The White Family Journey

One, Two, Three, Four... oh! there's more!

2012-02-10T10:30:00.003+01:00

Ok, this actually wasn't all that funny at the time (as is often the case...) but, it still makes Wes and I shake our heads and chuckle. We only have 4 kids. I know that to some, that may sound like alot; but it's not really. I mean, I have friends (in the States... definitely not here!) who have much bigger families! But there are days when 4 does feel like a lot... but only when "difficulties" strike each and every one of them. :)... on the same day.

ONE:
The other day, Nathan came home with a huge, solid, ugly scrape all down the side of his cheek. He walked in from school, and I couldn't help but gasp when I saw him. It looks (it's still there) really painful. I pulled him into my arms (typical mom) and hugged him, asking him if he was ok. Wes rolled his eyes at me, telling me Nathan was tough. So I asked Nathan to tell me what happened. He said he was playing soccer (yes, this is my sweet son who has Cerebral Palsy, but he DOES play soccer everyday during recess!) So, he was playing soccer and he said he was running SO fast that his legs just couldn't keep up :) and he fell on the concrete. I just cringed, and ended up having a typical Mom-son conversation. It wasn't a typical Mom-Nathan conversation, b/c Nathan's normally a talker, but I couldn't help but wonder if this is what my conversations with my boys will be like when they are teenagers. The questions came out in rapid succession... and so did the answers. :)

"Did any of the kids help you up?"
"No."
"Did you cry?"
"No."

"Did someone go get a teacher?"
"No."
"Did YOU go tell a teacher?"
"No."
"So, what happened?...
a shrug was his only response.

"Did Teresa notice when you went back to class?"

"Yeah, she sent me to the nurse."
I hugged him again. I just couldn't help it. All I could think of was, "Oh, my poor Nathan!" But, I know he is a tough kid. He hasn't complained about the wound even once... it sure does look ugly, though!

TWO:
So, right after that, I turned to say hi to all the rest of the kids, and Weston hands me a note from the school. I love getting these... yeah, not really. This one informed me that there had been an out-break of lice and that everyone was required to wash their hair with that special shampoo, just to make sure it didn't spread. Lovely. So we did a head inspection of each and every child. I'm thankful to say I don't have a prolonged story about a nasty lice infestation in our home. :) BUT, we did discover that Weston had another, rather large bruise on his arm and that one of the kids who often tries to "bully" Weston had hit him in the throat. Weston was having trouble swallowing and talking. Great... well, at least he was breathing fine.

THREE:
We continued our "just home from school" routine and everyone was taking off coats, hats, mittens and putting away shoes. I always help Carolina with her stuff, b/c she is required to wear a "smock" of sorts, everyday. It has a lot of small buttons, so I was helping her take if off when I noticed that her arms were covered, once again, with a rash. We have been trying to figure out this skin stuff with her for months, and it's just getting old. :) Anyway, these reactions usually have something to do with what she ate, but as much as I've tried to regulate what eats, I cannot figure out what is going on with her! This type of reaction normally happens when she eats nuts (which we think she is allergic to, but we're still not sure... and here, they won't do testing on her until she is 6.) Ugh... it's frustrating to me, but I know it's painful for her! Poor baby. Just like Nathan, though, she's a trooper. I made a mental note to put some ointment on it asap.

FOUR:
We finally got everyone settled for lunch and I was hoping for a quiet, smooth afternoon. It wasn't to be. I forgot that I had one more child who hadn't had anything happen to him yet: Jonathan. I was organizing our office upstairs and Wes was outside playing soccer with our kids and all the neighbor kids (they all love it!). I could hear Jonathan's screams from upstairs. A momma knows the different types of screams of each of her children... and this one had me scared instantly. I went running downstairs and there was blood all over Jonathan's face. We got him to the bathroom, and I still hadn't been able to figure out where he was bleeding. Wes told me that he got hit in the face, and I finally got Jonathan to tell me where it hurt. Jonathan was pretty out of control, and Wes didn't seem to be doing well with the blood. I shooed Wes away and confirmed that the blood was coming from Jonathan's mouth. Of course... the blood mixes with saliva and it just looks bad. Jonathan's hands were all in his mouth, and it just kept sliding all over his face... everywhere... ugh. It was a while before I could get him to let me look in his mouth, but it looked like the the only front tooth that Jonathan had, had been shoved up into the gum. He lost the other one when he fell on the tile in our kitchen, way back when he was 3. I figured he was also going to loose this one before it was meant to fall out! The gum looked swollen all around it, but it looked like it had settled back down into place. We decided just to distract him and see if we could at least get him calmed down. He started watching a movie, and that helped. The blood finally stopped, and we could tell the tooth was loose, but Jonathan wouldn't let anyone near it. Plus, I figured it would be painful to move, no matter what; b/c the gums were all swollen. He tried to eat dinner, but couldn't handle that, so he drank some water and went to bed. I knew it was going to be a long night, but I didn't realize we had one more thing coming.

