Back to School

Tomorrow is the day John heads back to school.  His district doesn't start yet, but there are all the inevitable meetings, inservices and whatever that have to be done before the students return.  What a blessing to have him home and able to come with me to chemo every week.  Even if I have slept through the last few, it's been nice for him to be there.  

Lots of people have asked me "are you STILL homeschooling, with all THIS going on?"  Well yes, I mean, it looks bad if one of the administrators of the homeschool group sends her kids to school!  Ha!  Just kidding.  Seriously, we are homeschooling, because if this is what we feel God is calling us to, how can we not? 

On a very selfish note, I was thinking to have my kids in school would be lots of work for ME!  It would be at least 3 different schools, plus preschool if Jesse went out.  Picking up and dropping off could be a full time job!  The local high school doesn't have bus service to this area, and you know preschoolers won't have bus service!  On top of all that, there would be after school activities, not to mention my own appointments plus Emily's now too.  That could make for quite a rigorous schedule.  I think we all prefer to do math in our jammies whenever possible :)

Our school last semester looked anything but traditional. My 7 yr old can explain the immune system to you in scary detail, and can explain how that relates to his Mom almost not being home for his birthday. Hannah knows as much about horse care as she probably can, without actually owning a horse. She can also tell you lots about the flora and fauna out by the ranch. We were so grateful that there were some "outside" classes that Emily was already enrolled in--all I had to do was get her there.

Sure, my kids did not learn what *I* had planned for them, but looking back they learned at least one thing that was invaluable. They learned what it means to be blessed by others. My kids watched as our friends and family came around and met our needs--spoken and unspoken. They saw friends come and pray with us and for us, friends come and clean our house, bring meals, drive me to and from appointments, take them to classes, field trips and more. To me, learning to serve others is so much more important than the other things I had planned.

So starting out this semester, I have plans again. Not firm plans this time :) We are still uncertain about how much more treatment I will need, and are only just starting out the road on Emily's treatment. Maybe that is something else we are learning--to be flexible! 

I'm hoping, that in the future we can return the blessing of service to others.  Hopefully the blessings we recieved will take root in my children's hearts, and they will be more sensitive to other's needs from this experience.