This summer has certainly held many "firsts" for our family, and over the coming days it holds a tremendous amount of firsts for our 2G16 as she has embarked on her first mission trip!! In a mere twelve hours from when I write this, she will be flying out to the United Kingdom to serve full time missionaries on the field there in whatever capacity is necessary. This will be her FIRST airplane flight, and FIRST international airplane flight, FIRST trip on her own beyond her history of summer camps, FIRST mission trip, and FIRST trip with no other people she knows beforehand!! God has called her into quite a growth experience over these next two weeks. I appreciate your prayers on her behalf.

I am avoiding focusing on my motherly concerns for her right now, I'm doing my best to focus on God's calling in her life. I am so thrilled that she heard...and obeyed! What a blessing she is to our family. The last year has been filled with many confirmations that this trip is what God wanted to do in her life right now. I pray that she is a blessing to everyone she works with, and that the witness she and the entire group offer to those around them will bring others to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. I pray that she will be blessed by that true blessing: witnessing firsthand someone else finding salvation for the FIRST time!!

Suddenly, the FIRST book written by our daughter, FIRST exposure to publicity for our family in the book effort, and planning this FIRST mission trip pale in comparison to the firsts my 2G16 will experience. We have been very blessed and pray that this summer reveals many blessings for your family.

We have continued learning a bit about the United Kingdom, and are enjoying a clock up right now so we can follow 2G16's time while she is away.  Reading study continues in earnest for 3B9 and is finally coming along fairly well. Study of business practices and all things publicity continues to take some of our time as we push 1G21's first book. And I am busy with continued organization of the house and the last of the odd jobs around the boys' bedroom transfer that began more than a month ago. I don't even want to look back to see when I actually STARTED that job!! Things are moving along well enough overall, though.

Has your family decided on a particular curriculum for next school year? I'd love to hear about it!

He will be dedicated this Sunday, on Father's Day!! Now, how cool is that? He already belongs so much to my Heavenly Father, it is unbelievably appropriate to have him dedicated on that day as well.

I almost didn't include this one, it is already so old. And ewww, I look awful, I suppose I'll always hate pictures. But the boys are adorable! And proud Daddy is priceless, that SMILE!!

3B9 on the other hand didn't quite see what the big deal was. Some day he'll understand.

While I finally have a moment, I thought I should probably put a quick update on this blog. We are still very busy with all of the excitement from the book release, it is hitting the local paper again this week! Several people have congratulated us on a homeschool job well done, so I thought I'd better clarify some information, just in case you wonder, and so that no one gets the wrong idea.

Our oldest, who has just published her first book at the age of 20, wasn't technically homeschooled-we didn't wise up until her junior year in high school- but I can only imagine where she would be if we HAD!!! She is the one who strongly encouraged my now sixteen year old to take us up on the offer of homeschooling. Quick rundown: God led us to homeschool because our then 5 year old was special needs/IEP/school nightmare on the autistic spectrum, we asked the girls (then 6th & 11th) if they wanted to come home as well, our oldest was completing a full load of AP courses and chose to finish out her public school career, but strongly encouraged our 6th grader to come home. So she did.

Soon after that we found God had mandated that we homeschool regardless, so we wouldn't give the same choice today, let's just say we've grown.  God has walked us through quite an education. But I firmly believe, had we homeschooled, she would have completed this book three years ago!  And we did what many people on this blog system and within the homeschool community have done while involved in the public school system: I actually volunteered at her elementary school running a small publishing center helping all of the kids get their ideas into mini-book form, we taught her how to read long before school began-she was reading at the age of four, and she had gained plenty of confidence while being the in-house child-teacher of our family child care home for many, many years. She was always an honor student while within the public school system, but in so many ways they actually held her back. It is only now that she has the freedom to run with her ideas, and we plan to facilitate her and support her in any way we can. As we all do with all of our children.

We hope to have some sort of teaching supplement for use with the book created soon, and will offer it through her website for free. Her book is fantasy, and is being fairly well received, you can check out her website if you have not done so already at www.jessicalynncampos.com. I will update on here as well whenever we finally get a teaching supplement available on her site. It will most likely include some word games, vocabulary work, and possibly some character questions for the reader to fill in. If you have any ideas for something you would like to see, please share because we are truly new at this whole thing! And if you want to be sure to receive whatever we create when we reach that point, drop her a quick note through the site at the "contact Jessica" link so we have a record of you. This will place you on the email list when we get it all set up.

Wishing you every day enjoyment with your children, I hope this finds you peacefully at home with each of yours! HUGS!!

