Knowing we were moving to Ethiopia we began to look into schooling options to our children’s education. We tried to get our kids in to Bingham Academy in Addis Ababa Ethiopia. We had heard so many good things about this school and I was SURE that my kids would get in because after all it was what I wanted and I was moving my family in obedience to what GOD was calling us to do. It came time to hear if they got accepted or not. I remember it was a Thursday afternoon when Trent called me. He said I got an email from Bingham today Carmen and the kids did not get in. (Because they are a very small faith based school that has one class per grade and we were at the bottom of the list) Immediately my body felt like it could just fall to the ground. Kiki had not missed a day of school all year but this day she wasn’t feeling well so I let her stay home. After hearing the news I couldn’t even react because my daughter was standing right beside me. I gave her the news and she was so excited while I just felt like I could vomit.
Once I got the kids down for a nap, I threw my body down on the couch and I cried out to GOD “Why GOD you know my heart, you know I would never choose to do this”? I couldn’t understand why in the world that HE would choose such a task for me to fufill. I actually hated school and was totally in it for the social scene. I do hair, I am a people person, I need to be on the streets loving on the street kids LORD what are you thinking. I thought of every reason why I am not the one for this. See at this moment I realized it wasn’t about me anymore. It wasn’t about my plans and what I was going to do for the street kids in Ethiopia. It became everything about HIM and HIS plans and purpose for me in Ethiopia.
The next day at the salon I had a new client that I know HE placed there in perfect timing. My new friend would have gone through exactly what I was going through. She had her career as an attorney and had heard GOD telling her to home school. She ignored and battled with obeying HIM. She had made it through that and had been homeschooling for 2 years. That morning I was still devastated and HE knew how to comfort me. Jennifer and I talked for a couple hours and she then invited me to her home to learn a bit of how she does things. Jennifer continued to mentor me through all the details and challenged me to dig in and read about the curriculums and find out what is best for my children. I thought I could just copy her and do what she did. But that is not the way it works LOL
GOD began to reveal to me exactly WHY HE had me where he did. Kiki began to have dreams that we would take her back to the orphanage because she was a bad girl. Or having dreams about us paying the kids in the ministry more attention than her. Or that she was going to be kidnapped and how would she find us. Again you have to understand that the enemy is a liar and we had to battle with him on these things. Seeing it all from a spiritual perspective I knew exactly why my baby girl needed to be homeschooled. She needs to know that she is secure in her family and that nothing will change that. It wasn’t my plan at all but for her I will do anything and with HIM I can do all things.
The day has come when tomorrow will be our first day of homeschool. It has been fun getting the room set up here is Addis. I look forward to this time with my children. I have never spent this much time with them. I had the ideal schedule at the salon being off 3 days a week and making my own schedule then we had Make Your Mark. So my time was equally spread out. This will be new and will be challenging in every way but I will trust that HIS plan is perfect and is what is best.
James4:7 Submit yourselves then to GOD. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.
I find myself constantly having to choose not to listen to the lies of the enemy. He is a liar and wants to distract me. I will focus on HIS TRUTH through it all.
~carmen~