Our Homeschool Story Part 3 (The Final Decision)...

If you have missed the first two installments of Our Homeschool Story please click here and here.

Okay, last time I left off I was realizing that I was truly broken and God was working within me to change me.  I started noticing that when I was by myself I had a lot of spiritual warfare going on around me and I really needed to focus on God.  I began to really read and take in what I was reading in my Bible and trying to apply it to my life.  God kept showing me what He wanted me to do, and it was up to me to obey.  One thing that kept rising up in me was the guilt of having my two blessings in school.  The two blessings that God had blown His breath into to save at birth, the two blessings that He sent to my husband and I to raise to follow Him.  I couldn't stand it anymore! 


Now during this time I was working in the nursery at my church for the MOPS program (how I miss those little blessings and of course the mommies too).  There were a couple of families that had homeschooling children attending the nursery and I would always ask questions.  Remember the questions I would ask??? Each time the answers were always the same.  THEY LOVED BEING HOMESCHOOLED!  Well, my daughter would have recess during the time I was in the room by the playground.  We would talk through the window and I would ask how her day was.  She would always respond with "fine" or "okay".  Then my heart would start aching because I wanted to know why. Why wasn't she having a "great day" or an "awesome day"? 

One day while working I kept feeling the Lord putting homeschooling on my heart.  I mean more than before.  I couldn't shake it, all I thought about that morning was that I NEEDED to homeschool.  I know it wasn't something that I was obsessing over, I knew it was God. So what did I do? I asked my daughter her thoughts (once again).  While talking to my daughter through the window I asked her what she thought about being homeschooled.  To my amazement her response was "I WOULD LOVE THAT!"  Really? Seriously? I asked her.  She then said "yes, mom I have been wanting to be homeschooled for awhile." WHAT?!?!?!  When did that change?

When the conversation ended I then had 50 million questions running through my head.  What curriculum am I going to use? How do I purchase the curriculum? Do I have to let the school district know? If so, who do I tell? Am I really smart enough to homeschool????

After MOPS I would bring a friend home and then I would pick my blessings up for my son's speech appointment.  On my drive back to the school, I prayed.  I prayed to God asking him to please show me what I am suppose to do, because I am now confused.  I think I was more scared then confused.  However, as I was walking in the door to the school, I ended my prayer, I could feel great peace.  Well, let me tell you God answered my prayer right there within seconds of me saying "Amen". 

As I walked in the school, the secretary was heading to the office and stopped me to answer my question about re-enrolling my children for next year.  My hubby and I weren't sure what to do because we were going to find out in March if we were moving and the enrollment date ended at the end of February.  After February the re-enrollment fee would of went up by $500 and it was non-refundable!!!  The secretary went on to tell me that I they couldn't hold my slot, and that I would have to pay the new fee if I waited.  My response "well thank ma'am but I will be homeschooling next year."  At that moment I truly felt that God had closed the door to the private school and opened the door for homeschooling.  (See the hubby and I were praying for guidance in the re-enrollment process because we were unsure what to do, but God knew!)

See by then I had already talked to the hubby about my thoughts of homeschooling next year and his response "if you truly feel God is telling you to homeschool, you can't disobey Him, so I support you." Man I sure do love that hubby of mine ;) 

So after the encounter with the secretary I knew what I had to do, and I was now excited.  I knew that I was going to do well with homeschooling because I had God on my side.  So, when people ask me "what made you homeschool?" I say "God told me!" You should see their faces after that response. 

Now March approaches and we find out that we are not heading to the Netherlands like we hoped but we have an opportunity to go to Alaska.  My hubby jumped on that within seconds; we have tried for Alaska since 2002.  Once we found out that we had the assignment (again we saw God work that one), I went online to check out the new post we were heading too and came across the school liaison link for the post.  When I was reading the information I was blown away with what I found out.  I wasn't sure I was reading it right, so I called the liaison to verify what I was reading.  Yep, I read it right.  Alaska has allotments for families that choose to homeschool.  Meaning they pretty much pay us to homeschool.  There are certain requirements one has to follow, but to me, in my opinion, they are worth it.  It couldn't get any better than this!

On top of God telling me to homeschool, He was now sending us to a place that will pay for most of our homeschool!!!!!  God is so good! 

We are now half way through the school year and I have not once had regret.  I love it, my children love it, and the hubby loves it.

 It works really well for us and I plan on homeschooling until God tells me otherwise!