I drove into town this week to sign the loan papers for my daughter to go to our local Catholic High School. This is the school I graduated from, as did her father, aunts, uncles...it's a great Catholic High School. As I was signing the papers, and telling the loan officer that my husband would be coming in later today to sign, I was struck with so many thoughts...
Never did I believe that my daughter would be going to the Catholic High School. Never did I envision that it would be her step dad and I providing her with this opportunity. I have been blessed with a marriage that is wonderful. It's not the marriage I thought I would ever have. After a failed marriage, it's very tough to think about going down that path again. As a Catholic who struggled with my faith for years - and am just now getting to where I feel like I am on the path I need to continue on - it was tough to go through a divorce and then to remarry. My husband and I committed not just to each other, but to all of the children that we were bringing into our marriage. We have sacrificed for children that we didn't raise. We go day to day living, loving, trying to find God's loving way to raise these children that have lived through divorce, marriages, moves...all the things we should never have our children live through. We made decisions not always based on our faith, yet we have to forgive, repent, and commit to our Lord again and again.
My husband and I had talked of sending Ems to the Catholic High School, we talked of homeschooling her - we knew that sending her to a public high school was not what we were to do. When we realized that homeschooling was not going to be the best way to go, we were thinking of how we would afford tuition. One morning at mass, our priest from Nigeria during his homily was telling all of the parents that we are called to provide our children with a solid Catholic education, that without us giving a Catholic education, we are "giving our children nothing!" Those words stuck with me...now my husband may not remember that homily - I don't remember if we even talked about it.
We started the process for enrollment, started sticking away money, and have now got everything done for her to start school this fall in the Catholic High School. I know that without faith we would have never signed up for a $6600 education. We have faith that we will be provided with everything our family needs as long as we are following what God calls us to do, we have faith that what we are called to do as parents is provide a Catholic education, we have faith that with a good solid Catholic foundation, our daughter will continue to go on and do God's will. I'm sure like the rest of us, she won't always make the best decisions, she might even stumble at times - but she will do like the rest of us - forgive, repent, and commit to our Lord.
What touches my heart is that the commitment to provide a strong Catholic education is coming from a man who has not raised her from birth, he didn't see first steps, first tooth, first days of school. Our life together started with my daughter being close to the teen years, watching her adjust to family life with lots of siblings, a move, a step dad. I am blessed to share my life with a man who has so much respect for my daughter and values her education, and more importantly values instilling Catholic beliefs and providing the best we can, what we are called to do... that we are committing to this together as a family.
*enjoying the stars on the grandparent's boat
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