Puddle Jumping: My Homeschool Bus Visits the Dentist and Orthodontist: Otherwise known as the week strangers put their hands in my mouth

This week, my homeschool bus will visit the dentist and the orthodontist. By the time the week is done, we will have visited each place a total of 7 times, so I figured why not turn it into a field trip of sorts.

My daughter has dubbed the week: "The week of strangers putting their hands in my mouth!"

My beautiful older children, age 13 and 11, have all of their permanent teeth (with the exception of their wisdom teeth). Unfortunately, they got their mama's genetics when it comes to bite and eye teeth. I was in braces for a total of 4 years and 2 months, but then who is counting?

We went for a consultation before we left for the beach in June. ...After I picked my husband up off the floor when he saw the estimated cost to put two children in braces at one time, we began to pray and pray, and figure our finances, and did I mention, pray?

How in the world were we going to afford this?

Plodding forward, we made a dental appointment for both of them to get their teeth cleaned. Thankfully, our son came through with flying colors. Unfortunately, our daughter had 2 cavities.

Do you know the cost to fill two cavities nowadays?

We left the dentist office with her in tears, and I'm convinced it's more a matter of her competitive nature than anything else. In her mind, her brother got an A+, and she came away with an F.

Thanks to, what we will count as our answer to prayer, a dentist who gives discounts to those without dental insurance, a credit card, two low-interest credit card checks and a generous offer to help from my father-in-law, we got it covered in terms of cost.

Now, to get the rest of the way there with the process that has become known in our house as "the worse week of my life", according to our daughter who did finally stop crying about the cavities.

Last week, my son went to get an impression for his braces to be put on Thursday.

Here's how my daughter's week looks:

Monday - spacers put in
Wednesday - two cavities filled (her first ever experience with Novocaine)
Thursday - two kids - two sets of braces.

I personally cannot wait until the following Monday when this entire process is behind us, and we are a few days into the 15 months of braces treatment - Let's hope it doesn't take a second longer than predicted.

We also have to altar our diet a bit.

See, since the beginning of childhood, we have had a family ritual on Saturday night. We watch a movie and pop popcorn.

The braces on means no more popcorn - At least not the kind with the hulls. We are looking into an Amish hulless popcorn so as not to completely traumatize our braces wearing children.

Monday's spacers were dreadfully uncomfortable and painful for my daughter.
Wednesday's dentist visit brought tears of fear and anger from her, and mama thought she might pass out as she bravely sat by her daughter's side and watched the entire procedure of fillings - including the novocain needles. Yikes!
Thursday's braces being put on both children went very well, except no one can fully properly prepare any parent for how a child, my son, who has sensory issues will respond to braces. If we can get past this first week, I think we'll be ok.