But it’s Saturday!

Yes, I know it’s not fair! (What a mean teacher I am.) I had my student do math and language arts on a Saturday. I asked the school, in the letter I wrote to the principal, to give me concrete topics and subtopics JD was taught in both math and language arts from Aug - Dec 2009. But unfortunately I have not heard from them yet. I was just given a website to go to in order to figure our what they are required to teach with no timeline to follow. Ex: If Harnett county taught multiplication in Aug and we moved to Cumberland county they might teach him multiplication again in Sept because there is not a specified time line to teach each topic. (Um, thanks…for nothing!) It would be different if I had any communication with his public school principal or former teacher so we wouldn’t duplicate lessons (like I said!) in the letter to the principal. So JD and I have to start at the beginning of math and language arts to make sure he knows it all before his test in May-June. So really, we are crunching one full school year into only five months.

We started with language arts since he begged for it three times this past week. (He was not happy about “word herd” today. Gee I wonder why?) He was somewhat attentive today but quickly became uncooperative when he missed one question of eight. This affected his self esteem and made him forecast that he’ll do poorly in math too. He now knows what “homophones” are. (Ex: hoarse/horse and whale/wail.) He did two lessons on homophones today. Sadly, he rushed through them so quickly his quiz scores reflected that. (Hey another teaching moment.) Take your time.

In math today we did a review lesson on exponents and then worked on dividing two numbers into three numbers. He was not happy about missing one question on one of the two tests, but happy to have the rest of his day to himself.

I am trying to keep with the public school schedule of days on vs. days off. Unfortunately, even though Monday is Martin Luther King day and the public school kids are out of school we will still be in school because we took January 4th as a vacation day. Christmas and New Years break ended January 4th for public school kids. Friday is a half day for public school students so we will only do devotion, reading, math, and language arts.

Tonight we all went to the church for the annual “Chili cook off.” Jeff won last year so the stakes were pretty high this year to remain the “Champion.” And the winner was…JEFF! There were eight chili’s to judge and I honestly liked his the best. (So did 16 other people.) Way to go babe! (It cost $5.00 to judge and all of the funds were in support of the Lottie Moon foundation.)

All’s well at Faith Christian Academy

Our devotion today was “Good verses Good.” Like good means: tasty, pleasant, healthy, and finally morally good.

Our 40 Days of Purpose Driven life was about bringing glory to God. We can do this five main ways. We can bring glory to God by worshipping Him, loving Him, becoming like Christ, serving Him, and telling others about Him.

There was a LONG bathroom break…and then he came back begging for Language Arts again. He learned about suffixes today. He worked his way through two lessons and two quizzes. He mastered this task.

I told him to take a five minute break and he started playing the organ. Instantly he started playing “Joyful, joyful, we adore thee.” This is simply amazing to me that he can play by ear. Oh course I had to call Jeff and “Da, da, da, da…” the tune because I did know the words (or name of the song) only the notes by “Da, da, da, daing…” Jeff didn’t know so I enlisted Grammy to track down the name. We both had our hymn books out and she found it. (Whew, now I can sleep tonight. Don’t you hate it when you can’t remember things?)

Math became an instant frustration point causing JD to become moody. We learned about “Exponents” today. (Ex: 3x3 is 3 squared.) And the second lesson was the power of 10 squared. I was really understanding it but JD got frustrated because he wasn’t. I again tried to get from him what he was “feeling” but he didn’t tell me. He only wanted to press on and get through the lesson.

JD had fun with his computer keyboard (typing) lesson. He earned a special certificate from the website and now knows: A,S,D,F,G,H,J,K,L, and ; (home row) and E,R,U, and I. The certificate says, “Level 1, Top Typist!”

I knew I would have struggles trying to get him into the “Edit/rewrite” lesson but the fundamentals of editing really need addressed. His option was to either rewrite the “printed” journal entry or the one in “cursive.” The catch was if he picked the “printed” one today, then next Friday he has to rewrite the “cursive” entry. He of course opted for the shorter journal entry. And you guessed it…this lesson took a long time to complete. I was busy getting ready after my shower and I found him at the kitchen table where I left him. The only difference was he stood up to write. I had him tell me all the letters he was writing to make sure he wasn‘t just sitting there. (Like his public school teacher let him do.) Saying the letters out loud seemed to speed up the process. Then I tried having him chew on gum to distract his mind.


