Sunday Snapshot: In Love

These two, they have my heart, I am completely in love with both of them. I can tell you that the last week and a half with them at home has only cemented my will to homeschool. They are amazing, they are wonderful and they are mine. I might be a little biased but I am pretty sure that if you met them you would feel the same.

Now I am going to go and spread cream cheese on their bagels because I live for that sort of thing these days.

One blessed Mama,

P.S. Before I got this posted I ran in the kitchen to check the bagels and they were burnt...black....so I called Mitch who is preaching at an outreach of our church this morning and asked him to stop and get biscuits. Glad you don't have to be perfect to be a mom!

Thankful Thursday: No Grumbling Allowed!

Thankful Thursday

I have been a little grumpy today for no good reason but then I visited Renee at "My Autumn Years"  and remembered that I sure have a lot to be thankful for.

1. I am thankful for my relationship with Christ. He is so real in my life and I could not face this life without him.

2. I am thankful for my husband of the past 11 years. He has been out of town and he comes home today!

3. I am thankful for my children Sarah (10) and Colton (7) my mom just sent me this picture of them swimming. I am so glad they are healthy and happy.

4. I am thankful for my church family.

5. I am thankful for living in a country where I am free to homeschool and living in a community where I have such a great group of homeschool Mom's willing to help out a newbie.

6. I am thankful I do not have to work full time and I can enjoy these summer days with my children.

7. I am thankful for a loving Father, Step-Mother, Mother, and Step-Father who support us in all we do.

8. I am thankful for my loving Step-Mother, Mother, and Aunt who help with the kids during the times I do have to work. I could not leave them anywhere that I wasn't sure they would be taken care of completely.

9. I am thankful I have a roof over my head and food in my cabinets. (And for power, air conditioning, telephone, internet, indoor plumbing and all of the other comforts I take for granted.)

10. I am thankful God has opened my eyes to the needs of others and has lit a fire in my heart to help be a part of the solution.

Have you been grumbling and complaining today?! I challenge you to find 10 things to be thankful about today!

In Christ Alone,

My heart sings....I AM FREE

I am so excited!!! I went to a BCHE meeting last night. That is our Home Education Group here in our little town. I was AMAZED by the women there and I cannot wait to jump into Homeschooling! All the questions that had hung over me like a weight were answered and although I know I have a LOT of hard work ahead of me and when I think about getting my mess of a house wonderful home organized and ready for this it makes me want to take a nap. I know I am capable and I really can't wait to get started!


Please pray about my job. I have let my Manager know of our plans and I have worked out a schedule that will allow me to work between 5 and 20 hours per week and still do homeschool and attend church. I am hoping that they will let me go permanent part-time because this would make health insurance available to me. I know that God is in control and I trust him to have his way in all of this!

We have 6 more days of school and then the Roe Family will be FREE of the constraints of the school system and we will be able to set our curriculum and our schedule around the plans that God has for our lives. Who knows we may even get to take a field trip to China in the next year or so! God is working on our behalf and I am waiting on bated breath to see what He is going to do in our lives. I know that I felt Him call us to homeschool and I know that He has also called us to adoption...His Word tells us that obedience is better than sacrifice and I can't help but think that the steps we have taken in the last few weeks have made our Heavenly Father smile. I don't pretend for one minute that we haven't also made Him frown or cry because of our sins and shortcomings... we are human end of story. But for some reason or the other HE LOVES US and I am so glad to know He is on my side!



In Christ Alone,

The Roe's Get Schooled

To Homeschool or not to Homeschool that is the question...


Well we have been praying and thinking and praying and thinking and we are down to the wire now. We really need to decide what we are going to do about school next year.

We LOVE our school and we had WONDERFUL teachers this year but I have been uneasy lately. I don't know if any other mom's feel this way or not but I just feel like God has called me to an awesome ministry...MOTHERHOOD....and then he gave me two little precious gifts that I chose to call Sarah Ann and Colton Jack and I enjoyed them and loved them and took care of them and then they turned 5 and I sent them away for 7 hours everyday. 7 hours a day I give them into the hands of others to mold them and teach them. Now I can tell you that if I think for one second that they have been taught something contrary to the Word of God I tell them that whoever taught them that was WRONG. End of story. My dad likes to say the Word of God is truth and every man a liar. I agree. But for 7 hours I don't have the ability to speak in their ear and tell them that God loves them and that I love them. For 7 hours they don't read the bible one time, for 7 hours I don't see their smiles or kiss their lips. That's somewhere around 1260 hours a year that I lose with them. And that is just not ok with me.

The second issue is that Colton is behind in reading. He is reading at 2nd grade 1st month and he is about to be finished with 2nd grade. I think that he needs more one on one time to get him on grade level or better yet ahead of grade level. In every other subject Colton is on target or ahead. Sarah is ahead in almost every subject and I am afraid she is getting a little bored. I just think I could fashion a school day for them that would cater to both of their needs and wants. I know this would be a BIG task and I don't think it's for wimps...which I tend to be a little wimpy...lol. But I just keep feeling God drawing me to do this.

