Carolina's Birthday!

I can't believe my little girl has turned TWO, already!

We celebrated all week... we decided to get Carolina's ears pierced for her birthday.

This is Carolina just before we got them pierced.

This was just afterward.  haha... poor baby.  You can tell by her hair that it was a bit rough.  I couldn't quite prepare her that it was going to hurt.  She did pretty well, though.  The funny thing is... she normally calls my earrings "pretties."  When she got home and Wes asked her about her "pretties" and she said, "no, ouchies."  Wes thought it was hilarious.  For the first couple days after she got them, she called them "ouchies."  How appropriate, right? :)

After we got her ears pierced, we got her hair cut!  This was before...

during... my friend Pepi did it for us!

...after!!  It's her first hair cut!

She is such a little diva.  She couldn't have the candy that Pepi had as a treat (b/c it had dairy in it), so she gave her those little handmade pinwheels... one for her dress and one for her wrist.

This was the actual day of her birthday! 

Paul and Timon came over to celebrate with us... Carolina loves them both!

Wrestling... in her pretty dress... of course!

Carolina's pink cupcakes!

ok, the poor little girl... she stood up and hit her head on the table... and not even during the wrestling!!!:)  It makes for great birthday pictures, don't you think? :)

I really don't think she knew what to think of the candle.  She was enthralled by the fire... I'm just glad she didn't try to touch it.  She finally got the idea of blowing out the candle... with the help of her bothers, of course.

mmmmm.....

Maybe I need to photoshop that bump out!! :)

Now on to the presents!

Carolina's first real "girlie" presents.

Carolina trying to blow up a balloon.

Not that you can see it, but it's her first real baby-doll with eyes that open and close.

She loved it.

"Uncle Paul" with all the kids.

They were so intent on on this game from Uncle Paul. :)

Carolina brought every gift over to show Timon.  It was so cute... I think he must've gotten tired of "oooing" and "ahhhhing." :)  But he was sooo sweet with her.  We had lots of fun celebrating together!!!  We are SO thankful for the JOY that our Carolina Joy brings to our lives every day!

 

Struggles and Strength

I just had to take a moment and share this with ya'll.  In my last post, I shared about the first day of school for the boys.  Everyone did fine... even Nathan wasn't too upset.  BUT, by the second day, he was all worked up again, just like last year when we had so much trouble.  I was so hoping things would be better, b/c he knows his friends in his class, and he knows what to expect in school.  The third day was even worse.

He has started having his anxiety attacks (like last year), and the school actually called me to come pick him up one day.  He had cried all day, and had worked himself up into such a tizzy that they thought he was sick.  He was warm from crying so much, so they thought he had a fever.  He had a stomach ache from the anxiety, so they thought he maybe had a stomach flu.  He had a headache from it all, so ... need I go on?

When I got to the school ( I had to leave my Spanish class...), Nathan and his class were outside for recess.  As soon as I stepped out the door, all three of my boys crowded around me.  Normally all three of them are not outside together, but somehow I picked the moment when they would ALL see me.  One look at Nathan, and I knew he wasn't sick... just "home sick".  One look at Jonathan, and he burst into tears (even though he had been fine in the morning.) And one look at Weston, and I knew something was wrong.

I told Nathan there as another 2 hours of school left, and he started crying and getting all upset again.  When I told Jonathan he still had 2 hours, he got panicky that I was going to leave him.  Weston just nodded and said he knew... but he he told me that one of the boys had been punching him and wouldn't stop.  He was holding his arm, so I looked at it.  It was all red and swollen...  So, I had two little boys clinging to each leg as I tried to ask around for Weston's teacher.  I had asked him if he had told his teacher, but he said he couldn't find her.  So, I just grabbed one of the other teachers and told her.  She said she would take care of it, and Weston seemed to be fine with that.  So, Weston gave me a hug and ran off... but I still had two hysterical little boys to deal with.

