Our Christmas Card to You 2011

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The Joy of Giggles - Anne of Green Gables Chapter One

Anne of Green Gables started off a little rough. As Chapter One is not so easy to read outloud. But as the character of Mrs. Rachel Lynde emerged from the breathy sentences of pastoral description, something began to change. "Are you done yet?" quickly turned into "That's terrible, the way she talks." "Who does she think she is?" to quieter thoughts when Mrs. Rachel gives her terrible advice as to the reasons of NOT adopting. (This will make for interesting discussion today about how my amazing adopted daughter of 6 views adoption and how she thinks others perceive it as well.)  Then came complete shrieks of joy & giggles of delight as my 12 year old daughter realized the boy orphan at the train station, was not a boy at all!

So, on our kind-of-sort-of, first day of school, we found the reason we homeschool in the Joy of Giggles today!

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Prayer Needed!

I have been so moved at the miracles happening over at A Place Called Simplicity and how God moves it mighty ways. Truly amazing! You must read what God is doing over there!

And as I read her latest posts...I want to share one of Linny's quotes:
 "God's plans defy all odds.
God's plans supercede all logic.
God's miracles mystify all human reasoning.
God's plans trump every single human plan.
Every single time!"

God is good all the time!
So Here's my little prayer requests:
God has so provided for us in major miracle working ways re: our home and some of our finances! Praise God! We are able to move into a smaller home w/ the smallest mortgage we've ever had! And we now have a payed for van! Praise God! But with all of that we are still hit with needs that seem so big at the moment.
+We need My Father's World Curriculum: Exploring Countries and Cultures to borrow or get a great deal on!
+We need some items to sell so that we can finish strong now!
+We need God to open or close the doors to the 2 day a week school for Ashley. They said they won't know for a few more weeks. I need to be able to plan!
+We need God's peace and presence as our home goes on the market and that I stay sane while we keep it clean! Pray for my children! :)
So that's a little of what's going on here! How about you? Need prayer?

Finally!

Wow!

That about sums up this last year of wrestling with God re: Peep3's education!

I'm sure if you read thru this blog, you will clearly see God leading us to homeschool. But sometimes what he asks of us doesn't always make sense to anyone else but HIM!

But He is so faithful to not give up on me. To show me in more ways than neccessary His will.

The last two weeks have been quite something as I went thru all of our schooling options for this coming fall. Knowing in my heart we need to homeschool her. But not landing on anything about drove my husband crazy! And then as I was about to give up, I heard God whisper to me, "If I was in your home today, face to face with you, what would you tell me about homeschooling her?"

With that final surrender, to my sweet Lord, came the peace that I have been waiting for. A still small voice has been telling me that "I already know what to do and what to teach her" and to "trust Him".

And then today, I was blessed to find a homeschool option that will allow her to go two days a week to get the individualized reading, writing, and math help that she needs. And that was my biggest challenge. I want to get her all the help she needs, even though she is almost done with her IEP. We have done a partnership school before. But this one has been around for many years and their approach to working with us as parents/teachers and the student is quite impressive. And they teach all the way thru high school. (I was happy to see all of the high school options). Then I turned around to see two ladies, from my church, who are serving on their parent committee! And we are able to carpool with Peep3's best friend and another girl from her class last year. And it looks like we might be able to borrow some curriculum for what I will be teaching!

We are now on our way! Thank you, Lord!

Finding Joy NOW

Sometimes life gets out of control.
Sometimes life gives you almost more than you can handle in a few short weeks.
Like...
The loss of our last adopted baby (embryo). A job change for hubby. Financial pressure.
Decision to sell our home. Finding a new home. A teen seeing how far he can run. Three 2 year olds. And more...like potty training triplets!

But when you get to the breaking point.......to the point of surrender.....
There is Joy!

And Joy is there even in the midst of pain, conflict and the trial.
But it is up to us if we choose to see it or not.
Life changes. It can change our perspective on many things.
But true Joy remains constant and true and always dependable.

I found myself singing in the midst of it all, "The Joy of the Lord is my strength."
As that was all my soul could cling to.
It was my lifeline.

