I had a dream that my kindergartener was getting beat up on the playground at her public school. In my dream, I went to talk to three of the authorities whom I knew personally in real life. Being very concerned, I kept pressing them, “What are you going to do about this?” “What are you going to do?” But they didn’t respond.
Then in my dream my oldest walks in the room. “Mom, do you know that Darby is getting beat up on the playground?”
“Yes, thank you. I am taking care of it.”
Then another of my children walks in and says the same thing, and then a third walks in and says the same thing. I turned my attention back to the three adults in authority, and they were still silent. Then I woke up.
I believe that God (who is the same yesterday, today and forever) still speaks in dreams so I took this seriously and never sent my kindergartener back to school. We had adopted her from Russia at the age of nine months and she has some mild developmental delays. The school system had been providing her an aide, extra speech, and occupational therapy. Now I was wondering how I was possibly going to continue homeschooling my older three elementary school kids, with the two preschoolers around, and now my highly distractible kindergarten wanting my attention? God, help.
Then about a week later I went to the CHEA Bay Area Convention. I hadn’t been in a few years, but God orchestrated the timing perfectly. Mostly I was looking forward to shopping, but one session caught my eye titled “Unlocking Your Special Needs Child’s Learning Potential.” So I went. What an encouragement and a blessing. God was faithful and reminded me that He was still in charge, homeschooling was His idea, and He would provide for all our needs—including what to teach my daughter, when, and how.
Through CHEA my passion was renewed. I didn’t even make it completely through any of the other sessions, but I found two books written to homeschooling parents that I went home and soaked up. I even ran into some friends that I hadn’t seen since we moved three years ago. (We ended up going out to dinner Saturday evening after the Convention.) I left refreshed and excited to finish the school year strong.
So refreshed, in fact, I realized it was time to bring my last two public school kids home. We adopted nine-year-old twins from Haiti a year ago and God gave us peace about enrolling them in our neighborhood public school for a season. (After much prayer, of course.)
They barely had any English skills when they started school. Now, with the school year ending, I can see how much English they had gained. But, I also see how their hearts have been drawn more to the other kids at school. I still know that God provided the public school for me when I needed it. And now I am ready for them to come home too. Eight kids, a wide variety of learning styles and “grade levels” but God’s goodness, grace and mercy will cover us all.
Copyright 2007. Rebekah Stemm. Reprinted by CHEA of California with permission of the author.