We are coming up on one month since our failed adoption. July and August have dragged by and I am ready to welcome a new season. The beginning of our 4th year of homeschooling has been a great distraction but these last 4 weeks can be defined by a constant nagging question in my heart and mind: What is God up to now?

While I cannot see the Big Picture today, I know with every fiber of my being that God is at work even now and in His time He will reveal our next step and perhaps even shed some light on the whys over this past month. In the meantime, I must wait on the Lord.

We waited 16 weeks for the birth of that baby which was the longest we had ever waited during an adoption process! The waiting was challenging and despite having three wild and crazy children to keep up with, there were weeks that drug by and days when July seemed an eternity away instead of just a few months away.

During that season of waiting God revealed to me the beauty of living in the present. The here. The now. I didn’t need to think about 10 weeks from then; I needed to focus on that day.

That was a valuable lesson to learn considering I have now entered an even longer waiting period and my focus needs to be on the present as we seek the Lord and pray about where God is leading us in the future.

I have packed away the baby items and turned my focus on my present tasks.

Little Bug is a snaggle-toothed 2nd grader who is excelling in reading! It has been my pleasure to watch her turn into a bookworm over the past six months or so. Watching Little Bug’s reading skills blossom has made me even more grateful for the opportunity to homeschool my children. She was not ready to read at age five. This was convenient since that was the year Sarge was born and it was easy to put off phonics for another day. Another day came when Little Bug was around 6.5 years old and within a few months, she went from painfully sounding out each and every word on the page to reading beginner’s chapter books fluently. And now, she has already read 29 chapter books since June 1st!

Sweet Pea is a big Kindergartener this year! She is very proud of the fact that she is now five years old. She is very enthusiastic about school, especially math. I pulled out a math workbook for Sweet Pea to see how she would take to it and she did 7 lessons on the first day! She has also read the first two BOB books on her own accord. My plan has been to ease into Kindergarten with no pressure to learn to read but I may have a little girl begging me to teach her soon. Again, homeschooling gives me the freedom to teach her to read when she is ready so I will follow her lead on this.

Sarge will be two years old next week! The sweet little baby boy that stole my heart before he was officially even mine has turned into a class-clown toddler. At not even 2, he has already become ta comedian. That boy is hilarious every single day. He’s not quite to the degree of “gets into everything” as Little Bug was, but he is a close second. That boy can run fast and when he has something he knows he shouldn’t have, he takes off running like he is running for gold in Rio against Bolt! He certainly makes homeschooling interesting but we have a pretty good routine established that allows us to do the majority of our school work while he is playing in his bedroom and napping. Little Bug is also responsible for playing with Sarge for about 30 minutes while I do Kindergarten with Sweet Pea. Little Bug does an excellent job of keeping Sarge entertained while I am working with Sweet Pea.

In this season of waiting, I am going to enjoy a phase of all my children over age two! There is much freedom schedule-wise once you hit age two and I plan to enjoy it. Might as well since it is my reality right now!

Dave and I will get back to writing Through the Lens of Grace soon so check back to hear the next part of this story. I am especially looking forward to finally sharing Sarge’s story.

I would appreciate prayers as we continue to seek the Lord about what our next step will be.

- Elaine