Our household has turned the page onto a new
chapter. It is a very bittersweet
change, and I will have to say that the emphasis is more on the bitter. We now have completely cut ties with the city
of Eagan but it came with a price, our boys are no longer going to Suzie’s for
daycare. Since we sold our house and
moved in July, we had continued to drive back to Eagan for daycare. I had come up with so many excuses to stay
with Suzie.
First excuse: We couldn’t find anyone that we liked. Majority of parents can agree with me on
this, it is so hard looking for daycares.
It really is a chore and an emotional roller coaster. Honestly, no one can watch and love my kids
as much as me, and once I put that aside it comes down to a mother intuition
and gut feelings to find a next to “perfect” substitute. After calling almost every provider in the
city, we had met with a handful of in home providers and a couple of centers
and we just did not get that comforting feeling. Oh and with these visits we
have come away with some interesting stories but one visit sticks out the
most. She came to us as a referral,
granted, the person who referred us to her wasn’t very normal herself, but we
needed some place to start. We pulled up
very “ornate” aka tacky landscape complete with Roman pillars and half naked
statues (try explaining that to a 2 y/o!).
Then she leads us into her very empty basement and gives us a tour of
the area where the kids will be which had a room with large doors with a dead
bolt on it – according to her the kitchen was behind those doors and very
dirty…<creepy> Peter and I knew within the first 5 minutes (and that is
being generous) that this was not going to work. Oh, and she repeatedly told us how beautiful
M is, while we know this, she completely ignored E.
Second excuse: Let’s keep the boys at Suzie’s for the
first week in our new house so they can keep a something that is familiar
during all of the changes. Let’s keep
the boys at Suzie’s so they can enjoy the summer party. Let’s keep the boys at Suzie’s so they can
celebrate their birthdays with their friends.
Let’s keep the boys at Suzie’s so they can have a Halloween party with
their friends. Let’s keep the boys at
Suzie’s because we need some structure and consistency to help potty train E.
(Ha - the attempt for potty training lasted an entire day…) I just kept coming
up with excuses because I did not want to continue looking for someone else
which leads into my next excuse.
Third excuse – and the biggest excuse! Suzie is AMAZING! Honestly, it was going to
be so hard to find someone to top her.
Suzie was such a blessing in our lives and God truly led us to her. When E first started daycare we settled with
a provider and we did not know what we were missing out on until we found
Suzie. She give us a 2 week notice after
we told her we put our house on the market (only none of us knew that it
wouldn’t sell for another year) and we were thrown into the emotional roller
coaster with such a short time frame to find someone to watch our sweet
boy. Then we found Elaine, Elaine was
great – another blessing, but after 2 months, she decided to retire. We were given a month to find someone and at
this point we needed to find someone that had openings for 2 kids. That is
where Suzie comes into the picture. We
instantly knew that we liked her – even though she only had 1 opening we could
not pass her up.
Suzie is that “perfect” substitute and a saint because
she got to deal with E during one of the toughest ages. Not only is she patient, but she also does
not take any flack and knew how to effectively disciple. What was supposed to be a temporary solution
that did not have any infant openings turned out to be over a year with an
infant opening. During this time, E’s
vocabulary and imagination grew leaps and bounds. Also, thanks to Suzie’s persistence we
started to get pictures from art project that were more than just 1 color of
scribbles. I can go on and on about all
of the things that Suzie did, but I think that the reason that made her so
great is the fact that Suzie (along with her husband, Uncle Leo) truly loved my
kids as her own. That is something the
brings any parent comfort and why I gave into all of the other “excuses.” Suzie has become a part of our family.
With all of that, I guess as the saying goes, all good
things must come to an end. Today was
the boys first day at their new school but trust me, I keep coming up with more
excuses as to why we need to go to Eagan just so we can visit Suzie, and I am
sure that will happen soon! This is also a reminder for anyone who is reading this with kids, do not forget to thank your day care providers! :)
