Unexpected blessing

We live about 2 miles from the middle school that M&M will be attending this year. Unfortunately, the cut-off for bus rider eligibility is also 2 miles and according to the school we are about 2 houses inside of that 2 mile boundary. So we have been discussing on and off how M&M would get to and from school and if we could possibly work out some carpooling with some other neighbors. Then last week M&M got her school schedule in the mail and included with it was a schedule of the bus route along with a little orange laminated piece of paper attached to it that had M&M's name and the bus number on it. There was no other explanation beyond that. Also included with her schedule was a paper that said if you want to find out if you qualify for the bus, go to a certain website and enter in your street address and the website will let you know where the bus stops are. If you don't qualify, the website will not give you any bus info. When we go to the website it indicates that we do not qualify for a bus.

I then ran into a neighbor that has some older kids a day or two later and asked her about the buses for the middle school. She said that the little orange piece of paper we got in the mail is a ticket to ride the bus and that they must have had some extra spaces on the bus that they gave out to those that live near the 2-mile boundary. This neighbor said that her kids also don't normally qualify for the bus but this year they also received a bus ticket. So we are excited that that is one less thing that I will have to work into my schedule this year! Also the daughter of my friend that I was looking at carpooling with also received a bus ticket for this year so M&M will have a couple of her friends on the bus with her.