Due passi avanti .... Diciassette passi indietro.

Two steps forward.... Seventeen steps back.


Yeah.  That's how I feel sometimes.  It's ever so frustrating.  Just when I get all my poo together and we're doing great, something so small happens and it's like the end of the world. 

It took 6 weeks for Matti's self esteem to go away so I'm not sure why I think I could change it in such a short amount of time.  I've seen significant progress in her since I pulled her out of school, it's just those little things she hasn't quite got back yet that seems to kill us the most.

Today, a simple math problem.  As soon as the word "MATH" comes up she goes into melt down mode!  What the crap?!?  Seriously?!  She was at the top of her class!  And now just the thought of addition and subtraction sends her to tears!  We worked on multiplication first (Thank you Life Christian Academy for providing this online school for us, we really do LOVE it!!) and when she saw it she just panicked!  So I started asking her "Why?!?"  She knows she tested low in it when they tested her at the school here.  And don't get me started on that.  I'm still pretty pissed that she told me "Yeah, such and such said you wanted me in 4th grade so they're testing me to see if I can."  URGH!  The last thing I wanted was for my daughter to know she was being tested for this stuff.  And if she was going to know, I wanted to be the one to tell her and explain it to her....  Back to the original subject...  I've got to find a way to get her confidence back up.  Once sentence she's upset because math is "too hard" then the next sentence she thinks she's having to do baby math because she's reviewing stuff!  This poor girl is all over the place.  I'm actually considering talking to the doctor and getting her a counselor. 


So here's the thing about me and blogging... It takes me (sometimes over 24 hours) forever to actually post these.  And I'm not sure I want to always post the links.  Not that I don't want you guys to read this, but do you really care that I'm blogging about a "Matti meltdown" and not some beautiful place??  We'll see.  I'll just leave this in my blog and see how many of you actually do read it and then you can feedback for me!

And update, tho.  Matti did great after we sat and talked a lot.  She was kind of on a slippery slope this morning when it was time to start her work.  But I think she really wants to do it alone but I really need to be sitting with her and reading/explaining more as we go along.  Which, I don't mind.  This is what I wanted to do.  So maybe we're not seventeen steps back right now.  We're more like seven.

Until next time.... Ciao!

Lessoned Imparato!

Lesson Learned!


Well, what a trip that was!

It all started last week when we found out everyone had a 4 day weekend.  We wanted to leave on Friday but there was so much drama going on that it didn't happen.  After lots and lots and lots of searching, I found Baglio Pocoroba Segesta on www.agriturismo.it.  This is a pretty neat website in finding agriturismo's around us.  For those of you who've never heard of this, it's basically like a bed & breakfast but much more, depending on where you go.  Here it Italy it is usually a farm and the place you're staying has a story behind it as well as interactive things you can do.  Ours, I have no idea except it said educational.  At the time, going here sounding great.  It looked pretty and was a decent price.

Getting there was probably the most interesting part.  We were emailing back and forth with Giuseppe Pizzitola, the owner, about staying there.  We were going through the website which was translating everything for us.  Then he emailed us directions without the website. Cool.  This dude speaks a little English and it won't be too bad.  We book the place for 3 days, 2 nights and start packing.

Here's the thing about me and packing.  I pack everything AND the kitchen sink.  This trip, probably cause I was in a bad mood and being rushed all at the same time, I failed to do so.  Because of this, it cost us over an hour of driving in the city Alcamo and 60 euro.  I'll come back to this.

Another snafu BEFORE we left was that Chris didn't realize we were staying as long as we were.  So when he found out, we had to stop and buy him new clothes.  Which probably isn't a bad thing because I can't remember the last time I switched out his underwear.

Finally we're off.

"You know where we're going?"  he says.  "Sure," I say,  "I have it right here from the website. I just copy and pasted it in your "maps" on your iPad.  We're good." ....right??  I mean, I got it FROM THE WEBSITE.  How hard can that be??

Along the way we stopped at a "rest area" on the highway and took some pictures of the Tirreno Sea.  We're looking towards Santa Flavia, Sicily.  It's soooo beautiful out there.  I'm not sure I'll ever get used to seeing such blue water.

It's pretty chilly out.  This is the first time we realized the girls had no jackets, or sweatshirts, or even a long sleeved shirt for Matti.  Oh well.  Moving along.

