This time four years ago I was awaiting the arrival of two things that were very dear to me - our long- prayed-for second child and our first official year of homeschooling. Our oldest son was six and we had tried for about three years to get pregnant. I went through the normal ups and downs and spiritual questioning that every woman who has faced infertility has seen. We were thrilled when the Lord opened my womb, with no help from doctors, and were counting the weeks until our second son came into the world.

As for homeschool, my husband had allowed me to 'try it out' on a temporary basis for my son's K4 and K5 years. I prayed for a year for God to work His will in my husband's heart regarding homeschooling. That year, when our son was six my husband gave his blessing that we could homeschool, and I was busy preparing the state-required paperwork.

I spent hours planning for both the baby and homeschooling. I spent the summer reading birthing books and writing lesson plans. The baby was due in September, so I hoped to get a full month of school done before he came. I worried about how I would do school and care for a baby. I agonized over curriculum and baby-scheduling and came up with a perfect plan. I had objectives for every subject, monthly evaluations, and even a homemade planbook that I had spiral-bound at Staples. I wrote down four different schedules for the baby, faithfully attended childbirth classes, and stocked up on all the sweet-smelling-Johnson&Johnson products I could buy.

Then God happened.

It was our first week of school and it had gone well so far. That Thursday we were set to work on reading, math & science.  While I was sitting in our rocking chair, reading a book to my son, I wet my pants. Or so I thought. When I stood up and more liquid gushed down my leg I realized what had happened. My water broke. A month early. I wasn't scared, but just frustrated that things weren't going according to plan, and I didn't even have a bag packed.

I had no idea what to expect, so I went to the bathroom to see if anything mysterious, like a baby, came out with the water. It hadn't. I left my soaked shorts on the bathroom floor and waddled to the phone in my underwear. My industrious six year old grabbed a towel and followed behind me as I left a trail of amniotic fluid all over our new laminate floors. I called my sister and my husband. I told one to bring me maxi pads and the other to get his butt home from work fast.

I had no idea then that the two things I had been waiting for would come in the same week. Sometimes God surprises us like that. Sometimes He just knocks us plum out with His love - like blessing us with four children in those four years (one is still cooking). 

Four years later, I am again spending the summer planning for another baby and another schoolyear to arrive almost simultaneously. Only this time I have more experience and wisdom to draw from when I'm making my plans. Here's what I've learned about babies, birth, and homeschool during these four years.

• I've learned that rocking my babies to sleep is okay.
• I've learned that hospitals are the worst places to give birth.
• I've learned that what a struggling reader needs more than an oustanding phonics program is an encouraging and relaxed mom who loves him when he succeeds and when he fails.
• I've learned that everything I thought I knew about parenting when raising one compliant child turned to dust when we added three progressively more stubborn children.
• I've learned that my husband can't read my mind when I'm in labor, and even though he  sometimes needs me to tell him what to do, he is the only person I want touching me when I'm having a baby.
• I've learned that school will get done eventually and children are always learning, even if their progress doesn't fall within the parameters set forth by public school.
• I've learned that its harder to break a 2yo from finger sucking than from paci-sucking, but it does make for a cute picture.
• I've learned that all the parenting, birthing, homeschooling experts are really just people and they don't always know everything.
• I've learned that no matter how well-laid out my plans are or how much I think I know, God's ways are better than mine. And if He brings about something in my life that doesn't go according to my plan- well, then I should shove my plans to the backburner and thank the Lord that He loves me enough to lead me on.