Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

baby, blog, micah, new, rays, us, ray, family, tuesday, august, 2014, archive, pictures, with, 28, 11, daddy, mommy, adoption, timeline, for, my, list, school, year, decisions,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
and (120), the (85), for (34), was (33), all (31), #school (30), with (29), that (27), year (25), had (23), what (21), this (20), micah (18), one (18), but (18), years (16), ago (16), out (16), them (16), family (15), not (15), her (14), day (14), who (14), monday (13), our (12), home (12), have (12), are (11), thursday (11), back (11), when (11), friday (10), each (10), know (10), really (10), why (10), gracie (10), they (10), new (9), tuesday (9), kids (9), about (9), you (9), children (9), public (9), just (9), august (8), how (8), good (8), homeschooling (8), because (8), said (8), she (7), time (7), wednesday (7), received (7), got (7), were (7), four (7), would (7), kindergarten (7), into (7), before (7), like (7), days (7), didn (7), two (7), again (7), from (6), passport (6), get (6), love (6), went (6), baby (6), been (6), best (6), january (6), homeschool (6), barry (6), work (6), learning (6), want (6), yes (6), can (6), say (6), other (5), july (5), 2014 (5), may (5), appt (5), done (5), annie (5), sda (5), then (5), since (5), him (5), october (5), november (5), praying (5), making (5), needs (5), chloe (5), start (5), don (5), wasn (5), could (5), plan (5), heavenly (5), father (5), very (5), homestudy (4), his (4), met (4), told (4), too (4), rays (4), 2011 (4), only (4), february (4), april (4), right (4), others (4), fine (4), happy (4), even (4), also (4), 1st (4), some (4), way (4), great (4), girls (4), their (4), most (4), off (4), take (4), god (4), next (4), everyone (4), life (3), blog (3), approved (3), first (3), state (3), final (3), fedex (3), arrived (3), court (3), late (3), saturday (3), embassy (3), appointment (3), finally (3), schedule (3), week (3), few (3), started (3), friends (3), march (3), june (3), september (3), december (3), decisions (3), share (3), now (3), thinking (3), long (3), will (3), point (3), think (3), getting (3), felt (3), homeschooled (3), might (3), after (3), months (3), decision (3), summer (3), still (3), month (3), both (3), through (3), teacher (3), every (3), enough (3), being (3), feel (3), much (3), second (3), nothing (3), preschool (3), special (3), realize (3), forth (3), need (3), grade (3), during (3), come (3), ready (3), see (3), wanted (3), having (3), keep (3), full (3), far (3), against (3), prepared (3), husband (3), taking (3), going (3), give (3), more (3), perfect (3), call (3), things (3), haven (3), okay (3), couldn (3), has (3), night (3), help (3), figure (3), there (3), needed (3), awesome (3), learn (3), easy (3), pictures (2), bunch (2), silver (2), list (2), eternal (2), remember (2), lewey (2), sweet (2), mailed (2), adoption (2), application (2), physicals (2), appointments (2), visit (2), social (2), apostilled (2), set (2), officially (2), office (2), attempt (2), number (2), picked (2), biometrics (2), walked (2), three (2), weeks (2), dossier (2), country (2), referral (2), another (2), read (2), minutes (2), hours (2), found (2), shelly (2), 2nd (2), 3rd (2), birthday (2), married (2), fun (2), 2012 (2), 2013 (2), posts (2), older (2), surprised (2), last (2), sure (2), drink (2), water (2), whatever (2), friend (2), talking (2), agreed (2), maybe (2), mama (2), whole (2), attend (2), private (2), curriculum (2), weren (2), classroom (2), volunteered (2), joined (2), once (2), attendance (2), anxiety (2), myself (2), crazy (2), schooling (2), always (2), enrolled (2), same (2), failing (2), rest (2), figuring (2), over (2), bouncing (2), stability (2), child (2), doesn (2), bad (2), decided (2), better (2), leave (2), weaknesses (2), freedom (2), teach (2), without (2), answer (2), look (2), did (2), different (2), end (2), advice (2), counsel (2), instead (2), breather (2), thought (2), wonderful (2), kept (2), slowly (2), down (2), gym (2), little (2), except (2), thing (2), promptings (2), made (2), asked (2), well (2), planned (2), please (2), least (2), feeling (2), brought (2), poor (2), prepare (2), cried (2), morning (2), knew (2), until (2), wow (2), independent (2), loves (2), excited (2), looking (2), forward (2), wait (2), big (2), matter (2), reactions (2), answers (2), doing (2), snack (2), lead (2), head (2), gone (2), frazzled (2), six (2), your (2), sometimes (2), together (2), enjoying (2), skip (2), photos, beach, families, forever, san, diego, temple, snow, abigail, born, royers, denkers, clan, trip, mount, rushmore, burgess, news, 