Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall

It seems completely crazy that summer has come and gone so quickly!  School has begun!   This year we have two schoolagers (a third grader and a kindergartener)!  Wow, how did my babies get to be so big!?!  As you know from my April post, which was a few months ago (sorry about that), we are having some changes this school year.  In June I quit my part-time position so I can home school our two girls!  I cannot believe that it is September already, and we are into our fifth week of school!  I believe that this type of schooling  is not for everyone, but right now it is right for our family and we are LOVING it!!   We love beginning our school day with a devotion as a family.  We love the freedom of completing ALL their work between the hours of 8:00a-1:30p each day (with multiple breaks) and not having homework that cuts into family time!  We love that big sister is helping little sister!  We love the curriculum we choose (It is more advanced than public school and both ladies are excelling)!  It is amazing how much both have matured and grown in the past few weeks!  They have become self-motivated, and more independent for their ages!   We truly should have done this from the beginning!  We even found  cool art classes and hands-on animal science classes that are for homeschoolers (our girls love both art & animals), so they are meeting new kids and making friends who are schooled the same way!  I didn't realize the home school community was so big and supportive of each other!  We are truly blessed that we listened to God and are loving all of the extra family time that comes along with it! 

Our adoption remains at a stand still.  I just realized that we have been in the number one referral spot for a little girl for 11 months now.  I talked to the director or our agency yesterday and was told that the past week there were children whose paperwork was completed, and she referred them to their potential families.  The children were all boys, and unfortunately the way our original agency completed some of our Dossier paperwork we cannot accept a little boy. This helps us to remain hopeful though, because they are beginning to get new referrals after many months of none.  We know there are little girls in the orphanage in Ethiopia who are just waiting for the orphanage staff to get their paperwork completed so they can get home.  Somewhere in Ethiopia there is a beautiful little girl who is destined to have three big sisters (who still pray for her, still wonder about her, and who continue to draw her pictures and make her cards)!   At this time, we are praying and knowing it is in His timing.  

Goodbye carefree summer, hello beautiful fall!!