A Tribute at Graduation

WELCOME AND THANK YOU

I would like to begin by taking a few minutes to explain what this afternoon is meant to be.  It, of course, is a celebration of what Isaac has accomplished.  It is also a celebration of what we have chosen to pursue.  We have homeschooled Isaac since the second grade, and we have thoroughly enjoyed the process and are more convinced than ever of our choice.  We are delighted with the young man he is today.  

But I would also like to take this moment to acknowledge that not everyone in this room has chosen to homeschool their children.  While we are celebrating our homeschool product today, we do not wish for anyone to hear our pride and our joy in how this has worked for us as an indictment upon any of your decisions to educate your children differently.  Though it should be noted that we thoroughly enjoy vigorous discussions on the subject.

Today we want you to join us in our celebration, and we believe you have reason to celebrate not only because of your affection for Isaac but because you have contributed to his education.

Education is much more than just the books you read, the papers you write and the equations you solve. Those things are of immense value, and Isaac has benefited greatly from his extensive reading lists each year.  But his education was made broader by his experiences and by those who invested in him with time and love and opportunity.  

In the first chapter of Romans, we read "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools..." Rom. 1:18-22

We have always desired to build a constant attitude of thankfulness into our children and what sort of parents would we be if we did not live that example for them.

Isaac, and in turn Shelly and I, have been greatly blessed by those who have given so much.  

In the last ten years we have moved all over the world from Hawaii to Germany, and everywhere we have gone we have been blessed by family.  Isaac has been blessed to have fine men model Godly manhood and invest time in him and care for him.  Men like Pastor Todd Capen, Major Mike Cookey, Major Britton Price and so many others.  

He has seen the love of so many wonderful families like the Capens, Burkhalters and Wischmeiers in Hawaii.  In Europe it was the Romos, Sponds, Pattersons and Motes among so many more.  The Johnsons and the Cookeys are among those families that seemed to love on us from the day we arrived until the day we left.  These were families that made us feel like we had family near when our biological families were oceans away.  With these families we prayed and worshipped, we laughed and cried, we sang and we danced.  We broke bread and we pursued wisdom.

Those were formative years for Isaac.  But before and after we travelled the world we had people helping to grow Isaac.

That begins with our family.  Uncle John and Aunt Karen always provided a warm and inviting home to visit, a farm to enjoy and sometimes to work, and came to Isaac’s games and took him to watch games.  Uncle Corey and Aunt Becky would gather for every major event, providing holiday meals, running races with him and talking sports endlessly.  Uncle Wes and Aunt Dawn always made sure all of our children felt so very important and so special whenever they were together.  We thank you.

Uncle Todd and Aunt Kristin have been there from the beginning. At some point the children found out you weren’t actually family, but there is no doubt you have earned those titles.  

To Grandma who has always been ready to give a hug or food to a growing boy, a trip to the park or just to lend an ear.  And Mimi who has literally made her house a home for our children and has given so much more than that and so much more than I can list.  Grandpa and Susie always have love and laughter to share and support every activity.  Grandpa, you gave us a scare this year but also gave us the opportunity to see prayers answered and to see what it means to have a family care for one another and pull together in dark times. What a blessing.

Yes, in our very short return to the Kansas City area in Isaac’s senior year, many unforeseen blessings have come.  A wonderful church family was discovered. Pastor Lindstrom has been a faithful shepherd as well as Entrepreneurial Business Instructor.  The Van Till Family has provided the first real jobs to Isaac and Abi as well as Constitution classes.  The Lindstroms, Morills and the congregation of Christ Our Redeemer have welcomed my wife and my children and loved them during a uniquely difficult time for our family.

And the Morrisons provided an incredible basketball opportunity with a strong program where they and families like the Burkharts and Daileys welcomed Isaac in and provided him friendship and a memory he will not soon forget.  Not to mention the experience that is Coach Lathrop.

Thank you all for being here.  By that, I mean more than thank you for occupying your seat this afternoon.  I am saying thank you for having been there for my family, for my children, for Isaac.  God has blessed Isaac through you, and we are grateful.

Of course, all thanks is to be given to the Giver of all good gifts.  It is by God’s hand that all of these things have been done.  So please stand, lift your glass and join with us in singing the Doxology.