4th, celebration, monkey, lakes, relief, society, stolen, lucy, christopher, tales, horvath, housewife, benjamin, franklin, virtues, loving, linings, harmon, sadie, play, albany, indiana, exchange, students, lehndorfer, site, halloween, christmas, garcia, gang, building, house, duncan, chronicle, happenings, bradley, committed, adopting, applications, agency, partners, worker, pages, secretary, passports, report, completed, papers, csps, poas, safely, pfa, notarized, reports, licenses, son, decree, obtained, birth, certificate, tax, holidays, success, intake, medical, usa, holiday, closed, visa, gotcha, 600a, uscis, asc, ahead, sacramento, apostilles, beast, fischer, submitted, 11am, left, meet, boy, hold, outside, paperwork, orphanage, learned, history, visited, date, headed, waiting, period, returned, 3pm, http, blogspot, com, happen, html, golden, ticket, timeline, happily, 2005, lots, travel, goofballs, heart, grateful, companions, daddy, mommy, snapfish, 2009, 2010, archive, subscribe, atom, pinterest, facebook, blogthis, email, comment, posted, saying, cared, less, pretty, personal, revelation, background, rawness, grab, soda, herbal, tea, hot, chocolate, coffee, cozy, ever, embarking, upon, prompted, clue, known, job, add, reluctantly, local, siblings, university, looked, fish, entered, pulled, atmosphere, charter, credentialed, turn, cannot, begin, describe, extreme, meeting, submit, show, perks, type, perfectionist, difference, guessing, super, overwhelmed, suddenly, frustration, such, person, finished, survived, younger, infant, game, place, following, placement, allowed, red, flags, everywhere, speak, bringing, behaviors, old, due, cutoff, rules, combined, try, fit, worst, pulling, amazing, shows, approach, pointed, thank, filed, affidavit, gave, anyone, along, health, records, offer, 180, nobody, business, fact, fondness, confidence, successfully, levels, gusto, began, expect, battling, wills, mine, horrible, desk, bored, mad, sad, battle, leaving, wit, reasonable, dear, put, anyway, deliberately, wishes, dealing, stress, step, relaxing, threw, anymore, ing, teachers, loved, saw, enjoyed, shop, used, quiet, honestly, never, enter, regrets, thoughts, sons, wyatt, garrett, adjustment, bonding, teaching, english, interruptions, healthy, couple, classes, problem, nagging, pull, familiar, coming, these, comfortable, happens, let, mid, training, town, came, barreling, shake, fight, expecting, response, anything, passed, weary, neurotic, tendencies, calmly, conferences, scrapbooking, lunch, stuff, away, lie, bed, wants, afraid, pushed, hard, blessings, prayed, secret, crying, woke, 3am, prompting, starts, already, short, expected, tears, anger, especially, surprisingly, seemed, somewhat, relieved, lot, situations, worried, shoulders, relaxed, quivering, lips, within, cheered, probably, sisters, growing, girl, self, control, fears, understand, placements, experiences, yet, confirmed, those, worry, based, turned, hundred, compared, calling, preparing, faults, miserably, smiles, enthusiasm, lean, carry, diving, prayer, scripture, study, wake, reading, scriptures, something, listen, tune, knows, talk, turns, thankful, man, guy, craziness, lucky, blessed, guide, explained, room, cheerfully, pitched, wrap, around, kind, master, individual, schedules, check, lists, past, works, juggle, level, patient, able, subjects, course, between, confident, else, harm, putting, aside, aren, required, buried, books, class, seen, movie, company, expert, recommended, entire, function, given, kirk, cameron, wife, realized, send, flexibility, moments, miss, yeah, high, sassy, sorry, comes, people, either, hate, art, ray, dad, mom, half, dozen, sweeter, sidebar, main,

Text of the page (random words):
d her out to homeschool about a month after that because we weren t happy with the atmosphere in the classroom we both had volunteered before making that decision we joined a public charter school to do our work through and met with a credentialed teacher once every 20 days to turn in work and attendance i cannot even begin to describe the extreme anxiety i had each month about 2 3 days before our meeting thinking i didn t do enough and what would i submit to show the work we had done each month i was making myself crazy the perks of being type a and a perfectionist i didn t feel like i was making much of a difference in her schooling always second guessing myself and was super overwhelmed by it all so suddenly re enrolled her that same year back into the public school out of frustration that i was failing i m still learning how not to be such an all or nothing person gracie finished kindergarten at