A new direction and Last day for the school bus!!!

Today is our last day of school and the first official day of our summer!  YAY!!

To make it even more exciting .....  It is the last day of riding the school bus!

On Monday, we turned in a letter to withdraw our children from public school as we are planning to HOMESCHOOL!

Yep.  You read that right!  I can hardly believe it myself!

There was a pit in my stomach after we sent the letters in - more because of the huge weight of responsibility I felt and just feeling unprepared in who I am.  But I feel excited MORE!

I know, for many people, this is fairly controversial.  That is ok! (smile)  I tend to be a fairly controversial person!  (big smile!)  I could tell you all of the reasons that is leading us on this adventure, but only one reason really matters.

THIS IS WHAT GOD IS ASKING OF US.   period.

Yes, I am scared!  No, I don't think I am organized to do this.  God usually doesn't ask us to stay comfortable, does he?  He asks us to do something that only HE can fulfill!  He wants us to have BIG faith and to LIVE BIG because of that faith! :)

But I have faith in the God that will remove my fear as we step out in faith and will equip me (us) as we go!

So, my plan is to get back into blogging more as I share about becoming a homeschooling family and what God is doing!

Last but not least....

see the submarine that they are standing under? :)

Happy Anniversary, Rod!  You make me smile!  Thanks for walking this road with me hand in hand!  God definitely blessed me with you!  I am praying that the next years are even more fun! :)  Love you oodles!  And noodles!

First Day of School

Ready for Kindergarten and 2nd grade!

Walking to the bus together - hand in hand - He really does love her....

Look she lost her first top tooth!

We got them on the bus today.  They were excited.  Yesterday we did a trial run - we got up at the time I thought they would need to get ready and out the door and ...well...if school started yesterday Maggie would've been 15 minutes late for the bus.  Today I got her up about 15 minutes earlier than yesterday and she was done 25 minutes EARLY.  So maybe just MAYBE it won't be as hard to get her moving as I thought.  She is a VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYY

slow eater.  I would have added more e's, r's and y's but it would have run to the next line and look weird....  but you get my point.

Oh, and do you see that Maggie lost her first top tooth?  Yep.  Happened right before church on Sunday morning.  Oh, and we got her hair cut on Sat. for school - I was hoping that it would make it look a wee bit thicker.  I think it does....a little bit.

I am still very anxious about the school year.  I met with her kindergarten teacher and the hearing impaired teacher yesterday to make sure that they knew about Maggie's steep decline in hearing and that they were more prepared for her.  Her next IEP case conference will be in September and I am hoping to gather as much info as I can to know how to best advocate for her.

I told Rod that I kinda feel like everyone (meaning professionals in the hearing-impaired world) have not really given us much info other than here are her hearing aids.  I was blessed by God to meet the Director of the Sign language program at Bethel College recently and in just the 30 minutes talking to her and one of the Deaf  men at church I feel like I gained oodles more knowledge of how to help Maggie (and our family).  

So watching her get on the bus this morning was harder than I anticipated last week.  I had been looking forward to school in some ways: finding a routine again, separating my chillun's so I don't hear all the fighting, getting some projects done (finding my house from under the mess of summer)... etc  But seeing Jared get on and realizing how big he is getting - being that protective older brother....  Watching Maggie get on that bus, knowing full well that it will be next to impossible for her to hear on that noisy bus and how petite she is next to other kindergartners and knowing that know matter how much I put into place for her she is STILL going to miss things....yeah, it wasn't easy watching them get on the bus.

But I've prayed for them in the middle of the night.  We prayed as a family before they left for the bus and I am still praying.  I think many times prayer is for the person praying even more so than the person that is prayed for, ya know? :)

I'll fill you in how the first couple of days go. :)

Oh, Tomorrow I will announce who the winner of the Dayspring giveaway is!  So go here to sign up!

Living BIG that God will take care of her when I can't...

Rachel

P.S.  For you NMCers, Rod was delegated to find chairs for Pastor Dave for this past Sunday.  The chair that Mags is sitting in above is the chair Dave used for a "Time Out" chair.  It is my desk chair that I painted blue over the summer.  And no, Maggie wasn't in Time Out when the pic was taken.  To see the chair in action with Pastor Dave go to NMConline.  I just looked - this past Sunday's service is not up yet - probably later today (tues) or tomorrow! :)