OH! THERE'S MORE:
It was an emotionally exhausting evening, and I was very tired. I was in bed reading, while Wes was taking a shower... or so I thought. I guess I get really caught up in my books and don't notice too much of what's going on around me. I thought the water sound was Wes taking a shower. But, he walked out of the bathroom, and the water sound was still going. We both spoke at the same time. He said, "What is that?" and I said, "That wasn't you..." and we both went dashing into the hallway. We still don't know exactly what happened, but the bidet in the kids bathroom was on full blast and there was a couple inches of water all over... flowing into the hallway. Goodness! What a day! We got it cleaned up as best as we could, all the while talking about what could have happened. Wes checked all the kids, and Nathan was slightly awake. Wes asked him if he turned on the water from the bidet and he said no... so, we have no idea. Wes thinks the only explanation is that Nathan was delirious and doesn't remember. Maybe so, but honestly, I'd be more apt to believe that about Jonathan... :) Anyway, everything was finally cleaned up ... I think it was almost 1am by that point.

Jonathan had slept for a couple hours, but he cried off and on all night, and I finally just had him get in bed with me; I was so tired. It's hard to sleep with Jonathan (even when he's NOT crying) b/c he moves a lot. He kicks and flails his arms. So, finally, at about 5:30am, I tried to send him back to his bed. He kept telling me he didn't want to be alone... now, how can you resist that? I guess his daddy couldn't (or he knew I couldn't, and knew I needed some sleep), so Wes told him to come to his side of the bed and he could sleep with him. I actually got to sleep the next hour an a half! :) Either Jonathan calmed down a lot for that last hour and a half, or I was just sleeping really hard. I'm not sure. But, he must've slept some, b/c none of us knew (not even Jonathan himself!) when that tooth fell out... Jonathan woke up with no top front teeth! Wes and Jonathan searched the sheets and blankets, and finally found the prized tooth! :) Jonathan's pain was gone... so was the swelling. Thank the Lord. He quickly forgot about the long night, in his excitement to put the tooth under his pillow. I, on the other hand, knew I needed a nap that afternoon. :)

Little Moments

2012-02-09T22:21:00.000+01:00

I should be translating right now (I'm working on my first message for a group of girls...so pray for me, please!!), but my brain is fried... so I thought I would take a minute and tell you a couple of the little moments this week that made me laugh. Wes just said today that I should write these down, so I guess here on the blog is going to have to work. :)... that way, y'all can chuckle, too. ;)

We always talk to our kids about how blessed they are to be living in a different culture and how they get to experience and learn things that kids in the States rarely have the opportunity to. We've talked about how they are especially blessed to have learned a second language so young. We've explained that they are 'bi-lingual'... which means they know 2 languages (yes, simple language meant for my 3 year old. :)) Nathan, my little 'thinker', cocks his head and says to me the other day, "Mom, do you know that I'm really learning 3 languages... English, Spanish, and British English." :) He's right! They teach British English in the schools, and there are a surprising amount of differences. The sad thing is that they tend to harp on my boys for those differences, rather than allowing them to use their American English. At least Nathan can laugh about it. :)

The other day at dinner, Wes was gone and the kids and I were sitting at the dinner table. Weston, who is the one in our family who enjoys "poking" and getting a reaction out of the others, said, "ooooo, I think I hear someone downstairs...." He was totally trying to scare the other kids, and you could see the mischief on his face. Nathan and Jonathan's eyes got big and they started to listen... Before I could even get the words out of my mouth to tell Weston to stop, Carolina, hopped out of her seat and started running for the door... "where?????" she asked, looking all around for the "people"... haha... the girl in the family wasn't scared in the least! She is such a people person, she wanted to go say hi to them.

