Thank God!

You can really tell you are following God's direction and plan for your life when things go so smoothly after following his lead. I really felt led to open our home to Andrew, and I really could not have asked for his first few days with us to go more smoothly. He has been very respectful even though I know he isn't happy about leaving his friends, and girlfriend behind. That so hard for a teenager, for anyone really. I'm going to have to change my home calling plan because the long distance minutes are adding up quick as Andrew calls his friends but I am glad that he can stay connected with them. I think its good for him not to feel so cut-off from the world. Andrew has been fitting in with the family really well. He has taken on the role of big brother and has actually been a huge help to me. He has been eager to help out around the house, and play with the little kids, and its just been a huge blessing that he is here.

This is our second day of homeschooling for Andrew and its nice that he doesn't need as much one-on-one attention as Elijah does. We have him reading a lot. Doug still has a lot of his texts from when he taught high school and we are using them. Andrew is reading from a Western Civilization text book and I have him drawing a map today. He is reading an Astronomy text since he mentioned he liked that subject. I had him view a couple of the NASA slide shows that are online of various celestial bodies. Math is his most difficult subject and he needs to work on the basics some more, but I am really impressed at the effort he is making and he worked out some of the really more difficult problems I gave him yesterday. I am having him do some online drills today of the basics. I had him pick out a book from our collection of reading materials to read and do a book report on. He picked out a novel called "The Corps, Semper Fi" which is book one of a fiction series about a young man that was in some trouble and was court ordered to join the Marines during World War II, and how the Marines turns this guys life around. Later today Andrew will be starting an art project we found on my friend Julie's blog. Andrew really likes art so he is going to start with a project about cubism. Andrew really likes art and is proud to report that he was transferred from Art I to Art II in the first week of school last year because he was so skilled. Andrew also really like PE. Elijah and Andrew are outside swimming right now, and later Andrew says he is going to show Elijah how to lift weights with our weight set. So I think we are covering his schooling pretty well considering he hasn't been signed up with the charter school yet and we have no curriculum specifically for him.

Andrew goes to his youth group meeting tonight at Church and he isn't thrilled about going. I think it will be so good for him. He doesn't know anyone out here and I think he feels a little awkward going there alone. So I called the youth pastor and talked to him today and he will be looking for Andrew tonight and will set-him up with a welcoming group of kids tonight to make him feel at ease. He talked a little about what they have been covering at youth group. Last week was about depression and tonight is about addiction. How perfect is that?

So its a little crazy around here but I think its going well.