Homeschooling

Last year at this time we were unsure where to go with Elijah's education. He had been in a preschool 2-3 days/week since he was a year old, while I work. His birthday is October 19. He turned 5 in 2O13. The kindergarten cut off age in Virginia is October 1st. Missed it by 18 days.

Me: "18 days, really, so those 18 days means he's not ready to read and write?.... NOPE!"

We knew he was ready for kindergarten. He's a smart kid and was ready to work hard to learn more.
We had always had in our minds that we would consider homeschooling. We don't like all the testing in the public school system. And, we wanted him taught from a Christian perspective. There are NO Christian private schools around here, and if there were we couldn't afford them. I also had to [and still do] continue working 2 days/week.

SO, starting in July of last year [yes when he was just 4] I bought a kindergarten homeschool curriculum and started working on it slowly with him while the little ones napped in the afternoons. We decided that we would see how it went, and if we liked homeschooling we would continue. If it didn't work out then we could try the public school when he was eligible next fall.

Well.... I'm not saying every day was easy. After some time we got into a routine that really worked for us. If we were having a bad day we'd skip school altogether. If we were having a good day we'd work ahead. Overall, we loved it.

I got to teach him how to read! ME! I got to be a part of that miracle in his life!

In January we officially pulled him out of preschool to do homeschool K 3 days/week. We finished on May 1st of this year with the K curriculum. We used curriculum from My Father's World. I of course looked and searched for hours/days and prayed about the right curriculum to use. This one really seems to fit my teaching style well. It's Biblically centered and world focused. It's a mix of Charlotte Mason, unit studies, and the classical model [classical, if used in the long run].

In December the 1st grade materials were on sale and I didn't hesitate to scoop them up we were loving it so much. And, call me crazy, but I recently found a good deal on a used set of the 2nd grade books and have already purchased those too.

We plan to do homeschool 3 days/week, year round [well, 46 weeks/year]. For 1st grade we do about an hour before lunch and about 45 minutes while the little ones nap in the afternoon. K only took about 45 minutes/day. He is able to go to work with me the two days/week that I work. He plays games on the computer and colors, does puzzles, helps us when he can.

He attends Crossfit Kids at CrossFit Gloucester 2-3 times a week for exercise [as if running around outside a few hours a day isn't enough]. Also in the fall we plan to start him in a co-op for a few more extras like music, art and either spanish or drama [haven't decided which one] once/week. So, I'm feeling pretty good that his education this year will be well rounded.

I'm also trying to do some more work with Yoseph lately. He's 3 1/2. He's really starting to flourish verbally. Which was a worry for a long time. He's talking well and people are understanding him well now. So, with that I am able to start teaching him letters and counting, reading to him more, etc.

Fun times in the Gourley House.

Adoption update: WAITING and there hasn't been much movement. So we continue to wait and pray. It will probably be next year before we get to see the baby girl who will be ours.

Spring has Sprung

Spring is here. Well, it is the second day of spring. After an extra cold winter this year we are ecstatic for the sun and warmth we've had for a few days. 

It's so much easier for me to get up in the morning with the sun shining and warmth outside to greet us. We've been doing some fun things this spring that I wanted to post about. These 3 goobers are keeping us busy. They are all going through some fun stages. In no particular order....

Smiles. All. The. Time. From this guy.

Yoseph is potty training. And very independent about it. He told me this morning while going potty, "Mommy can you just leave me alone". Haha, okay. He's making progress though which is fantastic. I'd LOVE to have one less kiddo in diapers! 

He loves to have fun all day and will follow his big brother's EVERY move.

Yes, she has rice on her face. My beauty Lydia is walking now. Walking everywhere. And, she must have shoes on. She loves shoes. For only knowing 3-5 real words she let's us know exactly what she wants. And, no shortage of food for her. She's a great eater.... not that you can tell.

Elijah Roo, as I have called him since he was a baby. He's doing great. He's almost done with his Kindergarten homeschooling. He can read short, simple words. Add and subtract single digits. Such a smarty pants and I can't wait to get started on his 1st grade work. He's been doing CrossFit Kids and loves exercising like Daddy. 

He's definitely in charge of the little ones. They follow him everywhere.

We've also been making some ambitious plans for this spring. Maybe it's the extra cold winter. Making us dream all these months about the warmth of getting outside. We're planning for a big vegetable garden. Our little seedlings are sprouting. Ignore those little leaves on the left, that's where Lydia got a hold of a few. 

