Once upon a time, my husband and I made a serious mistake. We told our elementary school daughters that we would never again move until after they graduated from high school. We made that foolish promise one July. By May we were packing boxes. *sigh*

Our little girls had attended five schools in five years. I know how awful that sounds, but we weren’t vagabonds. The final years of Wendell’s medical training just happened to coincide with the first years of their education. Training required lots of moving.

Serenity took this final move the hardest. She is an August baby, so she had started kindergarten at the tender edge of her fifth year. (Our state has since rolled back enrollment to summer birthdays. Wise move.) Fifth grade had been emotionally difficult for her. She told us the work was not too hard, but she simply didn’t feel like a fifth-grader. The struggle lasted most of the year, and I often regret that we didn’t pull her out for a year of home-schooling.

Instead, we moved again. #ParentFail #NewJob #ManyTears

Early in the new school year, Serenity climbed to the top of something called “the spider” on the playground. An ornery little boy reached up and stole her shoe. He refused to give it back for several, irritating minutes.

So, do you know what Serenity did?

She married him.

Well, ten years later, after lots of middle-school and teenaged angst. But, I’m pretty sure she loved him from that day forward.

(That will teach a boy to steal a shoe. Now he has to buy them for her.)

And what did I do to help Felicity and Serenity cope? I started writing a book about a little girl whose parents uprooted the family to follow a dream. The Secret of Serendipity ended up being my third novel. Much like Michael and Serenity’s romance, it needed time to grow. The book was finally released when we had granddaughters entering middle school.

If you know a girl struggling with change this school year, maybe The Secret of Serendipity could help. I know your prayers will.