We're Owen and Stephanie Fuller. We started homeschooling out of necessity in 2010. We were apprehensive, and unsure whether we could do it. However, we were getting ready to move to The Democratic Republic of the Congo with Mission Aviation Fellowship with four kids for almost two years right about the time our oldest was starting Kindergarten. There was no expat school, our kids didn't speak French or Swahili, and there was no missionary teacher on staff. Aside from homeschooling, the only other option would have been to ship our kids off to boarding school. Uh, no!
Faced with no other options, Stephanie began reading books, researching curriculum options, writing (and rewriting) lists, and figuring out what we needed to do. We ordered supplies. Then you know what happened next? We homeschooled! (Shocker, right?) It actually wasn't as hard as anticipated. It turned out, not only could we do homeschooling, we actually liked homeschooling! It was a great fit for our family, and something we couldn't see changing. After 21 months in Africa, we returned to Iowa, and continued homeschooling. As of fall 2020, we are homeschooling all five of our kids. One is a freshman in high school, two are in middle school, one is in the middle of elementary school, and one is starting kindergarten.
Living in Africa also forced us to be more independent people. While we lived in western-style housing, it certainly wasn't western standard, lacking many of the amenities most Americans would consider essential. The city power and water where we lived never worked (and that's a literal never!). We filtered rain water to drink..when it rained. Sometimes we had to have water brought to us. At least one time it was transported in 55-gallon drum that still had aviation gas in it. We really put our Berkey water filter to the test that day! We used solar and generator power. Recipes we used to make in the States had to be re-worked to accommodate available ingredients, and we had to re-define what “fresh” meat meant. On top of all that, the region was sometimes prone to unrest. We even evacuated our family to Uganda for awhile after rioting broke out against the UN, and things turned anti-foreigner.
When we returned home to the US, we were certainly glad for the stability, security, and convenience. Still, we missed some of the independent lifestyle we had been forced to adopt. We wanted some of that back. Awhile later, we moved to an acreage outside of the Des Moines metro area. Over the last few years we've dabbled in poultry, gardening, and a few other projects. Nothing too crazy though. Then in 2020, we decided to kick it up a notch. Maybe it was the extra time at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, or the rising food prices and financial impact that the government response to it that rekindled those desires. In any case, we decided that it was time to get serious about our homesteading goals again.
Maybe you also have dreams of being more independent, too. That's why we started this podcast. We hope you can learn from our experiences, mistakes, and stories and that they'll be helpful to you. Thanks for joining us as we're Living Life Fuller!
Owen and Stephanie
