This is what we are using this year in our homeschool.  As you can see, I am very eclectic!

Stephanie- 9th Grade

Bible-- the Bible, Spirit-led studies I create for her, Family Devotions

Grammar -- A Beka, Copywork, Composition

Spelling/ Vocabulary --  Word Building PACEs

Math -- Key to Series workbooks

Literature -- Progeny Press study guides.  Currently reading Carry On, Mr. Bowditch.

History/Geography -- A Beka

Science -- Answers in Genesis, Answers Academy

Reading though Maidens of Virtue by Stacy MacDonald

Driver's Ed in a Box

She is also studying the guitar & web design.  Keeps up/ designs our church's youth MySpace.

Savannah -- 8th Grade

Bible -- the Bible, Spirit-led studies that I create for her, Family Devotions

Grammar-- A Beka, Copywork, Composition

Spelling/ Vocabulary -- Word Building PACEs

Math -- Key to Series workbooks

Literature -- Progeny Press study guides.  Currently reading Carry On, Mr. Bowditch.

History/ Geography -- A Beka

Science -- Answers in Genesis, Answers Academy

Reading through Maidens of Virtue by Stacy MacDonald

Piano

Loves to bake

Hilario -- 4th Grade

Bible -- the Bible, Family Devotions

Grammar & Handwriting -- Intermediate Language Lessons by Emma Serl, Copywork

     I use eduhelper.com to create his handwriting worksheets.

Math -- PACEs

Spelling -- PACEs

History -- A Beka

Health -- A Beka

Science -- Newton's Workshop creation science videoes from Moody Press

We also are involved in a homeschool co-op, which meets 2 times a month through the school year.  The classes that they take there are:

Stephanie & Savannah:  P.E., Life Skills (which cover everything from art to careers to cooking to creative writing), Music, Debate, Spanish, Creation Science.

Hilario:  P.E., Life Skills (see above), Spanish, Creation Science, Music.

Seth & Aricka:  (Toddler/ Preschool Class) P.E., Busy Boxes, Music, Free Play & Nap Time.

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We received an email from our social worker that it looks like it will be into May 2007 before we can finalize on Hilario's adoption.  This is disappointing news, however, we are not shocked.  Adoption through the foster care system, especially in Kansas is lengthly and daunting. 

     Here is an article, http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2003/nov/02/foster_kids_in/ , that says that, "Kansas' performance was ranked 45th in the nation" in getting our kids out of the system and into adoptive homes.

     It's the kids who suffer the most  

Please pray for the children who are in foster care in this country.  Most of these children (which is estimated to be over a quarter of a million nation-wide) are facing yet another Christmas without a family to call their own.  They move from home to home by placing what little belongings they own into garbage bags.  Few stay in one home long enough to put down any roots.  Every year 18,000 "age-out" of the foster care system with 3 out of 10 becoming one of our nation's homeless.  Their future is bleak, even given the best circumstances, without a family.  Bleaker still without Christ.  We have an entire mission field just outside our door-step, yet fewer than 10% of Christians adopt them (or at all!!).

Will you pray about opening your heart and home to a child through adoption?  Adoption is not for the faint of heart, but the rewards you will reap are eternal!

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I found this quote in Intermediate Language Lessons by Emma Serl, the grammar text that I am using with Hilario:

Thank God every morning when you get up, that you have something to do that day which must be done whether you like it or not.  Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you a hundred virtues which the idle never knew.

                                  --- Charles Kingsley

Wow!  Sure makes one look at the mundane, sometimes tedious tasks of every day life a little differently now, huh?  I am probably one of the world's biggest complainers.  Now that I am older, I may not complain as much out loud for all to hear, but I still mumble plenty under my breath.  Oh how I must aggrivate my heavenly Father as He listens to my grumbling.  Father forgive me!

     I remember that it wasn't too long ago that my two oldest daughters were old enough that they were losing interest in toys.  Gone were the days of endless toys strewn all over the floor.  Strangely, a kind of sadness over my clean, uncluttered house crept over me each day.  Oh how my heart ached for a baby! 

     A few years ago, my next door neighbor asked me to babysit her 3 month old overnight.  After she fell asleep I began picking baby toys up off the floor.  It suddenly struck me how I had taken for granted the years that my daughters were little.  Too much time lost worrying about cleaning, not enough time spent playing and giggling with my girls.  I cried out to the Lord, praying that I would soon be picking up my own child's toys, but it had been 2 years since my tubal reversal and still no baby. 

     Well that was August 2004, and a few short months later I found myself picking baby toys up off the floor.  Suddenly I had an overwhelming sense of JOY!  I was overjoyed to be picking toys up off the floor!!  Why?  Because they were my newly adopted daughter's toys!  Little did I know that on that fateful night in August, while I poured my heart out to the Lord, that He was preparing me for the precious life that was growing inside another woman's womb.  God had already provided an answer to my prayer even BEFORE I had prayed it!!  From that moment on, I have never looked at picking up toys the same.  Who would have thought that one could take so much delight in this chore?  Moms, be thankful for those dolls and cars and wooden blocks that you stumble over.  Our children grow up too fast.  What a joy it is to be a mother!