He was happy even though he would never tell me because he was whistling and singing “Yankee Doodle Dandy” for most of the writing. Which tells me even though his dislikes writing, he’s a happy child!

In health today we learned about STRESS! (We’re not feeling near as much stress as some would imagine as we embarked on this home school thing.) I thought, “Hey if the lesson can teach him ways to relax then it’s worth the lesson.” It talked about good stress and bad stress and of course ways to relax. (It’s going to be hard to teach him yelling out tasks from my bubble bath though.) He also agrees that a hot bath really relaxes him too.

There’s a cool website out there that I can type in the spelling words and then JD can play games with “my” spelling words. He loves “Hang Mouse.” After he played Hang Mouse I asked if he wanted to look at his words one more time before the test. He said, “No.” So onto the test we went. He was on a roll until the word predetermined tripped him up. He had it spelled correctly and then changed his mind. He kept looking at me for approval and I had to get my poker face on. (I don’t even know how to play poker.) I said, “Sorry buddy, I can’t help you.” (Oh that was hard to do, but I did.) He scored a 90% on his test. He mentioned his normal scores at public school were 3-7 correct. He also mentioned never receiving a 100% on a spelling test. The nice thing about this website is you can print 100% certificates. I told him, “That’s a goal to work toward.”

Again, thanks for your support and prayers. Keep it up! I have been taking pictures and plan to download them into a slide show. But it’s a some what difficult process and I need a few more pictures.

Can we do a Language Arts lesson? Please, please?

(Sorry this post is really for 14 Jan 2010. I spent much of the evening last night trying to come up with both a subjective and objective grading scale to “accurately” capture the grades JD has earned.)

Today we started out our with our devotion. It was talking about the divisions of the churches. We got tickled that there is a church out there called “ National Baptist Evangelical Life and Soul-Saving Assembly of the United States.” (Good luck trying to get someone to visit. By the time you tell them the name of the church you'll be out of breath and they’ll be asleep.) Anyway the lesson spoke about having unity in the church. After all, God commands it.

We followed that up with the 40 Days of Purpose Driven Life, day six. Life is a temporary assignment. We are only foreigners in this country. I loved how Rick Warren said, “We should carry a spiritual green card.” Our citizenship or homeland is in heaven.

The 40 Day reading and comprehension didn’t last long so JD read independently for 20 minutes. Looks like in a couple of days he’ll be done with the book Christmas in Camelot and he’ll be ready for his book report. I will have him do this verbally and I’m going to offer him ways to present the book report to me. Maybe a canned book report, or a poster, or anything, just so I know he really comprehended what he read.

Today JD was a bit more tame in the jumping around part but still impulsively speaking. It was hard to get through the lesson because of his outburst. Math was not too bad today. I gave him silly putty to manipulate while listening. (Oh course I also had to mention not to pull it, swing it, eat it, or anything except squish it.) The math lesson was finding the least common multiple of two numbers. We (both of us) misread two quiz questions so he only got a 80% on the quiz. We were both frustrated with the computer after we retook the test and got a 90%. We gave up on that lesson for the day. I know he know what he‘s doing but I think the computer lesson is messed up. I’m going to have to come up with a different grading system than just quiz scores.

It was a smooth move from math to the civics lesson. I love how the website uses examples set for his age. Today we learned the law of supply and demand. (**Changing subjects…Does anyone else out there want to strangle those rich oil men? I swear I don‘t understand, even after this lesson, how the prices can fluctuate so much. Hurricane Katrina started this high gas prices thing a couple of years ago. Now why haven‘t the prices gone below $2.00 since then? WHY?!)


Ok, breathing…the example the website used to teach the kids supply and demand was with a lemonade stand. Of course depending on your thirst level, what season it is, how many lemonade vendors were on the same street, all affected the price of the lemonade. So I’m having JD draft a business plan to own his own lemonade stand. It includes how much he needs to spend on supplies and how much to sell the glasses of lemonade in order to earn a profit. Pretty cool huh? I hope a hurricane doesn’t hit the stand though or we could be looking a $4.00 cup of lemonade. Oh well, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

This was about the time I saw JD change his mood to “moody.” It was the email and snail mail lesson. He was also very distracted (and hungry.) We started looking for a postcard template for our deployed military members of our church. This led JD to ask when “Best Friends Day” was. (Is there such a day?) Turns out June 8th is Best Friend Day. We redirected our attention back to postcards. We found a template and picture. Now it’s time to write. There went the BRAKES! He sat at the table for 15 minutes saying I don’t know what to write. I had previously suggested something like: Thanks for your service to our country. Thanks for protecting our freedoms. Jonathan” I tried to get him to explain why he wouldn’t write up he clammed up and only said, “I don’t know what to write.” Only after I wrote it out for him to copy did he do the lesson. I’m going to have to research strategies on how to get him to write “free style.” Copying is bothersome, but free style locks those brakes right up.

