When we joined 232 Music Studios, our little family was crawling out of chaos.
Our daughter was a tender four, working through emotional trauma and behavioral regressions. After watching me endure years of debilitating medical struggles, she had most recently witnessed me face a 12-hour brain surgery, spending three weeks separated from her parents, and navigating months of my arduous recovery. Childhood interrupted.
As we neared 18 months post-op in early 2023, we sensed a profound chance to celebrate God’s faithfulness to our family and explore what investments might bring us all fresh joy.
My husband and I have always been musically inclined—not truly classically trained, but certainly musical at heart. We had always wanted to expose our daughter to as much music as possible—everything from classical to 90s country and 30s jazz. She reveled, spending many hours at my piano learning its notes and figuring songs by ear, just as I did as a child. Music was soothing our souls.
I’d seen this impact modeled—my own father found new life in his guitar as a teenager as he grieved his young brother’s horrific drowning. Picking up that instrument was transformative in all the most important ways, and set his life on a trajectory only music (and ultimately, God) could have orchestrated.
“Music…will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.”
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
My love for songwriting and piano-by-ear inspired me through countless disappointments, anxieties, and heartbreaks growing up. My husband tells a similar story of musical rescue in his college years.
So we started looking for somewhere to plug our girl in—not just to a mechanical lesson, but to a family of lives transformed by music. 232 quickly rose to the top of the list for us as we corresponded with owners Drew and Rachelle Bartels—their passion for all the right things was so infectious, so sincere, that going anywhere else seemed almost ridiculous.
We were thrilled to see the life-wide discipline and excellence their program fosters. After all—our primary goal isn’t raising the next Mozart, it is guiding a young life of character, diligence, grace, and passion. How incredible it was to learn that 232 cares as much about heart and mind as fingers and ears.
A year and a half later, we marvel at how much our daughter has learned—in both music and life. The group setting at 232 has been wonderful for our extroverted girl, allowing her to work on her social skills after spending most of her early years in a health-hindered world.
Despite her growing pains, I’m convinced she’s miles further down the road to restoration because of the opportunities 232 has given her to better understand and love music. Her teachers and other 232 staff have walked faithfully with all three of us through some tough twists—cheering her successes, guiding her into wisdom, and fostering honor and respect in a world sorely lacking them.
A music lesson that fulfills music’s deepest purposes. A fountain of joy, alive in all of us. What more could we ask for?
