The rest of the story

I've written about the discernment process we went through that ended in determining that we were not meant to homeschool in this post. So, continuing the story, where were we going to send Jonathan to school?

I really wanted to send him to Catholic school. I went to Catholic school myself in elementary school and only have fond memories of it. In sixth grade I had to switch to public school because of serious health and financial problems in my family. This change was very traumatic for me. The school I went to was very rough, many of the kids there had lost their innocence years earlier, and there were times when I actually was fearful of the other kids in my class. I saw fights and gang activity. Kids had, or at least acted like they had, knowledge of sexual behavior while most of the time I had no clue what they were even talking about. Needless to say, this was very different from my Catholic school experience. And, even though the public schools in our area are very good, I was very apprehensive about sending Jonathan there.

Eric, on the other hand, had a very positive public school experience. He grew up in a small town, his Mom knew all his teachers personally as well as most of the parents of his classmates, and the school was small. So, he didn't have any objections to public school and was indifferent to the idea of private school.

But, even if I talked Eric into private school, paying for it was another issue indeed. I just couldn't make the numbers work no matter how much I willed them to, especially with a baby on the way and the need to replace my ten year old vehicle that had 140,000 miles on it. Private school seemed impossible but I just couldn't come to terms with the idea. I prayed over and over again that if God wanted us to send our son to public school that he would give me some peace about the decision. That peace never came.

One day at church, Eric happened on a flyer that described an opportunity to learn about the kindergarten program at a local Catholic school. For my sake, Eric agreed to at least go with me and learn a little more about the school. Eric and I sat through the meeting with the teachers, asked several questions and though I was pleased with the answers we got, I didn't know what Eric was thinking. After the meeting we stopped in the hallway to talk. What Eric told me shocked me.

"Jonathan is going to this school, " he said matter of factly and with the authority of the head of our household. "No matter what we have to do, no matter what sacrifices we have to make, we are going to make it happen. This place is home, it is where we belong."

I started to cry.

Even though we had no clue how we were going to make this work, I now felt so much peace. God had finally granted me the peace about our decision that I had been praying for. This school was God's will for us. We turned in our application.

Within weeks the miracles began to happen. Eric received a large and very unexpected (though totally deserved!) bonus at work. Then, my parents decided that they wanted to replace my Mom's minivan so they offered to sell it to us. The price they asked happened to be almost exactly what we had saved up for a new vehicle (well below what the van was actually worth). We could not have afforded a new vehicle any other way. And, to top it all off, four days after Augustine was born, Eric was offered an incredible promotion at work. He had thought that such an opportunity would be years down the road.

So, God took care of everything. Everything. He is so good. I am so truly, humbly thankful.