Carolina is not afraid of people; but one night she was in her bed, scared of monsters. I was telling her not to be scared, that Jesus was right there with her. She said, "Mom, Jesus is dead. He died on the cross." She said it softly, as if she was just breaking the news to me. :) I had to keep myself from laughing... I explained that He did die on the cross but that He rose from the dead three days later. I told her that Jesus is alive today and "He's right here in your room with you!" She slowly looked around, and her eyes fell back on me. Her face suddenly brightened with recognition and she said, "Mom, are you Jesus??" Oh, that girl. It still makes me laugh out loud... I just love her!

I guess this is another Carolina story. She was definitely appropriately named: Carolina JOY. She brings so much joy and laughter to this house! Carolina has a stuffed dog that my mom gave her right before we came to Spain. She doesn't go anywhere without her dog... many times we have to make doggie take a "nap" in the car b/c he can't go to school or church with her, but Carolina always tries. :) People often ask her what her dog's name is. She just looks at them strangely and answers, "Doggie." She got a baby doll for Christmas, so there was another conversation about the name of her baby. It's a new concept for Carolina... naming the toy something other than it's literal name. :) We had talked it through with her... Carolina's name is Carolina. Mommy's name, Daddy's name, etc. So, it seemed like she was finally catching on and she stops everyone in the room. She spreads out her arms like she's about to make an announcement to everyone. She says, "Ok, the baby's name ISSSS...." she draws out the "s" and pauses for effect ... "BABY!" I about died laughing. She is SO theatrical. She had everyone's attention and she knew everyone was waiting... and then, she really hadn't gotten the concept at all! haha...but there's more.

Wes and I went away for my birthday (oh, I just realized I still need to post those pics!!), and we brought back little things for the kids. Carolina's "doggie" is white and has been very, very well loved, if you know what I mean. So we bought her another one... a brown one, this time. :) Of course, once again, Wes asks her what this doggie's name is. She looks straight at him and says, "perro." (which is "dog" in Spanish.) Now, this girl sure isn't creative, but neither is she dumb!! haha....

I do have one more, but I think I'll make it it's own post. :) Here's how it starts...

Ok, this was nothing that the kids said, and actually wasn't all that funny at the time (as is often the case...) but, it still makes Wes and I shake our heads and chuckle. We only have 4 kids. I know that to some that may sound like alot, but it's not really. I mean, I have friends (in the States... definitely not here!) who have much bigger families! On normal days, 4 just seems... "normal." But then there are days when 4 does feel like a lot... but only when "difficulties" strike each and every one of them. :) ... on the same day.

Christmas

2012-01-13T19:53:00.000+01:00

Christmas morning, the kids slept in, which was a first... I guess because they were up so late the night before. :) We spent Christmas day just with our family, and it was so nice to just relax and not have to be anywhere. We opened gifts and had a big breakfast together. We played games all day and watched a movie... we had "finger foods" for dinner, and just had some relaxing family time.

Somehow, we have misplaced our stockings... in the midst of the move to Spain, we lost a box somewhere! I'm hoping it is still in storage back in the States and not literally missing. It was so crazy when we were crating everything, I'm hoping it got put in the wrong stack, and is sitting safe and sound in Virginia. :) It's a small box with all our stockings (personalized by a friend of mine!), my tree skirt, and a couple other Christmas decorations. Oh, well... until we go Stateside, we'll make due with these dollar-store stockings. :)

My Babies!! :) ... ok, not babies at all, but I still feel like it!

The boys each have their own soccer balls now... and they are SO used! :)

This baby goes everywhere with us, and I often end up carrying her... so we decided to get Carolina a baby carrier for Christmas. Now she can strap her in, and she won't get tired of holding her! :) She thought it was a great idea. We'll see if it actually works. :)

My parents got Jonathan a really cool scooter for Christmas. It has big wheels and a kick stand... big things for a 6 yr old! ;)

One of our new games... SORRY Sliders. It's a Lightning McQueen theme, and the boys had a blast.

Somebody told me the other day that Carolina looks just like me, but blond. I can see that in this picture. :) My sweet baby girl brings so much JOY into our world!

You can't see it, but Carolina got a microphone for Christmas. She was singing a Christmas carol for her cousins on Skype... the best way to do a family Christmas from overseas!! :)

... and of course, Jonathan had to try out his scooter...

Christmas Eve

2012-01-12T21:29:00.000+01:00

Christmas Eve we celebrated with good friends of ours... they are missionaries here with another organization, and they have been such a blessing to our family.

This is the Tjernagels... sweet family!

"Auntie Paula" has such a way of making everything special.

...even for Carolina who is always so hard to cook for! (since she has to eat gluten free/ corn free... lots of things-free. :) )

The kids had a blast playing together

... and of course "baby" came too.