the public school and survived just fine just like the rest of us who ve been through school i had three younger children at home two in preschool and one infant we were also still figuring out the whole special ed game with micah so i was all over the place that year i do realize that bouncing kids back and forth is not good for them they need stability the following year gracie started 1st grade in august at the same public school during this time micah was enrolled at a public preschool for special needs children and we just weren t happy with the placement not allowed to come into classroom red flags everywhere for a child who doesn t speak and he was bringing home bad behaviors chloe was also ready for kindergarten but not old enough to start due to the birthday cutoff rules from the state with all the needs combined we decided once again to try homeschooling to see if it might be a better fit for all of the children i think i felt the worst about pulling gracie out because she had an amazing teacher who i really didn t want to leave but at that point i didn t want some of the kids in school and others at home again this shows my all or nothing approach i realize it s one of my weaknesses and don t need it pointed out by others thank you so in october that year we started homeschooling and filed a private affidavit with the state this gave us the freedom to teach how and what we wanted without having to answer to anyone along the way we had to keep attendance and health records offer a full curriculum and teach for 180 days the rest was nobody s business we had a really great year in fact it was the best year for our family so far i look back on 2012 13 with much fondness and confidence we did it i successfully homeschooled four children at four different levels and we had fun so with that gusto we began 2013 14 schooling again at home why not right what i didn t expect was the two older girls battling their wills against mine from august to october we just had the most horrible days one didn t want to read one didn t want to do her desk work one was bored the other was mad and sad it was a long battle i wasn t prepared for and one that was leaving me at my wit s end against all reasonable advice and counsel from my dear husband who had been praying and who told me not to put them back in school i did it anyway yes i deliberately went against his wishes because he wasn t the one who was dealing with all the stress instead of taking a step back taking a few days off taking a breather and just relaxing and praying i threw them back in school without a second thought then barry said this is it we re not going back and forth anymore we can t keep yo yo ing them fine with me gracie s 2nd grade year and chloe s kindergarten year were great they had wonderful teachers and wonderful friends i volunteered as much as i could and loved what i saw i kept micah home for kindergarten see i m learning slowly to give up all or nothing and annie went to preschool i enjoyed having some down time joined the gym got to shop with only one child instead of four and got really used to the quiet i honestly thought we d never look back by the end of the school year and all summer we prepared to enter 2014 15 in public school with no regrets or second thoughts this would be a great plan to have all four children in school when our new sons come home this would give me time to work on wyatt and garrett s adjustment bonding and teaching them english one on two with little interruptions and before they come home i d get 2 3 months to go to the gym every day get healthy and take a couple more classes for school perfect plan my perfect plan no problem freedom except one thing the nagging pull the familiar call to homeschool was coming back why why oh why do i have to get these promptings when things are so good and comfortable why now when i have a perfect plan haven t i done enough haven t i made sure to always say yes when asked because i know full well what happens when i say no to heavenly father s promptings okay god but i ll let things go as planned for this year and we ll start it next year okay please i don t want to homeschool at least this year please in mid july when barry went to a week long training out of town the feeling just came barreling down on me i couldn t shake it i couldn t fight it so i brought it up to him expecting a response of are you crazy i don t even remember what he said or if he said anything a week or so passed and i brought it up again my poor husband who has to be weary of all my neurotic tendencies calmly said maybe we ll see he was thinking more for next year just like i was because this year