Dear Audrey,
Just wanted to let you know that I decided to send Jacob back to our home school, Sutter. We've been thinking and praying about this, and we are sure this is what we wanted to do.
I wanted to let you know the the reasons why, because you are such a big part of Milllikin and my desire for Jacob to attend in the first place.
Basically, I'm going back to Sutter not because of what Millikin is, but because of what I'm leaving at Sutter. I really had no business applying to Millikin in the first place. I didn't apply till the end of January, didn't visit the school tours since two years before that, and didn't even care about my number on the waiting list. But after discovering that I had a good waiting list number, I was so enticed to attend Millikin because of its strength in academics, its structure and discipline, and because your family attended that school -- and I have a lot of respect for you and your family. Also, because almost everyone who doesn't know Sutter told me that I'd be crazy to give up the opportunity to "attend the best school in California" or to give-up getting a "private school education for public school prices". Also thinking about the CLIP program left open the possibility of leaving Sutter, and Millikin was a very attractive, if not better, opportunity. Plus the work displayed at the open house was very impressive, and the families and children there appeared friendly and happy.
On the other hand, I really had no good reason for leaving Sutter. Sutter has a community of friends whom Jacob & I have grown to love. Just as my group at LSI was like family to me, so is Sutter. Of the 55 families in Jacob's 2nd grade class (divided among 3 classrooms), I know about 2/3's of them because of volunteering, after-school activities, sport teams, birthday parties, and just by standing outside near, but not distracting, the classroom those 10 minutes before dismissal. Like LSI, there are a lot of Christians at Sutter. We have an after-school Bible club, of which many of Jacob's Christian & non-Christian friends attend, and it is supported by a group of teachers and a principal who pray for the Sutter kids every Wednesday morning. Also, I really liked how Jacob has friends from school who live just around the corner, and that one day, he & Joanna could actually walk w/ their friends to school. Finally, his teachers at Sutter give warm hugs and while managing to challenge and inspire Jacob. I have seen Jacob grow tremendously these past two years academically, emotionally, and socially.
Over the past 2 weeks, I've felt so much loss after I left Sutter, and it was reinforced again and again when I pass by the campus, or see old friends. My feelings were validated by Hong (thank you for passing me her contact info), who told me that after 3 years at Millikin, her son still longed to return to Sutter (which is not an option for him since Sutter is not their home school).
I feel that God allowed me to send Jacob a little while to Millikin to really appreciate what I had at Sutter. I'm sure that if Jacob had started out at Millikin as a Kindergartener, I would probably love Millikin just as I do Sutter. While I had been conerned at Sutter about whether it was academic or structured enough, or whether Jacob's education was being slowed down by the academically "lowest kids", I now feel a new confidence that this is where God has put us and this is where I want my kids to be.
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