Celebrating Micaiah

An excerpt from Dad's message to Micaiah, 
celebrating her 18th birthday last December ...

We have spent the last 10 years attempting to provide a culture within our home that encourages the pursuit of wisdom.  The classes that have challenged you and the work that has sometimes pushed you to tears was for the purpose of pushing you towards wisdom.  But as Solomon teaches us, wisdom is a gift.  The biggest mistake we can make is thinking that if we gain enough wisdom we will always have the answers.  But Solomon, in Ecclesiastes, tells us that most of what happens to us is inexplicable, incomprehensible and out of control.  Everything is a gift from God.  Trying to understand what God will do is utter foolishness.  All we can hope to do is know this and love Him, trust Him.   So we will follow Solomon’s advice to eat, drink, and be joyful, and we will do it together because He has given us this time.  Our past is full of wonderful memories, and I am confident what He has in store in the unknown future is even better.  But why worry about that now?  This is the day we have been given.   

It happens that fast!

Rachel Micaiah Lopez

FABulous Evening

May ... another time of remembrance.  For many years the days on the May calendar filled with field days, spring sports, awards ceremonies, Mother's Day, banquets, final exams, Commencement ceremony, graduation parties, yearbook signings and locker clean-out days, final grades due, and then Memorial Day - another time of remembrance.

While this May's calendar will be filled with different types of events, it will still be full of times to remember.

One such time ... our Commencement Celebration.  

After months of planning, coordinating, and scheduling, the night had finally arrived, and everyone donned some fancy clothes and remembered their dancing shoes as well.  Across the fields to the next village and up the hill to the Parsberg Castle, we took a few moments to digitally record all the family's finery before we commenced.

Upon entering the banquet hall, we were able to enjoy the fruit of our afternoon labors -- many thanks to all the hands who volunteered with the set-up of tables and chairs, with the washing of dishes and the precise placing of flatware, with the untangling of decorations - it was a gusty afternoon!, and so much more.

Congratulations to Emi Patterson and Micaiah Lopez

The evening was filled with feasting family-style, musical performances by students from our homeschool community, heartfelt speeches delivered by proud fathers and by their lovely soon-to-be-graduating daughters, memory-packed slideshows, singing ...

and dancing!

a FABulous evening

Another blessing lavished upon our family while here in Bavaria is the wonderful community of fellow believers that God has provided ... family while we are far from our own.  And within this community, our children have had the privilege of developing friendships with a great group of young men and women.What an incredible evening of celebrating with our family here in Germany!

If I Had a Hammer...

Just yesterday Bear and I were speaking of the rock and wondering how Jesus may have moved it away from the tomb.  Later in the day, he opened his gifts from the Mimi-Easter-Box (while skyping with her and Uncle Corey, Aunt Becky and Joel).  One of them became today's science project!

After reading "The Moon Mission" to me and learning a little about the astronauts bouncing along that strange surface, we headed out onto our back patio, hammer and safety goggles in hand.  We spent a few moments learning about geodes - typically hollow, rounded rocks in which beautiful crystals have formed.  And then, "Hammer away, my boy."

Thank you, Mimi, for knowing that the best types of science projects involve hammers!!

Monday's Rocks!

And Thus We Have Commenced

Dear Hohenfels Family,  

Thank you for joining us as we celebrated our graduating seniors, Emi Patterson and Micaiah Lopez.  

We appreciate your friendship and support!

For our stateside family and friends, here is a glimpse of our lovely daughter and her proud papa on the big night.  Patrick's commencement speech follows...

Thank you, Jared Patterson, for taking this photo!

For those of you who do not know, my wife spent many years as a high school principal.  She had to deliver many of these types of addresses.  She is reveling in this moment right now.  She always liked to point out that a graduation ceremony is called a commencement because even though it is done at the end of one thing, it actually signals the beginning of another.  As parents of seniors with our natural desire to hold on, we invariably focus on a look back to what we can no longer have again.  In just a few months I will deliver my daughter to Moscow, Idaho, and nothing will ever be like it once was.  And to avoid a long period of blubbering, I am going to stop talking about that for a moment and instead tell a story I once heard from Pastor George Grant. 