Besides yesterday, I’ve never heard a child beg to do Language Arts. He absolutely loves the “Word Herd” game. Today’s lesson was Antonyms (the opposite.) He was clapping, tapping, and cheering when he correctly answered all the questions and scored himself a big fat 100% on the quiz.

Tuesday we studied the inside of a cell. Today we studies the cell itself. This somewhat interested JD but he could have done without it I guess. He earned a 100% on the quiz.

So yet another successful day at Faith Christian Academy.

Hungry, singing, Mexican jumping bean!

In a nut shell today was like trying to teach a hungry, singing, Mexican jumping bean. But that’s just the way God made him. I think I said the word "focus" as many times as he said "hungry." But we would consider it to be a very successful day!

Our devotion today was on James Hudson Taylor. He was a Missionary in China. He did this for 51 years. He often said, “If I had 1,000 lives, I’d give them all for China.” Then it said, “The truth is, each of us will have only one life to live. What will you do with yours? Would you willingly devote every day and hour and minute to God’s glory and spreading the Gospel of Jesus?”

Then we moved onto 40 Day of Purpose Driven Life where we learned to see life from God’s point of view. The study said, “Life is a test” used to test our character, faith and obedience. Then it said, “Life is a trust..“ Meaning everything is God’s and I am entrusted with it.” Some people use the life metaphor that life is roller coaster or a race. I used to think of it as a rollercoaster. There ups and downs and it goes by really fast. Then at the end you just wasn’t to do it over again. Now I know that my character, faith, and obedience are being tested. This home school is a HUGE test. Thank God, He’s equipping me with the strength and tools to endure it.

The math lesson was finding the “greatest common factor.” This is when the sleepy Jonathan transformed into Senor Juan. (Juan of course is John in Spanish.) He was moving around so much it made me dizzy. Then he started singing about 2 times 32 = 64 (sometimes in Opera) and then add to that he started singing about being soooo hungry. Apparently the egg he cooked this morning was nasty and the toast didn’t satisfy his breakfast hunger. So my thought was, well I can’t shove bowl after bowl of junk food in front of him…what to do? I peeled and sliced an apple for him. He scored well on the quizzes.

We did not do “word bank” today because he BEGGED me to let him to do Language Arts. (What? Is this Jonathan? Jonathan Hyder?) At the end of the lessons there is a quiz called “word herd.” It’s in the form of a game show. I was up washing dishes and he guided himself through two lessons and two quizzes. He scored a 63% on one and 100% on the other. Part of the 63% was my fault (communication and content error) so we retook the test (a couple of times) to bring up his grade. During these lessons he was excessively moving but remained quiet to listen to the lesson. I gave him silly putty to squish while listening. It really worked well.

The journal entry today was “Why I like home school.” We listed 6 reasons why he liked home school and then he rewrote the cursive I dictated. All six reasons included the word “fun.” My teacher is fun. Lunch is fun. The class pet is fun…(OK really?) So this was yet another teaching opportunity. We pulled out the Thesaurus and looked up the word “fun.” Now we've got descriptive sentences. I have a kind teacher. The lessons are enjoyable. Lunch is pleasurable. (Whew…) During this lesson he was envisioning the 12-12:30 History lesson fully equipped with his army guy map holder full of maps and letters during WWI and WWII. (When did this book worm slip into my house?) So as you guessed it he was completely distracted, moving about the room and hungry again! So I put the map holder aside, let him move about the room, and provided a hearty salad. I checked on him ½ hour later and only the topic sentence was written. From that point on I had him tell me what letters he was writing. There were points of confusion when he came a cross certain cursive letter that he didn’t recognize. This turned out to be homework.

