The Latest News:)

I haven't really been on here lately; there's been a lot going on. We decided that I'm going to homeschool Jacob this year for first grade. It's been a really hard decision because there are 2 or 3 LPN jobs here in our area (one being in behavioral health, which I absolutely love and am fascinated with), and that doesn't happen too often. I've questioned whether or not we made the right decision, but I know in my heart, it's what I'm supposed to do at this time. Homeschooling is actually a lot more work than I ever could have thought. Legally, you have to keep excellent records, spend so many hours, etc. I really am excited about it because I think it will be a good thing for our family. Also, I plan to start an after school tutoring program of some kind and also start teaching English to people in our area who can't speak it. I'm hoping to have a couple classes a week at night and maybe even tutor individuals. It's so exciting what God has been bringing our way.

There have been lots of big decisions lately. We also decided, if the bank approves our construction loan, that we are going to build a simple house out on our property, nice but simple. (For those of you who don't know, the house that we had there was burnt to the ground 3 days before Jaden was born.) BUT, we are building it ourselves with some help from a couple people but really, mostly done by us. Dan actually went to vo-tech school for this, so he is really excited about building us a home; it's been a dream of his for a long time to build his own house. I'm really excited about it all. We'll be able to build it for much cheaper than we could if someone were building it for us. We could sell the property now, as is, but we feel that if we want to sell it eventually, it will go for a lot more with a nice house on it. I'll just be glad to have our own home with no mold/mildew growing in millions of places.:)LOL Don't get me wrong; we keep a very clean house, but the mold in this little house is sometimes hard to deal with, especially sinus wise.

We both feel that God is calling us to New York eventually, but we feel that it's just not the right time. We have to get our responsibilities in order and really pray this one through. Lately, we've been dealing with finding a new church family. There are lots of things that I want to write but just can't at this point because things are just too raw still, but I will say this, especially for those hearing rumors. We know that it was time for us to leave where we were at; it was just obvious to us in so many ways. We both want to be ALIVE in our spiritual walk and want our kids to see Jesus as ALIVE through us. Know that we're not in any means perfect; we sin, just like every other human out there. But we want to be filled and used by the Holy Spirit. I feel as though, in some ways, I personally, am just starting to wake up out of a spiritually dry/dead state myself. I have been trying for too long to please others instead of Who I should really be striving to please. In some ways, leaving the church we were in was like a breakup and very much like losing a limb. It's been really really hard, but we know it was the right thing for our family. And we do still have some very dear friends from there that we keep in touch with. You know who you are.:)

We have found a new church that we've been going to; we're still keeping our options open, though. This new church, though, has really had a couple of blessed services the times that we have went, and they are so open to God's leading and even change and reaching out into the community around us. So far, we like it a lot. The people are very nice and down to earth, and they even have a small church library; I love reading, so that was a huge hit.:)LOL

Anyway, just some of what has been going on in the Lockcuff family.:)