It is a story about the dining hall at New College in Oxford England.  New College was founded in 1379, and at that time the name likely seemed much more fitting than it does today.  They constructed a magnificent hall.   It is a dining hall built in the grand old tradition.  High, vaulted ceilings spanned by enormous oak beams. It is, to this day, a truly beautiful building.

In the middle of the twentieth century rot was discovered in some of the beams.  Someone must have been cleaning or doing some maintenance on the ceiling.  This, of course, was very concerning to the trustees.  They began a search throughout England for the appropriate quality and quantity of timber.  When no one was able to fill the order, they widened the search to all of the UK and then to all of Europe.  And again they were unable to find what they needed.   They eventually sent requests out to the Americas and to Australia, but no one could do it.  Disappointed and frustrated they began to consider some sort of laminate material to replace the beams with.

This is where the story becomes disputed.  Someone -- a janitor, a grad student -- we don’t know who for certain, but someone discovered some old scrolls in the basement of the building.  The scrolls contained original copies of the plans for the building.  On examining the scrolls, they discovered a note regarding the beams that read something to this effect:

We expect that in about 500 years the beams will need to be replaced.  For that purpose we have planted a row of oak trees to the west of the structure.

They went upstairs and looked out the huge windows and saw a row of massive oak trees that were perfect for what they needed.

These fourteenth-century builders had planned more than 500 years in advance.  We live in a culture that struggles to think two weeks ahead.  Long-term planning is one or maybe two years out.  But, scripture challenges us to think generationally.  To a thousand generations.     To a Thousand Generations.     I am still working on wrapping my head around the many promises in Deuteronomy to my children’s children.

When we determined to homeschool Micaiah ten years ago we were not focused on making sure she could get into the best college.  We were not trying to ensure that she could find a well paying job to support herself as a modern independent woman.  Our goals were much more long-term than that.  We wanted to give her an education that would drive our children to understand God and His world better,  to be able to serve Him throughout their life in whatever way He chose to use them.  And most importantly, we wanted them to be in a position to give their children a better education, a broader understanding of His creation than we were capable of passing onto them.   We wanted our grandchildren to receive an inheritance that can only be built over generations.  Deuteronomy tells us that this is what we are supposed to be pursuing.  Or as New Saint Andrews, the college that Micaiah will be attending, likes to call it - the pursuit of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

When we determined to take on this type of education, it meant, as many of you have found out, that a lot of reading was about to ensue.  More specifically, it meant that Mom was about to read a lot.  It meant reading Thucydides, Augustine, and Chaucer.  Pascal, Dante, Bede, and many others …and while Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France might make for compelling reading for a former history teacher, my wife was doing it strictly out of her love for the education of our children.  And as all of us who are homeschool fathers know,  it is Mom who works the hardest in this endeavor.  There is no doubt that Micaiah would not be where she is today academically if not for the efforts of her mother.  For that, Shelly deserves a tremendous amount of credit and appreciation, and I love her for it.

Micaiah, from shortly after her birth, was always a very little girl.  Her little brother passed her in height by his second birthday and never looked back.  But Micaiah’s size did not define her, and it never held her back.  When she was just seven years old we decided to start her on riding lessons.  One of my earliest memories of little Micaiah is her sitting atop a fat horse with her legs nearly straight out, smiling, certain that she was in charge.  That has pretty much defined Micaiah.  Despite the fact that others in the room might be greater in stature, she has always been pretty sure that she was in charge. 

This confidence has benefited her as she has taken on many challenges - whether it be painting, dancing, singing, hiking, camping, writing, sewing, decorating or just about anything else she has tried.  And today, even though she does not have a license, she is still convinced that she is a very good driver.  But as we look back it is easy to only focus on the easy, fun memories.  But that doesn’t tell the whole story.  God didn’t only give us happiness, laughter and grand adventures throughout Europe.  Along with relaxing days on beaches in Crete and Hawaii, He also gave us trials and grief and sadness.  He gave us wounds.  And while we won’t delve into all of these tonight, we are comforted in knowing that these too are gifts from Him.  Hebrews tells us that “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those that have been trained by it.“  Hebrews 12:11

Micaiah, while your mother and I have been your teacher and principal, and others have been used to teach specific subjects, it has always been God who has been teaching you even when your parents stumbled.  He has always been the lesson planner, the author of your course syllabus. It is God in His providence who has written your story.  Your curriculum.