AND, these guys! We've been thinking about getting chickens for years. Like literally 5 years. We've finally gotten ambitious enough to do it. I am loving it! Steve is building us a coop. We picked up these 8 girls this week. We have 3 Barred Rock girls, 3 Red Comets, and 2 Brown Leghorns. We think they're all hens, but won't know for sure if a rooster snuck in until they are old enough to get their combs and feathers. And no, you do not need a rooster to get eggs. We keep them in this pen in our guest bedroom. They are too young to keep themselves warm. When evening temperatures can stay above freezing and they have all their feathers, probably in another week we'll put them outside in their coop. Then next year when they're full grown they'll stay out all winter. The boys love just watching them. We fill their water and food twice a day and clean their coop out; so far once a day, but now that we've got a good system of paper towels and pine shavings we might go to cleaning it out every other day. I really am enjoying these little guys. They are one of the only pets who will pay back your kindness to them,,, in yummy eggs. But they won't start laying until they're like 6 months old. They are already 2 months old.

Okay, because I'm a nerd I wanted to share the cost of having chickens so far. We know, it's probably not saving us much money compared to buying plain eggs in the store. Maybe, if you compare free range organic egg prices it's comparable, which these girls eggs would classify as free range, organic. We mainly wanted to do this for fun and to get a little closer to the food chain in what we eat.

Coop costs- the frame was scrap lumber we had access to, the wire cost $45

The Brooder (the pen they stay in until they can go outside)- we already owned the dog kennel, the sides are scrap wood, the roosts are sticks from outside. Only costs were the feeder and waterer totaling $9 and the pine shavings- a huge bag for $9.

The Chickens- we paid a little more than usual for them because they are 6-8 weeks old and raised in someone's home. We paid $60 for the 8 of them. If we had bought day old chicks, which were hard to find if you didn't want to order them online, would have been about 1/2 that cost.

Food- $31 for a fifty pound bag of organic feed that should last 2-3 months

Now, for an adoption update, which has so far been the theme of my blog. We have been on the waiting list since mid-January. Not much has changed. Literally. In those 2 months adoptions as a whole in Ethiopia have almost halted. There has been some new legislation in Ethiopia and some confusion regarding it. Hence no progress for really anyone at any stage in the process. We are holding on. We believe this will pass, but have no idea when. Just this week there have been some signs of progress. So overall, we are just waiting, holding on and waiting some more. As you can see we have a lot to keep us busy for now. We did receive several blessings in the form of grants and gifts in the past 2 months. This has made the funding aspect a little less stressful. We still need a lot for travel costs.

Update!!

I share a lot on my face book page about our adoption, but wanted to update on here too. We are officially ON THE WAITING LIST!! Yay! It took longer than we hoped, but that's okay.
Another bit of good news is that we received one grant from Lifesong For Orphans. It's a matching grant for $2500, which means our friends and family's donations are matched up to $2500, which will give our adoption $5000 if all is matched. All donations are now also tax-deductible if given through Lifesong. God is providing at every step, because we were about to be "on hold" because we didn't have all the money to get on the list. This grant came at exactly the right time and that is not a coincidence. God is working. We have applied for two more grants.

SO, what happens now?

Now we wait.

Wait for THE CALL. The referral call that our agency tells us we've been matched with our daughter.   We were told last week that we are #76. BUT there are less than 10 people ahead of us who are open/approved to adopt a child with special needs. So, they say 18-24 months waiting for a healthy baby and that being open to special needs will cut that time, but we don't know how much. I'm hoping we get a referral this year.

A few weeks ago there were some significant worries that Ethiopia was planning to make some new adoption reforms that could stop or halt all adoptions. It was mentioned in a meeting of their parliament.  They said they would meet about it in ten days and give their recommendations to the prime minister. This was in part a response to an anti-adoption documentary that aired in Ethiopia. Well, ten days was about 15 days ago. It seems that the meeting never happened and adoptions for now will continue as normal. It is a privilege to be able to adopt the children from Ethiopia who need families and the Ethiopian government could end that at any time. They are a nation that makes their own laws. The good news is that it doesn't seem they will be ending adoptions, but just trying to make adoptions more ethical. It could slow things down even more. We are okay with this. The ultimate, most important thing about adoption is that it is ethical and that only children who really need a family are adopted.