I didn't choose to have LIFE hit like this.
No one would.
I don't like how far my thought process led me away from Joy.
I seem so far from the girl I once was. Even the young joyful mother I once was.
I have always found Joy in my circumstances. And in motherhood.
But am I living Joy?
Am I embracing Joy?
Am I living in Joy?
As our Pastor today said, "Are we living IN Him? In Jesus?"
Am I celebrating all the wonderful gifts God has given me?

Well it's time!
I've considered deleting all the previous posts.
They are not all that happy and positive.
I will not.
As this will be a milestone of God's work in my heart.
And a declaration of "Finding Joy NOW!"

I'm finding Joy in His provision of a beautiful... smaller home...smaller payment!
I'm finding Joy in the moments when I know ALL my children are home and safe!
I'm finding Joy as I snuggle my darling daughter during church!
I'm finding Joy that I do have food in my panty even though I need to be creative!
I'm finding Joy in a faithful, loving husband!

Are you needing Joy? He is always there! Waiting for you! It's up to you to seek Him!

Living with ADD

This has been quite a journey to get to where we are today. We've had quite a stressful Spring.
Our main stress has come from the many ups and downs of Peep3's life over the last few months.

First off, let me say that I have just read my first book on Understanding ADHD. Why?...oh...Why have I waited so long? I guess I've been so focused on how Dyslexia has affected all three of my older Peeps, that ADD has been pushed aside. But no longer. It is great to read a book and have those "ahhaa" moments that you are not alone. That the battles we sometimes fight have to be reached in a different way because...guess what?...Kids with ADD are wired differently! Big news flash...I know.

Second, although the book I mentioned above tells us that society (doctors, teachers, etc.) have realized that the behaviors of said children are no longer blamed on bad parenting skills, I would have to disagree. Last month I sat in an IEP meeting and when discussing Peep3's lack of attention, both the remedial teacher and her main teacher sat back, arms crossed, and looked at me for a solution. They mentioned their concern about what is going on in our home to make this child so emotional. I uncrossed my arms, sitting forward with my arms on the table and stared back at them. I said that I'd like to know what WE are going to do about it and that I want to know what is going on at school all day that causes my child to have complete and total meltdowns when she comes home to me. Not to mention the tummy aches and not wanting to get out of bed  moments. (That happened for about 2 months) Then they wanted to know if she was still on her original medication. I told them yes and that we are not willing to put her on an additional medication for ADD. Which by the way is a blood pressure medication.

I will not go any further to discuss how our Spring has gone with this teacher. If you caught the post about Peep3's teacher intruding on our decisions to homeschool, before I deleted it, you know some of what we're going through. I know there has been some "she said. she said" going on between Peep3 and the teacher. So I'm calling a truce for now.

Third, the ADD child has quite a concoction of social issues. I believe that Peep3's issues have mainly come from her dyslexia. When a child has learning issues their peers  pick up on it. An easy target. When that child is taken out of the classroom for over 1/2 of her learning day for remedial classes and then is expected to reenter w/o disruption, this causes alot of stress and lowers self esteem. Kids feed off of this. So in her defense she does what she does best and that's being chatty and social or gets emotional, embarrassed and gets teary. Which is the last thing you want to have happen in a classroom. Then the sweet girl who gets picked on, now fights back and takes her frustrations (with words) out on younger children at school or in the neighborhood. She's done that so that she feels some control over her situation, which by the way, is not her nature. We've dealt with the loss of a best friend and then the making up of that best friend (which left both Moms in tears).Oh, the pettiness of 5th grade girls!!! But ADD plays into relationships in the form of impulsivity. She does pretty well but that doesn't help in these matters. Emotional tween+dyslexia+impulsiveness=Migraines for Parents!

So how does ADD affect our home? It does not help with sibling rivalry, at all. We've all had to work on our communication skills. Mainly how to communicate with the child with ADD. For me it's how to realize I need a break from the constant need/noise and to find a place for her to go (mainly upstairs), or a project for her to do so I can breathe and focus. I need to be better at realizing my needs before I escalate the situation. We all need to pick our battles. And there are some that I let slide and some I won't. There has to be an evaluation of each situation, mood, and need. While in a battle, now matter what happens between point A and point B, keep the focus on the original offense and stay firm. There are times that she would be grounded for a month just getting her to go up the stairs to her room for a timeout. I need to stay focused during that time and not escalate the problem. But that doesn't mean I tolerate disrespect. It's very hard when I have three little ones in the home and they are there to watch the outbursts. I try desperately to move the conversation upstairs so we can talk away from the chickies.

