This life is really just all about God conforming us to His will and His image, whether we are in America or France or anywhere else. God allows us to go through difficult circumstances so that we learn to trust Him more. In the end, God shows Himself to be more gracious and good to us than we could have imagined or hoped for. I wanted to share about our decision to put Isaac in nursery “full time” – 4 days a week – while we are in class. I fought and fought against it. I really wanted to keep my boy with me. I did not like the thought of someone else “raising” my child. I wanted to be the one to train him up in the way he should go. It is, after all, our responsibility as parents. We realized that having him in the afternoons was not going to allow me enough time to learn the language. So, we started taking him out for naps and taking him back in the afternoon at 2ish. Every day was SO hard, I hated saying goodbye to him and he cried each time I dropped him off. 8 goodbyes in one week was a LOT. I wanted to return to part time but Josh really thought we should toughen up and leave him all day. I cried! And prayed! And talked to a few people here who said they had the same response when they realized they really needed to leave their children all day. For me, I finally realized it was the control that I didn’t want to give up. I wasn’t trusting that God would take care of him. I knew God had orchestrated us being here, but I wasn’t willing to fully trust him to also take care of the little details with my children. But in the end, after lots of praying, I was convicted that Isaac is God’s child on loan to me. I agreed to try it for a few days and see how he did. So two weeks ago, we started leaving him all day. And guess what? He did amazing!!! He slept 2 1/2 hours at nap time when at our house he has not napped longer than one hour since we have been here! When Josh went to pick him up, he hardly wanted to leave. He wanted to keep playing with some toy. He now asks to go to his school each morning! I had peace and confidence in our decision when I left him the first day and I have not regretted it. We are able to fully enjoy our time with him when he is with us and we know he is having fun and being taken care of by fellow believers. I am able to study better instead of feeling overwhelmed with how to balance all my responsibilities of mom and student. Thankfully it’s only 10 months and Isaac won’t remember it. That is comforting to me too. I thank God for how He is taking care of Isaac (and Judah, who has been a great sleeper for us). I thank God for giving me the peace I needed to let Isaac go full time.
kimberly