Micaiah, over the past few years I have seen you grow in beauty and poise, and I have seen you grow academically.  But most importantly, I have seen you grow in wisdom, in your trust in God, in your compassion for others and in your desire to live for sake of our Saviour.  And even though you have had to work hard to satisfy your math teacher and your Latin, Omnibus and Rhetoric professors,  I will drop you off for college next fall knowing that you will be challenged like never before.  I can do that confident that God has prepared you for the challenge.

So today we are honoring my daughter Micaiah, whose education is not yet complete. She is not being celebrated tonight because of what she has accomplished but because of who she is and who she is becoming.   I am humbled to know that the wonderful young lady that we are honoring tonight is who she is not because of anything I or her mother have done but because of the grace of God and who He has made her to be and who He is still making her to be.  A gift to future generations.

Micaiah – Presh - I love you.

Is It That Time Already?

Since I know how crazy-busy May becomes, I thought I would get a head-start on all the reminiscing that one's senior year of high school brings.  Our senior is, of course, Micaiah ... Rachel Micaiah Lopez.  Here, in the middle of the summer before her senior year begins, I am anticipating already the many "lasts" that this year will bring.  Here, in the middle of Europe as we begin our final year of this tour, the number of "lasts" multiplies before my very eyes.  And yet, I am so thankful for the opportunity to look back and to remember all the blessings of being mom AND teacher to our eldest daughter.

The Lopez Family Homeschool officially opened its doors in August 2005 (with three students enrolled)...

and now as we begin our ninth year, our enrollment has increased 67 percent, and we will be graduating our first class this next May.  This encourages an even bigger dose of end-of-the-school-year questioning:  How close are we to our goals?  What areas do we need to improve and strengthen as we move forward?  Are there things we need to be doing differently?  What does this upcoming school year potentially hold as challenges?  There are no parents (I refrain from using any adjectives here) to evaluate the job I am doing as a teacher so the need for honest self-evaluation is crucial, and thankfully, our principal (Dad) provides great wisdom and guidance all throughout each school year.  As always, may we remember the command

"Hear, O Israel:  the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." --Deuteronomy 6:4-7

It will be much too soon and we will be doing this again ...

Berlin & Beyond

Even after almost 21 months in Europe, I am still amazed that I am writing the following sentence.  Last weekend we squeezed in a quick trip to Berlin between school photo shoots with Dad.  A few highlights of that excursion are pictured below ... the Pergamon Museum, Französischer Dom, and Gendarmenmarkt.  So much history packed into two days.  The only disappointment:  in a city of 3.5 million, one should be able to use the GPS and find a Mexican restaurant. 

 

With three weeks of school completed, here is a look at the students of the Lopez Family Homeschool of 2012-13 ...

 

Micaiah, junior year

Isaac, freshman year

Abigail, 7th grade year

Bear, kindergarten year

Belle, in the second half of her second year

 

Every Day Is School Day

In exactly one week we will be conjugating, solving for "x," balancing chemical equations, and reading (or learning to read, as the case may be), reading, reading.   While I am very excited for our school year to begin, there is a part of me that will miss some of those less-than-formal learning experiences that summertime provides.

Here is one such experience from early May ...

Near the beginning of the walk ...

After walking quite a distance along the path, our 5-year-old son began to whine, “I'm tired … I'm hungry” forgetting that he had just wolfed down his waffles 30 minutes prior.  My first response was to IGNORE and keep moving.  Soon, “I'm super hungry.”  Second response from this nuturing mother, “It's time to suck it up … we are preparing for our hikes in France...”  then out of the mouth of the babe, “I'm really tired and super super hungry.”  Third response - “See that yellow sign down there...that's the goal.  We get there and then we will turn and head for home where you can have a snack.”  Surely this would suffice … but no, the whine continued, and as I pushed baby sister in the stroller and tried to coax my strong-willed boy, I breathed out a prayer of help … and then thanksgiving as this came to mind,

“One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.”  Psalm 145:4

Thank you for this opportunity to speak to the next generation.  If I continue my current path of responses, my child will remain fixated on his wants, his dire situation, his apparent lack.  It was time to adjust our focus.  “I will declare Your mighty acts.”

