Painful Evolutions Required: Wayne’s Story

“As long as the school’s current administrative figureheads remain in power and remain committed to inflexibility, genuine reform will likely be stonewalled.”

Forgiveness and Power

“Over the course of my life I have been instructed to forgive so many times. Ironically, the people who were telling me to forgive were also the people who spent a good deal of time telling me that in reality there was nothing to forgive, or that no wrong doing had occurred.”

Homeschooling, A Means to an End: R’s Story

“Homeschooling is just a tool, a method of instruction, a means to an end. All the positive homeschooling stories combine with the negative stories to show that. Like any tool, homeschooling can be misused and abused. It is important to remember this as we chronicle the stories of our youth: that responsibility does not lie with the method of instruction but with the instructors themselves, whether they be our parents or those our parents look to for guidance.”

To My Past — I Wouldn’t Be Who I Am Today Without You

“However critical I am of those in my past who attempted to control my life, I must also always be grateful to them. They gave me early experiences which formed my current worldview. They gave me tools with which I was able to break out of the prisons they constructed around me and then build my own life, a life which looks nothing like they want it to but a life which I inhabit very happily.”

Relationships, A Series: Part Eleven — Conclusion, Don’t Brush Off the Next Generation

“I have a unique perspective. I just went through the child’s side of a relationship, I have been on the other side of parenting. And I expect to be taken seriously because I know that my perspective is not any less important than the parents. Frankly, I think getting a child’s perspective and not just the parents is important in getting the full picture.”

Relationships, A Series: Part Ten — I Am A Phoenix

“I say ‘bring it on!’ to anything that’s coming in our future. If we were able to get through what we did, then there is no reason why we won’t make it through anything else that might be coming. Going through those three years of trial after trial only taught me more about being resilient. The past four and a half years have proved to me that I can make it. The past six months have taught me that I am strong.”

Relationships, A Series: Part Nine — We Made It

“We made it to the end. We were getting married. Despite the people who didn’t believe us, despite the heartache, the tears, the hurt, we had made it. Three words that are such a relief to write: We made it. “

Relationships, A Series: Part Eight — The Means To An End

“All the way up to our wedding, my dad still would not acknowledge that we were engaged. The days after that fatal Saturday were quite fraught with chaotic pressure from pastors, parents, and even some friends to break off our engagement. But somehow, we made it, and continued to say that we wouldn’t break off the engagement because that was something that was strictly between us.”

Relationships, A Series: Part Seven — The Five-Year Relationship Plan

“I want to explain a little bit about why this is so difficult for me to write, but also why I need to write our story. From that first devastating break in Phil’s and my friendship, I began losing a lot of friends, I faced opposition at home and from other parents, people I barely knew, and those who I thought were friends…I was being accused of lust, idolatry, bitterness by my parents, I was called rebellious, disobedient, dishonoring of my parents by others around me.”

Relationships, A Series: Part Six — The Storm Starts Brewing

“It is really sad to read just how brainwashed I still was during this. A lot of my honest reactions weren’t until later, much, much later after the original incident. I still believed that my dad was going to do right in this relationship, I still believed that fathers were supposed to rule over their children’s relationships, and that it was my job to trust my dad and sit back and be a good girl.”