All of this put together with her learning needs and social needs has made us search for the right path for her for next year. God has led us to homeschool her, you can read about that here. And we have to have a successful learning environment for her that addresses her learning, social and emotional needs. We want a healthy, happy future for her. We found out that it looks like Peep3 will be able to get into the same program as her brother at their middle school. It has been a great program for Peep2. She will be able to get a block of Language Arts/World History and Math with the same remedial teachers. And that will all take place in the first three periods. If that is how the schedule comes out, we feel giving her this academic opportunity is what we should do. Then she will come home and  we will do Science and her electives together in the afternoon. We are very excited as we believe this will give her the best of both schools. God is good and my fleece is out that if this is what He wants for next year, that the school schedule and classes will still look like this come fall.

Enough about me. If you have an ADD/ADHD child, what is your biggest challenge? And how do you cope? I'd love to here from YOU!

The Most Important Reason For Us To Homeschool

A lot has happened since I last blogged. Not in the bringing my child home to homeschool realm.
But God has been busy.
I told Him I needed a "Stike me with lightening" experience to lead me further.
That didn't happen.

We chose to not pull Peep3 out at this time, because as we prayed about how that would work now, it in reality doesn't right now.
Peep3 is getting extra help at her school right smack during the Chickies' (triplets') naptime.
And believe me I pursued getting the time changed, and talked to several of the neighborhoods' live-in grandparents to see if they could come over for two 5 minute intervals daily. How crazy is that?
When the last door didn't open, we felt like we needed to wait a little longer.

But, much has been going on....with me, of course!
I was happy I skated by the Jonah bible study last fall.
I knew why I didn't want to go there.
But as I'm crying out to God for direction, guess what He puts in my path.
So, I'm just doing my Beth Moore Study at Church on the Life of Paul -To Live Is Christ,
minding my own business, when out of the blue on page 164 Beth feels the need to compare
and contrast Paul's life with Jonah's! HA!

I'm writing this down so that I know that I know that I know what He's shown me....
Here's an expert from that study that spoke to me directly...
Beth Moore writes: "Sometimes we respond with obedience like Paul. Other times we run from God with aerobic velocity like Jonah.... God loves us whether or not we are obedient, but the quality of our Christian lives is dramatically affected by our response."
The result of obedience is in John 15:10-11. "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love."
Then Beth writes: "An attitude of obedience makes a difference to the servant and to those close by. Servants of God can dramatically affect the lives of others positively or negatively. Under Jonah's umbrella in the storm many experienced calamity. Under Paul's umbrella many found safety. Is the sky rumbling? Are clouds darkening? Is a storm rising in the horizon? If you are a child of God, you will hold an umbrella in the storm. You will not be under the umbrella alone. Our children will be under there with us. The flocks God has entrusted to us will be there. Even the lost are often drawn to people of faith when hurricane winds begin to blow. Child of God, you and I are centered on the bow of the ship when storms come and the waves crash. May the rest of the crew find an umbrella of blessing in our midst."

I don't know what the future holds for any of my children. But I DO know what God has asked ME to do! And through this study I believe one reason to homeschool Peep3  is to be the umbrella of safety. I don't know what storms will come. I don't need to know, but I want to lead her and love on her all the while!

Today I came across a fantastic 10 Days of Homeschooling Blog Hop! Boy, am I making a date with my computer for the next 10 days! That's 16 Fantastic Homeschool Bloggers for 10 days! 160 reads! Wow! On Confessions Of A Homeschooler's Blog today there's a list of the other reasons (scriptures) why my heart is passionate about homeschooling our children! Found here: Confessions' : Why I Homeschool. We will be making our own Homeschooling Vision Worksheet as well. Love it!

I just want to end with:
God is so faithful. When I am not. He loves me when I am unlovable. He guides me even when I've ran the opposite direction. He loves my family. He has an amazing plan for each of us. Each one of my children! Jeremiah 29:11"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Praise God! I don't need to know how. I just need to follow Him and know that this IS His calling. To lead these precious ones to Him! Thank you Heavenly Father!