We're driving along and the navigation tells us to exit left.  We exit left.  We drive through this cute little town called Castellammare del Golfo.  Water is gorgeous.  Mountains are beautiful.  We're feeling really good about this!  "Turn left" it says.  "Follow here" it says.  I really hate that I didn't take pictures of the next thing that happened.  I don't think we'll ever be put in that situation again.  When we went to Taormina we went through alleyways that you could barely fit a piece of paper between our car and the wall.

This time we pushed our poor little car to the limits.  Do you wanna know what "Mazda Protege" means in Italian???  It means "ONE BAD MAMMA JAMMA!"  This car can go ANYWHERE and this trip it went four-wheeling up the side of a friggin mountain.  At first, it seemed OK.  We turned left like it said.  The road looked like a rocky driveway.  We could see this yellowish house up at the top.  "Maybe this is it??"  So up we go.  And we keep going.  AND going.  AND going. Chugging along, there's no stopping and no end in sight. As we're going we see a tiny "pull off" so Chris pulls over and stops.  Unfortunately, if we want to go back down we have to go ALL the way down in reverse because it wasn't big enough to turn around.  He attempted it.  OK, keep going up.  Please.  Go.  What???  Why can't we go.  Oh, duh, switch it over to 4x4.  Oh yeah, that's right.  We're in a stinkin MAZDA PROTEGE!!!!!!  So with a little love, my amazing husband four-wheeled our car up more.  We finally reach the top only to find out there's actually a paved road that we could have taken.  "DOH!!"  Thanks map App!  Appreciate that one!

After checking to make sure we didn't have any blown out tires or holes in our car, we keep following the app. The road it's taking us on now isn't much better.  But at least it's not rock climbing like the other road we were on.  I think the best thing I've ever heard from the navigation came next:  "You've reached the farthest you can go in your car on your destination. Find a place to park and walk the rest of the way."  WHAT?!?!!?  ARE YOU FRIGGIN KIDDING ME?!?!?!  WALK?!?!?!  We're literally stopped on the side of this mountain on a road that does NOT lead to our destination.  At this point I just want to cry.  I pull up the website and call the man.  His English is OK.  He tells me "ah yes, your about 25 more minutes from my house.  Keep coming till you see Segesta.  I see you then.  Ciao, Ciao!!"  .....please don't cry, please don't cry... After some deep breathing, I pull up the last email he sent which didn't make a lick of sense. I started looking for Bruca via Segesta on the map. After putting in Bruca, I realize it's the name of the town where we need to be, which is NOT what the website says.  They don't use addresses over here like we do.  It's different.  I can't explain it.  It just is.  So off we go.

Finally we're heading in the right direction.  His broken email makes more sense.  Ok.  Here we are.  Crap, which way do we go now???  He said "you see my yellow sign. Follow it. That will take you to my house."  I guess he didn't know there were about 7 different yellow signs, none of which say "Baglio Pocoroba Segesta."  Or at least I didn't see it.  I found out later Chris saw it.  So we follow a yellow sign that said "Baglio Segesta."  I mean, how can this be wrong.  The only word missing is "Pocoroba."  How many Baglio Segesta's can their be?  This is what we found...

That can't be right.  Please God, don't let this be right....  I didn't take any pictures of it, but the cows that were right beside the house were covered in muck from all the rain and clay.  The house looked very very old (most of them are) and it definitely was NOT the beautiful yellow that was recently renovated, like it said on the website.  But hey, what do I know?  The website directions had us rock-climbing in our car and hiking 10 miles to our final destination.  So I pull out my phone and call Giuseppe again.  He decides he's going to get in his "crappy white Land Rover"  (his words, not mine) and come find us.  We head back down to the autostrada and find him.  I guess he's never seen what a crappy white Mazda Protege is, cause his definitely wasn't crappy.  And I can tell you, I was extremely excited to see him and that he didn't come from the scary little house we thought was his.  Luckily what I prayed was his house when we were scanning the area was, in fact, his house.  Not only that, it was on the other side of the mountain from where started.  Hahahaha.  That would have been a very long and dangerous hike.

This really was a nice quite place.  I can't wait to go back when everything is growing and the pool is open.


So,
Lesson number 1:  Don't pack when you're pissy.  You'll forget stuff and that'll cost you in the end.
Lesson number 2:  COMMUNICATE to your loved one how long you're staying to not only save you money but save you time from not having to go clothes shopping.
Lesson number 3:  If it looks scary, it IS.  Turn around and don't go there.


