Here we are, on the road to Idaho once again. This time, to stay.
We have been all over the place this last month in Ohio as we've been preparing for this cross country move. It's been very exciting and if we are completely honest, a little scary! We are moving 1800 miles to a place that all we can say is there, is God's leading.
NO! We do not have a job lined up.
NO! We do not know exactly where we are going to stay
NO! We do not know anybody (we met some great people at Christ Community Church during our last visit but haven't made any other connections)
NO! We don't know what life is going to bring us........
BUT, we do know that God is leading us to Idaho. Do we really need to know anything more?? We've already tried taking things into our own hands and making things work....and it completely back fired. We don't want to do that again. We've had responses from both ends of the spectrum regarding this move and our decisions the last few months...not that it would affect our decision one way or the other. When God tells you to go, you go!
I don't think we are being irresponsible. I don't believe that we have to have everything under our control and planned out in order for us to have the ''perfect life''.
We get a lot of people asking us, "What is in Idaho??" or "Why Idaho?" and its been most possibly one of the hardest and easiest questions to answer. Yes, God is leading but no, He didn't come to us in a dream, He didn't hide it in a Bible verse, He didn't plaster it on a billboard somewhere, He simply gave us the opportunity to evaluate our priorities.
Homeschooling was the biggest most important ''make it or break it" decision for us. We are not on board with most state laws regarding homeschooling and we know we are lead to homeschool our children, so it only made sense to find a state that supported our calling in that specific aspect of life.
Another big deal for us was the access of healthy and more specifically raw foods, at an affordable cost. We were completely blown away with the cost of certain foods that we would have to drive an hour away just to find and spend an arm and half a leg to afford in both Ohio and Minnesota. We value whole foods and don't believe God ever meant for foods to become a synthetic and chemical filled filler to sustain our bodies. Our kids' "virgin tongues" have been tainted with all the nastiness that is considered normal in todays society and for once it would be nice to find some like minded people that don't feed the same mainstream kid themed poison that the FDA calls safe to their children. We saw that in Idaho!
Churches and a like minded community of believers is also a must. Churches these days are all growing as big and as fast as they can and focusing on the growth of the congregation not the growth of the individual's hearts. We've been longing to go to church again. We got burned out on church in Ohio and that is really sad. Church is not supposed to burn you out! We tried several and nothing was really what we needed and nothing we felt comfortable going to.
Honestly we wanted to be South. We were looking forward to no more snow and a longer growing season for gardening and that awesome southern accent but God closed every door. We have even still been looking at Real Estate in Ohio thinking that just maybe something would come up. It never did. More closed doors. Everywhere we were looking seemed to result in closed doors and we were wondering if we weren't trying hard enough or maybe trying too hard and finally we decided that we have nothing to lose in just going. We prayed, and then prayed some more and then again. We kept looking at Idaho as somewhere that wasn't going to actually happen (like the results from the last year and a half) and it was hard to take it seriously...and then, all of a sudden there was such a certainty and peace about Idaho. We felt no fear and didn't have any doubts. So, we moved!
Psalm 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Hey! Fyi - in Ohio you don't have to do anything different with your kids and are still able to homeschool as long as you don't register them with your school district. You can also still homeschool using registered curriculum like Christian Liberty. You still take tests and mail them in but are given the freedom of homeschooling.
ReplyDeleteSo, if we went the "08" private homeschooling route law states we can only have 5 or fewer children...that only gives us the option of having 2 more! Not something we are thrilled about. Going the "regular" homeschooling route means annual registering, standardized testing, keeping track of hours and subjects, and thats not even mentioning CCSS and how that effects which curriculum we would be allowed to use meaning any form of "Unschooling" is thrown right out the window. Ohio is considered a "moderate level" which is only one step away from "high regulations"....there have been many bills trying to pass lately regarding getting more laws and more restriction for homeschooling in Ohio. Its only a matter of time before it becomes next to impossible or even illegal. We wanted complete freedom, no laws, no regulations, no standardized testing, no CCSS, and as of right now there are only 11 states left that actually value a parent's ability to raise their children in the home. If I were you I would look up some of the laws regarding homeschooling and see whats going on in your state...especially if you plan to homeschool. Don't take other people's word for anything as things have been changing for the worse.
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