The Fourth of July

Tonight at the fireworks we shouted "Another Homeschool Success Story!" after my son sent a tweet out to his friends with the Liberia flag rather than the US flag. Nailed it!

Now in my son's defense, Liberia does use the stars and stripes for its flag and those emoji boards on your phone are so small. But it also only has one star, so lets just say he took down the tweet pretty quickly.

It struck me that perhaps it is time to start blogging again because I really do enjoy these kids and we are about to embark on a great year of change.

For the past year I have been writing a book and going through edits. If all continues to go well, I will have a finished copy in my hands by the end of the month. We shall see. I've also learned that I don't really know how to use a comma. Hopefully someone taught my children that better than I did.

So what does this next year hold for us? We have our oldest returning home from being in China and Japan for 15 months; our second living at home for her freshman year of college; my third is a senior and #4 is a sophomore. Everyone is home for one more year. Next year at this time, I will probably have 3 kids moving out. I can only trust that God's grace is sufficient to endure that kind of change.

When we stopped homeschooling and everyone spent too many hours at school each day, I was pretty sad. I seemed to roam the house for awhile trying to figure out what was next. Since then I have gone back to school and gotten my Masters from Moody Bible Institute and completed a layman counseling certificate from the The Allender Center in Seattle. Both programs have been life changing for me on many levels. My hope is they also communicate to my kids that learning is a life long process. We never stop learning if allow ourselves to stay in awe of who God is and His wonderful creation.

But I think that is the key. We stop being in awe of God as we get older. How is that possible? How do we become so bored with life? I recently had some time with a friend's newborn and could not help but marvel at this little life. Yes, she was sleeping and that is helpful, but even her cries were beautiful and spoke of this great mystery God has woven for us to discover.

So I will cherish this coming year and soak in every minute of it knowing change is ever approaching on the horizon. I will stay in awe of who these children in my home are becoming and how God has designed them to go forth into the world. I will cheer lead them, support them and supply them with food as this year passes and I will pray for them. They will all go on to do great things, but will they know in their deep hearts the great love Jesus has for them? I hope so. I will pray it is so.

So I start the adventure this week by going skydiving with daughter #2! May it be the beginning of a year filled with the phrase "Another Homeschool Success Story!"