“Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!” 1 Chronicles 16:8 (ESV)

As we prepare for Thanksgiving this week, we hope that you will take the time to pause and reflect on all that the Lord has done for you and your family this year. As an organization, we’ve done the same here, compiling this list of what Team CHEA is thankful for this year. Join us by sharing what you can thank the Lord for in the comments below.

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I’m thankful for the Lord’s mercy on our country. I’m thankful for the freedom to homeschool in California. I’m thankful for nature walks and big trees for my kids to climb. 🙂 I’m thankful for my husband who works so hard so that I can stay home to educate the kids.
Katie Kennedy, Events Assistant & Advertising/Affiliates Agent

I am thankful for the information CHEA has shared through its website, and for CHEA’s partnerships with Family Protection Ministries and the Home School Legal Defense Association to keep homeschooling a freedom that we are blessed with in California.
Theresa Chavez, Regional Advisory Board: Inland Empire

I am a great-grandmother now, and I am very thankful for my two homeschooled sons. I love to hear them speak of the Lord. I love their children, my grandchildren, who have continued to homeschool. They speak of the Lord as well. They have been saved and baptized. How happy that makes me. I thank you, Jesus, for such a wonderful time in my life.
Pam Geib, Prayer Team

This year has been an unexpectedly challenging one for me. Yet, I am grateful for these trials (I know, crazy, right?). But if you consider what Paul writes to the Romans in the beginning of chapter 5, “suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope,” it’s a little easier to understand. I’m thankful for suffering because these circumstances have allowed me to grow in my relationship with Christ as I seek to become more like Him in my character. I have had to learn to rely on Him and trust Him in new ways. Already, I am beginning to see the sweet fruit that is coming as a result of these trials. I couldn’t be more grateful for the hope I have in the midst of the storms, only through Christ.
Katie Julius, Communications Manager

CHEA has been so helpful in supplying me with all the training I needed for my homeschool journey, even though one of my kids has special needs! I’m thankful I can have the confidence I’m teaching my children with methods and techniques that are perfect for their learning styles and needs.
Sandy Armstrong, Convention Team: Homeschool Help Booth

I’m thankful that God keeps showing me ways He’s still there and cares and is supporting us, even when things are hard and seem to not be working out at all. He even sometimes blesses us with a glimpse of His larger plan.
Dena Bless, Events Manager & Regional Advisory Board: Bay Area/NorCal

As a veteran homeschooler who educated, discipled, and graduated four students, I am truly thankful for CHEA, HSLDA, and Family Protection Ministries, who supported my freedom to do so. I continue to pray for the Lord’s protection of these organizations and our freedoms to educate and disciple our children at home for generations to come. Thank you, CHEA. I couldn’t have done it without you! In addition, I’m thankful to the Lord for His provision of curriculum ideas, biblical encouragement, and the gift of encouraging new homeschoolers each year by assisting CHEA at the Annual Convention in the CHEA bookstore for many years now. There has never been a year of attending or serving where I was not personally blessed! I am also thankful to have supported those organizations financially.
Tracy Wilhite, Convention Team: Bookstore

I am thankful for my salvation, the assurance of heaven, and the close relationships I have with my husband and grown sons, deepened by our years of homeschooling.
Angela Lasch, Executive Director

I am so thankful for our CHEA Support Group in Santa Barbara. In the past month, we have suffered devastating losses. One family was faced with the death of their precious two-year-old son, and two of our moms have suddenly lost their active mothers. Our group has come alongside these grieving families and provided incredible love and care in so many ways. What a blessing it is to homeschool through the ups and downs in life with our brothers and sisters in Christ!
Fern Sikich, Regional Advisory Board: South Central Coast

I’ve been thinking a lot, and there are many, many blessings I’m so grateful for. One thing that stands out to me this year is the gift of TIME! I’m thankful for the time with my son and husband that homeschool allows. Our only son is six-years-old, going-on-seven, and it has gone by quickly. I appreciate the way we can slow it down to make the best of our days together. For example, recently we went to the U.S.S. Iowa Museum on my husband’s day off. He has taken on the responsibility of teaching history to our son since last year. My husband is a history buff and is doing a great job of teaching in a fun and interesting way. Our son is catching his dad’s passion for history, too. I am grateful for field trips like these when we slow down and put away our textbooks for the day! 
Melisa Stark, Special Education Consultant

I am thankful for a new, top-notch executive director.
Edward Kocsis, Convention Team: Logistics

At the forefront of my thankful list this year is our brand-new heater which was wonderfully installed right as the weather turned colder. I’m also thankful for the close family relationships which homeschooling helped to foster. But even more importantly, I’m thankful for a church which teaches the Bible even when popular culture is opposed to it, and for the love of God and Jesus which provides a means for my salvation in spite of my own unworthiness.
Penny Ross, Social Media Team & Convention Team

I’m thankful that I can be a part of the CHEA community for accurate answers to private home education.
Cecily McCoy, Convention Team: Hospitality & Leadership

As Treasurer for CHEA of California, I’m very thankful for all those who financially donate to our organization. While the very large gifts are an abundant blessing and we couldn’t survive without those generous gifts, I’m also very grateful for those who faithfully give what they can every month. Whether it’s $10, $20 or $50, those little gifts add up and help us meet our budgeted goals. CHEA is dependent on the monetary support we receive from current homeschoolers and from those who have already finished their homeschool journey, and we appreciate their vital part in helping us accomplish our mission to promote, protect, and provide support for private home education here in California.
Charity Silvers, Treasurer, Board of Directors

I am so very thankful for God’s mercy and His great love for His children. His love is so high and wide and deep that we cannot understand it, and yet, He is always near us, even when our hearts wander from Him. I am also very grateful for the amazing private school law that allows families in our great state to homeschool with freedom and in a manner that honors the Lord, as we disciple our children in the knowledge of their loving Heavenly Father.
Cathie Burglund, Exhibits Coordinator

I am thankful that the Lord is always providing for my family. He has provided me with amazing godly in-laws who always point me right back to Him and love me so much. He has provided me with a hard-working husband; he has worked two full-time jobs for the last 20 years. He has a heart to do whatever he can to care for us. I don’t have sisters, but He has provided a handful of amazing & godly sisters who have been great examples of a woman who loves and fears the Lord, which has been a great example to me and for my relationship with the Lord! God always provides and for that, I am so very thankful!
Monica Ybarra, Administrative Assistant

I’m thankful that our two girls, during their education from ages 6 through 18, had the most meaningful God-given teaching resources, Christian study friends, and a desire to learn and be supported by the most adequate and caring teachers, their mom and dad. Our children considered and were part of the decision process in choosing curriculum and teaching resources from Christian Home Educators Association (CHEA). Wow, what an incredibly excellent way to teach children!
Ed Bless, Regional Advisory Board: Bay Area/NorCal

I can never let an opportunity to thank the Lord pass me by. This year, through job losses, ministry challenges, and scary risk-taking, God has provided everything we need, and has proven Himself faithful yet again! I’m living in a place of faith that I never would have survived a few years ago. And I have to say that even though I don’t see it, He’s working, and I thank Him in advance for everything that He is orchestrating in our lives for our good and His ultimate glory.
Natalie Orzame, Communications Assistant