I finally decided that 2 hours wasn't worth the anxiety they were going through (not to mention the anxiety that I would go through in order to leave them!), so I told them I'd take them home just this once... but that it would NOT happen again.  Nathan's teacher didn't like the idea (I think she thinks I baby him too much, but I doubt she's ever moved to a new country with a new language and left her child screaming in the arms of another as she walked out the door. :) )  Anyway, I didn't let her make the decision for me.  I didn't ask.  I was already pretty zapped of strength from trying to make myself understood about the Weston situation (it's amazing how draining it is to try to speak another language!)  We got Nathan's back pack but then had to go get Jonathan's.

I didn't realize that Jonathan's teacher was in the classroom.  I had told the other teachers out in the school yard that I was taking him home, and they said they would tell her.  (At least I think that's what they said... :) )  So, when we got to Jonathan's classroom, I was surprised to find her there.   I tried to explain to her what was going on.  I told her that once Jonathan saw me, he became a mess.  Before I could go on and explain anything else, she clicked her tongue, grabbed Jonathan, and tried to close the door on me.  It was so sudden and unexpected that Jonathan started screaming, and I was startled myself.  I had to put my foot in the door and try to explain to her that I had already told him he could come home with me.  Again, I got that look... but, I was so tired from the ordeal that I certainly didn't have the strength to go through the theatrics of leaving them.  I do know that it has to be done.  I do understand where the teachers are coming from; but sometimes, it's just not worth it.  I decided that this moment was one of those times... they could learn to be away from me tomorrow.  I explained to Jonathan's teacher that it was ONLY this time, and that it wouldn't happen again.  She nodded and became very friendly again... I still haven't figured her out.  Maybe it's just the language barrier?... maybe I perplex her?? Maybe she just misunderstands everything I say?  I have no idea.

Anyway, that was the first week of school, and we all had a long talk once we got home.  They both knew that it wasn't going to happen again.  The week finished out in a similar fashion, with Nathan crying and clinging every day.  Jonathan got better each day, though, so that was encouraging!  Throughout the whole weekend, Nathan was absolutely beside himself.  He cried and cried.  I didn't know if I could do it again on Monday.

I was very much a homebody growing up; and anyone who knew me, knew that about me.  I guess part of the reason it's so hard for me when Nathan gets like this is b/c I completely remember how it feels... and I wasn't in a new country and I wasn't learning a new language.  To this day, when I think about it, it brings tears to my eyes.  I completely understand.  My poor baby! :)

But, Monday was coming fast, and I had to figure out something.  So, I did the only thing I knew to do.  I had no power to make Nathan ok.  I had no power to fix things... and he HAD to go to school.  But, I did know Someone who does have the power to help Nathan... and Nathan knows Him, too.  So Sunday, when Nathan was crying, saying he didn't know if he was going to make it through the next day at school, I told him he WAS going to make it.  I had told him this many times over; but this time, I was unusually firm (but out of conviction, not out of frustration or anger.)  It caused him to look up at me.  I reminded him of the verse "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  I asked him what "all things" means.  He said, "everything."  I nodded and reminded him that that included making it through school the next day.

One thing I love about Nathan is that he is a little philosopher.  He is such a thinker, and if it makes sense in his head, he's good.  Obviously, the kid has amazing faith, as well.   He looked at me and said, "Really?"  He knows his God, and he knows that if the Lord says it... that's how it is.  How often do I hear that verse and think, "yeah, yeah, I know... I've heard it before..."  (Well, maybe not intentionally, but sometimes familiar things lose their punch.)  So, I told him that he just needed to ask Jesus to give him strength, and He would.  He asked, "How?"  I told him that if he asked Jesus to help him through the day, he would see how!  I challenged him to try it the next day, so he could find out "how" for himself.  And that was good enough for Nathan.

We worked the whole night on memorizing the verse, with hand motions and all... even Jonathan knew it by the next morning. :)  So, on the way to school, when Nathan started freaking out again, I asked him his verse.  He repeated it through his tears, but said he didn't think he could make it.  I firmly told him he could, b/c he could "... do all things through Christ who strengthens..." him.  It was precious.  The truth of it settled around him, and he became calm again.

