I have spent a great deal of time wondering, praying, hoping that sometime soon I’d have the opportunity to move forward with a desire that’s been on my heart for many, MANY years.  The time has finally come to move into a new phase of life…change directions for awhile and refocus on a new stage in my life.

When I was younger, I’ll admit I thoroughly enjoyed bossing my younger brothers around.  I vividly remember being told that I wasn’t the boss or to stop being a mother hen.  But the truth was that I LOVED being in charge, showing them how to do things, telling them the right way.  As I got older (okay not really older but once you hit grade 7 you finally start feeling older), I participated in peer counselling programs, started baby-sitting, helping in the nursery and other kids programs at church and just generally began feeling the groove of where my travels may eventually take me.  I can’t really pinpoint the moment I realized my life calling became apparent to me but I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that all my life experience has led me to the inevitable conclusion that I was meant to be a teacher.

I’ve blogged about this before…multiple times in fact, in various ways and I acknowledge that God has gifted me with the opportunity to “teach” in numerous ways and in a variety of roles.  But the kind of teaching I’m looking forward to is in the classroom setting and more specifically, in the public system.
James and I were clear on how this would look.  We’d get married, somewhere along the line I’d finish my B.A., have some kids, buy a house and THEN when our youngest child was in school full-time we’d pursue my final year of certification.  I appreciated that my main role for many years would be staying home with my children.  I wanted to be involved, present in their formative years and we valued the fact that we were actually able to accomplish this.  I detoured here and there with odd jobs along the way but it never interfered with being with my children.  It DID, however, always seem to align with the ultimate goal of career teaching.  Private tutoring, ESL tutoring, coaching basketball, etc. It’s phenomenal to me that when God creates you for something everything you do seems to line up with that ultimate goal.
Well as most of you can imagine, there were a lot of “in 10 years…, 5 years from now…, 3 more years…” discussions that happened along the way and now 13 years of marriage, four kids, two houses later we are on the verge of seeing this goal finally come to fruition.  I can’t imagine what it will look like being a student again.  Sitting alongside my children completing homework, late nights of planning and worrying over assignments to be completed.  But I can tell you this much, God has opened the doors in ways I never expected.  He has granted me peace and the ability to complete this part of my journey with the amazing support of my husband and my four children.  I hope I have the opportunity to share this journey with some of you and through it share how gracious our God is.  I know it won’t be easy but I am trusting that He has led me this far and He will carry me through!

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