This all brings us to Lesson number 4:  When traveling in the colder, winter season check for HEATER in the description.  I saw AC and assumed it meant AC/Heat.  Well, we all know what happens when you assume something.

Everything was great.  We were greeted by the cutest dogs and a great staff.  We immediately had espresso's and biscotti's.  The girls started warming up to the people and started smiling.  (Chrissy had been crying and throwing a fit about halfway down the 4x4 mountain and had just fallen asleep about 5 minutes before we made it to the place.)  They take us into our apartment and we start to get settled.  I think because everything over here is tile and concrete, everything will always be freezing.  We keep the heaters on at the house FULL BLAST all the time.  I have it set on 76 here and it stays chilly once the sun goes down.  Chris bought me an electric blanket because he felt bad.  Unfortunately, it's set for 110v and in Europe everything is 220v.  Which actually is another lesson.  We'll call it Lesson number 1 point 5:  Everything that you own (IE: Blow dryer, curling iron, anything electronic) will not work when you travel unless you have an adapter or it's 220v.  Of course, we didn't have either.

So as we're unpacking we notice they have 1 "heater" mounted up on the wall in the main room.  I think it would keep the size of ... a hall closet... warm.  Then they have a space heater going in the master bedroom.  Mom, this space heater makes your "baby fireplace" seem like our nice big wood burning fireplace at home.  I think you could put your hand on the blub and never get burned.  This won't even keep a hall closet warm. Thank the good Lord Chris said before we left "Why don't we pack your big leopard blanket in case it's cold there."  The girls slept fully clothed wrapped in a blanket and their blankets from home, a sheet, another blanket and a comforter on them.  I'm not sure what Chris slept in.  I slept in my thick tights (I bought them at the Catania market for 3 euro and the BEST 3 euros I have ever spent), long sleeved shirt and my thick sweater coat.  PLUS a sheet, blanket, leopard blanket and comforter.  I can't remember the nightmares I had (I had 2 last night) but I'm pretty sure it was because my body thought we were in Antarctica and wanted to die.  Since I was so layered in clothes and blankets it knew it wouldn't happen so it was attempting to kill me via heart attack from scary dreams. 

Before any of the "death by freezing" happened, we decided the girls couldn't go without coats and set off to find a store.  We talked to Giuseppe and after many different hand signs and broken Italian on my part, and broken English on his part, we each pulled out our iPhones and resorted to the translate apps we had.  He thought we wanted bathrobes for the kids.  Ha!  No.  So he gives us directions.  Very simple.  Go here, turn here, there it is.



No.  Not simple.  At least not for me.  I always thought I was GREAT at this stuff.  Chris drove, I navigated.  It worked out at home.  Here, not so much.  He was sending us to a place that "great coat for small price."  Nope.  Not there.  Let me google it.  Nope, not there either.  We stopped at a place and I found 1 man who could speak a little English.  Unfortunately he wasn't from around Alcamo so he had no idea where anything is.  He finally told me to just start driving around Alcamo until I found a shop that sold what we needed.

When we started it was around 5:15 pm.  It was now after 6pm and dark.  We're driving and driving and found one place that looked like it had kids clothes.  Bimbus.  Yay for Bimbus!!!  Bimbus is the most expensive place on the planet Earth.  We spend 60 euro on 2 outfits.  That's about $80.  All for jackets and sweatpants.  And the sweatpants are too big.  And the crazy thing, they gave them to us on sale.  I'm not sure why they were so expensive but the quality seems like it something you'd buy at Walmart.  Seriously.  $20/outfit at Walmart would have got us the same thing.


Lesson number 5:  NEVER leave home without a jacket for your kids.  NEVER.





When we finally got back (7:15pm) we were starving.  We all changed into nice clothes and headed to the restaurant.  This Agriturismo is an educational farm and only uses what they can get from themselves.  They make everything from scratch.  So, we started with an Antipasto (appetizer) that had 13 different things.




Here we go:

This is 4 different things.  I can't remember that Italian names of them so I'll tell you what we figured out they were (via broken English and translate Apps!)
Big Square:  Pizza.  Just like a big fluffy cheese pizza.
Small rectangles:  Chickpeas smushed up and made into little cakes and then deep fried.  Loved it!  It tasted almost like hashbrowns but with a really good peppery breading.
Long Skinny Thing: He said it's the stalk from an artichoke that they cut and deep fried.  I don't know.  But it was good too.
Ball Thing at the end of the Long Skinny Thing:  That's a deep fried cauliflower. I love that.  I've made those before.  They taste like tater tots!

