My Story

I launched my first homeschool program in the fall of 2022. It was a beautiful program called Ranch School, where children spent their entire day outside at the ranch that I co-founded, learning about the natural world around them and building relationships with their peers and teachers. After the pilot ended successfully, we were slated to launch our first term in the spring of 2023 and we had a full roster and a team ready to go. But then, I felt God calling me elsewhere. 

It was one of those moments in your life where your head and your heart just don't align. Logically, it made sense to stay where I was, continue on with Ranch School and continue working for the Ranch. But, over the holiday break I had been offered another opportunity, one at another hybrid program, where my children had already been attending and I had already been doing the Marketing.  I had originally planned on doing both, but when that was not an option, I was forced to make a choice between the program I co-owned and a program where I would only be a Director. I struggled, because I knew that the new program was where God was calling me, I knew it in my bones.

 But, the human part of me was still tied to the ranch, those people and that program. While it didn't make "wordly sense" for me to give up a program of my own, to invest myself into the success of another, I knew in my heart I was being called there for a reason. 

So, I made my decision, and we cancelled the spring term of Ranch School and I left the ranch, a place that had been a huge part of my life for the past four years. It was hard, and bittersweet but I turned my attentions forward to the task at hand. 

Fast forward one month, and the new program ended up closing. I helped land that plane as smooth as possible, ensuring all parties were served to the best of my ability, and while I could feel God using me in the weeks leading up to and following the close, I was asking Him daily, what was going on in my own personal life. Why did I need to leave everything I held dear to go there if it was all going to crumble within a month? What was all of that heartache even for? 

While I received no answer, I took some time to focus on my family and heal from the loss of so much in such a short period of time, unsure of what my future would hold.  Then one day, I could not get the word "character" off of my heart. I wasn't sure why until I opened up my Bible for the day and the scripture that was in my face was Romans 5:3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

My spirit was stirred in that moment and the dream for Character School was born. I still yearned for a community for my homeschooling family. I wanted a space for my kids to develop positive friendships, to be exposed to and celebrate any differences among them, to glean wisdom and love from other adults who weren't related to them, and to see peers and mentors living out a God-centered,  intentional life. 

That is what we have created at Integrity.

About a year after launching, I began to feel a stirring to go back to my roots of ranch life and horses and have now successfully launched our Farm School offering as of Fall 2024!