“I will NEVER homeschool my children!” I can just imagine God chuckling to himself when He heard me say those words a few years ago. In fact, I even repeated them during our orientation week at United World Mission when I informed them that we would need to be fielded where there was a good school because we were NOT homeschool parents. Fast forward a couple of years and here I sit…a homeschool mother. God had the last laugh when His plans for our first year of life overseas as missionaries involved me homeschooling our two young children, ages 10 and 6!

Becoming a family where our children are with us 24/7 and are dependent on us for their education required a relinquishing of my own plans and vision of what life would be as a missionary in South Africa. It required me letting go of yet one more thing I had held on to too tightly, thinking I could manage it better myself…my identity. What I have learned over the course of this year, however, is that what I thought of as losing my identity was actually gaining the precious gift of time with my children. I have had the privilege of watching their eyes shine with the wonder of learning new things…of seeing their self confidence blossom as they tackle challenging problems and persevere until they find the answer…of experiencing the thrill of adventure as they explore the new world around them. It has also been encouraging having also seen an unexpected growth in Asher where he has actually thrived instead of being hindered as a result of this change of environment for his education. The relationship that God has given me with my children by being their teacher and what He has taught me about myself is a gift beyond measure.

As with anything the Lord asks you to do out of your weakness, He provided everything I needed to navigate through the challenging process of finding the best curriculum for each child and beginning the daunting adventure of teaching. Many thanks to Wendy, Marcie and Tamara for the generous gift of your time, knowledge and encouragement during this process! He also brought us to a part of the world where there is no end of field trip opportunities and encounters with nature that we could have only previously read about or watched on videos. The pictures below show just a few of the things we have been able to do this year.