Jeremiah 31:13
“Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance,
And the young men and the old, together,
For I will turn their mourning into joy
And will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow.
At the end of last month we had a meeting with Jean-Luc's (my 6 year-old son) teachers and supposedly it was to inform us about the mentoring plan they wanted to do with Jean-Luc. (On the same day we also had a parents' evening with Janick's (my 3 year-old son) teacher at another school 5-10min away.) But when we turned up for the meeting one of the teachers was kind and eager to find out the problems or triggers to Jean-Luc's behaviour while the other two teachers (whom I greatly respected) were not really keen to help and they had their faces empty of empathy but just want to get on with disposing of responsibility and putting all the blame on a 6 year-old child to change within a stipulated time frame. They did not want to talk about Jean-Luc's academics at all but target him just purely on his behaviour. The teachers even pushed me to quickly sign a form to give them consent to carry out whatever form of punishment necessary, that will tarnish his school record and reputation so a 6 year-old boy will face up to the consequences of his behaviour. This was exactly what the deputy headteacher said to us. One teacher who was there really wanted to mentor and help Jean-Luc but she was being outnumbered by the other two who didn't care anymore about the wellbeing of a child who was crying out for emotional support and empathy. Things happened so quickly and drastically that I said to the teachers, "Can I have the form and read it properly before I sign because I have parents' evening with my younger son's teacher at another school in 10min time? I really have to go." So they quickly made a photocopy for me and off I went with Jean-Luc to another school to meet with Janick's teacher. A sigh of relief and joy that Janick's teacher was really happy with Janick's progress in school and he's really enjoying school unlike Jean-Luc who didn't quite settle in and was unhappy with his school.
So that very evening my husband (who joined both meetings virtually) and I had a good look at the consent form from Jean-Luc's school hence we decided we had endured enough mental and emotional stress and torture from the school that left us with no choice but to withdraw Jean-Luc completely from his school. In fact we know this is the right thing to do as we have always wanted to homeschool him for sometime now and the school was fully aware but discouraged us from withdrawing him initially but we knew for sure it was the right thing to do and God allowed this trouble to happen so Jean-Luc can be taken out from a place of insecurity and trauma to a place of love, calmness and support enabling him to learn better and hopefully realise his potential. Jean-Luc even said to me that he wants to be homeschooled and he's happier now than ever. He is also very sociable and friendly, likes to talk to people that he meets when we go out for a walk or to the shop, etc. He loves dogs and can spend hours playing with them.
Months ago, while I was showering Jean-Luc, suddenly he told me, "Mummy, there are families with two fathers." Then a few weeks ago after Janick had done his poo and I had cleaned him, Jean-Luc walked in and said, "Mummy, do you have a willy?" I said, "Women or girls don't have willy." He said to me with his cheeky smile, "Women do have willy otherwise how do you wee." I then explained to him but he insisted and said some women do have willy. We are aware that gender and sexual diversity and diverse family units are being being taught in primary school right now since the children are five years old and so we are glad to be homeschooling him for now.
If Jean-Luc hadn't been in trouble in school my husband and I would have had enrolled his younger brother Janick into the same school. We would have missed out on the opportunity of placing Janick in a better school elsewhere whose headteacher, deputy headteachers and teachers always have time to provide the pastoral care to talk to both parents and students with joy, care, love and mutual respect and most importantly teach them Christian values. Jean-Luc has been on Janick's school waiting list for more than a year now as there's no vacancy for him at the moment. So we shall see how the Lord leads henceforth.
We are grateful to God how he turned our troubles into blessings like what happened just few weeks ago when Jean-Luc accidentally pushed and misaligned our kitchen drawer that we had to remove everything from the drawer and give it a good cleaning and tidy up then I discovered I already had a new cake slicer and a pair of kitchen scissors I bought some time ago among other things. If the accident hadn't happened I wouldn't have made the discovery nor tidy up the drawer.
Also recently Jean-Luc accidentally flipped his brother's magnets' alphabet box over scattered the letters everywhere so that we finally found his missing eraser.
Thinking back about the lockdown due to Covid-19, many of us couldn't go to work and had to work from home. Also children had to be homeschooled. During that time many parents struggled with homeschooling but praise be to God that's the turning point for Jean-Luc especially from being someone who couldn't read and write to being able to read and write at the age of three years old. It builds our confidence as parents to homeschool him as we had done it before during lockdown that he was awarded Star Worker of the week twice (once during lockdown and another when he returned to school shortly after) so we have the confidence to educate him at home this time.
So whatever troubles we face and are going through right now do know as a child of God we can never be defeated but it's going to become a blessing to us for a story to tell of God's goodness and faithfulness in our lives. He will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 13:6). Like Mary who was chosen to give birth to baby Jesus when she was still a virgin betrothed to be married to Joseph, she was willing to go through the trying times because she knew God has better plan in store for her and all of us that the Child to be born would bring blessing and eternal salvation to a darkened world (Luke 1:26-38). Like Joseph who was betrayed by his brothers and sold to be a slave in Egypt but by God's favour and gift of interpretation of dreams he became the second most powerful man in Egypt to manage the seven years of fruitful harvest so he could also provide for his family back home during the seven difficult years of severe famine.
Always remember God can turn our troubles into blessings.
Luke 1:37
37 For no word from God will ever fail.
Here are Jean-Luc's photos showing him using stickle bricks to make fancy glasses and magnifying glass cum body scanner among other things that he did all by himself:
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