Homeschooling sure does give new meaning to the words "Summer School" doesn't it? At our house, as the local public schools are winding down, we are gearing up again! What fun we are having. Right now, we just received the first copies of the book my oldest, 1G20, has been writing over the last four years. It has been a long and studious ride. This while she was graduating from high school and began her University education as an Aerospace Engineer, I suppose it makes sense that it was spread over four years. Anyway, the book is done, you can find her in my Friends List under JessicaLynnCampos. The book is already being sold on Amazon.com, the title is "The Risen, the Chosen, and the Dark, Book One: The Dawn of It All" and we are thrilled with all of the excitement.

With that excitement we are busy setting up a website for her, she will be selling autographed copies through it, just as soon as we can get it up and running. For 2G16, website design and maintenance has become quite a large part of her education these days. And the entire family is learning quite a bit about Publicity, as we are writing Press Releases and preparing for newspaper articles about the release of the book. I love homeschooling!! The education goes so far beyond any classroom setting. If our kids were in a school building they would never be able to be such a huge part of all of this, what a fantastic opportunity for all of us!! The learning around this house right now is absolutely INSANE, every day every single one of us is learning something about business, marketing, publicity, community connections, newspaper business, the list just goes on and on!

In our actual "school" schedule we will work on the same stuff all summer. We are letting up on Math a bit for 2G16 and plan to use ALEKS for a six month stretch next school year. For now, she is preparing for her Mission trip next month, heading out to Wales in the United Kingdom. Amazing! So we are spending more time in Bible study, at her request, and continuing with our more Bible emphasized subject areas like History, Language Arts, Geography, building our Timeline, and working very hard at basic life skills with 3B9. Science is still our least favorite in general, so we do what we must and not much more. We enjoy lots of books and dvds from Answers in Genesis and animal research and such, studying God's Creation is so much fun. I work better if I don't think about it as science, and instead focus on God's Hand. I hope to find a good telescope and do some star gazing this summer, I'm wondering whether we would be able to from indoors in our sunroom, that would be cool.

I must close for now, far too much to do. I hope to keep up a little better on writing, but I always say that. I pray your family is enjoying a wonderful SUMMER SCHOOL. (And Terra, if you are reading this, I've emailed you repeatedly, and can get your emails, but for some reason I guess you are not getting mine. I don't know what to do to fix that problem. I sure miss catching up with you, but you are in my prayers.) For everyone else, do me a favor, check out my daughter's book, we can use all the help we can get to spread the word. Have a great week!!

Some ramblings about what it means to be a "mother" and perhaps what God has in mind for a "mother" to be...

Quite often, after thinking of our own, the most predominant mother thought of by many Christians is Jesus' mother, Mary. I was thinking about what sort of example she was for us, and although we don't actually know a ton about her, a few characteristics come to mind: Obedience: she was obedient in her calling by God, to be the mother of Jesus. Trust: she certainly did trust in whatever God called her to do, she was a servant. Patience: I don't recall that she even questioned how God would settle the heart of her soon to be husband, she just trusted that God would handle it in His time. Supportive of Family: even while pregnant she was visiting Elizabeth as she was pregnant after being "called barren." And certainly Mary was reverent and freely reflected Praise to her heavenly Father, as in Luke 46-55, she gives all the glory to God. And it is interesting to me that after being told she would bring forth the savior of the world--a pretty intimidating task, she trusted God enough to go on with a "normal" life and have more children. How many of us can say we wouldn't have completely freaked out and only focused on Jesus, when that was never actually what God called her to do? I am quite impressed that she didn't get all bogged down in the enormity of what God had placed on her, instead, she just  L I V E D. I can admit I often allow myself to get bogged down...

Considering that as a church, we are in a position of wife to Christ...and eventually "parents" of a new heaven and new earth...I wondered if the characteristics of a good mother--what we practice as physical beings, is transferrable to our position as a church, as the bride of Christ? I wonder if Christ's church is Obedient--Are we reaching others for Christ?  And do we truly Trust God--Are we living in a way that reflects complete trust in God's Word and His prophecy?  Are we Patient--As we wait on the Lord?  Can we even say that we are Supportive of family--Both within our Church body and in our God given homes?  And are we truly Reverent--How truly heartfelt is our Praise?

God has given us many examples of mothering, of our position in His plan as the body of Christ...I am reminded this Mother's Day that my duty as a mother, in raising Godly children for the Lord, is a wonderful gift and blessing...and responsibility. Of all the ways God could have sent His son, he chose to send Him, by way of an earthly mother...that's pretty cool. Just my thoughts.

Wishing you a truly beautiful and family filled Mother's Day!!