Praise God, for We are Blessed!

I've been MIA for several weeks. I must say that 2009 has been an up/down sort of year for myself, and especially for some of my close friends. My burdens and worries are minuscule as compared to those who have been through so much more. Let's back track to February 4th, when beautiful Mia Amore Adamis was born to my good friend Rachael. BTW, please check out www.theadamisfamily.blogspot.com to keep up with them and Mia's progress. Anyway, those two weeks after Mia was born were so emotionally draining. I could only imagine if I felt so emotionally spent, how Rachael and Robert and their family must have felt, not knowing if baby Mia was going to make it. But God is good and gracious, and He kept all of us strong, and most importantly, He has strengthened baby Mia!! Praise God!!

About six weeks ago, some major chaos occurred at Ethan's school. He was having some major anxiety about going to school, and I didn't know what to do. The administration got involved (a bot too much might I add) and didn't stay within their legal boundaries. Josh and I made the call to pull him from public school and homeschool our boys. More on that in a bit. In the midst of all of this, I took him to the pediatrician because he had uncontrollable head-shaking (no doubt caused by undue stress from school). The doc ordered an MRI to rule out a condition she wouldn't tell me about, and to rule out a brain tumor. Of course, this was very worrisome for me. But for the first time in my life, I almost completely leaned on God for understanding and wisdom. After seeing what my friends had been through with baby Mia...not being able to take her home nor do the normal things that parents with "normal" healthy babies get to do...well, it puts a lot into perspective. I told God that I left it in His hands. That if Ethan indeed had a tumor or something severely wrong, I was blessed with almost 7 years of joy with him, and that was more than some parents ever get with their kids. Now this wasn't easy for me, but it gave me a sense of utter peace and calmness I cannot explain. I think there will be stories for years to come on how baby Mia has touched many lived, brought many to Christ...and anything else that God could do through His glorious works.

Anyhow, back to the newest events to unfold. So I withdrew Ethan a couple days before spring break, we headed out to Southern California for a break and spent time with close friends. We are taking it easy around here, not pressing the whole homeschooling schedule as of yet. Just taking it one day at a time. We will officially start our school year around the end of August/beginning of September. I am SOOOO excited about being my boy's teacher!! I am using My Father's World, www.mfwbooks.com for our curriculum. I will be supplementing with Math-U-See, which is an awesome math program just for homeschooling, www.mathusee.com to check out their products and sample demo videos. And there's the ever famous questions,"How ever will you socialize your boys?" Well, we aren't going to hole up and avoid the world!! We are joining at least one or two home school groups and will meet at least once a week. We have church, friends, possibly AWANA next year, sports, swim lessons, and hopefully Cub Scouts. Um, I do think they will get socialized quite a bit more. Besides, not to be snooty or rude, but I don't want my boys to conform to the pattern of this world as I did when I was in school. I want them to live for God and experience the joy that I have in my relationship with Christ. Though it can be done with kids in public school, there's a greater chance that they will be better equipped with a solid Christian-based home school environment.

Anyway, that is the latest with our family. I will hopefully post some updated pics in the next few days. May God bless you this and every day!!!