RECENTLYImagine that you've homeschooled your children for 16 years and within a 24 hour period two of your three children have left home to follow the Lord's leading for their lives. It is certainly a very happy occasion on the one hand, but also an occasion that can leave parents a bit numb & "fragile."
We had a wonderful week with our whole family moving our daughter & her husband to their new apartment out of state. There were many highlights like watching my husand, son-in-law, son & a friend precariously coax an expensive piano up a very narrow stairway to their apartment in 100 degree weather. We ate alot of great food, took in a presidential museum, attended a professional baseball game & my own personal highlight was a day at the mall with my pregnant daughter shopping for maternity clothes. Of course I thought she looked adorable in everything so it was hard to draw the line & stop for the day!
We arrived home on Friday & our 19 year old son quickly did his laundry & then off to college he went. Before we left, I had set a wastebasket out in our laundry room. It had been our daughter's little teddy bear wastebasket when she was little. It was old & needed to be cleaned & put away. My husband walked into the family room carrying it & asked whose it was & what I was doing with it. That is when we both had an official meltdown. I could barely get the words out that it had been our daughter's. The tears came & they needed to come. I had been holding them in so as not to upset the happy week we'd all been having.
You think so many random thoughts: Will my children remember everything we've taught them? Maybe not, but they can still be alright. It's kind of funny because I actually thought of telling my daughter to be careful going down their apartment steps as though she were still three years old! Thankfully, I held that thought in, but I did pray asking the Lord to help her not to fall down the steps! Well.....once a mom always a mom, right?!?
I spent yesterday getting organized for our new school year. That is always fun. I love new schoolbooks. And yep, I open them up and smell them! In my next post, I'd like to share about a few things we plan to do this year. As you begin another year of homeschooling remember that His grace is sufficient for you because His power is made perfect in our weaknesses. We can ask Him for anything! Even, "Lord, will you help YOUR child to not get their b's and d's turned around or Lord will you please help YOUR child to not get so distracted?" I remember praying many time that He would just give me one little shred of encouragement regarding their progress & He was always faithful. God bless.
My father always said that you never know if your kids were going to "turn out" until they were in their 30's. We have a ways to go. Our hopes and dreams for them will be realized little by little. God is faithful.