What a pleasure it is to serve my Lord!

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James 1:27 says, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

As a family that has been called to adopt, James 1:27 takes on a special reality in our family.  Although your family may not be specifically called to adopt, all those who follow Christ are called to live out James 1:27 in one way or another.  Adoption is one way that the Lord has asked us to live out this verse.

Below is a Bible study that I designed for Stephanie & Savannah on James 1:27 & related verses.  As my birth children, who spent over 11 years with me before we adopted, I have found that they sometimes struggle with our adoption journey.  Adoption can be hard and it is often a daily lesson in self-sacrifice.  They have been troopers, though, through the ups-and-downs of the adoption roller coaster.  I have seen them grow in their relationships with Christ, especially as they are beginning to see the fruit of a life lived according to James 1:27.

Using the KJV Bible:

1. Write out James 1:27—using your best handwriting.
2. According to James 1:27, what 2 things show that your religion is pure and undefiled before God? 
3. Define the word pure (as found in Vine’s for this verse)
4. Define the word defile (look up in dictionary)
5. Now, after defining the word defile, what do you thing undefiled means?  Hint:  it is the opposite of defile.
6. Look up the word visit in the Vine’s.  The word visit, according to Vine’s, in the verse of James 1:27 means what?  “Signifies to visit with  ________________”
7. Look up Matthew 25:34-36.  These verses are Christ’s own words!  Why are the “blessed of my Father” inheriting the kingdom?  Answer by writing out Matt. 25:35-36.
8. Now read on further (Matt. 25:37-46).  What does Jesus Christ himself say will happen if we do not feed those who are hungry, give water to those who are thirsty, clothe those who are naked and so on?  Hint: the answer is found in verses 41 & 46.
9. Write out Matt. 25:40.
10. Jesus says, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” verse 40b.  A)  Jesus calls the least of these my _____________________________.  B)  When you have treated the “least of these” badly, or just ignored them altogether, you have also done this to whom?  ____________________
11. Write out Isaiah 1:17.
12. Verse 17 says, “ . . . seek judgment . . .”, here, the word judgment means justice in the original Hebrew.  Define the word justice from the dictionary.
13. In verse 17, it says to ____________________ the oppressed . . .
14. Define the word relieve from the dictionary.
15. Define the word oppress from the dictionary – write definition #2 out below from the Webster’s New World Dictionary.
16. Now define the word oppression from the dictionary.
17. In light of defining these 2 words, oppress and oppression, name some types of people who would be oppressed that we are to relieve according to Is. 1:17.
18. In the original Hebrew text, the word judge as used in Is. 1:17 where it says, “ . . . judge the fatherless . . .” means to vindicate or defend.  What are some ways you could vindicate or defend the fatherless?
19. The last part of Is. 1:17 says, “. . . plead for the widow.”  A)     What is a widow?  B)     Define the word plead from the dictionary.  C)   What are some ways you could “plead” for the widow?

20. Write out Romans 12:2.

21.  What do you think this verse means?

22. Finally, sum up what you have learned in this study and what changes (if any) you believe you need to make to be able to live the way that Christ has called us to live as His followers?

I encourage you to pray about what you can do to "visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

May God abundantly bless you!

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Seth & Aricka's 2 yr picture.

Taken Oct. 31, 2006

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This picture was taken on the day we adopted Seth, Feb. 21, 2006.  It was an amazing day!

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Hello! 

To those who do not know me, my name is Crystal.  My husband's name is Chuck, and we have 5 blessings.  By birth we have 14 yo Stephanie & 13 yo Savannah.  Chuck also has a son from his first marriage, Chuck IV, who lives in Virginia.

In 2004 we adopted Aricka, through private adoption, and was blessed to be able to bring her to our home away from home straight from the hospital.  Aricka was an answer to many years of prayer.

I know that God has a sense of humor because I had told my dh and the Lord when we were first hoping to adopt, that I knew I could not handle twins.  Well . . . in June 2005, 7 month old Seth came to live with us as a foster child.  Aricka was only 8 mo old at the time.  Aricka is only 30 days older than Seth!  We officially made Seth ours in February of this year.  Once Seth healed up from the evidence of the physical abuse he suffered & put on some weight, he and Aricka almost look and completely act just like twins! 

In March, we started doing respite care for a 10 yo boy named Hilario (pronounced "e-lar-e-oh").  Two weeks ago he moved in when we signed the Adoption Placement Agreement.  We are praying that we can make it official in early 2007.  In Kansas, we can homeschool when we sign the APA, which is exactly what we are doing.  Hilario has already decided that he prefers homeschooling to public school.  He loves the homeschool co-op that we are a part of, and is already making friends.  Just last Tuesday he gave his life to the Lord.  PTL!!!

Last, but not least, is our little dog, Tarzan.  He is some sort of a mix of beagle and rat terrior and ???.  He may be little, but he has a big dog bark!

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