We stopped for lunch and skipped recess because he went straight to playing the organ. After a few minutes he realized we skipped recess but went right back to playing the organ. This totally amazed me because he plays by sound and not by reading notes. He started playing "Oh come all ye Faithful. "I was floored. I researched the internet for playing his way but found nothing. So I moved to plan B which was plugging up a keyboard that he received two years ago. It hooks to the TV and he can learn that way. Before you knew it it was time to quit and finally move on to history. Of course while playing the organ or keyboard he was all over the organ bench and floor. (He looks a bit like Stevie Wonder, only he moves front to back, not side to side.

The history lesson continued with the Mexican-American war and the dispute over land. Jonathan enjoyed it and participated.

My student did very well today. If I can get him to settle down a bit I think we’ll be ok with this Concerta dosage. It was a joy teaching my hungry, singing, Mexican jumping bean today. Although, he got hungry again at 4, 6, and 8. How am I going to keep my cupboards stocked full enough to fill him up?

Today was a phenomenal day!

We had a great Day today!

The bible devotion today was Psalms 147:4. It says, “He determines the number of the stars.” If God can remember all the stars’ names then it shouldn’t amaze us that He can remember all of us. The devotion went on to say, “He knows you – from the inside out. He knows all of your thoughts, good and bad. He knows your fears and your desires. He knows what makes you cry. He knows what you love most. He knows things about you that you don't even know yourself! He knows all this – and He loves you.”

We read the 40 Days of Purpose Driven Life too. Today we learned that we are “Made to last forever.” The closer we live to God the smaller everything else appears. So why do I always let everything else control my life and loose sight of God. **note to self…Let go and let God!

Before starting our math lesson today I offered a choice to JD. I told him that the TV will stay off during our 5 minute breaks today, UNLESS, he could try to control his frustration and attitude during our math lesson. (It worked!) I had a completely different child to teach today. He was attentive and cooperative, and I was very appreciative. I thanked him and praised him for his controlled efforts. I think part of the difference came by use of the calculator for most of his lesson. I had him write a couple and do them by hand but the calculator really help. Today the lesson asked a word problem and added ages or proices that had absolutely nothing to do with the problem. He had to tell me what information was not needed to solve the problem.

I did not to well in Social Studies during High School (So says my recently obtained transcripts.) However, having an over-the-road truck driver for a father helped me with the 50 states part. Today we started a study on the fifty states. The computer had flash cards with only the outline of the state. Jonathan really got into this. He was yelling out the names left and right. Some of them actually stumped both of us. (Hi my name is Cheryl…and I am not smarter than a 5th grader!)

We had fun doing our e-mail/snail mail lesson. Jonathan was flying on the keyboard. He was multitasking by e-mailing his Grammy and Daddy, checking out the shipping data for a recently purchased game, and viewing prior emails sent by friends. He learned of course how to create a new email, pick the addressee, spell check, and send and receive. I let him type whatever he wanted and let the computer spell check for him. I prompted him a couple of times for punctuation. Overall I think he liked it and had fun doing it.

Our language arts lesson was about “idioms.“ (For those who have been out of school for awhile…“What’s the matter cat got your tongue?" or "That was over the top” Did you know that the saying “Over the top” came from WWI? (That’s what the lesson taught today. The soldiers were in trenches and required to climb over the top of the trench to pursue the enemy trenches. (Cool nugget of information for you.)

I also did poorly in Science, so today I really had to help JD in the note taking area for his lesson in Cell Organelles. (Um…What?) This is the study of what’s inside of a cell. We learned only these terms and their functions: Cell Membrane, Pore, Nucleus, Cytoplasm, Mitochondria, Ribosomes, and Endoplasmic Reticulum. There was some drawing on his part in order to keep them all straight. (Yikes!) He scored 100% on his test. Yippee!

Today went about 45 minutes longer than scheduled, but it was still a short day compared to yesterday so we when on a field trip to the church. I had to punch out some letter for a bulletin board and they had just the right equipment for this task. With both JD and I working together the project went quickly.

You know how little boys wear cowboy boots with diapers and shorts? Well JD is still into dressing up like an army guy. He tried to get dressed AND go outside to play during one of our breaks and I had to stop him. The breaks are only 5 minutes long. I took a picture of him doing his email task while dressed up. He kind of looks like a deployed soldier writing his family. Anyway, he was still dressed up at the end of the day (when we went on our field trip.) He loves the Army!

Tomorrow we start on the new dosage of Concerta. (From 54mg to 36mg.) I guess I’m asking for prayer that he will still do well on the new lower dosage.

