Homeschooling and Adoption (aka 5 a.m. rant)

I've been reading some journals (blogs) online of families who've adopted several children. Apart from the love that I see, I also see so much hardship and anger between children and parents. I also sense regret. I want to portray something else as an adoptive family and I hope I do that in my own life. I have to wonder, all of these families have their children in public school... how can an adopted older child, who has been exposed to pornography, domestic violence, sex at an early EARLY age and various other traumas... be expected to handle the issues thrown at them in a public school setting? Where is the opportunity for purity, and bonding? For a relationship with Christ (which is a laughing matter in schools these days) and family? How are they supposed to have any self-esteem at all when they are raised in a self-deprecating environment? I just don't understand how a child can survive that, and come out on top.

I think my adopted children are on the "easy* end of the waiting child spectrum. They are sweet, compliant (for the most part) and fun to be around. I wonder often... is that because they are truly *easy* or is it the reality of being homeschooled? Of having your self-esteem come from people who love and support you on an hourly basis? Keeping the children home all day often sounds like a nightmare to those who don't understand it. For me though, keeping my children home all day means I know what they are up to. How they are learning. How they are coping and what their needs might be. What people are saying to them, and finding ways of improving the way they feel about themselves. I know that what goes in is always what comes out... so which is the best for these children? An environment that requires you look a certain way, act like all the others, submit to authority that doesn't always garner respect, and is filled with lust (music/ TV), violence (school "bullies"), sex (between students), failure (graded learning)? Or a loving home that provides opportunities to excell in all areas, relationships with people young AND old, experiences outside in the "real world", safety, individualism, friendship within the family unit, different genres of lovely music, and a teacher who adores you and is available to you when you just need to talk?

I just wouldn't have it any other way.