I prayed all day that the Lord would make Himself real to my little boy... that Nathan would know that it wasn't just words.  So, when Nathan got home, I asked him about his day.  I'm not sure what I expected, but I was so surprised by Nathan's new conviction.   He told me he cried in the morning, but then he started asking Jesus for strength.   He told me that he forgot the second part of the verse and he couldn't remember what it said.  It upset him, so he prayed and asked Jesus to help him remember it.... and what did the Lord do?  Right then and there, He reminded Nathan of the verse!!!  Nathan was SO thrilled.  It was like a special touch from the Lord to reassure Nathan that he was not alone.  (And to remind ME that He loves Nathan even more than I do!)  So, that was the first day Nathan made it through school without crying the whole day.

Now it's been several days, and Nathan has repeated his verse every day.  As the anxiety has begun to lift, Nathan has begun to settle a bit more, and he has begun to see the fun side of school.  He told me today that he only had to say his verse 2x today.  SOOO sweet!  I just love it.  I completely know that the Lord sees, hears, knows,  and cares.  When I'm dealing with myself, I can know these things and find peace... somehow, when it comes to my children, it's so much harder.  I am amazed at how personal our God is!  My little 6 year old, struggling to be away from his momma in a foreign school, is important enough to our God for Him to take the time to comfort and make this little boy feel secure.  Amazing.

Now, Nathan still struggles with school.  I'm not saying the struggle has gone away; but so far this week, he has learned to walk through the struggle, relying on the Lord.   As hard as things are for Nathan, I'm SO thankful that even at the age of SIX, he is growing in his walk with the Lord.  I pray it's a solid foundation for the years to come!!  Please keep praying for Nathan for school.  Last year, it was your prayers that kept him going.  He would literally ask me every morning if people were praying for him.  It was like it gave him the courage to go on... like he wasn't by himself in all this. 

1st day of School- 2010

The boys have been counting down to the first day of school for a while... Weston, b/c he was excited about school, and Nathan b/c he wad DREADING school.  Isn't it amazing how different each child is??? :)

We spent the week before trying to get all the supplies we needed for the kids. (It takes a long time when you have to translate everything!)  I never really had a child in primary school in the States, so I don't really have anything to compare it to.  But here, it seems like alot!!  We (the parents) supply all the paper towels, tissues, wipes, etc. in addition to all the crayons, markers, construction paper, envelops, cardboard, paint, etc... and much, much more...  Whew!  When you have THREE of them at this age?!?  Wow.  So, we did all that, and we got everything put together the night before.

Carolina wanted to go with the boys SO badly!

We also buy all the books (for each child) at a local book store, and we have to bring those in as well.  So, we had bags and bags of books, PLUS all the school supplies... for THREE kids!  You should have seen us walking to school!  Thank the Lord we only live a block away!

Well, on this particular day, I felt VERY much like a silly foreigner.  As we walked to school, we encountered lots of other families walking to school... but NONE carried bags of books or supplies.  Apparently, we were supposed to have brought everything in the week before when the teachers were preparing the classrooms.  But, of course, that was something that somehow got lost in the "language abyss."  :)


There was nothing we could do but stand there, looking dumb with all our stuff... it might have been different if it were only ONE child, ya know?  But we were ridiculously loaded down with three kids' worth of books and supplies.  haha. :) If I'd had a free hand, I would've taken a picture for y'all... so we could all laugh together... but, of course, both hands were full. :)  Oh, well... we apologized to the teachers and then had to go individually to each class (after hugging the kids and saying goodbye) to drop of "the goods."  It was the normal chaos of the first day, so everything took longer. 

When I got to Jonathan's classroom, his teacher asked me if I had his name on everything. I didn't know that we were supposed to... I just figured it all went into a collective "stash."  But no... and of course I didn't have everything labeled.  How in the world are you supposed to label one (unwrapped) roll of paper towels?  So, she told me to bring it all back the next day, labeled.  I'm thinking, can't you just give me a marker??????  :)  Nathan's teacher did the same thing to Wes, but also insisted he take the books back... she wanted them labeled (which I can understand) and COVERED with contact-like paper.  Weston's teacher was the only one who was pretty gracious to us.  Maybe it's b/c Weston is old enough to put his own name in every book?  I'm not sure. 

