Ramblings of Claire...

  It's amazing how the smallest things instantly take me back to Argentina...

My Mom, Benjamin, Mason, and their host family

A bumper sticker that said "Dios Te Bendiga" made me remember a fun memory with my mom and brothers' host family. Leda and Jairo, their hosts, were so kind to me...I loved   them as if I, too, had stayed in their home!


As the girl who taught herself sign language to communicate with one person, I clearly don't like communication barriers.  In fact, they drive me batty.
   And when the power was out in my home in Argentina, I had no way to communicate with my precious host family. It killed me. So I asked Leda to write down a few simple phrases in Spanish. "Dios Te Bendiga" (God bless you) was one I really wanted! "Te extrano" (I miss you) was another one I really wanted to know how to say. After all, we were leaving for Colon, and I needed to communicate to my family how much I would miss them the following three days. (this coming from the girl who says "I love you!" about a hundred times before my mom can hang up the phone :) )
     And finally, I wanted to know how to say "Podria Banarme?" Because before I had had to move my hands over my head, indicating I wanted a shower. And then one day my host dad started telling me (I thought) how to say it in Spanish. But as I stood there, repeating him in my horrible accent, Emily realized what I was saying and laughingly shouted for me to stop! Wonderingly, I looked around at the red faces around me. What had I just said??? Reynaldo had had me say something like "I need a shower because my armpits smell bad". Hahaha! No one could stop laughing. So, I finally asked Leda how to say it, confidant that she would give me the right words. hehe
     And that one bumper sticker on a car in Arizona took me back to that moment immidiately.....
 
    Another time Mom, Cate, and I were walking in "Claire's" to pick up a sleep mask for Cate. While we were waiting for the cashier to ring us up, my mom let out a gasp. She pointed to a bin on the checkout counter. It was filled to the brim of bracelets with little icons of Mary, Jesus, and the Apostles on it. I picked one up and knew my mom and I were both remembering our day at the prison. She had comforted one of the prisoners, who, as a token of her love and thanks, gave my Mom her own little bracelet with icons  on it.  It touched my mom's heart that this woman gave to her out of her heart. And just the sight of those was enough to almost bring us both to tears.


 
   After that visit to Claire's we stopped at Carter's (aka the Baby Store :) )  for my adorable new cousin.  There I was, surrounded by Baby clothes and baby shoes and baby hair bows and baby lotion and baby onesies and baby shampoo...and I missed my little baby brother and sister in Argentina.
 
       I know you all probably think I'm pretty weird, haha! My little pile of gifts to send to Argentina grows by the day...
  
  On another note, school is about to start!
 I'm  pretty excited, but I'm also kind of nervous.
  This summer has been amazing...we have been blessed by the opportunity to travel, and then after that Mom made sure that everyday was fun. I will miss being able to read all day!
  We will be in tenth grade, and although I know I have time, I'm getting very anxious about college. I recently checked out a HUGE book at the library titled "2012 College Majors"...and then a cookbook because we all know looking at that book is going to stress me out and I am going to need to bake! :) I have no idea what to major in or where to go to college. I just want to HELP...and as there isn't a major for that, I'm stuck! Honestly, I do know what I want to do. Kind of.
    I want to help people with special needs and their families, especially those who aren't getting the care they need, like those in Africa or orphanages around the world. My question then, is how best to serve them? I've been thinking I'd love to do Occupational Therapy, but I would also love to do Deaf Education so I bring language (and there forth God's Word) to those who currently don't have any. I would love to become a professional sign language interpreter, but also think Bible Translation would be really cool. Oh, and I want to be an adoptive mom. :) SOO...in short, I have a lot I would love to do, but the question is, what is God telling me to do? I have no idea. So I would very much appreciate your prayers as Benjamin and Mason and I start this new school year....that God will grow us and teach us and open doors to reveal His ultimate plan for us! I'm hopeful that it will be a good year. I'm grateful to be taking my memories of Argentina into this school year, and although I really miss everything and everyone there, I know that right now God's plan is for me to be in Arizona. And I am excited for that!!
 
   Thank you for listening to my ramblings!! Much love and Dios Te Bendiga,
Your Blogger






  

My answer

Dear Readers,
  Hello again! We were actually in Hawaii all last week, so  I didn't get a chance to blog. We had a wonderful time, and I will definitely be blogging about it, but today I wanted to blog about the homeschool convention. We actually went there on Friday, and then woke up extremely early Saturday to get on a plane!

   So, the homeschool convention was wonderful. It always makes me want to study more and to be a better person! haha But it really does get us all ready to start school, and we usually find some wonderful books!
  For the first time, Mom, the boys, and I went together. It was so much fun to listen to the seminars together and share what we learned at lunch! AND, it was a lot of fun to just be together.

 But I really wanted to make this post to talk about more than just the homeschool convention. I'm constantly  getting  asked questions  like- "So, are you still being homeschooled?", "Do you have any friends, being homeschooled?" ,"So, do you not get to do any cool things like at a REAL highschool?"
  I really want to clarify that I love being homeschooled. And my mom loves home schooling us, so yes- we are going to keep homeschooling!

   Our family has lots of unique reasons for homeschooling, but I want to share some of the things homeschooling has done for me. 
   We all struggled in public school. It's hard for a teacher to have 40 kids in her classroom and still make sure Benjamin and Mason were well taken care of. It's hard to be the sister watching your brothers NOT be well taken care of and not blow up at the teacher.  It's hard to try to fit in with a group of girls who don't share your same beliefs. It's hard to do homework from 4:00 to 7:00 and still have family time. It was just plain hard.
  But now that we are homeschooling, we have time to do so much more than just read textbooks! We can go palpate a cow when we studied animal sciences, eat only foods the pioneers would eat when we studied them, and take a week in the middle of the school year to go to Washington, D.C. when we studied government.
  And, also, we have time for activities. So, instead of 'cool electives' at high school, I have time to learn to play violin and piano, and to be a part of community service projects, like putting on a ballet production with kids with special needs in it. And my brothers are part of an amazing theater group that is just for homeschooled kids.

There are SO many different education options, and I realize homeschooling is not for everyone. But for us, it is the perfect solution.  So, please don't jump to hasty conclusions  just  because we are homeschooled. Your Blogger,
 Claire