New Beginnings

Nine years ago I was faced with a big decision.  Professor and I had just moved to Texas.  We were both in school and both working multiple jobs.  It was a very trying time in our marriage and life.  On top of this we found out some very excited, yet scary news, we were going to be parents!  Yes, in January of 2003, only 2 weeks after moving, I found out I was pregnant with Wild Man.  Well as you can imagine, this changed everything!  One big thing it did was to make us painfully aware of the fact that we could not afford or manage both us being in school, with several jobs, and a new born.  So, one of us had to take a break from school.  Since we had moved to Texas for Professor's schooling, and since I was the mom and most of the newborn duties would fall on me, I made the very difficult decision to take a break from school.  Those who were close to me then know how hard it was.  I had never once before then even considered not finishing college.  It never crossed my mind.  In fact, I looked down on those who didn't.  I never understood why people wouldn't go to college if they could.  So, this felt like defeat to me.  I felt like a failure.  I lost some friends (who really in all honesty were not friends) because of my decision.  I had mean things said to me and lots of people began to judge me and look down on me, as I had to so many people.  It suddenly became my mission to finish school at some point just to prove people wrong.  So that I could look at the people who had said, "you will never go back" and say, "I told you so!  Look at me!"

As the years went by and began to really love being a mom and the role God had given me the need to go back to college began to grow faint.  I still had people tell me that it was a bad decision to quit and that would never finish.  However, the older I got and the more in love with God I fell, the need to made people happy or prove them wrong grew weaker and weaker.  Suddenly I found myself in a great place. I was doing things God wanted me to do, not the world.  So, I made another decision.  I decided that if and when I went to back to school, it would be in God's time, for God's glory!  And, if that meant I never went back, then I was okay with that.  Being in the center of God's plan for my life became priority.  I did not care what the world said about me and my education.  After all, I was not going to stand before them when I died!  

As many of you know over the past few years God has been working in amazing ways in my life and one thing He has called me to do is teach my kids at home.  Many of you would be surprised to know that in the state of Mississippi you do not have to have a college degree to to do this.  This was right up my alley.  I love teaching and now I was able to do something I loved and didn't need a college degree!! God is good.  

However, during my research of homeschooling I learned that many states are requiring a degree.  I am sure that MS will be the last one but it became apparent to me that eventually this might be an issue.  About 2 years ago, I began to pray about this.  I wanted to go when it was God's time, not mine, but my heart begin to ache to finish my degree so that if one day MS did make it a law, I would still have the ability to homeschool my children.  

Well after 2 years of prayer God has made it clear that it is time!  I am going back to school!  Not because I want to prove people wrong, but because I want to bring glory to the name of GOD and He has made it clear that I need to do this in order to fulfill what HE has in store for our family in the future.  

I will be completing my degree 100% online.  This will still give me the freedom to homeschool and be the wife and mom God has called me to be.  I will be changing my major from Elementary Education to a Bachelor of Science in Business Management.  Right now I am still in the application process but if all goes well I will begin either at the end of April or in June at the latest.  

I am very excited and can not wait to see how God uses this next phase of my life for HIS glory!!