Friends called last night and Monday morning their fifth child, 17months old, drowned in the bathtub. It is so incredibly sad. If you think of it, please remember the Shores in your prayers. The mother is completely blaming herself. The 9yo son was the one to find the baby and he carried her to Mom. The other children are all girls, 11.5yo, 6yo and 3yo.

Please don't leave your young children in the tub (or near any standing water) unattended, even for a minute, even if you're just in the next room. The stakes are too high.

I hurt for this family. I hate being 1000miles away - not that I could *do* anything to make them hurt less, but would just like to be able to step in and help, practically.

sorry to ramble. just too much death, too much loss this past year.

From what Laura (mom) said, this will be the second child this year to be buried with a blanket that I made for them. That's really depressing.

the news article. http://www.kten.com/Global/story.asp?S=5715016

The past few years, this family has gone through an awful lot. Two years ago, about this time, they lost most everything in a house fire. The following year his sister lost everything in a house fire. The school system was failing their son miserably and she pulled him out to homeschool. Then the school retaliated by bringing up truancy charges for another child (due to tardies).

Our foreign exchange student, now from Korea, will be flying in on Sunday!

whooo-hoooo

I'd teach C2 to go around the house announcing the impending arrival - BUT, I haven't figured out how to pronounce her name yet!!!!! lol

well, we wait more.

the AYA lady spoke to a vice-principal in our town who said she could not add another student right now.

so she called teh principal of the next town over. who had to talk to the super. who said, "no". b/c she would be an inter-district transfer. principal had already filed a waiver to not take anymore and if they open it up for this student, they have to for any who want to go. *pout* i dont see why they couldnt say, "oh, we have room for one more - you, how lucky" :o9

soooooo, i went to see the principal of our high school. i am very grateful that he's a "good ole boy" b/c otherwise i would have been scared out of my wits to talk to him! rofl. The VICE principal, otoh, is a witch.

I left today with no more news than i went in with. i did leave knowing more and with a slim glimmer of hope, though.

AYA emailed the student's paperwork to the principal, who will look it over and the vice will see if she can fit her into some classes. The VP kept stating that it was more an issue that GERMANY wants the students to take certain classes and she cant fit her into those.

BUT AYA says that is not true. that they ONLY required courses are: US History, math and an English/Language Arts course.

I encouraged her to write that in the note to the principal. Praying that will make a difference.

In the meantime, someone in the AYA office purchased our student a plane ticket to the wrong place. AND after the second school told AYA "no" she began pursuing a placement in the town the plane was goign to. :o( so, we still may loose our student.

She says there are others, we're just praying for God's will in it all. and a peace about His will and knowing that even detours and stop signs are from Him.

In the meantime, my 6yo is going around the house singing, "[name] comes tomorrow! tomorrow! tomorrow!" even though we've told them, repeatedly, that it is not for certain.

How could we refuse such a face?

and she's 16years old.

Yes, I know, people already think we're crazy for having seven children.  So, how much worse could "public opinion" get for hosting a foreign exchange student for the academic year?

The minute details are still being worked on.  They have to call the high school to make sure they TAKE exchange students.  Then we have to meet our local coordinator and give them our paperwork and everything. THEN the student gets to review US to make sure she really wants to be a part of our family!

Should make for a fun year, huh?  We are reviewing three students, to bring one to our home.  All three are from Germany.

We will have to move the Ms into the Cs room and let the student have her own. OK, we dont *HAVE* to give her a room to herself. But, we figure she will NEED the space to decompress at the end of the day!  So, we need to get a bed, dresser and desk to go in there.

We start school tomorrow. I am debating what is best - to hold off on school until she is here or go ahead and start.  I might need these next few days to move all the furniture around and do some better cleaning.  The kids do the daily cleaning chores and every now and then it should actually be scrubbed really well - ya know? rofl!!!

Well, we're praying that God works it all out the way He wants it to be.  Even if that means we don't get a student at all, for whatever reasons.  We do pray she comes, though!

I've been busy, busy getting things ready for school to start.  We scheduled to start Aug 28th. This year I have:  C2, 1st grade; M2, 3rd grade; C1, 4th grade; and M1, 6th grade.  I'm going to try S1 in K this year. I think he's *ready* to learn, but not so sure he's ready to sit still! lol

We using Amble Side Online for our school curriculum.  We really enjoy it!  We'll be doing years 6, 4, 1 and 0 - both M2 and C1 are doing year 4.  C1, being older, will have a few things extra to do than M2 - like latin, plutarch and grammar. SHE asked for it, now she's trying to complain. rofl

We're also using Math U See with the girls, now.  We really enjoy Mr Demme.

I have the first six weeks planned out to daily lessons for C2, M2 and C1.  I'm having to do some creative "footwork" with M1, though.

anyway,

aside from my job as wife, mom, housekeeper, cook, teacher, etc  I'm working at a restraunt downtown.  I really enjoy working there.  The people are nice, the job is fun.  It's hard to be on my feet the whole time, but at least it's in short spurts on Fri and Sat.... Sunday is killer to the feet, though!

Well, I'll go now. Just thought I'd jot down a quick update as to why I hadn't been updating...