In March of 2010 (the previous school year), God began revealing to me that there were things from my childhood that I had been harboring anger in my heart over and hadn't realized. The anger had begun to overflow and manifest in my mean words and cruel tone to those I loved most and sometimes even people I didn't even know. I had confided in my mentor and she is the one that bluntly pointed this out. On the drive home from meeting with her I had asked God to clearly confirm what my mentor had said if her words were right. I immediately got into the Word when I got home from meeting with her. HE had me read the passage in John 6:45, "out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." I knew that I needed to focus on getting healing and working through the anger I had buried down and I knew that that was something I could not do on top of homeschooling five days a week. We began to fervently pursue God and what He thought was the best course for our children, our family, and my healing. We both felt God was making it very clear to enroll Jonah and Caleb in public school for the following school year of 2010/2011. Deciding to put them into public school was the hardest decision I've EVER had to obey but at the exact same time it was coupled with the deepest sense of absolute peace in the fact that this was exactly what God desired. I trusted Him fully to meet my children's needs both spiritually and academically in ways they would not get through being homeschooled and to protect them from things/habits or worldly beliefs that He did not wish for them to pick up. So we kicked off the fall school year of 2010/2011 with Jonah and Caleb attending our neighborhood elementary school and me teaching Kindergarten to Matty and Preschool to Nathan two times a week. We walked Jonah and Caleb to school every morning and while I ached and missed them immensely all day while they were at school (it never got easier the entire year), I was so thankful for those morning walks that were full of adventure, races, skipping, flower picking, bug observing, and meaningful relational conversations with my children! God also used that season of semi-rest (homeschooling kinder and preschool twice a week was a MUCH lighter load of responsibility) to not only address and bring me through to healing deeply closed off areas of my heart that HE revealed to me but to also free up my time to allow me to start the daunting and time consuming task of the paperwork process for adopting a little girl from China. Yes, God had made a 10 year longing and praying for the ability for us to adopt a girl from China a reality!
By the end of this school year in May of 2011 I was in a much, MUCH better place emotionally and spiritually having had pretty much a sabbatical from teaching and raising 4 kids round the clock/full time and was ready to take on the following year with all four kids being home once again. So at the end of our 6th year homeschooling only ever homeschooling 2 kids at a time,
An excerpt from my 2010 Christmas letter:
"Jonah and Caleb entered their
first year of public school. Jonah is in
3rd and Caleb is in 1st.
Their school has been fantastic as far as working with us to challenge
our boys academically (they are both a year ahead academically from the grade
level they’re in) and what not, we are not sure if they will be returning next
year or if I will home school all of them.
It is still a deep desire of mine to home school and I miss it
terribly! I am still homeschooling
Matthew and even Nathan joined in by starting up preschool this year! I love it!
We know ultimately it’s the Lord’s decision and He knows what’s best so
I’ve been seeking Him relentlessly and petitioning Him in prayer in this area."
Nathan's First Day of Preschool
Jonah and Caleb's first day at public school
Dropping Caleb off at his class desk
\
Jonah sitting at his classroom desk
No comments:
Post a Comment