award all the scholarships but we could apply again the next year.

I was seriously stressing about how we were going to pay that tuition bill every month!

This morning I looked on my desk and there was a paper on my desk – a “revised” financial aid form from the school office. It listed a new $6,000 scholarship from this organization.

Say what??

The business manager confirmed it this afternoon. She said sometimes kids that have gotten awards end up not changing to private schools so they’ll award it to someone else.

I did a little happy dance and some serious praising God today!