It’s hard to believe our schools begin in a little over a week! We’ve been going through some major family decisions and have decided to follow our hearts and enroll our three older children in a private Christian school this year.

I’ve blogged a little about our educational journey, which has included homeschooling and public school. Yet we’ve always said we’d take things year by year. Back in June, we attended a marriage retreat, and our speaker was a pastor from Wisconsin. He showed us slides of his family and said, “We’re very blessed that all three of our children can attend a Christian school.” When he said that, I felt this tugging on my heart — wishing our children could also be educated in a Christian setting.

Well, this dream became a prayer, and that prayer stirred my heart to start making phone calls and knocking on doors. I talked to so many people, gathering various opinions, checking out websites. And we’ve taken this first step. By faith.

We went shopping for school uniforms last week, something I’ve never done before. I was in complete awe as a polite sales girl brought me all the items we needed in the proper sizes. When my son told her, “I don’t need to try anything on; I can just tell if it fits,” it was wonderful to hear her say, “Oh no. You have to try these clothes on because some run big and some run small.” He went through several sizes and brands before she said, “Those are perfect.”

I had to stop myself from doing toe touches in the fitting area when I saw the transformation of my children from sloppy summer T-shirts and shorts to crisp, pleated MODEST school uniforms. The girls will wear cotton polos and skorts or jumpers. My son will also wear collared shirts tucked into neat shorts or pants. There are special colors for mid-week chapel, as well as field trips.

I watched other kids come out of the dressing rooms as they tried on uniforms, and I was amazed. A young teen girl wearing a halter top and typical shorts disappeared into the dressing room, emerging as a beautiful, modest young woman. If I were a teacher, I would take her much more seriously. She looked intellectual instead of … trampy.

Modesty is beautiful. The simplicity of school uniforms is beautiful.

When I brought everything to the cash register, I asked the clerk, “How long will it take to get the school logos sewn on?” I was embarrassed we were so last minute, wondering how much express postage would cost to have them mailed to us. But she looked over her shoulder at a teen girl busy pressing some things and said, “I think we’ll have all these done for you in about five minutes. Ten max.”

So we got all of our school shopping finished in less than an hour! I read in a magazine that the average parent will spend $483 per child on back-to-school clothes. We spent well below that — for clothes my kids would NEVER have picked out. But they’re so proud of their new uniforms!

We’re heading into a new adventure this year. My older daughter’s teacher already called us and said, “Our theme this year is F-R-O-G. It stands for Fully Relying on God.”

Fully Relying on God.

I wonder if she’d mind if I sat in the back of the room, taking a few notes.