Here we have Legumes and what I thought tasted like the brown beans we make at home to go with our cornbread.  The Legumes were good.  The brown beans needed a much bigger bowl and some cornbread.  That was the best thing I've had in a long time.

Next we have 5 different things:
Starting off at the bottom is slices of pumpkin.  I have no idea how this was made but it was good.  It's served cold with some other stuff, almost like it's pickled.  It topped with salt and pepper.
Going up to the left, this is a mixture of onions, eggplant, bell peppers and carrots.  This was almost pickled too and served cold.  I've had this before at another agriturismo and really like it.
Now at the top is almost like the relish you get at a Mexican restaurant at home.  Except, this is made with celery, onion, carrots and green UNpitted olives.  Now this, take out the olives and add some jalapenos and I'm set. I vowed I'd try everything here at least ONCE and so far, it hasn't been bad.  Until now.  I remember why I don't like green olives.  YuCk!!
Next is an orange marmalade.  This was amazing as well.  It's orange marmalade made from their oranges!  Yummy!
Finally we end this one with cheese.  He told me, it's cheese.  And cheese with "whatchamacallit" in it.  I have no idea what he said, but it was green and it was yummy as well.

Now for our last two:

On the right is a little bowl of meatballs.  When you think of spaghetti, most think of "Spaghetti and Meatballs!" like on Lady and the Tramp.  Well, that's not how it works here.  First you get your spaghetti with tomato sauce.  Once you eat that, then they bring out your meat.  So ordering spaghetti and meatballs here is very hard.  This was the first place we've ever had the Americanized meatball.  I have no idea how it taste because Chrissy ate both of them.  (The girls didn't try anything except for Chrissy eating the two meatballs).  I'm going with they are really good because they ordered spaghetti and didn't like it.  So we asked them to make more polpetta for the kids.  Polpetta is meatball in Italian.
Finally the last of the antipasto was Trippa.  It was round and chewy.  Not too bad.  Not sure what the sauce it was in, tho.  I do know it has a tomato base, just like every other sauce made in the place.  It tasted a lot like calamari.  I wish I would have eaten more of it before he told me what it was.  Once I knew, I couldn't mind over matter it anymore.  I had already eaten a yucky green olive so my stomach wasn't doing great.  Trippa is.....cow stomach.

After that, the girls went back to the room and Chris and I finished our meal.  I had a pasta with a carrot, garlic and some other stuff sauce.  It was their "house" sauce.  I had about 3 bites.  Not my thing.  I couldn't put my finger on what I didn't like, but it was enough that I couldn't eat it.  Chris had beefsteak that was brought out sizzling like fajitas.  It was cooked in rosemary and something else.  He loved it.  I .... eh... could take it or leave it.  It was nice a fresh tho.  That was nice.  We ended the meal with some amazing something that had an almond crust , ice cream like filling, and phenomenal chocolate on top.  The girls showed back up just in time for us to share (dang).  Luckily Matti didn't like it and Chrissy bounced back and forth between us.  This is the second time I've had something like this.  I WILL find out what it is and learn how to make it.  It's right up there with tiramisu for me.

 

We went to bed after dinner and froze.  Because we don't have any adapters, my phone died during the night.  The cigarette lighter only works when the car is turned on, so we can only charge stuff when we're in the car driving around.

Breakfast was great, but no pictures because so far I just refuse to take my nice camera into a restaurant and take pictures.  I always sneak around with my phone camera.  Oh yeah, another thing... I forgot a brush.  So the girls and I didn't wash our hair because we couldn't brush it out.  THAT was great.  Let me tell ya. We're raggity-haired Americans.  After breakfast we went to the Temple of Segesta (Tempio Greco) and a small theater which is around the corner.  The man taking the tickets for the temple fell in love with the "blonde hair Americano bellas" and begged to take a picture with them.  He said "souvenir for your blonde bellas with Antonio.  That's me, Antonio."  He then took our picture for us.  He was so nice as was very excited when realized we lived north of Texas!  He knew New York, California and Texas.  Then when we left, he kissed both of my cheeks.