We have 3 beautiful children, and we know there is a piece missing, but we are willing and happy to wait for her to get here.  At least that's my take today. Ask me again in 6 months, I'll probably be getting impatient by then.

Some prayer requests:

• Pray for our daughter! She could have been born by now. We don't know yet where she is, who she is with, or how her health is. Pray that she receives love and food. 
• Pray for our daughter's birth family. Whatever circumstances that lead to her needing a new family will have a level of tragedy and loss. Pray that God comforts them in their loss.
• We've applied for two more grants. When we accept a referral we will need $10,000, plus the money needed to travel to Ethiopia twice. We NEED grants.

Thank you all for your support!

If you would like to give towards our Lifesong Matching Grant you can do so by going to http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate/ Go to the "Give to an adoptive Family" link. Our family number is 4170. Make sure you enter this number.

Wrap-A-Thon

Hate wrapping? Well, we will wrap with a smile and a bow!

December 14, 2pm-5pm

Seaford Baptist Church
1311 Seaford Road
Seaford, VA 23696

Every gift gets a bow!

You will have the choice to stay and wait while we wrap 'em up (and enjoy a cookie while you wait) or you can drop them off and come back (suggested if you have a lot). Your gifts will be wrapped by adults, who will take utmost care of them and make them look beautiful. We will provide the wrapping paper and/or gift bag/box. 

You choose how much you would like to donate to our cause in appreciation for our wrapping. Our family is adopting a baby from Ethiopia. Every penny, minus the cost of supplies, will go to our fees and travel expenses.

Please help spread the word about this event to help make it a success. We have flyers available for you to give your friends. 

A few Guidelines:

• We do not know how crowded and busy this event will be. For the sake of the fundraiser we hope it will be busy. We ask that you please be patient and understanding if you have to wait in line.
• Please do not leave us with anything incredibly breakable or irreplaceable. We are cautious, but would still hate to see something broken. 
• After the gift is wrapped we will put a post-it note on it saying what is inside, so you can tag it appropriately.
• Please do not bring anything too big to fit into a box.
• If you have a special paper/box/bow/etc. you would like us to use, feel free to bring it.
• We will use Christmas paper, unless you provide paper for another holiday.

Fall Update

Fall around here is almost as busy as summer. Yes, we are summer camp directors, so summer is CRAZY busy, but fall is almost the same. Almost every weekend we have retreat groups using the camp. It's great. I enjoy the flexibility of this time of year. We sure are busy though. Matt, our associate director has been out for about a month for knee surgery, so it's like the old days with just Steve and I running the show.

We also have many birthdays in the fall. Elijah turned 5 on October 19, Steve's birthday is October 23, and mine is Nov. 4. I will be the big 3O! Crazy! I hear your 3Os are good and I'm excited to see what the Lord brings our way in the future.

All our kids are growing up too fast.
Elijah just turned 5! He missed the cutoff for kindergarden by 19 days. For now, we plan to homeschool him. I am doing a kindergarden homeschool curriculum with him 3-4 days a week. He is learning to sound out words, which is very fun to watch.
Yoseph is doing great. He loves to give hugs and kisses and is a bright little guy. For a long time we worried about his speech development. We now cannot seem to get him to be quiet! A big praise!
Lydia is 9 months old now. She's crawling and eating regular food. She's a smiley little sweetie.... Well, at least for me she's a smiley sweetie. She really likes mommy and daddy best and hates to be left with anyone.

Now, onto the adoption related update. Things are progressing as scheduled. Thankfully all of the government offices we need are not affected by the craziness going on (for now. We have a fingerprint appointment next week that is the final step to get USCIS pre-approval. We are working on our dossier. We have about 3/4 of it done. Then it all has to get notarized, state authenticated, and federally sealed. Whew!
Thanks to many of our friends and family and sheets sales we have ALL the money needed to submit our dossier. This is amazing!! We have come a long way!
The next step after our dossier is waiting to be matched with a child. We believe this will happen within the next 6-8 months. Oh, how I long for that day. To see the face and look into the eyes that will be our daughter. To know more concretely what special needs are in our future. Even though my head knows we have several months of waiting still, my heart still hopes every time that phone rings that it will be THE CALL that we've been matched.
Once we are matched we will owe $9,OOO and will have to be ready to travel to Ethiopia twice- about another $1O,OOO. These are big numbers. Oh, how I wish money wasn't an obstacle in adoption. We'd probably adopt many more, but we know our God is bigger and will provide somehow.

