My older girls went to Bermuda to visit their father for 2 wks. Mia, 13, made it the whole 2 wks, Aliyah, 11, came home after 1 wk. Ali was homesick, she really gets herself worked up when she's not happy and had stomach aches for 2 days before I finally requested she be sent home.
A little background (which I asked Ali if I could share and she said, "sure.") Ali wanted to go live with her dad. She was begging me for some time and we'd talk about it and I pray for her a number of times. Finally I had to end our conversations about her going to live with her father, because she was really becoming angry that I would not give in and send her off. She was tired of living with a big family, tired of a stepdad, tired of not having her own space, tired of all the rules. We talked about how a lot of her feeling were "self-centered" and God does not call us to have that character.
I also told her how sorry I was that she even had to be in this position ~ although God's grace and redemption is awesome and I'm so grateful for it each day ~ there are still consequences to my sin. I know divorce is not part of God's plan, but I know I serve a God of forgiveness. So here's where God's grace came in, Ali got to go visit her dad and just a few days after being there started having these stomach aches. I could see how God was using this trip to show her how blessed she was to be in the family she was in and how blessed she was to live with us. The 2nd day of stomach issues, Ali says to me, "Mom, I know the sole purpose of this trip was so God could show me I belong with you." She came home on the 3rd day and still had stomach aches after being home, but I feel God really wanted her to remember how she felt. She was so happy to be home.
It's so great to see how God answers prayer! Mia came home today and was very happy to have spent a week with her dad, alone. I'm overjoyed to have my girls home safe and looking forward to starting a new homeschool year.
