School’s out for Hannah! She finished work tonight in her last workbook.
Hannah is home-schooled, with her mother supplying her curriculum along with the scope and sequence. She also grades Hannah’s tests.
?It was easy.?
That’s what Sara had to say about the GED test.
Her road to getting a diploma equivalent began with a pretest in the areas where she was weak. She struggled with the calculator portion of the math test.
Sara then took a calculator class with a tutor. After that she studied the next three weeks on her own.
The actual test took around five hours to complete. When she had finished with it she wasn’t sure that she had passed. Actually, she feared she had failed.
Five days when by before the results arrived.
So now what?
?I want to get my STNA certification from the state and then look for a job,? she said.
Sara is staying at Harbor House until she has met certain requirements established by the county court. She had her baby last August, a boy named Bryce, whom she placed for adoption.
The “classroom” at the house is finally taking on the appearance of a classroom instead of the cluttered “office” look it has had all summer.
The first order of business to get ready for school is to have a functional location in the house for the girls to work. Originally it was my plan to take a 12 foot countertop that I had been given and prop it along the windowed south wall in the room just off the living room that has been functioning mostly as an office.
My good friend (and my “boss”) Bill Rieth was here last week and after considering my plans, he suggested some alternative ideas. He didn’t say so but I’m sure he was taking into consideration my lack of any discernible skills in woodworking and craftsmanship.
I ended up scrapping his ideas and decided instead to pull three desks from out of storage that we had used at the house in Celina. They originally been donated just for the purpose of school desks, but were abandoned as such after only a short time in use due to some difficulties in putting them somewhere where the schoolwork could be monitored. Most of the time we’ve had them they’ve served as pedestals for storage boxes. That’s what they were doing when they were reclaimed from the basement at Laylin Road and brought to the house.
I could only get one desk at a time in the back of the Chevy van, even with the last seat removed. Not to say I didn’t try to squeeze two of the 48″ by 30″ by 27″ desks into a space that appeared to be adequate but wasn’t, based on a variety of tried juxtapositions.
Sara, Charlotte and Natasha helped out on the first two trips, although they bailed out of the van while it was parked at Laylin Road when a large bug (a locust, maybe?) flew into the van and disappeared. India and my daughter K.C. helped bring the last desk home.
Next: set up computers and printers, move a bookshelf and filing cabinets in, and find two more chairs somewhere. Then we can say, “School is in session.”
Hanna blessed everyone who got to know her during her stay at Harbor House, and she was gracious enough to share with world a story of God?s redemptive love:
Dear Harbor House,
Hi. My name is Hanna and I?ve found myself pregnant at only 14 years old. At first, I couldn?t believe what had happened. I never though that could happen to me, but I?m sure that?s what most pregnant teens think.
But it had happened, and now I had to accept it. After the first 5 months of only telling the baby?s father, my dad noticed that my tummy was growing. Hmmm? I wonder why?
After both of my parents had found out, my mom started looking for a maternity home for me. The first name on the Google site was Harbor House. She called and talked to Karla. My parents knew I had to go somewhere for the rest of my pregnancy. They knew staying at home wasn?t the best for me. My parents didn?t want me all the way in Ohio, so they took me to Ventura, California, where I had extended family.
One of the miracles God gave me was Tami Anderson in Ventura CA. She lives just a couple of blocks from my aunt?s house, so it was no problem for me to go over there a couple of times a week. After meeting Tami, my aunt found out that Tami?s husband Gary was a youth pastor at Community Presbyterian Church. My aunt had been trying to get my cousins to go to that youth group for years, and now they would, because I was.
On my first doctor?s visit with my Ob/gyn doctor, my aunt and I found out that for years Dr. Lara had only worked with epileptic pregnant women. Me having epilepsy and being pregnant, this was literally a gift of God. Dr. Lara also had a team of a neurologist, and perinatologist who helped her with epileptic pregnant women. This was also very exciting. Dr. White, the pediatrician I went to, didn?t accept the insurance that I have. But he?s a strong Christian man and said that helping pregnant teens was a passion of his. Also, that he wouldn?t charge me for doctor visits. Again, another gift from God.
Lisa, who was my birthing instructor, heard of my situation and volunteered to give me Bradley method lessons free of charge. There?s God just one more time.
Once we realized that I wouldn?t be able to go to school, we looked up home-schooling programs and found A Beka. My grandpa is a retired teacher after teaching for 20 years and he was thrilled to help me. One more gift in list of gifts from God.
God also game me the miracle of Karla, a birthmom herself, to help me with all my thoughts and feelings as a birthmom. Actually, I think Harbor House in general is a miracle to me. About two years ago I bought two stickers for my Bible, and in November of ?07, I barely saw that in the corner of the stickers they say ?Harbor House Gifts.? God was showing me that He already knew that I would enter the program two years before I even got pregnant.
God has given me so many gifts and shown his miraculous power to me in so many ways. I really hope everyone could experience all the gifts and miracles that I have through God.
- Hanna H.
Comments rssWhatever happened to boredom? I lost it along with my childlike innocence at some point in the faded, distant past.
Here’s a conversation I had with my youngest son Kavin after he made this observation:
“School work stinks.”
“Do you mean it smells bad?” I asked.
“No, I mean it stinks.”
“Why do you think it stinks?”
“Because you do it every day, then, ‘poof’, you’re dust in the wind.”
“Poof, huh? I hope i go out as a poof.”
“Homework stinks too.”
“Don’t you see the value of an education, though?”
“Yes I do, and it’s not very high.”
“Did you tell this to [your teacher] Mrs. Baugh?”
“No.”
“What do you think she’d say if you did?”
Kavin’s eyes got wide but he didn’t respond. I decided it was time for him to take his morning pills. As I went for them I thought of something that might make school more appealing to Kavin since he hates handwriting.
“The K-12 computers in the garage. Or maybe we can get the old one that’s at the office working. Do you do keyboarding?” He shook his head. “It’s more education for you but definitely worth it, because no matter how bad your handwriting it, knowing how to keyboard will level the field.”
Kavin thought about this, then asked, “Why did they call it ‘hand-writing’ before computers? What other kind of writing was there?”
“Penmanship,” I replied. “People had to learn how to use pen and ink without having ink spots or ink running down the page.”
“But why did they call it ‘hand-writing,’” he persisted. “Wouldn’t it just be writing?”
I handed his pills to him but didn’t provide him an answer. My mind had gone off to think about a different word, “penmanship.” I’m sure there must be a gender-neutral version of the word but for the life of me, I just couldn’t think of what it would be. Can you?
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