Since having a fourth child is not exciting enough, we sold our house and moved. The story is much bigger than that, so full of God's goodness and grace. To tell it well, I have to go back to August.
When Luke and Eli finished school last year, we had been told that they would be in the same class together the following school year. The program they are in has a combined first and second grade class. While Eli was thrilled, Luke was unsure about having his brother with him 24/7. Right before the school year started I got a call from the teacher saying they were going to move some of the second graders in with the third grade class, and would I be okay with Luke moving up. Luke was thrilled, I was unsure because I didn't know the third grade teacher and absolutely loved the second grade teacher.
"Meet the Teacher" happened without me because that was the day I was going with Kris to make the size of our family permanent. :) Kris' mom took the boys for me. So, about two weeks into the beginning of the school year I made an appointment with Luke's teacher to meet her for the first time. The morning of the meeting Judah and I walked Eli to his class, where we stopped to chat with Eli's teacher (Luke's teacher from the year before). She spent five minutes telling me what all she was doing to help Eli with his handwriting (which I was almost completely unable to decipher - he's a lefty) and also how proud she was of what a hard worker he was and how glad she was to have him in her class. She had a room full of students, but she gave me that gift because that's the kind of teacher she is. (By the way, Eli's handwriting is so good now, I sometimes have to ask who's is who's when looking at his and Luke's papers!) I went from there to meet Luke's teacher. I knew within fifteen seconds of meeting her that she was something special and that having her as Luke's teacher would be a gift.
I left the school overwhelmed. My boys are my heart, and it is challenging for me to leave them in someone else's care for seven hours a day. When I sat down for some quiet time I wept in gratitude at God's goodness for giving my boys teachers who I knew would love them and recognize their needs, as well as draw their strengths out of them. I said, "God, look what You've done!" So sweetly and clearly, I saw a mental picture of God shrugging His shoulder and saying, "What do you expect? You are blessed. Homeschool or public school, you will be blessed. Your children will be blessed. Your family will be blessed. You are blessed. The blessings of Abraham are yours."
Moments like that are so profound. They change us because they are ours alone. We can hear someone else's word from the Lord or read the Word, but when we hear Him speak a word directly to us, that word has power to change us. I walked away from that moment with the beginning of a new journey of powerful peace and trust.
A month later, Kris and I were talking about our house and our dream to build a new house on a lot that we purchased earlier in the year. While we were happy in our home and with our location, we had lots of equity in our house but not the resources to do the things to our house that were sorely needing to be done. Three boys can be rough on carpet, walls, furniture, etc. With God's word to me freshly ringing in my heart, I said to Kris, "Why don't we just put our house on the market for way more than we think we can get for it and just see what happens?" He reminded me that we were about to have a baby any day and didn't really have a plan past selling the house. To which I replied, "God told me we would be blessed, so let's give him an opportunity to show us how good He wants to be to us."
To Be Continued...
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