So I began with “Listen! What is that you hear?”
His quick response “Birds”
“What are they doing?”
Singing
“What do you think they are singing?”
Praise to God.
“Why?”
Because He made them to sing.



Belle, patiently waiting as Bear shows me a "discovery"

Then we turned our attention to the grass...to the green grass and then to the many shades of green on the hill of trees just over there.  Next, the pink flowers who, according to my son, were named “little pink flowers” … we stopped to count the horses, some rolling on their backs with their feet in the air.  We were surrounded by God's good creation … and we praised His works as we sauntered home without a single whine!

The road may appear long, but we will walk it together.

On the Set of "Merlin"

Although the warmer days of August (notice I did not say "hot days" as a small token of respect for those loved ones sheltering in their air-conditioned cocoons back in the Midwest and most of the 48!) beckon my thoughts to focus here...



I still find myself daydreaming of a partly cloudy, cool June morning in France as we hiked up the hill, eyes focused on this...

Pierrefonds Castle

This little gem was just a few kilometers down the road from our Jaulzy gite and one of the first places we explored, much to the delight of one small Bear!  The older Lopez children's delight came in discovering that not only is the TV show "Merlin" filmed here, but on that June day as we crossed the drawbridge into the courtyard, this is what awaited us...

On the set of "Merlin"

With so much action taking place outside,

it took some coaxing to draw them inside to enjoy this...

and this

I feel compelled to share one more part of the daydream...this glimpse of God's spectacular handiwork as seen through a castle window.

The village of Pierrefonds

As our focus shifts to the exciting challenges of logic, algebra (1 & 2!), ancient (and modern) literature, chemistry, pre-calculus, latin, biology labs and kindergarten that beckon us forward, please forgive us if we sometimes slip into a daydream or two.



"Living the dream" with Mimi

M-M-Mayhem

Here, in our lovely Lupburgian locale, we are hooked on phonics.  From Plutarch's Lives, The Return of The King, and identifying adjective subordinate clauses  to "There was a p-p-pig who jumped up on the t-t-table and began to do a jig because he was a d-d-dancer"... this is the month of May - ahem.  Today, with the older children's school year drawing to a close, Bear and I were able to turn our focus from a quick review of the letters "M," "P," and "B," to the more serious work of the eraser end of pencil-to-purple paint-to-pansy in our attempt to imitate the "pointillism" style of, say, Georges Seurat.

The budding artist was able to complete most of his masterpiece before declaring, "Mom, I think I hear some of my friends outside."  After a quick swipe or two with the magical, acryllic-removing wet-wipe, the screen door was swinging shut before the paint dried.  It is May.

Remember How Your Hair Always Looked Good the Day BEFORE School Pictures...

Or maybe you had a sibling who crashed his bike and came home with stitches and a big bandage on his chin?  Just a few more reasons to be thankful that we are a "homeschool family" ... snap-snap.  (Are you humming the Adams Family tune while thinking of the lyrics by Tim Hawkins?)  Moving on.

Although we have been somewhat tardy in setting a date on our school calendar for pictures, we have been quite diligent in all other areas of our schooling.  The elder two have thoroughly enjoyed the instructors and the challenges of their online classrooms and are learning to budget their study time in order to satisfy more than one very patient and understanding teacher!  Abigail is looking forward to that specific challenge but satisfies herself at the present time with trying to introduce a new subject or two into her curriculum, wincing when she hears the condition, "IF you finish your other assignments, then we will begin _________."  And then there is Bear.  He is an eager student and always wants to know "When are you teaching me?"  He loves to sing the Alphabet Chase song, read books, memorize his Cubbie verses, play the matching game, and draw with big sister on the days that he isn't "doing music" with his other two (older) siblings.  Belle simply takes it all in with a big grin.