Priority # 1: Self esteem

“To establish true self-esteem we must concentrate on our successes and forget about the failures and the negatives in our lives.” (Denis Waitley)

Today was a really long day. It started at 8:00am and ended at 2:30pm. Today was the first day JD had homework. I say that because Math and the journal bucket lesson were both extremely long and I‘m tired of scraping lessons for lack of time.

Jeff noticed I was a bit stressed today. (I wonder how he knew?) I was not stressed with anyone in particular, just thinking of ways to defeat this poor self esteem that JD is carrying around with him like an overloaded backpack. (Have you seen that commercial where the little boy carries that HUGE backpack through he school hallway?) JD gets mad when he answers a question incorrectly, spells a word wrong, types a letter wrong, and such. I had to stop the lessons many times today to work him through these issues. I said, “It’s just me and you. No one knows that you made a mistake. Why are you getting so upset? Who taught you that making a mistake was a bad thing? It wasn’t me, it wasn’t daddy, and it’s certainly not God? “ He was unable to answer why he was getting upset or who taught him making a mistake was a bad thing. Jeff reminded me that it took Kindergarden-5th grade to tear it down, so we shouldn’t expect it to change overnight. JD’s self esteem will have to be my #1 priority if I intend to make any progress with this home school adventure. Jeff looked up an article about Edison.

Did you know Edison failed over 6,000 times trying to perfect the light bulb? In Edison’s own words he was quoted as saying he, “had successfully found 6,000 ways that light bulbs won’t work.” Jonathan said, “He tried 6,000 times?” The moral to that story is perseverance prevails!

Brief overlook at today’s lessons:
Devotion and reading went well. We learned about Jesus at the temple at age twelve. The discussion at dinner was rather funny. See JD and I used a commentary to decipher some of the verses for the underlying meaning. (Commentaries have lots of nuggets of info you know?) Now we were armed with information to dazzle his daddy so he doesn’t think we just hang out in our PJ’s all day drinking coffee and Ginger Ale. So I prompted JD with “this was the first time Jesus…” (an acceptable answer for this question would have been…recognized and told people that he was the son of God) but his eyes sparkled and he said, “Told his mother off!”

Math was a tough one today. Tough for me because I needed to know the terms associative, commutative, distributive, inverse, blah, blah. JD was a whiz at this and put my meager math skills to shame. After we identified the correct names to the type of problem written out we moved onto multiplying 3 digit #’s by 2 digit #’s. (Well…I know he knew how to do it but getting him to write it out again. Ugh!) I made a deal with him on the quiz. You answer two correctly and I’ll do the rest because I know you know how to do them. Well this took a REALLY LONG TIME! He was frustrated when he would not get the right answer. So I had to go over it with him and find the error. Small mistakes…but huge self esteem issues.

Keyboarding went well. I noticed more frustration her when the British octopus kept saying, “Pick me.” But he got through it without even looking at the keyboard. There was an option to add it but he refused. I’m proud so proud of him!

Journal bucket was somewhat easy today. I kept the writing to a seven sentence paragraph again. I had him either pick a topic from the jar or make up his own. He chose his own topic of “When I grow up I want to be a Special Forces soldier.” He did a fine job of moving his thoughts from his head to his recorder with the assistance of a seven word outline, but when he played it back bit by bit he found more distractions than stars in the sky. The thing with writing for him is he can’t think it and then write it without loosing many wonderful details. So this will be a baby steps project to build his self esteem. He also hates that he can’t spell correctly and he won’t even try to write. I reassured him I don’t care about spelling today. He tried the play it back bit by bit and write what you hear method for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes he had only written…“What I grow to be wein I grow up is a speshil forecis solder.” I finally played it bit by bit and typed it out. He then had to copy it from my typing to his journal in manuscript. This turned out to be homework and we didn’t officially end the school day until 2:30pm.

Art was a complete success. Oh thank goodness, because I needed a break bad! He painted a snowman that his PaPaw cut out of wood. I was right in the middle of trying to shower and get ready for Jeff’s arrival home. I don’t want to let myself go just because no one sees me through the day except Jonathan. So when I left JD he was painting the snowman. When I got out of the shower he had moved to painting his new remote controlled tank. (Hey as long as it wasn’t my walls. Been there done that already!)