After dinner, we played some games with the kids. This is a memory game with Christmas pictures. My kids love this so much that the day after Christmas, they decided to make their own. Weston drew all the pictures. The younger ones colored, and I cut and pasted them all. So, now we have our own set! :) Carolina loves it.

The kids all together. Their kids are so sweet with ours, and I think our boys have really missed being with some older kids. In the States, they were so used to having college/singles/youth at our house all the time. This was special for them. I think it's literally the latest they have ever stayed up... we got home around 11pm, but it was such a memorable night for all of us!

October, November and December in a nutshell... :)

2012-01-09T13:41:00.000+01:00

Oh, my, I've not been on here for so long, I hardly know where to start! We basically did nothing but study for our DELE exam (it's that leveled, international language exam that we have talked about forever) all through October and November. It was such a crazy time... we put off everything in order to use every spare moment to study. I sent most of you emails with all the details, so I won't go through all that again. We won't have results probably for another month of so.

Thanksgiving!

The test was at the end of November, and we were so exhausted afterward, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving a week later than normal. It was fine, since we can't really celebrate on Thanksgiving Day here, anyway... the kids always have school, so we usually celebrate on a Sat, anyway. We had friends coming, but they had to cancel at the last minute, so it was just us. It was actually very relaxing, and Wes helped me cook all day. It was so fun!

Carolina went gluten free, corn free, and soy free in the month of September (she was already milk-free, oat-free, nut-free!), so I've spent a lot of time trying new recipes and different flours in order to keep food exciting for her still... she LOVES to eat, so it's been a very important task! ;) ... and actually very fun for me, since I love to bake/cook. Thanksgiving was a fun mix of foods, but I think everyone's favorite was the gluten free apple pie!!... yum! I think we like it better than the regular! (Thank you to my friend Ann Baxter, for the amazing recipe!!!) :)

Jonathan turned 6 on Dec. 14th, and so I spent several days playing with fondant and trying to get it to work with me. :) We finally got marshmallows here, so I could play with fondant at home! :) Wes even helped me. We made him a skateboard cake ... it was my first time working with fondant, so it wasn't the best; but we had fun, and Jonathan's eyes when he saw it, made all the effort worth it! :)

The morning of Jonathan's birthday...heading for school.

The cupcakes he took to school. They don't have food coloring here, so the blue frosting was a HUGE hit in his class. ;) The next day, all my girl friends were commenting about them... b/c their kids had commented on them. :) They also don't really do home-made treats here, so maybe that's part of why it was a novelty. Jonathan loved the attention.

Carolina getting ready for cake, which was gluten free, of course. :)

Jonathan's sake board cake... before candles and all. :)

We try to make sure Jonathan's birthday is special, even though Christmas seems to be a huge excitement for the whole family. :) Those of you with December birthdays completely understand this, I'm sure. We have a tradition of pancakes for breakfast (which were gluten free, of course), and Jonathan got to pick his dinner... which was pizza. Jonathan gets excited about every little thing, so it was a very fun day for all of us.

The First day of School!

2011-09-29T13:38:00.001+02:00

I can't believe the day has come that ALL my kids go to school! It's way too early! (Granted, kids start school at 3 here... so it literally IS early for me! :) ) Thank the Lord that the first day of school was a very exciting day for all my kids this year. As you all remember, when we first came, school was something that caused anxiety attacks. :) Not so anymore, praise the Lord!

Carolina has been ready to go with the boys for months now. :) She is SOOO much like her daddy. She LOVES people and thrives on being with them. Her first day was so thrilling for her. While other kids cried and clung, Carolina waved and smiled. :) Every morning, she asks if she can go see her friends.

Carolina, lined up, walking into school.

This is Carolina's friend, Sam. His dad is a Spaniard, but his mom is British. They are the two "blonds" in the class.

On the playground!

They look like they go together, don't they?? :)

Carolina started school, only going a couple hours each day, and each week they have added more time. This was her coming out after almost a full day of school (1 hour short of a "full day.") I was worried she would realize how long she was going to be away from us, and that she would cry... like most of the kids after their first long day. She loved it, of course! I'm so thankful. It's already a little difficult for me to think of my THREE year old in school, away from me all day... but, it's much easier, knowing that she LOVES it. Plus, I know it's the best thing for her language, for sure. The teacher says Carolina has no difficulty understanding, even though she doesn't fluently speak the language. She will be fluent before long, I'm sure! Ahh... the gift of a second language learned so young! :)

Enjoying Madrid

2011-08-31T11:20:00.001+02:00

This was one of the boys' favorite rooms to play in. It had no furniture in it, which left lots of space to play!

