I, Allison, came to know Jesus at the age of 22. God, in His kindness, removed a relationship from my life that was not serving me (or Him), and in the midst of this relational crisis, Jesus met me and His promise to never leave was what I clung onto for dear life. Over the course of the next year, God placed incredible, Spirit-led believers in my path who helped me learn to live a life of complete submission to the Father. I have never looked back. Dan, on the other hand, grew up in the Catholic church. Faith has been a part of his story since the beginning. He often says that there has never been a time that he can remember not knowing God. (What a legacy!) In High School, he started attending a Christian youth group and began to make his faith and walk with Jesus his own. We met each other at a church bible study and have been married for almost 16 years. :)

Our primary reason for seeking admission is a Christ-centered education and community with the opportunity to still be a part of our children's education on a daily/weekly basis - does it get any better than that?! As our daughter approaches the high school years, it is becoming more critical for her whole-self development to be discipled and shepherded by other believers without compromising her desire to be homeschooled.

Faith is central to the ebbs and flow of our home and routine. From reading the bible/devotionals as a family over breakfast (with mom) and dinner (with dad), the music that we choose to listen to, and the daily conversations we have about following/obeying/honoring Jesus in our words, choices, finances, use of time...the list goes on and on. Our children have always seen both parents attending, worshiping, serving (working for for 7 years) and giving to our local church. They don't know a life other than one that has been centered around Jesus.

Our hopes for Sophia are that she comes to know the Lord more and more as she studies, reads, applies herself to her school work. We want to give her opportunities to be discipled by other believers. We never want to be the only voices in her life - simply one of the most consistent and safe. She is a diligent student and hard worker. This year we have strengthened the muscle of independence and ownership of her work. My hope is that this will be something she always continues to work towards and finds great joy in learning/trying new things. Socially, Sophia is a very loyal friend. She told me that she hopes she doesn't have to keep making a whole new group of friends each year. Attending Saints feels like a deposit in that social bank that adds a layer of some security to the constant turn-over she has experienced the past two years (explained below in the next question). Making the decision to attend for 8th grade is with the intention that this is a deposit in her 9th-12th grade friendships too.

Homeschool was never a part of our initial plans as a family, but 2020 changed that. I thought I was going to homeschool for one year while the public school system sorted things out, but within the first few weeks I knew God was orchestrating something much more beautiful. We have always lived in the Chicagoland area, but 18 months ago God led us to middle Tennessee. When we arrived we joined a Classical Conversations community. The classical approcah to education was new to me in experience, but not exposure. I can look back and see all the breadcrumbs God was dropping regarding this style of learning all along, some of which I was already implimenting in our learning styles. As a family, we want to form our children to know truth and seek it in all they do. Faith is not an add on, but the foundation in which we build the rest of our knowledge and understanding. We have benefited from the focus on memorization (memory hooks) and have love building on these with reasoning and application. Sophia completed the Foundations/Essentials program with CC for her 6th grade year alongside her two younger siblings. She was the only graduating 6th grader in our community and we enrolled her in a Challenge A community at a different campus for her 7th grade year (current school year). She is in a class with two other students once a week. (Hence the need to make all new friends two school years in a row noted above.) We really want to continue to pursue a classical Christian education, but the CC campus model for the upper grades and the unpredictability of needing to possibly find a new campus every year that has a spot for her is a race none of us want to keep running here. Finding and learning about Saints has feels like it checks all the boxes for our desire to maintain the same educational philosophy and not compromise a faith foundation.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. This is the lens we use when making decisions and parenting our children. Dan and I desire to come alongside our children and coach/lead them to make God-honoring decisions - from their daily interactions with siblings (always a work in progress) to how they use their gifts and talents to serve those around them. We discipline as needed, mostly with natural consequences, but out of love for them knowing God calls them to more.