This is in the school "yard"... nice concrete, huh? :)  We drop Weston and Nathan off right behind where they are standing.  Jonathan gets dropped off just to the left of where they are standing.

SO... we had to walk back home and drop the stuff back off at the house, and then head on to OUR class.  Needless to say, Wes and I were very late that day.  But, "no pasa nada..." as they would say in here in Spain!   I was dreading walking back to the kids' school the next day... looking like the "dumb American" with arm fulls of bags again. haha!  Oh, well.  It took us a few days, and we finally got everything squared away... although, I still can't find plastic place mats for each of them.  I have no idea where to find these... :) Do y'all bring place mats in for your kids???? :) haha..

The day went well for the boys.  Nathan cried a little on his first day, but it wasn't too bad.  He has a really sweet teacher, who is supposed to be one of the best in the school.  He's also with all the same kids, so that's a blessing!  Jonathan has the same teacher as well as the same class as last year.  Weston absolutely loves it.  Like Jonathan, he also has the same teacher and class.  He is now the tallest (but one of the youngest) in his class, and that's a HUGE deal to a 7 year old boy.  I think it made his day. :)

Vacation in San Sebastian

Well, I'm so behind in writing about our summer.  Things just keep happening, and I can't quite keep up!... haha... that's just life, right?  So... I'm still catching up on events in August.  We were able to take vacation at the end of August (right after Wes passed the written part of his driving test!!!!)

We have some friends (other missionaries with the IMB) up in San Sebastian, which is at the Northern Coast of Spain (really close to France!)  They went Stateside, and offered their apartment so we could go on vacation.  The boys were so excited... we haven't really been on vacation together since we left the States, and they LOVE the beach.  So, we drove 8 hours north and arrived at our friends' home in the early evening.  It was an amazing drive.  We live in a place that is very hot and dry... completely brown, just about everywhere.  As we drove north, it was like we hit a line, and everything was green again!!!  I LOVED the green.  It's strange, but it's one of the things I really miss from home.  It was beautiful.  Just being around "green" makes me sigh with contentment. :)  We also went through many tunnels as we got up North.  We were traveling straight through mountains!  It was amazing!

Wes and I always enjoy seeing other people's homes here in Europe.  The homes here are so different (well, just much smaller) than those in the States, so it's always fun to get great ideas of how to maximize space.  When we walked into our friends' home, it was like walking into an IKEA store. :) haha...  I think just about everything they had was from Ikea!   I, personally, have never (YET) been to an Ikea, but it's huge here in Spain.  We don't have one in Cáceres (obviously), but most of our friends travel to Madrid or Sevilla for the day to specifically shop at an IKEA.  So, it was awesome to see all the different pieces of furniture, dishes, toys, gadgets, etc!  I came home with many new ideas! :)

a bit of a cloudy day...but this was the view from the balcony

This was "early" in the day for Spaniards (around 11am), so it's quiet!

Their home is SO close to the beach there.  It was beautiful! We could see the ocean (kinda far off... but still there!) from our balcony.  It was balmy and warm... it was perfect.  Our friend left a bunch of notes for us, giving us hints and ideas of stuff to do.  She had said that it would take about 15 minutes with kids, to walk to the beach.  We have Nathan and Carolina, so we figured it would take us a bit longer, but we had no idea HOW much longer. :)  The first day, we headed out to the beach (on foot, like good Europeans...) and it took us about 45 minutes to get there.  It was a long walk, but the kids enjoyed getting out, and Carolina had a million people to say "¡hola!" to... :)  It wasn't so bad on the way there.  BUT, you should have seen us on the way back!!!!!!  Oh, my goodness!

