Answered Prayer

January has been an unusual month for me. I've never blogged during the month of January, so I may find this experience to be normal, but I felt the weight of 2008 on my shoulders. We were recovering from the travels of Christmas and we were getting back into the groove of school. A lot of adjusting it seems.

Our church always begins the year with prayer and fasting, this year was no different. I've never been one to fast (this fact changed January 2006 - my first fast). I know it is a personal discipline and one that should be done by God's leading AND one that is done privately. I do not share my experience to broadcast this information to the world, but to put my praise in context!

So, recovering from travels and getting back to routine was accompanied by a deep time of seeking. I found my heart heavy for where we are going in our Home School journey next year. HC and I are doing great, now that we've overcome a few bumps in the road, but I feel an urgency to train her more using the Bible. I asked around to a few Moms in real life and blog life, "What do you use?? Do you LOVE it or is it just acceptable?" etc. Their answers didn't help me. (Go figure) :)

Time for a common reminder AGAIN. This journey isn't being led by the Joneses AND if 'so and so's' family is called to x-curriculum, that doesn't mean we are! I still felt I was missing the opportunity to share God's Word with my kids. Here I am able to train them up in the way they should go but I feel lost in the how.

Our local Home School group met Monday, January 21st, to discuss our semester field trips and to visit. Before this meeting I was being stirred as stated. I had my list of things I felt would accomplish a great education for my soon to be K-5 daughter in August. I felt empowered but still missing the Bible tool. I am always empowered by a list of what I plan to do, but I also know that list is subject to change. God always makes the final cuts, I am just glad to have a general direction at all. Later in the week I received a notice from Scholastic that the book club we joined (last year) was finished - we had all the books in that sequence. The next book coming to me was.....

Did I ever tell you that I love the God factor of my life!! I love when He peeks His Almighty Head into my life to say "I've been working on this WAY before I put this burden on your heart!!!!!"

Ok, so the next book Scholastic was sending my way was this (which arrived Friday):

I was thrilled!! This devotional has great Devotions with things we can do together to make the Bible story come alive. JUST WHAT I WAS SEARCHING FOR!! I say searching, but more like a consuming search! The devotion can be used with about 5 Veggie movies that also reinforce the Bible story. YAY isn't enough! So for the remainder of our Pre-K school time we have a great devotion to start off the Bible portion of our learning.

OK, so the week before our meeting I found a website for a curriculum that interests me. It is Heart of Wisdom. I know we are at the beginning of our journey but I want a general direction for our family. I have a lot of questions still but at least I feel drawn to something finally! Did I mention that I was wanting the HOW of getting God's word into our future studies?? They are the HOW curriculum. :) HOW funny is that!

So, I found that website and the host just happened to offer a contest. I registered the weekend before my meeting and the day after our meeting I found out that I won an E-book. It was beyond a thrill to me because I could see what a unit study was!! The E-book really gave me a glimpse to see if HC is ready for the units or if I should wait until a year or two to start unit studies.

This may have been the most boring read for you but this is answered prayer to me. The kind of prayer that aches your soul. My daughter's education is in my hands and the weight of knowing that is sometimes too much to bear! I feel like know God heard the cries of my heart AGAIN! That is beyond exciting to me! So I give MUCH PRAISE today!!!!