New foster/adopt adventure!

Hello friends,

We are constantly asked by friends and family if anything is happening in our adoption adventures. For those who have not heard, here is the update and we want to share our new adventure we are starting.

This summer, we were told we would be chosen for a sibling group of 3 precious children and at the last minute, they decided on another family because we are military. Even though we will be retiring in 2 years, they did not want to see these children have to relocate if we do possibly move. This seems silly to me given that many of my friends have moved in the last year and none of them are military families, however; I believe it is all in God's hands. Everything happens for a reason and I am truly at peace knowing our God is in control. I asked Him to shut doors on those He does not want us to have and that is what He continues to do.

We have asked for over 60 children of all races, ages, and sibling groups in the last few months.  Many of the children are on the TARE website. Many are children who are not getting adopted and still remain on the website. We have friends and family who are upset wondering why we are not getting chosen. Please don't be upset, because I only want the child/children God wants for our family. He is only doing what I asked. I asked and He is faithfully answering my prayers.

From the beginning, I felt we closed the door too quickly on becoming foster certified. Because I am not allowed to homeschool these children, I didn't think we were supposed to foster. It's been heavy on my heart for over a year, so I decided to call up Lutheran Social Services because CPS is not currently certifying foster or adoptive families in our area. After speaking with Lutheran, they said it would be an easy transition. They said they would request our paperwork from CPS and we would start the process with them. They believe it will only take a month to be certified. We have trainings and appointments planned all this week and next. I can't believe it could possibly take only a month. With CPS, it took many months. The process was very slow. Now, I'll keep you updated on how long it actually takes. We started on Friday, Aug. 16th with the orientation.

My husband and I believe this will be a fun new adventure! I am excited to see who God brings to us. All along I have asked God to choose the children for us and now I feel He will be the one completely choosing the children and placing them in our hands. Thank you Lord! I am thrilled and honored that we will be given the opportunity to give a child the love they deserve - even if it is only for a short time.

Free online classes for homeschoolers to check out!

Here are some free classes your children can take online. I recently discovered these through friends. I can not personally recommend them yet because we do not have any experience with these classes, but I have heard good things and wanted to share with others. They are recommended from Christian friends. These are great websites to try out for those who are trying to save money or move frequently. No books or money needed. Bonus! If you try out any of these websites, let me know what you think. I would love to hear.

• http://education-portal.com/academy/course/us-history-i.html: Education Portal. Many classes are offered on this site. There are videos to watch, lessons to read, and quizzes to take after. At the end of the class, there is a practice CLEP for your children to take if they would like to possibly take the CLEP exam after and receive college credit. This might be a great way to earn college credit if the college your child plans to go to accepts the CLEP exams.
• http://allinonehighschool.com/full-curriculum/history/early-american-history/: Easy Peasy has all sorts of online curriculum for children of all ages. This link is for their highschool classes. You can type in Easy Peasy for the younger grades. It is all laid out for you each day with lessons, activities, quizzes, and tests. I found the Education Portal through this website. And, yes, this is Christian curriculum!! Here is some information on why she began this website. http://allinonehomeschool.com/about/
• http://virtualhomeschoolgroup.com/: Here's one we signed up for last year but did not actually use because of our busy schedule.  We signed up for the at your own pace Apologia General Science in the middle of the year. This is a great homeschool site with free online classes; however, you will need to buy the textbook that they are using. Most of these books can be found used.  If you are interested in the live classes, check it out soon because classes will be starting. I am excited to see what they are offering this year. Read about them below and check out their website.

  Welcome to VHSG

  "Thank you for considering VHSG for your home school classes. We are a home school online course co-op. Unlike an online school, we are an association of parents (and sometimes professional tutors) that have a passion area that we would like to teach but we are not interested in doing it for money. We just want to build and share something that we love and need a place to share it that doesn't cost a lot of money. VHSG is a project that runs on voluntary donations that provides training, tools, and that free online place for those that want to teach something and in turn a place for home school families to come and sign up for those free classes."