B14, (my middle child) is now B15.  He celebrated his 15th birthday today.  Wow, 15 years old!   He and I skipped out on homeschooling today.  We went shopping for a new tablet, out to lunch, then later stopped by our house to pick up the others to  join our homeschool group for bowling (PE).  Tonight we partied on with his favorite home cooked meal, chicken and dumplings, and chocolate cream cake with mini M&Ms.

Though all of that has been fun, my mind has been elsewhere.  My thoughts have drifted back 15 years.  I was pregnant with B when our family decided we were going to quit public school, (the oldest was in kindergarten).  My pregnancy was our homeschool’s first science unit study, and his homebirth was our first science experiment.  Though the kindergartener slept through all the excitement, my two year old daughter did not.  She learned about design and empowerment, I learned trust, my husband learned to be a true “hands on” kind of dad, and B learned that he was safe, loved, and protected outside my womb.  When we woke the oldest, he learned that babies make both families and hearts grow.  We all learned about miracles.  Miracles make the most awesome homeschooling lessons, don’t they?

On B’s birth announcement we quoted James 1:17a, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights”.  You know his name really isn’t B, it’s Boone.  Boone means “gift”.  Yes, without a doubt, this boy, I mean young man, is a gift from God.

betty jo