We have said Yes to the Lord and Yes to homeschooling.

This blog is all about my calling to homeschool. It goes all the way back to the summer of 2007, I was very pregnant and getting ready to send Haley off to her first year of public school, Kindergarten. We were registered for our local school but I was in agony. It wasn't what I wanted for her but the thought of homeschooling barely entered my mind if it even did. Had it, I would have almost surely dismissed it immediately. Then Marcia, my mother in law, called me with an ad she had seen in the paper for a charter school called Cornerstone, it was a public co-op school with small class sizes. It sounded a whole lot better than the school we were zoned for and we immediately called and put her name on the list, the long long list. Well just a few weeks before school started we got the call! She was next on the list and we jumped at the opportunity. The day before she started school, her youngest brother Travis was born. He was very sick :( That's another story itself, but I managed to get discharged in time to spend the night with her at Gma Pat's house so I could go to the hospital every couple of hours that night to also see Travis. I was so glad, looking back, that I had made that time with Haley a priority. We spent time giggling late at night together, getting ready for her big day. School started and all was well for a year.

There were a few things here and there that I was unhappy with at Haley's school but homeschooling wasn't pressed on my heart until it was time to register Cody for Kindergarten, I just couldn't do it. In fact, he could have started when Haley went to 1st grade and they would have been in the same class. I couldn't do it then either, but I had the excuse in my mind that he was on the young side...as I look back this is another area that the Lord was using to prepare my heart for this adventure. We also couldn't afford preschool for Cody, so we were "homeschooling for preschool" but I didn't really realize it. When I called the school we are now zoned for to register Cody I asked if it would be possible to tour the campus first, she said no. How could I be expected to blindly send my child off to school? Very simply, it is what everyone else does, after all it is not a business. They don't have to sell us on their school, it's just a fact that we have to accept, or is it? There was only one option in my mind, it was clear we had to take Haley out of the public school setting and become a homeschooling family. That brings us to where we are now, only a few months ago...deciding to homeschool was something I had to consider heavily. I finally worked up enough courage to start to tell people what I thought the Lord was saying to me. First of course, I talked to Jeremy about it and he was very supportive. Honestly, I was a little surprised he actually thought I could do it! It just seemed like such a HUGE responsibility, I didn't think people would think I could do it. Then I remember thinking, this IS such a huge responsibility, why am I so willing to let someone else take on the task?
It was Friday and I was headed to Marcia's house to drop off the boys for my "mommy day off". Well this day wasn't so much of a day off because Tyler and Cody would be staying with me to attend their first art class at church. Anyhow as I dropped Travis off I quickly brought the subject up with Marcia and she immediately shared how pleased she was with the idea and so we prayed together right there that the Lord would confirm for me His will. She asked me, in the end...what are we here as parents for? First I said, to raise our children to become responsible educated adults, Quickly, it dawned on me that that was only a very small part of the equation, the bigger picture is their heart. We are here to raise our children in the ways of the Lord and commit to God our children's eternal futures.

I remember feeling very unsure, could I really do this? What makes me so qualified? We arrived at the art class and I saw an old friend, we were becoming reaquainted when I noticed she had all her kids with her, even her school-aged daughter. She was homeschooling! I couldn't wait to call Jeremy and Marcia and share that the Lord had already began to confirm His calling for me to homeschool. I then began to share my heart with the key people in our lives, and from every direction we received blessings and more confirmations. Was it really going to be this easy? Would everyone be so supportive? Praise the Lord! To this day, I still question my decision, but I try to quickly disperse the thought because I know it is coming from the father of lies. That is a big part of why I am writing this blog, so when things get cloudy and I can't remember why I have embarked on this journey, I can look back and see God's answers to prayer, His provision, and more importantly His CALLING for our family to homeschool.

So, we are taking the plunge! Fall of 2009 we will officially be open for business :)

So we are homeschooling because:

1. The Lord has called us to homeschool.
2. The Lord has called us to homeschool.
3. We want to follow His calling.

Do I feel prepared and adequate? NO! But I have been told that He does not call the equipped, He equips the called.