When doors close on you, it’s no fun.
We’d visited kindergarten after kindergarten, to no avail. When we finally shortlisted two choices, one no longer had space; the other was dark, gloomy.
With only one week left to go before I left for Africa, I grew desperate.
When my firstborn was five months old, a random professor I’d met prophesied we’d end up homeschooling her till she was five. I scoffed- not knowing how vehemently she’d reject daycare, how homeschooling became the only option amidst our many moves, how just a fortnight shy of her fifth birthday and my departure, she began to ask, “When can I go to school, Mama?”
We had only ten days before I left. In my last ditch effort to find a place, I turned to God- and Google.
The last school we found was everything we wanted- a Christian, unpretentious kindy tucked away in a quiet heartland.
Today, as Cliff took a well-deserved break while my younger toddler and I trekked to the kindy to pick up Sarah-Faith, I sighed at the long trip back. The kids were exhausted, and un-ready for the long walks between train and bus. Rain clouds brewed.
Then a friendly face, “I’m R.” I recognized her- a blog reader who had recognized our family once at the esplanade and who then re-introduced herself to Cliff recently when she saw our firstborn attending the same kindy as her kids. “Can I give you all a lift home?”
As we were leaving, a teacher came by to say she has been a blog reader too- I remembered reading her recent Instagram message when I was in Africa, “ Don’t worry about SF, we are looking out for her in school.”
They certainly did. For when Cliff and the kids came down with COVID-19, how shocked were we to see the principal deliver food and books to our doorstep. For all the waiting, the closed doors, the endless string of uncertainties- I am grateful, that often, they are God’s kind mercies in disguise.
As R dropped my kids and I off home, the sky unleashed its fury. How glad I am now for that series of closed doors, so we could be led to this special kindy.
Beloved, if you’re struggling with waiting, I feel you. Hold on. He is good, He won’t let you down.