Now that we had a home and knew we were accepted to seminary, things seemed more real. We now knew where we would be for the next 4 years of our lives, which was a totally new concept for us. If you know us at all, you know we have been moving almost every year and waiting for God to tell us where to go permanently. We never thought we would be living in the Twin Cities for 7 years, let alone what will end up being 11 (seminary lasts 4 years).

Yet in our staying, I feel God moving us. He is not moving us to another house, because He already did that, but the rest of our lives are moving in totally different directions. In our house move we have been moved to a totally different neighborhood. We no longer live in the suburbs, living in a sea of  mostly white middle class people. We now live in the urban area. We are now the minority and the neighborhood looks different in many ways.

Another way He is moving us is me working. I have had my home business for almost 3 years and, by God’s grace, the sales have picked up during the time where we were purchasing a house and moving. It was a big blessing. I love my job. The extra income was needed and was a way that God showed how he would provide for us. In that new provision, I found myself struggling to keep up with homeschool. Even though I was only working very part time, I could tell that I could not do both things well.

As we continued forward with plans for seminary and what life would look like, we knew that I would have to continue working and probably more than I had been. We also were beginning to see that I would not be able to teach our kids the same way I had been. We looked into homeschool co-op options and private school, but with both of those adding expenses to our already decreasing income, they became non-options.

We then began to broaden our education search options. We opened up all possibilities: public online school at home and public school out of the home. I had thoroughly enjoyed our past years of homeschooling, but it seemed that God was pointing us into a whole other direction now. With our life changes, a student having a some learning struggles, and a teacher having algebra teaching struggle, it seemed like a great option to look at options other than homeschooling.

In the same way that God have given this introverted mama peace about homeschooling and being with her children 24/7 six years ago, He gave me a total peace about moving in a new direction. It was a total new way of thinking for me and I’ll share more about that later in another post, but I’m excited about sending my kids to school. I do have a little nervousness about the unknowns, but I really almost feel a little too relaxed about it all. God has just totally overwhelmed me with His peace and made it evident that this is the direction we should go in this season of our life.