"Here I raise mine Ebenezer ..."

I'd planned to homeschool the boys. 

For a number of reasons, that seemed to be the best choice for us.  I had a nagging fear about teaching the boys to read, for some reason. It's just so foundational, and I knew if I screwed that up, I could really be handicapping their educations for years to come, but still, homeschool seemed to be the best fit for my boys, so we were ready to get Pressley Prep off the ground as soon as they'd graduated from preschool at Clyde First Baptist. 

But first, they started preschool. I enrolled them, thinking it might be good for Jones to be away from me some - maybe it'd help him to mature. I could never have anticipated the change in him that we've seen in the two months since he's started. In fact, Mrs. Doris, who taught him on the days he attended "camp" this Summer, told me last month, "He's not the same little boy I saw back in the Summer." 

I already knew it.

He's grown up SO much, since starting school. Freddie's done great, as well, but Freddie's success was never in doubt. It's Jones's flourishing that's been the most amazing. Seeing it, I started second guessing my plans to homeschool.

Maybe, I thought, Jones NEEDS school. 

So I started to pray for guidance - and to look at our options. Basically, there are two: Haywood Christian and Asheville Christian. I'd always written them off as either too small (HCA) or too far away (ACA). This, of course, fed into our decision to homeschool. 

But when I started praying about it, I decided to visit both schools. My assumption was that HCA would be an immediate, unequivocal "NO;" ACA would be just as resounding a "YES," and the complication would be deciding whether or not I could convince myself that keeping two kindergarteners in the car for 2 hours a day was a wise use of their time. 

Our first visit was to HCA. It took MINUTES for me to know that my pre-conceived opinions about the school were wrong. I was almost instantly at ease with both the school and its mission. Jeremy was, too. I was shocked by how impressed I was and told Jeremy I'd feel completely comfortable with the boys going to kindergarten there. 

We're slated to visit ACA next Thursday. I told Jeremy this week, though, that I don't even know why we're bothering. I know it's a great school - and if HCA doesn't grow before the boys are in high school, it's a definite option for their later grades, but for now, the distance and, more convincingly, the mission of the school, make it a great fit.

So while I felt settled on the school we'd send them to if we were to send them to school, I still wasn't sure if we should send them. With a viable option ten minutes from home, the major hurdle became the money component.

So I prayed.

Then, on Thursday, I got my answer. That's why I'm writing this all down, by the way. I want the boys to know, first, how Jeremy and I came to make the decision that we did, and secondly, how amazingly God directed the choice and provided for their educations. 

The boys were at school, and I knew I needed to read my Bible. I had to FORCE myself to do it on this day - I really remember standing in the doorway to the kitchen, thinking, "Ugh. I have so much else I need to do," but I did it, anyway, and THANK GOD FOR THAT. 

Something I read reminded me of a friend, who's facing a really big decision. I read in Genesis 24 (the same lesson I taught my 3 year olds in Sunday school last week, as a matter of fact!) - it's the account of Abraham sending his servant to find a wife for Isaac. What I love most about that account are how the servant seeks God's direction for his journey and how God answers before the servant stops praying.

On this day, though, something else about the passage jumped out at me.

The servant has VERY SPECIFICALLY asked God to do something; He does it TO THE LETTER, and then the servant sits back to decide if God had blessed his journey. I do that SO OFTEN. God will do something only He can do, and then doubt will crowd my mind, and I'll wonder if it's really Him - or just coincidence (as if that's even a thing).

Reading this, of course, made me think of my friend, so I sent her a video message and told her about it. I then told her about how the servant doubted and how I always do that, too, and I used the example of the boys' school: 

"We're praying about the boys school. Homeschool? Go to school? And if they go to school, it's gonna cost (SUM OF MONEY). We don't HAVE (SUM OF MONEY). God could send us (SUM OF MONEY) TODAY, and I would still sit back and wonder if that what it was for."

That, I thought, was that. I closed my Bible and went on with my life.

At 3:30 that afternoon, I was driving to Greenville for a Children's Theatre board meeting. I checked my email, while I was sitting at a stoplight. I had a completely out of the blue, 1000% unsolicited email from the head of the Education Department at Furman (the one I worked for last Spring, the one who paid for our Disney trip ... even though it got cut in less-than-half (ANGST-Y FACE EMOJI)). In it, she asked me to teach one class this Spring and one class next Fall, the earnings from which, Y'all, WOULD EQUAL (SUM OF MONEY).

In other words, God DID send us (SUM OF MONEY) "today." I immediately knew the answer. The boys are to go to school, and their tuition is COVERED by God's totally unexpected, totally out of the clear blue provision. I was so certain that God was in this that my response was basically that I was so honored to be asked back and very interested in the job. I told them my circumstances had changed, though, and with my boys in school, I'd need them to change the schedule, so I could pick up my boys from school each day. 

I asked this more boldly than I've probably ever asked anything else in my entire life, because I KNEW God was in this. If He could provide the gig, He could EASILY rework the schedule. To be anything less than bold in my response seemed to say I was wavering in my certainty that this was His plan.

I emailed my need for a schedule change to the head of the department around 10 p.m. Thursday. By 11:15 a.m. Friday, it was signed, sealed, and delivered - the course was mine, at the same pay rate as last year and with the schedule that allows me to be back in Canton a full hour before I need to pick up the boys. 

I still get goosebumps when I recount this tale.

CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE THAT????

As I was sharing it with some friends, it occurred to me that I'd have missed out on it altogether, if I hadn't FORCED myself into my Quiet Time that morning (shame on me that I had to FORCE myself). If I hadn't read the account in Genesis 24 that made me video message Leslie, then I wouldn't have unknowingly foretold the EXACT THING THAT GOD WAS PREPARING TO DO THAT VERY DAY. I'd have gotten Furman's email and been totally confused about what I should do - teach or not? And what about the boys??? 

But because the Holy Spirit made it SO CLEAR I HAD to read my Bible that morning, I instead had complete peace - the school decision was settled, and the question of how to pay for it was miraculously answered all by a God Who promises to direct our steps if we acknowledge Him in all our ways. 

I'm not saying they'll be in school forever. In fact, a big part of me would LIKE to bring them home for several years ... but not until AFTER they learn to read, which, we now know, they'll be doing at Haywood Christian Academy.

Go, Red Wolves. 

And THANK YOU, Father, for Your direction and provision.