I grew up as a homeschooler in Manassas, Virginia. It was in the 1990s, and I didn’t think twice about it. I would hear Dad talk about speaking on homeschool-related topics at City Council meetings. And there was a time or two that Dad went to Richmond. I think. But it wasn’t until I was a little older that I realized that homeschooling wasn’t exactly the most popular thing back then.

And it wasn’t until last week that I realized just how much was going on in Virginia on the political front with homeschooling while I was growing up!

I was sitting in a chair right at the very front of the auditorium with my telephoto lens, waiting for the next speaker to come up. I was photographing the Home Educator’s Association of Virginia (HEAV) Convention for the 8th time. Instead of someone coming to the stage, however, a video started to play on the big screen. A hush came over the crowd. I sat spell-bound as the following video started to play:

Wow! I got to grow up on the cutting edge of the homeschool movement?! I had known homeschooling was just getting stated back then, but to hear exact dates, specific numbers, and various particulars of how things unfolded, it was inspiring!

I raised my camera to photograph the next speaker who had stepped up to the podium. Not only did I have a renewed purpose for covering this event, but I now had a whole new appreciation for my parents, the leaders on stage in front of me, and the whole host of committed fathers and mothers of the past who fought to make homeschooling possible for me and my little family in the future. Thank you, Lord!

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” II Chronicles 7:13

“We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.” Psalm 44:1