To All My Five in a Row Friends

(Warning: Those of you who have never been involved in an online community may find this post odd.)

Thank you so much for your encouraging words both on the boards and in private emails or notes when I said I was leaving the boards. It's just time. I have been using FIAR and it's boards since 2002 (I think.) and have come to care deeply about the people I have met there. A few close real life friendships have resulted from my time there and I feel so blessed by that. And some of you have become very good email friends as well. I'm glad to know that I can still communicate with you outside of the forums.

A few things led to me deciding to post my "good bye." The first is obviously that we will be using My Father's World as our core curriculum beginning in a month. And I know Steve and Jane did not establish the FIAR boards for people who use other curricula. Those boards are about so much more than homeschool curriculum so it's hard to leave, but I think it would be wrong to stay. True...I might use Before FIAR with Betsie here and there, but that will not be the main focus of our homeschool so I feel I need to step back. However, I will be watching to see which Fold-and-Learns are released for Before and I hope to use a few of them with my tiny little student.

Even though I might use Before FIAR sometimes, I still chose to leave because those forums are such a draw for me and I want to be online less when we start our new school year in a month. David Hazell of My Father's World suggests that your children receive your undivided attention in the mornings. I know if I did that, we would accomplish a whole lot more. So I want to stay off the computer on school days at least until after lunch. Posting a goodbye thread was a way to make myself stay off those forums in order to accomplish more at home.

Jason and I attended a Family Life Weekend to Remember conference last weekend. And I really just feel the need to give more of my time to my husband and our girls. I'll still be online, but I need to be online less.

Thank you again for your sweet words. You are a blessing to me and I have learned so much from you. I will forever be grateful for your kindnesses to me when we were adopting. You prayed and rejoiced and even helped me decide what to name her! I remember logging in to FIAR from our hotel room in Changsha (see how strong that draw is!) and seeing a post titled "Jen has Betsie!" with lots of happy tears and hopping icons and so many rejoicing over our special gift. You have no idea what that meant to me. And then when I got sick with mono just weeks after coming home, I received get well cards in my mailbox and even some muffins and fruit on my doorstep from one of those real life buddies. You gals are amazing. And those are just a few samples of how you have blessed me.

So be sure to check in here and be sure that I will be checking your blogs too. I don't want to lose YOU. I just need to be off the forums.

Praying you all have a great summer full of sweet memories with your families.
Love,
Jen