A personal update

It’s hard to believe that it has been nearly two months since we’ve returned.  It has been great reconnecting with friends, settling into life here and getting back into a routine.  Therefore, since we have had so much change and transition from life earlier in the summer I wanted to give a bit more of a personal update this week.

Since we have moved into our home we have managed to discipline ourselves to push through home projects as quickly as possible.  Of the 7 different places we have lived since being married I think this home may be the one we have settled into the quickest.  When we first rented it Scott went straight to work getting permission to move in.  Every foreigner here has to register with the local security so that they can approve our location so as to aid in keeping an eye out for us.  However, this process can sometimes take awhile.  Scott managed to get it done in one day (for more details on that particular adventure check out Scott’s previous blog entry here).  He also got right to work on the house with painting, fixing electrical and water issues as well as getting our personal belongings out of storage and into our new home.  At this point progress slowed down a bit because all of our stuff was chewed up by rodents and covered in excrement.  I know, it sounds gross and sort of overwhelming, but we had sort of suspected that this outcome might be possible.  There are no good options for safe storage here so we took a chance in order to learn that no one should, in fact, ever store their belongings in a garage ever again!  We feel like we sort of took one for the team so that that lesson could be learned!  Anyhow, amazingly, the only things we actually lost were our mattresses.  We had thought we might need to replace more things, but praise God, after some major cleaning and elbow grease we were finally getting things put together and into place in our new home.  We were able to move in about two weeks after arriving in country.

what many pieces of furniture looked like from the dust and rodents

they ate our furniture!

my favorite room in the house!!!

 The kids have all done great settling back in here.  We were blessed to have friends come around us and help with everything from cleaning to moving to childcare those early weeks of being here.  Getting over jet lag was a little rough this time due to having an 11-month old as part of our family, but after getting through it the kids were great and back at having good attitudes and having fun.  This last week both Ethan and Zeke started school.  Ethan is attending a preschool at a homeschool coop that was started here just over two years ago.  Zeke went there for preschool as well.  We are realizing that Ethan has always piggy-backed off of Zeke’s friendships, so this new environment is challenging him to come into his own and make his own friends.  It’s been fun to hear him describe his school day.  His favorite parts are recess and the songs they sing.  A couple days ago he came home with a toothbrush that he had gotten after learning a song about brushing your teeth.  He proceeded to carry that toothbrush around with him for the rest of the day, including taking it to bed with him for his nap! Eliza goes with Ethan two days a week for a program called “moms day out.”  It is an awesome blessing for all of us as I get a kid-free chance to get things done and Eliza gets to play with other kids.  She continues to be a very laid-back kid who laughs easily and is very curious about the things around her.  Just today she made one tiny attempt at walking by taking two little steps towards me.  If any of her other milestones are evidence of her progression it won’t be long now before she will have mastered walking!  Zeke started at a local kindergarten where he is entirely immersed in the local language.  He was pretty nervous to start, but we had prepared him all year for this so he had accepted that it would be different and was ready to walk into this new experience.  We have been so proud of how brave he has been.  The director has given us a little update each day and says that each time he has come he is mixing more and more with the other kids.  They serve lunch there and he came home one day telling us that he had a plate of rice that was “as high as the ceiling!”  Good thing he likes rice!  We have been giving him small phrases to test out and motivating him with small rewards to step out of his comfort zone and interact with the kids in the local language instead of either avoiding them or just talking in English.  So far that is working well for him and we are so relieved with how well it is going.

our happy little girl

the first day of school

the boys making their own adventure

We are also into week two of classes at our center.  Scott is really enjoying being back with students and teaching again.  I got to pinch hit for a class last night and was reminded of how much I enjoy teaching as well.  Tomorrow is our second “coffee shop” night where students can come and practice what they have been learning.  It’s a fun night to get to know our students better and for our kids to be greatly loved on!

So thanks for sticking with this extra long update!  We are excited about how things have been going and have much to continue to look forward to.  Thanks for walking this journey with us.  You are all a part of us and a part of what happens here.  As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:4 “I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.”