Disappointing Day

For those of you unfamiliar with the daycare process in Birmingham, it is an absolute pain in the butt.  Daycares are extremely expensive (most close to $1000 a month) and the majority of them are hard to get into, especially the daycares close to downtown, which is where I work.  So before Joey and I told even our parents and Nick and Kayla we were pregnant, we applied to several of the daycares we had heard good things about downtown. 

After visiting these, it was clear we had a frontrunner - Harris - which is the Auburn affiliated daycare.  This daycare has any and every ammenity you could think of ... a wetroom attached to each of the rooms for play with paints, sand, water, etc. that can be hosed down after play, a fully functioning child sized kitchen, separate playgrounds geared for different age groups, etc.  We knew how difficult it was to get in, if your corporation is not a sponsor, you can pretty much forget about a spot.  However, lucky for us, Joey's company was a sponsor.  We came to find out that his company was a second-tier sponsor which put us in a second category.  They would offer spots to first-tier sponsors first, and then all children of second-tier sponsors would be put on a waiting list that was picked at random order (so someone who registered yesterday had the same chances at us that registered a week after we found out we were expecting).  So although we knew we were in the second-tier, we hoped to have good luck in the lottery. 

Today was the big day that we could call and find out where we were on the list.  We have had it marked on our calendar for several weeks now.  Unfortunately we are #9, which may not seem that bad, but there are only 10 kids on the second-tier waiting list.  So of the order the spots were picked, we were next to last.  They have 13 spots and have made offers to 13 first-tier children, and then if any of those turn down the spot, we have to make it through 8 additional couples that say no before we would even get a chance.  Needless to say, there is about a 99% chance Caleb will not be going to Harris.

I know some of you may think I'm silly, but this has really upset me (I'm glad noone has come in my office today because I have been tearing up off and on since I found out - dang hormones).  But when you are a working mom, your children spend more time at their daycare than they do with you.  This guilt can eat away at anyone, but its not really an option for us, and I found a peace with Harris knowing they could teach Caleb more than I could at home and he would have more experiences there than I could give him. I had let myself get my hopes up that it would all work out and we would get in our first choice.  Yes I know there are other great schools in Birmingham, one of which we have already been admitted to (probably our third choice) and another we are waiting to hear from (expecting that news sometime in July), but this was our number one and I think I had let myself believe that we were going to be lucky this time.  Oh well, I know "everything happens for a reason" blah blah blah, but I'm allowing myself one day to be in a funk before I forget about it and focus on other things ... until July when we hear from our second choice.  I guess second or third place isn't that bad.