Patriot Moms

Submitted by new Patriot Mom, Lesley Riendeau, Patriot Mom

My family moved to Bentonville from Jacksonville, Florida in November 2008 when my husband, Ed, took a job with Walmart. We moved with 3 children who were all 5 and under and didn’t know anyone in Arkansas. The move was a really big one for my family because Ed and I were both pretty much born and raised in Jacksonville and all of our family was there. We prayed and sought the Lord’s direction and really felt like Bentonville is where He wanted us.

Our education plans for our children in Florida was to homeschool full-time. When we started investigating the support groups in Arkansas, there just wasn’t anything that we found to be like what we had in Florida. I was interested in Classical Education and heard about Providence from another mom, and I told my husband we should attend the information session so we could find out what Classical Education is all about. I had no intentions of liking Providence or sending Elle there. Little did I know what the Lord had in store for me.

I sat through that meeting and was totally blown away by the Administration’s commitment to be Christ-centered in all matters at school. Mrs. Hilliard spoke about being a mom, an administrator and a previous homeschool mom, and what Providence meant to her and her family. The testimonies really made me think long and hard about our education goals, why we wanted to homeschool and the pros and cons of a school like Providence.

I came out of that meeting loving Providence and believing it would be a wonderful place for our family. My husband and I didn’t talk about it until we got in the car and we soon realized we were on the same page. We went home and prayed about it and felt like it was the Lord’s desire for us to send Elle there.

Elle was accepted into Providence and shortly after that I discovered that the lump on my leg that surfaced while I was pregnant was not a lipoma as 2 OB’s in my practice told me, but that it was a cancerous tumor that needed to be removed. Soft tissue sarcomas are rare and the only surgeon in Arkansas that performs them is in Little Rock. Long story short – I had the tumor removed, along with one of my hamstring muscles. I just completed 6 weeks of radiation treatments and am currently continuing with my physical therapy.

Mrs. Russell and Mr. Ross were aware of my surgery and were kind enough to be praying for my family. After Elle was accepted, I was assigned a mentor mom – Megan Morgan. She called me to introduce herself and when she found out about my situation, she immediately brought a meal over for my family and offered to watch the kids if I needed her to while I went to appointments or just needed to rest. Megan received my email updates and always responded with encouragement and assurances that she was praying for me. Megan told Beth Ann Fox about me and she called me to introduce herself and offered to do anything we needed to help. She immediately brought over a meal for us and has since called to offer her family’s time to help clean, pull weeds or help in any way we might need.

I knew from the informational meetings and from the interview process that Providence was going to be a special place. I had no idea that people who did not know us would reach out and take care of us in our time of need. These special people at Providence showed us the love of Christ and were His hands and feet in a very real way to our family. The Lord met our desire for us to be able to school Elle at home and as only He could and provided an extended family for us.