The temple was pretty.  The views were amazing, like always.  This temple was very BIG.  Everything seemed oversized.  I read where some say it's like it was built for giants, not people.  This temple was started sometime in the 5th century BC.  Several things point to that the temple was never actually finished.

The above picture of the temple is taken from up where the theater is.  It's a good mile or so up there.

Lesson number 6:  When they say "we leave in 30 minutes" it's 30 minutes exactly.  Because of this, we got to walk over a mile down the mountain.  We paid 3 euro to take a bus up the hill.  It said, leave to go down in 30 minutes.  We just missed the bus :(  But at least we were walking down, not up.

Each temple and theater we've gone to have their own "awe" to them.  You can't compare them either.  The one in Taromina was just beautiful.  So was this one.  I didn't take as many pictures, due to the time restraint (which didn't matter anyway) but the views were just as breathtaking.  Looking out with this one made me sing "The hiiilllllsss are alllivvvveee with the sound of muuuusssiiiicccc" because of the views were just beautiful rolling green hills (or mountains, whatever.).  I haven't edited any of the pictures from the trip so I'm just posting a couple.  Look for an album on Facebook soon. :)

I think this is the longest thing I've ever written.  If you're still here, thanks for reading to the end.  We went back to the agriturismo after that.  The girls started feeling bad.  Luckily it was only about 5 minutes from where we were staying.  We had lunch (pizza, french fries, cheese and ham for the other three, I had risotto with mushrooms, asparagus, onions and carrots.  AMAZING) and then the girls got sick.  Which leads me to a big one...


Lesson number 7:  Don't go on a trip when you're kids still aren't 100% over the stomach stuff.  We thought they'd be OK, but they weren't :( 

After they each had accidents, we decided it was time to go home.  I couldn't stay in the ice box of a room for a day and we couldn't risk going out sightseeing with kids who couldn't make it to the bathroom when it was the next room over.  So we apologetically told Giuseppe and his mother goodbye and assured them we'd be back. 

The ride home wasn't bad.  Chris and Matti napped but Chrissy and I chugged along.  It's a good thing we decided to come home.  The girls aren't much better off than they were before.  At least now we're in the comfort of our own home :)

I hope you enjoyed this.  This is what you get when I blog as soon as I get home.  A very long, detailed description of our journey.  I know the grammar isn't right and some of the spelling is off... but hey, that's me.  I hope when you read it you can hear my voice and it's like I'm there telling it.

I can tell you this, we learned a lot on this trip.  The girls are having a hard time finding food they like.  Lesson number 8:  Pack emergency food.  It's even hard finding things at some of the grocery stores when we don't really know what we're buying.  You wouldn't think so, but you'd be surprised.

And the last lesson:  Never be afraid to call it quits and come home.  Not that you should be a quitter, but we would have been miserable staying there in not only the condition of the freezing room but from the condition of our children!! 

Until next time.... Ciao!! 

Qual è il mio istinto mi dice?

What's my gut telling me?

I've made a decision!!

Now this decision is something that I prayed about for a very long time.  It's a decision I've asked many others to pray about for me and my family.  And while I don't have EVERYONE on board with this decision, I have the only one who matters and that's GOD!

I don't feel like I have to justify my decision to everyone.  I know I'll get a lot of people who will be disappointed in this and other who will be through the roof with excitement.  But I want everyone to know, I don't take this decision lightly and I feel blessed that God showed me the way, through my faith!!  And before you decide to judge me on this, do a couple of things: 1. Research.  Research this topic.  2. Put yourself in my shoes. Not with YOUR personality, but with mine.  3. Consider all the FACTS (from researching), consider the FACTS in with my personality and then listen to my story.  You don't have to agree with or support me in this decision.  I'm OK with that.  But just know, Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Do you ever wonder what your "gut" feeling is?  I never really understood it until I got over here.  We all know my trials with Chrissy so she doesn't have as much to do with decision as Matti does.  When we first got here I was dumbfounded in how Matti was growing up before my eyes.  She was riding her bike without training wheels within a WEEK of moving in.  She was borderline 9 years old.  We've been trying for 3 years to get her to attempt it more than once.  Within a month in a half she was staying the night with a friend, and she's never stayed with anyone other than family! (And yes, Korbyn is her "cousin" no matter how you explain she isn't).  She attempted one time to stay the night with her BFF Avery, what is it Kelly?? BFF's for 4 years now??, and we got the phone call to come pick her up around 11pm.  So those little milestone were HUGE!!  And I'm beyond proud of her for that.