The last lesson we had was spelling. I gave him 10 prefix words to study. There will be a test on Friday. I wanted to see if he could spell any of them so I quizzed him. Every time he got a word wrong he would get so mad. Frustration BREAK!

So I printed out the graded areas of his lessons and he’s earned a 100% in Language Arts (2 quizzes) and a 93% in Math (9 quizzes.) So the good news is he’s currently on the “A” honor roll and well on his way to earning a perfect attendance award.

Until tomorrow…perseverance prevails!

Become a Christian writer

So Jeff finally read the blog after he got out of the hospital. His comments were very encouraging. (He's good at that you know.) He then told me to "stop sitting on the talents that God gave me." He suggested I write for a living. I remember two years ago, I started to apply as a Lifeway Children's Curriculum writer, but it must not have been the right time. So I started the process again. Below are samples of what I submitted.

Questions for Children's (School Age) Curriculum Materials. Based on Mark 2:1-12, write a Bible story of 100-150 words for the age group for which you would like to write. * (5-6th)
Mark 2:1-12 - Jesus heals a paralyzed man
Jesus was in Capernaum preaching the word to the people. Four men tried to get in with their paralyzed friend, but there was no room. So they decided to carry their friend to the roof and lowered him to the floor on his mat. When Jesus saw this man he instantly forgave the man of his sins. The teachers in the crowd of people were wondering why Jesus forgave the man of his sins when only God can forgive sins. Jesus scolded the teachers for what they were thinking in their hearts and not saying. Jesus said, “I know what you’re thinking. What’s easier to say to this man? ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘get your mat and walk away?’” This amazed the crowd and showed them Jesus was God. Jesus told the paralyzed man to “get his mat and walk home.”

Questions for Children's Daily Devotionals (More, Adventure, Bible Express)
Submit a sample of two devotionals of 50-60 words each for kids to use in a daily time alone with God. Use the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) and the following titles and Bible passages:
Psalm 100:1
Because God created us and loves us always, no matter what we do; we should love him back by showing thanks for all he does in our daily lives. We could start today by shouting to the world what a forgiving and faithful God he really is. So speak up and tell someone about your life with God.

Phil 2:14
As children of God we’re not suppose to grumble or argue. It’s hard not to grumble about taking the trash out, but we’re to strive to be obedient to God’s word. If you find it hard to clean your room without complaining or bickering with your parents then ask God to help you do it without the drama.

Questions for Magazine Articles for Parents (ParentLife). Write a 300-350 word article on a parenting subject of your choice. *

I'm the caregiver to God's child

(Picture taken Spring 2009. Not submitted to Lifeway as part of my article.)

Do you ever wonder what Hannah must have felt when she weaned Samuel and turned him over for God’s purposes? Just like Hannah, I asked for my son and I received him. At age seven he confidently accepted Christ as his savior. This to me, was the day I “weaned” him and turned him over to God. I often tell people, “Everything I learned about God I learned from my son” to include becoming saved myself. I read the bible, served in various grade school Sunday School teacher’s positions, attended discipleship classes, became AWANA commander, and ultimately flourished as a Christ like woman. All of this was to keep up with my son’s biblical curiosity, but most importantly, to help shape the Godly man who will go on to be one of God’s leaders like Samuel. Once your child accepts Christ, they also became God’s child. What we should take delicate steps in doing is serving as the main caregiver. Our responsibility is to foster our children’s God given gifts, talents, and abilities for God’s purposes. My son is now ten years old and well on his way to becoming God’s servant. Though we don’t yet know what his main purpose is, we do know he is being shaped daily. I become selfish when I hear him say, “I want to be an Army guy.” All the while I’m thinking, “Really? Are you sure about that?” At the same time I’m also thinking, “But he would be far away from me and he might be killed in action.” As Christian parents we need to come to grips with the fact that God created all of us individually at the right time and place and with the all the abilities and talents needed for His purposes. It’s our responsibility to guide, protect, and foster those gifts with all the resources God provides to us. Sometimes I do feel what Hannah must have felt when I gaze into the gleaming eyes of my “gift from God.” I also have faith that God’s purposes will be done.

Here's Cheryl's point of view to this "possible new career path"...If I get picked I get picked. If I don't I don't. Right now I'm just asking for prayer. Pray what you want to about this matter, but my stance is, if this is God's will for my purpose in life then I am a willing participant. Love you all...Cheryl