Wow, it's so hard to believe, but October will be here in a week, and I'm still here. Quiet (not much time for blogging these days) but still here. We are still going strong with homeschooling. There are no plans to quit anytime soon! While we are adjusting to the routine, there is no doubt that this takes an incredible amount of work. I feel like I have the basics down, our two-day rhythm and the general activities that we do that are the same each day. I'm still trying to add in some of the other things like knitting and painting.
I am enjoying homeschooling, and I feel like for the most part Dallin and I are working quite well together. Of course we have our moments, but overall this has been a much smoother adjustment than I anticipated. People have expressed to me that they are afraid if they homeschooled their kids wouldn't do any work for them. So far that hasn't happened here. We did have an incident the other day where he did some very sloppy work and all of a sudden it became my job to insist that he re-do the entire assignment. He was mad--but he did it. (After I reminded him that there would be no time for playing with friends if it wasn't done.) I felt like this was a prime opportunity to establish my authority as teacher in a way I hadn't had to do up to that point, and it was important for me to not let that opportunity slide by. I felt like it would be a defining moment in our school experience, and I needed to handle it right. I think I did!
We all know that life has a way of taking some unexpected turns, and it has been no different for us. Choosing to homeschool was one way that I had decided to stand up and take some control of my life. Infertility tends to rob people of feeling like they can control things that happen to them. I have noticed within myself a tendency to believe that if it's something I want, God will find a way to not let it happen. So choosing to homeschool was a huge step for me in making a vision for my family's life and then helping that vision happen. Although we have been on an adoption waiting list for almost 16 months, I chose to homeschool anyway knowing that, really, anything could happen. But there might not be a baby for a long time, and I had to live my life as it was now, not how it might be in the future. I was absolutely, 100% content to not have a baby at least for another year.
So of course Heavenly Father was sitting up in heaven chuckling at me. He sure has a sense of humor! Literally our third (!) day of school, our caseworker called and said we were being considered by an expectant mother. I could not believe it! My immediate reaction was, "Now??? Seriously??? Now???" But I instantly felt a sense of peace that if it happened, it would all be OK.
About a week later, we had a face-to-face meeting with both expectant parents and their mothers. The meeting went really well! And then we didn't hear anything for almost two weeks. But finally, the suspense ended a week ago Tuesday when we were asked to come to another face-to-face in which the expectant mom announced that she wanted us to be the parents of her baby!
So it's been an exciting five weeks! Not at all the way I expected our first month of homeschooling to be, but honestly, it couldn't possibly be more perfect. I've had my moments of being distracted. School days have had to be altered to make room for visits. I still wonder how I'll be able to fit everything in two months from now. So many adjustments all on top of one another... But I've had this great sense of peace that everything will somehow work out. All our moments won't be smooth. Some of my more elaborate homeschooling projects may have to be shelved this year. December will be very pared down from what I originally had in mind. I made a list of everything that needs to be done before the baby gets here in November, and it was overwhelming. But somehow I feel happy and excited and motivated and just like everything will be OK.
And, oh, it's a boy!
I am enjoying homeschooling, and I feel like for the most part Dallin and I are working quite well together. Of course we have our moments, but overall this has been a much smoother adjustment than I anticipated. People have expressed to me that they are afraid if they homeschooled their kids wouldn't do any work for them. So far that hasn't happened here. We did have an incident the other day where he did some very sloppy work and all of a sudden it became my job to insist that he re-do the entire assignment. He was mad--but he did it. (After I reminded him that there would be no time for playing with friends if it wasn't done.) I felt like this was a prime opportunity to establish my authority as teacher in a way I hadn't had to do up to that point, and it was important for me to not let that opportunity slide by. I felt like it would be a defining moment in our school experience, and I needed to handle it right. I think I did!
We all know that life has a way of taking some unexpected turns, and it has been no different for us. Choosing to homeschool was one way that I had decided to stand up and take some control of my life. Infertility tends to rob people of feeling like they can control things that happen to them. I have noticed within myself a tendency to believe that if it's something I want, God will find a way to not let it happen. So choosing to homeschool was a huge step for me in making a vision for my family's life and then helping that vision happen. Although we have been on an adoption waiting list for almost 16 months, I chose to homeschool anyway knowing that, really, anything could happen. But there might not be a baby for a long time, and I had to live my life as it was now, not how it might be in the future. I was absolutely, 100% content to not have a baby at least for another year.
So of course Heavenly Father was sitting up in heaven chuckling at me. He sure has a sense of humor! Literally our third (!) day of school, our caseworker called and said we were being considered by an expectant mother. I could not believe it! My immediate reaction was, "Now??? Seriously??? Now???" But I instantly felt a sense of peace that if it happened, it would all be OK.
About a week later, we had a face-to-face meeting with both expectant parents and their mothers. The meeting went really well! And then we didn't hear anything for almost two weeks. But finally, the suspense ended a week ago Tuesday when we were asked to come to another face-to-face in which the expectant mom announced that she wanted us to be the parents of her baby!
So it's been an exciting five weeks! Not at all the way I expected our first month of homeschooling to be, but honestly, it couldn't possibly be more perfect. I've had my moments of being distracted. School days have had to be altered to make room for visits. I still wonder how I'll be able to fit everything in two months from now. So many adjustments all on top of one another... But I've had this great sense of peace that everything will somehow work out. All our moments won't be smooth. Some of my more elaborate homeschooling projects may have to be shelved this year. December will be very pared down from what I originally had in mind. I made a list of everything that needs to be done before the baby gets here in November, and it was overwhelming. But somehow I feel happy and excited and motivated and just like everything will be OK.
And, oh, it's a boy!
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