The Long Journey Home

I have been expecting to post the latest blog about our latest unit study (which was going to be on weather)

 for several months now. We ended the last unit in February, and I started doing research on it before March started. (By the way, it would have been epic, because March of '12 here in Portland was record-breakingly schizophrenic.)
However, something major happened in the very beginning of March that changed our lives and totally redirected our focus. In light of that, unit studies took a backseat, as did blogging, and we found ourselves doing the basics every day just to keep up with the upcoming home-school test for the 3rd grade.

I am going to take a minute to go over the testing for home-schoolers in a bit, but right now I want to tell you about the thing that happened that changed our lives.

When my husband and I first got engaged, we knew that the LORD was guiding us together in His timing, but it certainly wasn't ours. My husband worked a humble job as a maintenance worker for our church. It was, needless to say, quite a low-paying job, and mine wasn't too high either, being that you work for childcare because you love it, not because it makes you rich. We really couldn't afford rent, so when we got married, we moved onto his parent's property and converted one of the buildings on the acreage into a one-bedroom loft-style house for the two of us. After several years, children came along and our job situation went down and the economy went boom and 11 years later, we've been living with people basically our entire married life.

All along I had a dream to one day have my own home in which to host parties, board people in need of a room, perhaps foster parent or even adopt, and for sure run a daycare from my home. But I never had my own home in which to fulfill those dreams. I could never say to my friends of family, "why don't you come over to my place?" or "we could have that event at our house."

In November of last year, I really felt the LORD telling me in my heart to lay my desires of my home at His feet. I was really struggling to question when we were going to be able to see the dreams He placed in our hearts come true. I heard Him tell me that He had it under control and to stop trying to figure out what I wasn't doing enough to be able to make it happen. He brought Psalm 127 :1 to my heart:

 1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it; 

He told me to let Him have the dream and He had it under control. 

So that following New Year's Eve, we went out to the town where my Sis-in-law lives to celebrate the new year and I really heard Him say that this is the year you are going to get your home. 

I took that as a  promise and held it tightly in my heart. I also called my good friend who is a realtor and asked her to look into houses for us. That very day. 

Well, after the tax returns were sorted out in Feb, we submitted all our paper work to the realtor's home-loan lender and we submitted our application for the loan at the beginning of March. About 3 days later we were approved! For the first time in 11 years as a married couple we were approved for our first home loan! We started house-hunting immediately. After about 2 months of seeking and finding and thinking and praying, we found a town house that we liked and put in an offer, but it was for a "Short sale" which is Bank-speak for "longest process ever for buying a home." Good name for it, huh?

 So then we kept looking, and found a really nice little house about a block away from the other one, but this was a foreclosure, which is one of the quickest processes, and it wasn't attached to neighbors on both sides like the townhouse, so we put the offer in on that one. It was submitted on a Tuesday, and accepted on Wednesday. We signed papers for it on Friday. Wow!

So, as you can tell, all that home-seeking stuff, and packing stuff, paperwork and other details have kept me very busy, and quite distracted. Also in that time, we had several Holidays including: my baby's 3rd birthday and my daughter's 8th birthday, Easter, Mother's day, and my 11th anniversary, for which we took a 4-day trip out of town. As well as a lot of illness. It's spring, and the weather is constantly changing, and I find that people's immune systems are much weaker when the weather is constantly pulling surprises. We had the most snowfall of the whole last winter season this March, and some in April. All that to say: I've been overwhelmed with life and now I am overwhelmed with packing. And I've barely begun. 

The other big change is the town. We are moving about 20-30 miles East of the Portland area where I currently live and work. It's a small town. But there are familiar store chains and restaurants nearby. I love the neighborhood where we will be living. However, being that far out of the way means that the current daycare clients that I have are going to have other care. They would have to drive about 20 miles out of the way (one way) to drop their kids off and then the other 20 miles back just to start their commute the other direction in order to keep me on. That is asking too much. So we must part ways when I move in about a month. Bittersweet. Ouch. 


Change is a good thing, but very hard for me to process. Especially when it comes to saying goodbye to people I like or love and care about very deeply. When I quit the Child Care Corporation I had been working at for years in order to stay home with my kiddos, I cried a lot from missing some of the kids I had watched grow from infants. I loved a LOT of my kids, and even their families, that I had cared for, and I am still in touch with several of them. Change is very hard for me. So, although it is wonderful that we got a house in a wonderful neighborhood, and I will love getting new kids to love, I am really sad about not having these ones anymore. 

They have been very sweet and I know that the new care giver is going to be awesome, (it's one of the mothers of one of the babies) so that puts my mind at ease about that. All the kids are very excited  about the one aspect of moving that all kids love: BOXES! 

I am so grateful to the LORD for bringing this new phase into our lives. Like I said, change isn't easy, but in this case, it is very very good.  Our house ( which technically isn't ours yet until mid-end of June) is small but great. When we went out there to do the inspections, I took some pictures, and then I labeled them so you would know what you are looking at, since it's all beige and empty.

We are very excited to just be living in our own space and have our own things on the walls and everything. We are excited to be hanging out in our own back yard this summer and walking the 1-ish block to the closest playground together. We love the neighborhood, and some of the neighbors already.  This is a dream come true 11 years in the making. We are going to make the most of it, and have it be a house dedicated to the LORD. 


I will also resume my regular home schooling unit plans this Fall. The home-school co-op that we were a part of last year is in the same neighborhood as our house, so we can go back into activities with them as well. Yay for that!


Speaking of that home-school co-op, they are providing the location and overseer/giver of the assessment test this year that my oldest can take. He is finishing his 3rd grade this year, and that is the first grade that is required by Oregon law to be tested.  According to the law, you have to register with the county if your child will be 7 by September 1st in order to avoid truancy, but not before. Once they are registered, you have to re-register each year with the county you are living in that year. Then after grade 3, 5, 8 and 10, they have to take a test by August 15th of the year they complete those grades. You choose and pay for the testing to be administered by a state-certified tester. A qualified tester is a neutral party (not related to the child) who is a licensed teacher or psychological examiner, or who has met the qualifications for purchasing the test directly from the publisher.
That is why I am grateful to be a part of the group. They organize and arrange the testing and send the info to the parents in the group so that we can register our child/ren with the group to be tested. My good friend in the group who has a high school aged child, a 3rd grader, 1st grader and preschooler, told me that the test is only for your records. The state &/or county does not need to have this test. You do not need to give it to them. You have it for the sake of proving they did it, should you be required at some point to prove that. The only thing is that your child has to pass with a composite score in the 15th percentile or above, and then they don't have to be re-tested again until the next required grade (5th,8th,10th). If they don't pass above that percentile, then they have to retake it the next year.  That is all I know. For more info, look up your state/area's laws on the internet and to find out where testing might be provided this year.

As far as life-dreams go, the dream to be in my own house, educating and being with my children and taking care of others, has finally (almost ) come true for me!! That was the big bucket list one, so now to tackle the littler ones.....(like performing in a musical on stage again.) Some day.