is planned and it s a good plan and i can have a full year to prepare and go to homeschool conferences and do scrapbooking and have lunch with friends and stuff like that except the feeling wasn t going away we d lie in bed late at night talking about it what if what if what if i said i can t help but feel like heavenly father wants us to do it this year and i m afraid if we say no i ll figure out why god pushed me so hard for this year and i know that if we say yes there will be blessings so we prayed and i cried in secret and i kept crying then i woke up at 3am last tuesday morning and i knew what i needed to do i needed to answer my heavenly father s prompting or call or whatever you want to call it and i knew i needed to say yes to this year not next year and i cried with two weeks until school starts wow the night before barry had said he wasn t ready for them to go back to school already and that summer was too short i agreed but wow i really wasn t prepared for this yes barry and i are both surprised i told the kids the next day i expected tears and anger especially from chloe she s the most social and independent out of all the girls and she loves school she was surprisingly the most excited gracie said okay and even seemed somewhat relieved she has a lot of anxiety over new situations and had been worried about what the new year would be like her shoulders relaxed annie was the one who had the quivering lips but within 10 minutes she had cheered up and was excited too probably because her sisters were i do feel really bad because they were all looking forward to school again annie couldn t wait to finally attend the big girls school chloe was getting the awesome teacher that gracie had for first grade and gracie was growing into her big girl self and learning how to control her fears micah is happy no matter what and he doesn t understand what s going on with school placements but i was looking forward to his experiences this year too yet all of their reactions confirmed that we re making the right decision and those are the only reactions we have to worry about after all we re making decisions based on what is best for them we went to public school and turned out fine so why is homeschooling best for them i don t know i could give a hundred answers of why i think homeschooling is awesome compared to public school but i really don t know why heavenly father has been calling and preparing us to do this since 2011 i know i m not the best homeschooling mama i know my weaknesses and faults i know when i m failing miserably but i also know when i m doing great with them because their smiles and enthusiasm say it all they are happy to be home with me and with each other and i m slowly and finally learning how to lean on the one who can carry me through it all i m diving into prayer and scripture study each morning before the children wake up i m praying with the kids before we start school i m reading scriptures with them during snack time and i m praying each night that i might have done something right during the day i m also learning to listen to the counsel of my awesome husband who is so in tune with god that i could really learn a thing or two from him he knows how to lead our family god is the head of it all and we both talk to him but barry is the one who answers to our heavenly father for the way our family turns out and i m so very thankful every day that he is the man i married the poor guy picked me in all my craziness but i got very lucky we are all so very blessed by having him lead and guide our family the girls wanted to start school that day but i explained that we had to prepare the school room again sweet chloe cheerfully asked can i help you we all pitched in and had it ready in two days then they wanted to start school on friday i told them we would wait until monday so i could wrap my head around some kind of schedule and figure out what we were doing i made a master schedule and four individual schedules one for each of them to check off what we do each day everyone loves lists in our family so far the past two days have gone very well we are learning what works best and how to juggle everyone s needs since each of them are on a different level 3rd 1st 1st special needs and k and so far they re all being very patient gracie is able to be a little more independent with some subjects and of course micah needs the most help but for them and everyone in between we ll figure it out i m confident that this will be a good year and when i m frazzled and everyone else is frazzled we ll take a breather there s no harm in putting things aside we aren t required to be buried in books for