orking for Learning Opportunities in Hannibal as their QDDP. This has changed my life immensely. For the last 10 or so years of my life I have worked in some capacity for our church and/or our school.

I held a few part times jobs along the way but nothing that kept me away from my children for more than four hours at a time. Last year I was teaching at our church school so my children and I did almost everything during the day together. We drove to school together, we had chapel together, we ate lunch together, we went to recess together and I even had one of my sons in my class. When my twin boys went to lay down for their nap after lunch I was even blessed to give them a hug, a kiss and a high five each day. We would drive home together and after they ate a snack we would work on homework together. (Wow! As I am writing this it is making me see how my poor children were on Mommy overload-Mommy here, Mommy there, Mommy everywhere!!)

 So you can imagine how hard and how big of a change it was for me to start working a job away from my children and also working a job that was in Hannibal which meant I would be gone even longer due to the drive time. I went from being with my children all day to being away from my children most of the day. At first I felt very sad and lost and thought I might have even missed hearing God about getting a job outside of our school but as time went on I slowly started to see how God was making some much needed changes in my life. One of the changes was I had to let go of some of that control I was holding onto when it came to my children. Now don’t get me wrong, God had already been working on this with me but He really put me to the test when I got this new job. I had to go to a deeper level of trust with the people who would be helping teach and watch my children while I was at work.

 
Not only did this job bring about changes for me but also for my husband and children as well. My husband and children had to do more helping out around the house to keep it maintained. We had to shift things around so the cooking, the cleaning and the laundry was getting done now that I was away from home more. I also had to change my way of thinking and accept that the house might not be cleaned the way I would clean it but it was getting cleaned nonetheless. Then as far as homework goes, I had always been the one to help the children with it because we would work on it right after school and their dad was still at work. But now with me not getting home until after five on most days, it is my husband who now helps them with their homework. Even though it was a little difficult at first for the children getting use dto doing their homework with their dad, it has proved to be a wonderful blessing. Doing this together has improved their relationship with one another.
 
Why am I telling you all of this? I wanted to give an example from my own life about change and how it affected my family. I wanted to show how when change comes in our family we can make it work if we work together. I want us to know that change is going to be, a part of each one of our families lives but change can bring forth new and wonderful things when we go through the change together as a family and when we all decide to do what we can do to make it work. We need to know that each family member is vital and has an important part to play. When one member is going through a hard time, another family member can gives words of encouragement. When one family member is sick and can’t help out around the house another family member can step in and double up on their chores so things don’t get behind.
 
To be part of a family is to be part of a blessing that is given by God. But in our families we know there will always be changes occurring. It could be the change that takes place when one of the children go off to college or the change that takes place when there is a divorce. Maybe it is the change that happens when we there is a new baby or the change that takes place when a spouse loses their job. No matter what the change is just know that we can get through it when we stick together as a family and when we all play our part.