Feeling Worried

Alright, here's where we stand.

We drive away from Virginia in less than 6 weeks.
Its an easy pack-out, and so the next month and a half is primarily filled with shopping, spending time with friends, and End of School What Not.  Its nice to be at this stage and feel we have enough time to do everything we want to do.  In that sense, life is relaxing right now.

Sophia has a spot at school.
This is such a relief, because if she had not been offered a spot at this school, I did not know what I would do.  I had no back-up plan.  I was already scaring myself with the thought of homeschooling her until a spot opened up in the middle of the year.  Scary.  The school which accepted Lilly has also found a place for Sophia.  Phew.

Sophia and Lilly have been placed at different campuses.
No more worrying about whether or not Sophia will go to school.  On to worrying about Sophia and Lilly attending different schools.  To be clear, they will attend the same school.  The school has two different elementary campuses.  One is nearer to us, and has a wonderfully dear reputation.  This is Lilly's school.  The other is further from us, and is the site of the recent sex abuse scandals (add that to the List of Things to Worry About).  The school has a strong reputation for academics and for attracting and keeping good teachers.  I am under the impression that the difference between them is the difference between Strong and Super strong.  I am more worried for the girls.  They derive comfort from being together, and they enjoy being members of the same community.  I enjoy them being members of the same community, both sharing stories and anecdotes that build into a more cohesive picture of what life looks like inside their school.  They fight like wildcats, but they also sit next to each other on the school bus.  It makes me sad to think of them beginning life at a new school, alone on their journeys.  Also, it would be a logistical mess for me.  Not only is each campus over 35 minutes from our home, they are each probably an hour from each other.  And it seems too early and too traffic congested a time in my life to have my 3 kids at 3 different schools.  I am worried.

I will begin offering music classes in the fall
This is ambitious.  But riding off of my success in Caracas, and knowing that beginning classes in the fall saves me some money and paperwork on the business end, it seems worth trying.  I'm looking at this as a marketing term - offering one class during the week, allowing plenty of families to drop in and try the class for free, and hoping that word of mouth will add on extra classes in the winter session.  But starting a business in Jakarta from Arlington is more difficult than it may seem.  Well, it may seem difficult to most of you.  Its more difficult than I expected it to be.  Gathering data on the competition, researching location, these are all nearly impossible from abroad - but necessary for building a business plan with a budget.  And this is the time for both a business plan and a budget.  So, as it stands today, my budget doesn't go into the black until the spring session, and then only just barely.  This has me worried, because although it would be a worthy hobby, I was hoping to run these classes as a job.

Our housing looks lovely.
We've seen photos of the inside, a floorplan, been connected to neighbors and learned a bit about the neighborhood.  The commutes will be rough for everyone, but it should be a very comfortable place to live.

We keep meeting nice people.
A gal from my Bible study moved to Jakarta in January, and has been sending me lovely reports back every few weeks.  A friend from Caracas connected me to her good friend in Jakarta, who has been lovely about sending info from the school and answering questions.  Our social sponsor seems fabulous and connects me to other families when she can't answer a question.  The web is ever growing.  Besides which, Dave knows a number of people from language class who will arrive around the same time as us.  I'm feeling more confident that we will be surrounded by good people during our first few weeks at post.

There is so much good, and I'm excited about what's coming up.  But I'm nervous about music class, and I'm really worried about school.  I pray that God is preparing the perfect place in school for each of my girls, and anyone else praying the same for them would be amazing.