I have a friend that I met back in China in September of 2008 who just happens to live in the same state as me (about 2 hours away) who homeschools. I have gotten lots of advice from her and I have actually decided to use some of the same literature as she is using (ok actually all the same literature but what can I say it all looked GREAT and I know nothing about where to start so I figured if we do this for and something doesn't fit with my kiddos I can adjust.) I am so thankful for those connections we make in life that make doing what God is calling us to seem a little more attainable!

Anyway lest we think I just accepted this like a good little girl let me tell you I have thought of several reasons this just wouldn't work...so here is a play by play of what my conversations have been with God...this happened over months not in one setting...THANK GOODNESS because it takes time to admit your wrong, well at least it does for me.

Me: I have to work.
God: Well yes you do but you can work from 3-8 and still get in part-time hours.

Me: I have NO ROOM!
God: Well actually you have a dining room and it is way big enough.
Me: (in a really whiney voice) But then I have to take all of my beautiful pictures down and that is my only "frilly" room.
God: Really Sherri?! What matters most a frilly room or the difference this could make in the lives of your children?!
Me: Wow...flesh stinks. The children matter most of course. (Again I didn't get to that answer without a few weeks and God stepping on my toes a few hundred times.)

Me: What about socialization...they'll turn into weird shy homeschool kids.
God: Their your kids...they are already weird... (HAHA just kidding I thought that on my own but I know He thinks it!)
God: YMCA, BCHE, ECT!

So honestly I am just getting sick of fighting it. I am not sure if Mitch is completely on board or not but I am leaving that up to God if he can convince me to keep my kids home with me 365 days a year I am sure he can convince my husband to let me.

Now that I have given into the fact that this will most likely be the route we take I am actually having fun with it so if there are any other homeschooling mom's who have ideas or advice I am welcome to it!

These are my top five questions for now.

1. What reading curriculum do your recommend?
2. What if my child has an IEP how can I continue to get Speech therapy for him?
3. How long do you devote to each subject (per day)?
4. How do you deal with behavior during school hours? Dad usually does the spanking around here and I would really like to use some other methods during school hours. (I want to say I DO believe in spanking and I feel like it is what I am commanded to do through the Word but I know if they were in school they would be expected to offer great behavior without the threat of spanking and I want to do the same. They are great kids but they FIGHT all the time!)
5. Do you know where I can get any good deals on storage cabinets or bookshelves for our school room?!

I am really looking forward to this...most of all I want to find JOY in our JOURNEY. I also want to do what is pleasing to my Heavenly Father, after all when the day is done that is all that really matters!

In Christ ALONE,

Sunday Snapshot: Sweet Sarah

In December of 1999 I became a mother for the first time. I will never forget the ride home from the hospital, it was less then 10 miles away from my house but I remember Mitchell going so slow and my heart jumping every time we hit a bump. I just didn't want anything to happen to her. She was so perfect and precious and my biggest fear was that something would hurt her. Now here we are over ten years later and I have learned so much from her.

Her smile lights up our home. She is such a loving girl. She is a straight A student, she loves the Lord and she is always waiting with a hug or a smooch on the cheek just when I need it.

She is stubborn. OH SO STUBBORN! (I have no clue where she gets that :-) She is an individual, when most girls are playing with their Barbie Dolls she is sorting her Bouncy Ball Collection.

She loves to read and she loves music...both traits that she inherited from me. But she also loves to be outside, throw ball, and ride her bike, just like her Dad.

As I look at her now I feel the same way I did sitting in the back seat of that car a decade ago, I know some bumps are coming...there is no stopping it. She is such a beautiful girl and in the last year she has stopped thinking boys were "gross" (well except for her brother) and she has a "boyfriend" now. I guess my fear is still the same; I don't want anyone or anything to hurt her. I know that hurt happens to us all and disappointments come. Just this month she competed in two Speech Contests, she won the first one and lost the second. She tried to act as if it didn't bother her but I looked into her big brown eyes and I knew just what she was feeling. I could almost see her thinking about what she should have done differently but I just wanted to hug her and make it go away. I don't want her to ever try to change who she is to please others.

On that cold December day a decade ago, I placed her in the car seat and her Dad buckled her in tightly. I tucked blankets in around her and made sure her head was supported. That was all we could do, we prepared her for the bumps and then we had to trust God to get us to our destination safely. That is exactly what we have done at this point in her life. We placed her in a home full of love and safety, we have tucked her into a church family that loves her and she buckled herself to Jesus by asking him to be her savior. Over the last few years I have tried to support her by teaching her what the Word of God says about how she should live her life. Now I have to sit back and prayerfully trust God to get us through the next decade safely. If I have learned anything as a parent it is that God loves her so much more than I can and His plan for her is perfect. Even more perfect than she was when I placed her in the car seat on a cold December day. My Sweet, Sweet Sarah.