My First Experience in Court
Submitted by kim on Thu, 12/05/2013 - 07:07 in Adoption, Lessons for Mom
I went to court for the first time in my life yesterday. And it about did me in.
It was family court. Rich and I sat outside the court room for too long waiting for our new baby's case to be called. The waiting space, it can't be called a room because it was hardly more than an extra wide hall, was filled with people. Parents. Lawyers. Social Workers. Multiple times during that wait I had to swallow away tears due to the conversations I overheard. Because children's lives aren't meant to be decided on linoleum floored courthouse hallways or lived out in five inch rubber banded manila file folders.
Day One: Our Baby's First Night Home
Submitted by kim on Thu, 11/07/2013 - 10:58 in Adoption, Nathaniel's Story
Our new baby came home on July 31, 2013. In the middle of his first night he went into respiratory distress due to a mucus plug blocking his tracheotomy tube. God used our hands to provide emergency care and preserved his life. Today we celebrate 100 days with him in our family and I celebrate by sharing a bit of our story.
What We've Been Reading in September
Submitted by kim on Wed, 09/25/2013 - 13:55 in Homeschooling, Parenting
I love reading with my children. Here's a list of what I've been enjoying with them this month:
With Drummer and Dune Buggy for Writing:
Written Anything Good Lately? by Susan Allen
Since they are short, picture books are fantastic lesson starters with older children. After reading the book aloud, we each made a list of genres we would like to explore in our writing this year - one genre for each letter of the alphabet.
With Drummer: (9th grader - Our read aloud books tie into his history studies.)
How an Empty Bedroom Becomes a Nursery
Submitted by kim on Thu, 09/19/2013 - 10:03 in Adoption
We were lying side by side on the floor in the empty bedroom when Rich whispered, “I want to submit our home study for the baby.”
The entire week of June belonged to us. Drummer was at Boy Scout camp. Dune Buggy was in Colorado with his youth group. College Dude was working at his internship in the city. Grandpa was visiting other family. A week we planned to go out to dinner nightly. To go to movies. To take long walks and leisure picnics. To celebrate life just the two of us alone.
But night after night we found ourselves in the sparse bedroom. The room we had cleared for a new child. There were decisions to make. Would we foster only? Or adopt only? Or did we want this life of quiet together to come sooner rather than later?
Subjects for Freshman Homeschool Year
Submitted by kim on Wed, 09/04/2013 - 12:32 in Homeschooling
I'm somewhat of an eclectic homeschool mom. Over the last 22 years, I've found some favorite publishers, favorite texts, and favorite order of teaching topics to my children. I've learned that homeschooling has to first and foremost work for my children and me. We do a lot of reading and writing, a lot of math and critical thinking, a lot of interacting and talking between parents and students. We do very few workbooks. We have a firm daily schedule that serves as a guide through our day so we all know what to expect, but it doesn't control our lives.
Drummer is a freshman and will use the following curriculum and texts for his studies this year:
