It’s my favorite time of year here in Wheaton, IL. I’m planting in my garden boxes, putting in some flowers and trying to tame the vast jungle of my backyard. I hope you are taking some time to be out in the sunshine!
This is a significant year for me. MY LAST CHILD GRADUATES FROM HIGH SCHOOL IN MAY! Hooray! It was been a joyous journey shepherding these four young people. I have been blessed beyond measure and challenged more than I thought possible. When I was a practicing lawyer, I thought trying murder cases was hard. Does not hold a candle to parenting!
I’m entering a different season in life. If you’ve read my books or heard me speak, you probably heard me talk about homeschooling, or special needs, or adoption, or something about kids. It has always been my heart’s desire to speak to the Mama in the trenches who is weary and discouraged, who has lost her vision and passion for her mission.
My focus is shifting a wee bit. I still offer a huge amount of materials on these topics and will continue to address them, but as I grow and change, I know my readers grow and change as well.
Moving forward, my new content will focus on helping (championing!) moms in challenging family situations and helping them explore the adventure of life after motherhood.
Well, what the heck does that mean?
I’ve been around the homeschool community a long time, and generally the Christian community. Many of us bring our shiny faces to church and proclaim that life is beautiful, the kids are scholars and spiritual giants, and we’re all just so darned blessed!
When you dig a little deeper, you find that so many of us are parents in deep pain. In fact, I just talked to a guy last weekend whose son is a heroin addict. Another homeschool Mama has a daughter who had a daughter out of wedlock. For many of us, our kids have walked away from the faith and from all the values we tried to so carefully teach them.
If that’s you, we need to connect.
First, you need to know you are not alone. There are many of us walking around with hurting hearts.
Second, we need to stop hiding our pain and admit that this mothering thing can be really messy. We need to talk through the whole pesky free will thing and accept that our young people are making choices based on that.
We aren’t the first parents to experience this. Remember Adam and Eve?
Once you’re able to move past some of the chaos of challenging parenting situations, it’s time to explore what life will be like for Mama moving forward. There is life after parenting, and it can be an abundant, satisfying life. Let’s start to talk about what that might look like.
So, that’s where I’m at. I hope you’ll hang in there with met. Let me know what you think about all this. Are there specific challenges you are facing that you need addressed, or supported? What’s on your mind?
If I can ever serve you or be a blessing to you, please contact me at christinefield@sbcglobal.net.
Christine
PS I almost forgot to mention, while I’m working on some bigger projects, I have a new little Ebook available – Stuck Mama Gets Unstuck. It’s a great jumping off point for you if you’re facing this challenge. When you order the Ebook between now and the end of May, I will also send you are workbook/journal for you to use as you ponder the thoughts and exercises in the book. Here’s where you can get it: Stuck Mama Gets Unstuck.
