Jan. 26, 2008 - It's Been Forever
Well my life has completly changed. About 6 months ago the Lord began to prepare my husbnad and I for a change in our ministry, in all reality it really started earlier than that. But, the real preparation began then. As I write this my mind is racing with thoughts and emotions.........I spent 4 years of in a most blessed season of homeschooling my children. At the beginning of the 07/08 school year as our family had planned for my oldest began Christian School again. See, when my children were born I never intended to homeschool, but, because of the twists and turns of life and ministry in 2003 when we moved to South Carolina I felt it was the best thing. And it truly was, most of their lives I managed church child care centers and ALWAYS cared for and educated alot of children. But, The Lord reserved this season for me to be with my children, it was so awesome.
On September 14, 2007 we moved back to Alabama, not to our home town but to Hackleburg, Alabama...The Church of God of Prophecy here requested us for an interview and we excepted the challenge. A growing church of about 100 people, just purchased 47 acres and needed a pastoral team to lead them in building their congregation and new facility. A perfect fit for us, exciting yet scary. The only glitch.......concerning educating our children......the town has a whopping population of 1500 people, yes that's it........i don't believe I have ever lived in a town this small. The parsonage and current church is strategically located on the corner of one of the main highways in town and "School Rd", yep the whole school is in in our back yard, I watch my kids go from the school building to the lunchroom everyday. The whole school K-12 has 527 students. I felt that it would be in our best interest to become apart of this "tight nit" community and place our children in the school system. Even though my children had NEVER been in public school, I believed from the beginnning that God would meet us there. We transfered Wynn to the High School after 2 1/2 weeks at his new Christian school in SC. I continued to school Ash & Bri at home after we moved through the Christmas Break. I was so special, everyday was such a joy even the stressfull days. Ash & Bri started on January 7th and it has been awesome. The teachers all live here and even though the complain and confide in me concerning the "strange ways" of the public school system, they have embraced my kids and let me come and be apart of the school anytime I would like. I began in October helping a nother pastor in town keep the Marching Band program alive, because it is a small school they lost their Band Teacher funding last year. We our volunteering keeping the program alive. I teach 5th and 6th graders, simple music theory.
Now back to homeschooling...............I tell everyone I know to homeschool their children if at all possible at least one time in their life, it is so rewarding! I have many types of friends, businness executives, realators, farmers, stay-at-home moms ect. Homeschooling bonds you with your children in a way that regular school cannot. The night before my children started their first day at our new school in our new little town, we had a family meeting.......we discussed how different things were gonna be.......but we would still continue with our communication and we would still continue to be hands on with the education of our kids. Well almost 4 weeks later, it is true, this has been the best thing for our family at this time, Now the homework is rediculous!!! But, we know how to handle that..ahahhahaha!
Here is a picture of my to youngest ones on their first day.........so emotional for me. I have had Brianne in my class since she was in 1st grade. We have faced some challenges, like remembering when to get stuff out of our locker, or writing our name on our paper (classic for a homeshcooler)...but all and all it is going well.
So what am I doing now? Well, I am basically serving as my husbands associate pastor & administrator (fancy for youth pastor and secretary ahhahaha). We visit on Monday's and Thursday's, Tuesday and Wednesdays I work in the office, we try to relax on Friday (big HaHa). Everyday me & the puppy are home at 2:30 to have snacks ready for the kids, we watch them walk out of the back door of the school and run to the back porch to jump into the house to tell us about their day!