We have applied for 2 grants, and working on a third application.

Please continue to support us. One of the grant organizations we've applied to allows donors to give in our names and receive tax-deductions, so pray that this one especially goes through. However, if taxes are not a concern to you, and you'd like to give to our cause, you can do so by check or to our paypal account at the top right of this blog. We have thus far raised about $6,OOO through the sale of sheets. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  Please buy sheets, please give them as Christmas gifts, please tell your friends how great they are, and please if you can, bring a flyer to your friends/coworkers to buy some. This has been a great fundraiser for us.

Thank you for supporting our family in the many ways you have.

Love and Blessings,
The Gourleys

A Detour- Same Destination

When you're going down the path of adoption, looking at the long road ahead, knowing there will be bumps in the way.... but wait, then you see a path, with the same destination, that looks a little brighter. Well, that seems to be what's happening in our journey. We're switching adoption agencies. Of course, there could still be "bumps" along the path, but we feel this is a good decision for many reasons, not all of which we are making public.
Why am I making this a big announcement? Well, first of all because you all are being incredibly generous with helping get us there and I feel the need to be transparent. Also, because this will likely mean a shorter process. While we had been thinking our wait would be a year or more, we've found a new, smaller agency that has told us to wait 4-6 months for a special needs referral.
There are a few things you- our faithful supporters- need to know about this.

• None of the money fundraised is being lost in this change! NONE. We are losing our application fee, which Steve and I paid with our own money. West Sands is being incredibly gracious in sending the remaining funds to the new agency.
• We will have a shorter wait- which means we have LESS time to fundraise. We are going to be applying for grants and doing garage sales, and continuing to sell sheets. So, PLEASE keep up your wonderful support!
• We will now likely be getting a baby instead of a toddler. The new agency has stricter policies on maintaining the birth order of the children. The new baby girl will have to be younger than Lydia. 
• The baby will have some kind of medical "special need". We are totally okay with this. This is what we wanted. We do not know what the special need will be, there are many possibilities. It could be something simple and easy to "fix" or something more complicated. We don't know. We feel this is the right path because there are hundreds of families waiting for healthy babies, and only a fraction who are willing/able to parent a child with medical needs. These babies need homes even more. However when referral time comes, don't be surprised if we don't share medical information publicly. I hope you all can respect that, just like I would for your children.

We know God has a daughter perfectly matched for our family. We are excited to see how He works!

SHEETS!!!!

A sheets fundraiser. I've never heard of a sheets fundraiser. Why sheets?

Well, everyone who owns a bed needs sheets! The best and easiest fundraisers are those where I don't have to convince you that you need something. Everyone needs sheets.

These are great sheets! They are VERY soft. They are made of microfiber, which is equal to a 1200 thread count. Microfiber holds its color so you don't need to worry about them fading or losing their softness after multiple washes.

Each set is $35, regardless of size or color, plus shipping. Please allow 2-3 weeks for those who need shipping, this is because I have a minimum of 12 for each order, they then send me the sheets and I send them out to you, all that shipping takes time.

Some people seem to think this deal is to good to be true. The company offers wholesale prices for fundraisers, it's that simple and we make a great profit. These are the same great sheets many stores sell, but we get the profits for our adoption instead of some stingy store.

How to order? It's so easy you won't believe it. Just tell me what size and color you want and pay me. If you need shipping I need to know your zipcode and I can calculate the shipping cost for you. Those who live locally don't have to pay anything for shipping since I'll give you the sheets.

Email Niki at: piankmomma@gmail.com

How do I pay? If you live locally you can give me a check or pay by credit card. Of course those who don't see us regularly will have to pay by credit card. To pay by credit card you will see a DONATE button to the top right of this very blog page. You can click that and pay securely through PayPal.

Now spread the word. Share this page with your friends. Print the picture and take it to collect orders. If you get 11 sheets orders I'll GIVE you the 12 set for FREE as a thank you for helping us. All 12 sets will ship to you for FREE and then you hand them out to your friends. The 12 all have to ship to the same address to get the free shipping.

This really is a great fundraiser. A friend of ours has paid for most of their adoption expenses by selling sheets.

We are also still needing donations. As of today, April 3rd, we have received $2,400 of the $8,000 needed for the first portion of our adoption expenses, which is awesome but we aren't there yet. Even small donations add up and help a lot. To make a donation you can use our PayPal account. In the future we'll get a way to make donations tax-deductible, but right now they are not.