Carolina's favorite pose

My "cutie boy"

Normally, I pack a lunch and we eat at the beach; but b/c we were so close, we decided just to go for the morning and come back for lunch.  Yeah, well, after a long, fun morning at the beach, the kids were tired and hungry... and we still had a 45 minute walk home.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that our friends live on a hill. :)... so, going down to the beach wasn't that big of a deal.  But, tired, hot, hungry and "up-hill" do not go well together for four kids under 7!!!  Hahaha!  We are NOT good Europeans yet.  We are definitely still Americans! :)  Nathan thought he was dying, and Carolina totally fell asleep in my arms.  She became a dead weight, and I could hardly carry her!  Once my arms went to sleep and I could no longer carry her, Wes made Nathan get off his shoulders (poor kid) and walk so Wes could carry Carolina for me.  Whew!  That was my work-out for the day! :)

The next day, Wes drove and dropped us off.  He had to park almost back at the apartment (which we kinda expected), but it was still better than having everyone walk. ;)  The beach was beautiful, and the water was so blue!  There are three beaches there... and they are nothing like the American coast that we are used to.  I told Wes... even when we go on vacation to relax, there's still some sort of culture shock! :) haha... the beach was more like a large cove with more people than you could count.  I think when I think of a beach, I think of being able to walk and walk and never reach the "end."  Ya know what I mean?  Yeah, well, not here. :)  It was different... beautiful, but different!

Our friends had told us about each of the three beaches, and we decided to go the "family" beach.  But even the "family" beach was still quite European!  It was a topless beach (and I think ALL of them are.)  We knew it and were forewarned, but still...  The first day, I think we were on a part of the beach where there were a lot of "foreigners," so it wasn't too bad.  The next time, I think we were around a lot more Spaniards.  I think I only took pictures that first day; b/c after that, it was hard to take a picture without a topless "someone" in the pic!!!!  How crazy!  Thankfully, our kids never even noticed anything! 

Nathan dug a huge hole in the sand then wanted to be buried in it.

While we were there, we met up with some other friends, Ian and Katie, who are also with the IMB.  The crazy thing is that I went to college with Ian!  I told Wes that I NEVER would have thought that 15 years later, I'd be sitting on a beach in Spain with Ian and his wife and girls, along with my husband and kids.  How fun! :)  They have 3 girls very, very close in age like our boys (although, they have twins!)  Our kids got along so great together.  It was fun to be able to hang out with some English speaking friends, who are totally going through similar things in life.  We feel blessed to have gotten some time with them!

This is the kids all playing together at Ian and Katie's apartment.  Sorry it's small, but I loved the action... kind like stair-steps, but with kids!! :)

Well, one of those days there, it rained.  It was actually perfect timing, b/c I was needing a break from the beach trips. :)  SO... we found a mall nearby.  In Cáceres, we have a "mall" but it is so tiny (ok, you from the States who think you have a tiny mall... you have a HUGE one compared to the one I'm talking about. haha. :) )  The malls here have grocery stores inside of them... kinda like a Target or Walmart (groceries combined with everyday "stuff") in a mall.  In our mall, this store makes up the majority of the mall... if that gives you an idea of the size.   So when we found this mall in San Sebastian, we thought we were in heaven!! :)  It was "huge." :)  It had everything we were looking for: a sports store for the kids and Wes, an Eroski for me (that big store that I mentioned), a McDonald's (of course!) AND it had a place for the kids to jump on trampolines! :)  It was the perfect rainy day. :)

The apartment that we stayed in was situated on a little "square" or an American may call it a large courtyard.  There was a fountain in the middle, a café on one corner, a little sandwich place, and a small grocery shop.  (If you can picture a large brick courtyard with apartments on three sides.  At the street level were each of these little stores, and on top of them were the apartments. )  It was great for us!  Wes and I could sit outside and have a coffee while the kids ran around and played.  Groceries were right there, and we even got fries one day at the sandwich shop.  It was a fun, restful time for us!

On our adventure home (b/c you know, with the White family, life is ALWAYS an adventure! :) ), we stopped b/c Jonathan had to "go" :)  (for the millionth time!)  As Wes got out to help Jonathan, he realized it was a great place for pics... so, we took a long break and Wes did a photo-shoot.  Haha... we all loved it. :)

Haha... they both look a bit tired