During last weekend, our school photographer had an extra day or two off from his real job, and so we were able to schedule individual photo ops.  Only two students needed to take advantage of the "re-take" day!  We hope you enjoy.

On The Horizon

One week from the official beginning of summer and here in Bavaria we are still wearing jeans and the occasional jacket.  Oh yes, there are sunny-and-warm-and-want-to-need-these-shorts-that-I-found-in-the-bottom-of-my-drawer days, but those are NOT the norm.  Please do not misunderstand me.  I truly enjoy a cooler summer, and I love that the fields that were once dazzling white when we first arrived are now all varieties of luscious green.  Seasons ... "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven..."

Now we are closing the "books" on grades nine, seven, and five.  While I finish up administrative tasks, we have already launched our summer school schedule.  Before you groan too loudly or roll your eyes, please note that while our summer school may include writing, Latin review, and math drills, it also includes a "geography blitz" on southwestern Germany, a small slice of Switzerland, and the Provence region of France.  WHY?  Simple preview of where we are heading in July! 

Conjugate What?

While my mind seems to be in constant whirlwind of moving "to-do" lists, I am reminded each weekday morning at 8:00 that I still have a very important job ... Teacher. So we will continue to conjugate Latin verbs, classify sentences, determine the values of x, y and z, and read the classics. And may the Teacher's head not explode on any given Thursday afternoon ... or Tuesday morning ... or ever.

These are the faces that do the reminding ...

.......

.......

Thankfully, Patrick was able to shoot 2010-2011 School Photos before the winds started increasing, and the stacks of books attest to the following:

Germany will have to wait a while longer ... Homer, Twain, and Bunyan (among others) wait for no one.

Wet and Not So Wild

Since Micaiah shared with you earlier about the beginning of our first "Full Blast School" week, I thought that I would share with you how that week ended. Patrick had the day off on Friday, and so after squeezing in a few hours of school and after a big breakfast (whipped up by Chef Daddy), we loaded up the van and headed west to ... Wet-N-Wild!

Here are just a few snapshots of how we celebrated the successful completion of FBS Week #1:

The first time that Bear went down head-first was a complete accident on his part (he slipped at the top of the slide!), but this photo op was manipulated by Mom at the top pulling the legs out from under her baby!! There was a lot of pressure from the photographer.

While Bear was romping through the Keiki Kove, the older siblings were exploring the Water World Playground ...

These photos need no captions as they clearly portray the personalities of each subject!

After displaying a fair amount of "forced patience" while everyone else raced down the Island Racer or careened down the Raging River, the height-challenged Bear was ready to tackle the slides in the "big kid" area. He loved every minute!

It was a great way to end the school week!

New Beginnings in Our Homeschool

As we journey toward Germany, we have entered into our sixth year of schooling at home! This chapter opens with new characters ... well, the same characters starring in new roles. We are now educating our first HIGHschooler as well as our first PREschooler (for those who were witnesses of our beginning in this endeavor, you will remember we began when Abi was in kindergarten, Isaac in 2nd grade, and Micaiah in 4th). New beginnings abound ...

As Patrick and I spent time studying what this new season and new year would bring, we focused not only on how to "calendar" our school year (with a BIG break to move across the world) but also on what the daily routine would look like. Needless to say, especially for all those moms out there who are schooling even more children, time is precious. Over the years, I have learned that I am a better student when I teach! So... our three older children each have a small block of time in their school day labeled "Bear Instruction." This small, active preschooler is blessed with three unique tutors who run him through various activities emphasizing a letter, a number, and a color (or shape) throughout his school day.

After enjoying a highly nutritional dinner (or homemade pizzas!), we push back the plates and continue talking over the day. All the while Bear anxiously awaits his turn to hear Daddy say, "So tell me, Solomon Barak Lopez, what did you learn today during school?" Quickly he will spout off, "I learned the letter B, red, and 2!" Then he leans back in his oversized chair, basking in the glow of all the encouraging ooohs and aaaahhhs!

We are currently in the second week of what we have affectionately termed "Abbreviated School" with "Full Blast School" looming ahead and ready to launch on August 2. It is my prayer that the excitement wave we are currently riding will only continue to swell ... not crash against some black lava rocks and dissolve into small foaming bubbles!