First day of School!

Lord, they are in your hands! I feel like an empty nester (nope my girls did not go off to college today). Cary and I took our girls to their first day of school, 5 days a week ( i have been homeschooling). Caitlin was nervous and quiet until she got to school and saw some friends. Carly was teary eyed when I dropped her off. Mommy and Daddy were just trying to survive through the hallways of chaos. :) Kids everywhere. I have been pretty emotional all week. Looking back remembering them as babies. The toddler years and all that came with that. Eight years with my babies and today I dropped off my 1st and 2nd grader to a new season of life. Lord i know you have so much to teach us this year. I know challenges will come and circumstances will be difficult at times, yet i know that ultimately I can rejoice regardless. I know that you will teach us through many events and that my girls will have an opportunity to grow, be stretched, learn from mistakes, and to be salt and light.

Thank you Lord for the peace I have today, for guiding every step of this process. And the great reminders that ultimately our girls character will be shaped by what we teach them and that the teachers and the school are the educators alone. To those who believe that the school has more influence I would disagree. A quote from the book, 'Going Public', "The number of hours we get with our children compared to the classroom.. A student spends around 6.5 hours in school multiplied by 180 school days per year, that's 1,170 hours over a years time. Meanwhile, parents have access to the other 9.5 waking hours of the school day, plus all the weekends, holidays and assorted vacations, including summer- a grand total of 4,670 hours per year. Do the math: School recieves 20 percent of the "time pie", while parents control the other 80 %."

God is good. One day at a time. And I'll enjoy this small season until our son comes home and then start again :) Praising the Lord in all his glory and wisdom! Praising the gift of motherhood. Acknowledging I can do nothing on my own and that all Cary and I can do is continue to point our girls to Christ, the choice is theirs, in every decision they make, the consequence (good or bad) is ours to give.

Fingerprints and More

We have some exciting updates. We have received our home study approval! We have also received our form back from Homeland Security to go get our fingerprints for the I600A. We also have sent in our fingerprints for the FBI background checks. So - all in all; we have made a ton of progress. Our friends who have gone through this tell us that hopefully all will be going for us and we'll have our son spring to summer of 2009. Very exciting. Another exciting event that has taken place (pictures to come) is that a few of us that went to Africa together on discipleship trip have gotten tattoo's. Very fun stuff. I'm sure a few raised eyebrows.....but, it was a blast getting it with my beautiful bride in Austin on sixth street and hanging with my friends in Dallas doing the same.

More updates to come.