School... for all of us!

Thank you all so much for all of your prayers! We have definitely seen the hand of the Lord over the past two weeks. We are slowly adjusting to our new life here in Spain. The Lord opened many doors for us last week, so we were able to start the kids in school this last Tuesday!

We arrived at our apartment in Caceres late Wednesday night, and spent Thursday morning getting settled (although we didn’t get too far!) Thursday afternoon, we took all the kids across the street to visit the school that is right here. It’s so close that we can see the front gate from our flat!

It turns out that our landlord used to teach at that school, so when he found out we were going to look at it for the kids, he told us he would give them a call for us. He really paved the way for us to get into the school… well, WE know that the Lord used him in that way. I don’t think we even realized it when it was happening!

When we arrived at the school, they knew who we were and we were able to go right in and talk with the director. They were so welcoming and kind, and the secretary spoke a tiny little bit of English!! When the Landlord called, he didn’t know the ages of our kids, so they said that they needed to check to see if they had the space for all the kids. It would depend on the age of the child.

The school is newly renovated, and they don’t do “districts” here like they do in the U.S. People sign up for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices of schools for their kids, and then they go by which schools fill up. I guess, b/c this school was newly renovated; it was a top choice for many parents. There were no issues with Jonathan and Nathan’s classes, but Weston’s class only had one spot open in the entire school. How “God” was that!? They gave us all our paperwork to fill out and all the materials the kids would need. The only draw-back was that, b/c we were starting in the middle of the school year, all the teachers that usually give individual help for those kids who need it, already had all their schedules filled up. In Spain, they don’t like to hold children back a grade. If a child is behind, or if they need special help in any way, they work with them on an individual basis. Our kids qualify for that help b/c of the language issue… but we were also thinking that Nathan would need some added help, as well. They explained that it might be a while before they could do individual help with the kids.

Before we left, the secretary asked me if I would be willing to help out with their English classes for an hour or so a week. I was thrilled, and told her I’d love to! I didn’t realize at the time how rare that offer is! Wes and I both really liked this school from the moment we walked in. It is spotless, and it is also “accessible” (it has a ramp and an elevator), which is also not normal, we found.

So, that was our very first day looking at schools. Even though we were very happy with that school, our teammate here who was helping us wanted to make sure we had looked at all our options before we decided. So, the next day, we started out for the private Catholic school down the street. I’m sure many of you have been through the ordeal of choosing schools for your kids, and it can be overwhelming! I had been fervently asking the Lord to open and close doors, so that we would clearly know the exact place HE wanted our kids. (I mean, we have been praying for a year now, in preparation for this!... we knew He had the perfect place for them already chosen! ☺ ) There are many, many details I could tell you about walking all over the city, looking at these different schools… but, for the sake of time, I’m just going to tell you that the Lord closed every single door. By the end of the day, it was clear He wanted us at Practicas… the school across the street.

Amazingly, before the workday was over (which is 2pm here in Spain!), we had gone to the city hall and done all the registration we needed to officially enroll the kids. We had caught their specialist just in time to do an evaluation of Nathan (b/c of his Cerebral Palsy). They told us that according to their testing, Nathan didn’t need any extra one-on-one help (other than the fact that he doesn’t know the language.) According to their testing, he is right on track with all the other kids his age. The last thing that fell into place was getting the consent of the principal at Practicas. They couldn’t reach him at the school, but one of the ladies knew him, so she called him on his cell phone and got his verbal consent to go ahead and enroll the boys. It was quite an exciting day! We could definitely see the Lord at work!

So, the boys started school the next Tuesday. It was a little rough. They had us all come in half an hour after all the kid had already arrived. They didn’t want the boys to have to filter through the craziness of “drop off” time in the morning. The halls were quiet when we walked in, and we were able to take each boy to his classroom and meet his teacher. Not one of the teachers spoke any English, so it was interesting. The secretary that we had spoken with before was out for the week at a funeral, so we couldn’t even communicate with the director really. We did a lot of hand motions and kindergarten words, and it went fairly smoothly.

Neither Weston nor Nathan cried, but Jonathan had a really hard time. We figured it would be that way, since Jonathan tends to be my homebody. All in all, their first day went well! Weston had a girl in his class from England, so he had someone who could translate for him… but she’s a “girl”, so he said he didn’t ask her anything. ;)

During all this time, we also found and interviewed a girl to watch Carolina while Wes and I were at school. We went through a few options, but Kristiina is a perfect fit! We have also been praying for Kristiina for a year now! God has been SO good, and I thank all of YOU who also prayed for all these things! He sure has answered in amazing ways! Kristiina is from Finland, but she grew up here as a Missionary Kid! She speaks a little bit of English, so that’s a huge plus… and it’s hard to find. She has just finished her schooling to become a nurse, and she is in the process of getting a job. So, in the mean time, we are blessed to have her watching Carolina. Carolina loves her (although she still cries every time we leave.) She walks around saying “Ina! Ina!” when Kristiina is not here. ☺ It’s awfully cute.

After we drop the boys off, Wes and I head off to class for ourselves. It’s about a 10-15 minute walk for us (we walk everywhere here). It’s beautiful… the school is located in “old town.” As soon as I can, I’ll post pics from our walk. There are castles and cobblestone… it’s quite enchanting! It is just Wes and I in our class, and our teacher is young and lots of fun. She has a great sense of humor; so between her and Wes, we laugh a lot in class.

I need to go and hang up laundry (the never ending task!), but I wanted to give you at least a brief update! ☺ Thank you all for your prayers. Please continue to pray for the boys as they adjust. I’ll write again soon. I still have so much “reality” to share. Lol. We miss you all!