But the other changes I've seen in Matti aren't so pretty.  I've always vowed to be an extremely involved mother.  Matti and I talk about EVERYTHING.  No, this is not being overbearing, because I back off when she asks me to.  I step aside when I know she has to learn it the hard way.  But what I refuse to do is watch my child's self esteem plummet to the ground and let everyone step all over it.  I'm going to stick up for my child and be her voice until she can get trust in herself and believe in herself to stand UP for herself.  I'm going to be there to support her and give her the pros and cons to everything and allow her to make the decision.  Which is what I've done.

Did you know Matti won't wear dresses anymore?  That hurts me.  Not because she's not girly anymore or is out of that "stage" of her life.  Her reason is "I'm sick of the boys hitting on me momma.  If I don't wear a dress or don't do my hair, they'll leave me alone."  Did you know that even when she's not going to school and not around those little boys, she doesn't want me to do her hair or dress her up??  Yes, I'm still talking about Matti.  I used to spend HOURS at home playing beauty shop with her.  Hair, makeup, pretty clothes.  She DOES NOT CARE anymore.  That hurts my heart.  My baby is losing herself.

Did you know Matti was at the top of her class since she started school?  We, yes I said WE, strive to be the best (or our best) in every single subject.  The only issue I had with Matti and hating school was due to a teacher she had, and I can't blame her.  When I was in that classroom, I had issues with her teacher.  Parent teacher conferences were amazing.  She is an amazing little girl.  When we got back from her first parent teacher conference here and asked her what she thought the teacher said, she burst into tears and cried "That I'm a horrible student!"  Over-dramatic-Matti, you say?  Sure.  But I'm NOT OK with her thinking about herself that way.

This and many other things, which I don't want to discuss due to offending ones who may read this, have contributed to the way I started thinking.  Then, I gave it to God. I GAVE IT TO GOD. Do you want to see what GOD can do?  Read this:

One of my bestest of bestest friends here, homeschools.  She had issues with her son in school and made the decision to homeschool.  Matti goes to ballet twice a week.  All the kids in her ballet class are homeschooled.  Chrissy goes to gymnastics twice a week (two different days than ballet) and we see homeschool families during that time as well.  God put someone else in my path (she happens to be on the board of the homeschool group here) while I was there.  I went on a "girls night out" and met ANOTHER homeschool mom.  And during all this time, I'm praying.  "God, show me the way.  Show me how to support Matti at school.  Show me how to bring peace to my child.  God, give me a sign of your plans."  I pray this every night.  I pray this falling asleep.  I pray this every morning and every afternoon when I have to deal with my sobbing child about school.  "God give me the strength to help Matti through this hard time.  God give her strength."  I pray this over and over and over everyday. 

I was struggling with my decision to homeschool the girls.  Should I?  Shouldn't I?  "God, show me the way."

Then I read this:

"Just a little testimony....Lexi is sick today and I took her to the doc this morning. On our way home decided to grab some lunch. Went back and forth on where to eat and after a small debate decided on whataburger. We then debated on going thru the drive thru and going in and decided to go in. Walked in, ordered, and got our food to realize one of our burgers was wrong. They let us keep the burger and made me a new one. Brought me a sack to take the wrong burger home. While eating a what we assumed to be a homeless man walked in and sat at the table beside us. Lexi was reading and didn't pay much attention to him but he kept catching my eye. I'm sitting there asking God if I should give this guy my extra burger scared to bc idk if he is truly homeless or what. Right before we leave Lexi turns around and sees the man and says do you think we should give him that burger? I was actually nervous to give it to him but hearing Lexi say that I knew God was talking to me. So we gave the man our extra burger and he was so grateful! Pastor Craig said a couple of weeks ago that God talks to us thru situations, other people, and the Holy Spirit....I got to see it first hand thru 2 of those and it's amazing how God works!!"

So maybe, just maybe all of this stuff isn't really a coincidence.   Maybe, just maybe God put these people in my path for a reason.  Maybe, just maybe while I'm praying for strength to believe in my decision of homeschooling God shows me something that happened in my sisters life (half a world away) and tells me, "That "gut" feeling you have isn't your gut, in fact, it's the HOLY SPIRIT. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6."



And THAT, my dear friends, is my testimony and the beginning of another new chapter in my life.