six hours a day haven t you walked into your kids class and seen a movie on sometimes we just learn to be a better family by being together and enjoying each other s company one expert even recommended a family take an entire 6 months off to learn how to function together that was advice given to kirk cameron when he and his wife decided to homeschool their six children enjoying art and snack time 1st day of school august 4 2014 i ve realized there is no easy way it s not easy to send your kids off to school and it s not easy to keep them home all day it s work no matter what but i really really love the flexibility of homeschooling and the moments that i would miss if they were gone all day again i do realize that bouncing kids back and forth is not good for them they need stability and as one good friend said yeah but at least you re figuring it out now not when they re all in high school love shelly and yes i can be sassy sorry but sometimes it just comes out that s the way i am people either love me or hate me take it or leave it but i love you all posted by rays r us 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest older posts home subscribe to posts atom blog archive 2014 4 august 1 new school year new decisions february 1 january 2 2013 5 december 1 november 1 april 1 february 1 january 1 2012 17 november 4 october 2 september 2 august 1 june 1 may 2 january 5 2011 92 december 3 november 2 october 2 september 7 august 13 july 12 june 21 may 13 april 6 march 7 february 2 january 4 2010 28 december 4 november 9 july 5 april 7 march 1 january 2 2009 35 november 3 october 1 september 4 august 5 july 6 june 4 may 1 april 2 march 1 february 4 january 4 pictures with micah 5 28 11 snapfish daddy mommy we ve been happily married since 2005 we love to have lots of fun with our family and travel we re goofballs at heart and are grateful to have found each other to be eternal companions and best friends baby 1 baby 2 baby 3 baby 4 baby 5 baby 6 adoption timeline for micah friday 11 5 10 committed to adopting sweet micah monday 11 8 mailed applications to rr and homestudy agency thursday 11 11 partners for adoption approved our application tuesday 12 7 physicals wednesday 12 8 passport appointments monday 12 20 first visit with social worker wednesday 12 22 mailed 13 pages to secretary of state to get apostilled friday 12 24 received passports tuesday 12 28 final visit with sw we love her thursday 12 30 kids physicals wednesday 1 5 11 homestudy report completed by sw thursday 1 6 fedex d first set of apostilled papers to ee monday 1 10 csps and poas arrived safely in ee tuesday 1 11 homestudy approved by pfa wednesday 1 19 homestudy approved by rr thursday 1 27 received notarized hs reports and licenses friday 1 28 fedex d the i 600a application to uscis monday 3 7 biometrics appt set for 4 4 monday 3 14 walked in to the asc and had biometrics done three weeks ahead of appointment schedule tuesday 3 22 golden ticket received thursday 3 24 went to sacramento to get final apostilles and fedex d the beast to ee monday 3 28 dossier arrived in ee thursday 3 31 annie and fischer s passport appointments friday 4 8 received annie s passport in one week thursday 4 14 dossier submitted to sda d wednesday 4 27 received sda appt for may 19 at 11am monday 5 16 left for micah s country thursday 5 19 sda appt friday 5 20 received sda referral to meet micah monday 5 23 met another boy who we were told was micah read http rays r us blogspot com 2011 05 it would only happen to us html and then got to hold micah for a few minutes since he was outside too thursday 5 26 2nd sda appt at 3pm micah s 3rd birthday friday 5 27 received referral and got paperwork started at orphanage learned all about micah s history saturday 5 28 officially met micah visited with him for four hours monday 6 6 found out court date friday 6 10 court saturday 6 11 headed home for 10 day waiting period monday 6 20 shelly returned to micah s country tuesday 6 21 micah is officially our son thursday 6 23 court decree obtained late in the day friday 6 24 got micah s new birth certificate and tax id saturday 6 25 passport office attempt number 1 monday and tuesday ua holidays wednesday 6 29 passport office attempt number 2 success thursday 6 30 gotcha day embassy intake appointment friday 7 1 medical appt picked up passport late in the day monday 7 4 usa holiday embassy closed tuesday 7 5 final embassy appointment got his visa wednesday 7 6 11 arrived at home finally my blog list the bradley family may happenings 10 years ago the duncan chronicle building a house 10 years ago garcia gang halloween and christmas 2014 10 years ago lehndorfer famil...