My name is Noel Molnar and I am a spouse of a retired combat veteran, homeschool mom of 5 years to 2 impressive and talented kiddos, and an on-call hospice nurse practitioner. With 20 years of service behind him, my husband works at a nonprofit auto mechanic shop that provides services for people that cannot afford traditional car maintenance and teaches car repairs to older homeschool kids as well as adults. After years of moving from base to base and state to state, we settled in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. We never saw ourselves as a homeschool family until we went from an amazing private school in South GA to a private school in the dust bowl of NM that was not a great fit. My neighbor was homeschooling and held my hand as I turned in my intent to homeschool for the first time. I was working full time and it was the most difficult decision that we made – most people I knew thought I was crazy. From terrifying to glorifying, this decision has become part of my testimony. We continue to homeschool because we love the flexibility and the ability to incorporate our values in our kids in the subjects we teach. Our children are thriving in the homeschool community and are provided opportunities that will help them become strong well rounded people. In the evenings, we are either at music lessons with the Suzuki School of Music or working on badgework through American Heritage Girls and Trail Life USA, both of which are primarily filled with other homeschool families. My husband and I both lead units with the troops so it really has become a family thing. Starting over in a new homeschool community frequently has its challenges. That is why I decided to serve the military homeschool community in the Black Hills. We have an active duty base, 2 guard bases, and 2 large VA centers that we serve. In partnership with the school liaison office, we have been able to host 2 local homeschool conferences, restart homeschool arts and crafts, advocate for open gym time at the base youth center, and host socials and parties for homeschool kids on base. The past year, I’ve been able to create a free curriculum library which will roll out this fall for families that may not be able to afford curriculum or only see themselves homeschooling in the short term. I also work closely with 2 state organizations advocating for the military community while sharing state resources with our members. When I am not wearing all my various hats, I am probably taking care of my new chickens, hiking, or working on the house. We just bought our forever home and as weird as it is after so many years of temporary houses, it is exciting to get to make it our own.