:D

              As I am wrapping up my third year of homeschooling I am again praising the Lord for getting me through it. I can't believe this year is all ready over. (we still do some work over the summer) I remember when the Lord told me He was calling me to homeschool I argued with Him for a long time (okay, I still do sometimes) but I am so incredibly thankful that He did! I have gotten to see my kids grow in a way that I would normally miss out on. I also get to work on my lovely heart issues. You can not imagine the not so great things you will learn about yourself when you spend a lot of time teaching your children, might I also add that teaching is NOT my gift. I am NOT one of those homeschooling moms that have all these fun creative activities to do everyday, or who taught their kids how to read by the age of three, or who had the whole year planned out. Instead everyday I pray that the Lord will guide me and help me to control my temper and lack of patience and show me how to really guide and love on my children. You see if teaching my kids was something that I was naturally good at then there is no room for the Lord. I HAVE to depend on Jesus to get me through the school year, to show me when I am being to relaxed (lazy) or when I need to just push them a little harder. I have had so many people ask me how I do it. Simple truthful answer is I don't. I honestly don't. I have no idea what I am doing, but He does!

     My first year was horrible. I can't tell you how many times I cried at night saying I just want to put the kids in school. My son was having a hard time reading and in turn I was having a hard time teaching, but we both got through it together. And now I am so proud to say that he is a strong reader. I am so grateful that even though I complained (a lot) I got to help him get through something that he felt was out of his reach.This year my daughter started to read and she caught on super easy, I think it was Jesus way of giving me a little break :)  I am so grateful for this bond that I get to have with my children. I will need to remind myself of this when next school year roles around. :D

    On to the adoption front. Our homestudy is literally almost done. I mean we are right there. So exciting!! I also have our dossier half way complete. As you can see to the side I added a little thermometer of what we have raised and what we still need. As you can also see their is not much else we can do til we get that money in. I know that I am asking you to sacrifice for our son. I just want to let you know that we are also sacrificing. I pray that you don't think that we are expecting all of you to give us money without it costing us anything. We are sacrificing what we can and more then that, we will continue to do whatever we can to bring our son home. We need you and want you to all be apart of bringing him home to us. I am constantly praying  that you will want to be. That you will want to forgo one cup of coffee (or whatever) to help us bring him home. Do you realize that if 300 people gave a one time donation of $80. We would have all we need. Seems so easy, especially since I have over 400 "friends" on Facebook., but unfortunately it's not that easy. And I do know that people can only help out so many organizations, I would not want you to stop giving to someone else to give to us. ......  We have some fun things coming up. We have yard sales, car washes, and a cool thing we are going to do at Chick Fil A.(to be announced shortly) Every little bit helps. We are also selling beautiful jewelry. You can see it to the right. If you do not want to use PayPal that is absolutely fine (even if you are not local) please just send me an EMAIL and we can work it out. Please keep praying for us to remain patient and faithful to our God and His perfect timing, Also please keep our son in your prayers.