Words... what do they all mean?

This evening we got a phone call from Morgan's principal, saying that she's going to be sending out a "sad" email and wanting to talk to us before we read it. Now, despite that we had just picked up Morgan's _glowing_, concern-free progress report (YAYS!!), my pessimistic brain immediately thought, "oh god, she's been expelled." Seriously, wtf brain?! Turns out that due to enrollment and "demographics," they will be closing the school at the end of this semester. I replied, "CLOSING THE SCHOOL OMGWTF ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Oh my."

So. We get to go school-shopping. In May. Grr I wish they could have told us back in February while everyone was enrolling. I suspect pickings will be slim now. Not to mention DO WE NOT HAVE ENOUGH ON OUR PLATES THIS SUMMER WITH A BRAND-NEW INFANT? Jeebus. I'm... kind of numb right now, actually. Just the enormity of this is... wow. This school is perfect. Small, intimate classes (apparently too small), just enough extracurriculars, before- and after-school care, K-8 with an attached preschool. I know that families move and kids change schools mid-stride all the time, but I was hoping Morgan wouldn't have to, at least for a while.

The principal said there are four other local schools in this chain, that will honor our current tuition (though probably only for one year, and no mention of the registration fee. Hm, should have asked about that. Maybe the email will say), and that there will be transportation to those schools, so they are making accomodations and not just cutting us loose and leaving us to our own devices. Other parents, I'm sure, would be less bothered by that, but the thought of it just about gives me hives.

But the nearest other schools are about ten miles away (Morgan's current school is 3 miles from home, and like a 5 minute drive from my work). Now, depending on the nature and extent of the aforementioned transportation, that might not be a big thing as far as getting her to and from school, but I'm thinking about the other kids. How many of them would go to those other schools? Would she be able to take _any_ of her friends with her? And then there's Girl Scouts; Morgan's just about to bridge from Daisies. How will this affect the new Brownie troop she's supposed to go into? And there's all the outside-of-school stuff like Open House and the Christmas program and whatnot that would be _that_ much harder to get to. I already feel bad for being such a flake where my parental involvement is concerned.

Alan just mused - and I agree with him - that this is probably somehow a blessing in disguise. Things like this don't just happen. We're going to find somewhere for Morgan that will be even better, though it's hard to imagine it now, that will give her more or better opportunities, that will be a better overall fit for the family we're about to grow into that we can't even foresee at this point. So those of you who pray, please pray for us, that we'll find our way to where God wants us to be.

Early tomorrow morning, my Dad is going into the hospital for spinal surgery. As I understand it, he has bone spurs inside one of his vertebrae and that's causing constriction of the spinal cord/ nerves. This is the latest (and hopefully finally accurate) explanation for the chronic pain he's been feeling in his lower back and legs for, oh, months now. He hasn't been able to ski at all this season (most of you don't know Dad, so I'll just tell you, not skiing is a BIG DEAL), and even back when the weather was nicer he was already feeling poorly enough that he didn't do as much hiking or rowing (in that snazzy boat we made a while back), or riding his motorcycles as he normally would. There have been various diagnoses and treatments in the meantime but it would seem now those were only addressing the symptoms and doing nothing about the actual problem. So, hopefully they've got it now, and "carving out the pumpkin" will fix him back up again, and then I'll be the only one moving slowly and making multiple attempts at rising from the couch and groaning whenever I stand up from the table. Which reminds me about my birthday present, but that's a longer and unrelated story so I'll tell you about it later.

He's got four days of recovery in the hospital before one of us gets to take him home, then a couple weeks off work recovering at home, some physical therapy, and hopefully back to 100% in three months. Plenty of summertime left to fish from his rowboat.