Love, The Duffeys

Greetings Dear Friend: We started our third official homeschooling year last Monday.  We welcomed a kindergartener and a second grader to the Duffey Schoolhouse this year.  Our home offers an education in life, not just academics.  Before our kids were born, God led Justin and I to cross paths with a homeschooling family that we just fell in love with.  Two sweet little girls captured our hearts, exuding the fruits of the spirit at such a young age.  I remember telling their mom after Barrett was about a year old that I couldn't teach my son.  I wasn't qualified.  She encouraged me that surely I could.  I had been teaching him all along...to eat, to walk, to pray, to be gentle.  In that instant, the seed was planted.  All these years later, I can't imagine spending my days any other way. Through the first few years of parenting, I did a lot of soul searching.  What did I want my kids' childhood to look like?  What did I want pa...

Greetings Dear Friend: On August 9th, 2003, Justin and I vowed in front of God to join each other in marriage, working together through all the trials and triumphs of life until death parts us.  It feels as though twenty years has passed so quickly, but at the same time, truly understanding the vows we made has been a slow process.  We have learned so much about each other, truly building a life together.  Over the years, we have faced quite a few bumps in the road, but I can tell you the times that we turned toward each other instead of away only made our relationship stronger. We often hear the phrase "tie the knot" in reference to marriage, which comes from a medieval tradition of using rope, cord, cloth, etc. to bind hands together during a wedding ceremony. This reminds me of a passage in the Old Testament, which discusses the importance of companionship.   (Look up Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).   It reminds us that two are better than one because we have the ...

In the early morning hours of Friday, July 28th, I called 911. Justin suffered a seizure for the first time ever while we were sleeping.  We went to the ER later that morning to address some extreme pain in his right arm and this unexplained seizure.  As we suspected, they confirmed that he had dislocated his shoulder as a result of the seizure.  As you can imagine, a myriad of x-rays, labs, and scans were administered, as well as a closed reduction to re-align his shoulder.  Hours passed.  More scans were done because the initial brain scans showed "something", which caused us major pause, as one might expect. By suppertime, he was admitted for observation, and a room full of friends and family had come to wait with us.  After spending a whole agonizing day in the hospital, our neurosurgeon arrived to deliver the news that no one is ready to receive, that had only been hinted at all throughout the day.  We were informed that there is a concerning, slo...