Last Friday night Chloe hosted her first ever friends sleepover with her D-group (which is her discussion group in youth group). There are 7 girls total in the group, and 4 were able to come. Not a huge turnout, but it’s hard to arrange 7 girls schedules! They had fun staying up most of the night and eating junk food and talking and doing all the fun teenage girl things.

It’s so much fun to see Chloe blossoming in social situations. Last year was very dark and hard and she didn’t have any of these experiences. I am so thankful for the youth group she is a part of and the community of girls that she has around her. Oh, and her leaders! I’m super thankful for them too.

She’s been able to go on 2 retreats this year–Fall retreat for 5 days and then Winter retreat for 3 days. It’s so amazing to hear all about how she’s growing and becoming more sure of herself after each trip. Her D-group leader was able to go along on both trips and I really like her–we’ve had a few nice LONG conversations about some heavy topics and I am thankful to have her in Chloe’s life.

She’s also really enjoying being homeschooled this year. We pulled her out of public school in October and we are very pleased with our decision. She’s doing phenomenally better mentally–which was a big hurdle. Plus my fear of her missing out on being social (since she wouldn’t be seeing kids her age every day) is gone. She has more friends now than she’s ever had.

I am so thankful for the people God put into my life at the right time to help me through navigating moving to homeschool. It seemed so daunting but now that I’m here, it’s really not as hard as I thought it would be.

Here is a picture I snapped on our first day of BSF together. She’s in the school aged program (she was able to join right after Christmas).