While in Madrid, we stayed in a company-owned, sparsely furnished apartment. We had never seen it before, and we weren't entirely sure what to expect. We were told to bring pillows, linens and even kitchen stuff, pots and dishes, etc... but that there were beds, 2 couches and a table with chairs. It was quite interesting trying to figure out what to pack. We were also told that there was no washer (or dryer, but that's normal...) or internet. With all this in mind, I expected it to be a difficult 3 weeks... especially with having to wash clothes by hand!... and trying to keep 4 kids occupied in an empty apartment for 6 hours a day while Mom and Dad were in class.

Playing cards by the pool... Jonathan and I had fun playing war! :)

I think, all the way around, we were pleasantly surprised. God completely blessed this time with rest, family time, games, swimming, shopping, and of course, lots of language. The apartment was what they had said, but it was much bigger than we had anticipated, so the boys had lots of room to race cars, build puzzles, etc. There was also a pool with a kiddie pool, so the kids were really able to enjoy that. Carolina actually learned to swim (with swimmies on :) ) while we were there!

Little miss personality! :)

Wes and I had class in the afternoons (1:30-7:30), so we really tried to focus on having fun mornings together. At first, Carolina was VERY clingy. She did not like me leaving all day, but she did ok. We ended up having a young guy watching the kids all day. At first, I was a little worried; but he was awesome. The boys really enjoyed having a guy to be with, and Carolina warmed up to him. He was a guy who really paid attention to detail, so that made me feel better. :)

The kids with Fredy

We had many exciting mornings with the kids. We had heard that there was an American store in the area where we were staying, so we went to check it out. It was amazing. We found root beer, grape jelly, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, bagels, and Rolos! :) Actually, I went in first by myself, just to check it out and see if it was worth getting everyone out of the car. I guess I took so long that they figured it was definitely worth getting out of the car. I turned around, and all the kids were walking in the door. :) It was hilarious to see them! Everyone pointing and exclaiming.

It was cute the things that the boys remembered. They had saved up their chore money, so each of them bought something while we were there. The prices were crazy expensive... a box of Apple Jacks was almost $15!! We stayed away from the crazy high priced things, but Weston did buy a $3 pack of Big Red gum... it reminded him of Grandmommy.

We also found an ice cream place that made some flavors (like dark chocolate and berry sorbet!) without milk. Carolina and Nathan (both can't have milk) were LOVING it. The ice cream store was right down the street from "Taste of America" so they tended to go hand-in-hand. :) It definitely felt like vacation for the kids. :)

Since we didn't have TV (well, actually we did... it just didn't work all the time, and it was in our bedroom, which was the hottest room in the house) we found other ways to entertain the kids. We put together several puzzles while we were there. Puzzles are crazy expensive here in Spain. I'm not sure why. But, we found a deal at a German grocery store here. They bring in random things (that aren't food) and sell them really cheap. We found puzzles for 2.99 each! We were SO thrilled (they're normally around 30-40 euros.) Each child got to pick out their own puzzle. Personally, I really enjoyed it... I'd get rid of my TV right now, if my family wouldn't revolt! :)

The last piece of the puzzle!!

We also found lots of amazing parks in the area where we were staying. The kids had a blast. This was one of their favorites. It had a "jeep" that reminded the boys of Papa. This park had a LOT of very unique things to play on... it was very fun.

I guess you can't see it in this pic, but the jeep was sitting on 4 huge springs, so it bounced all over the place... just like a Jeep. haha... :)

We did have one incident that was totally scary. We asked y'all to pray for health while were gone, and God totally answered that prayer! I had just said to Wes how blessed we were that everyone had been healthy. Later that day, Carolina fell off a slide... a 7 foot slide! She landed on her face, and I thought for sure she had broken her neck, lost some teeth, had a concussion.... something! I do believe angels caught her as she fell, because she cut up the inside of her mouth pretty good and her chin too... but that was it. We spent some time in the ER, but she bounced back pretty well. She is such a tough girl. :) It was pretty scary, though... thank you for praying for her. The first day/night was a little rough, but then she was fine. I'm sure it was your prayers that made the difference for her! Thank you! God was SO gracious to keep her safe!

Funny how it seems like nothing in the pic! :) Her mouth was all swollen and she had cuts inside her lip where her teeth landed. Her chin was also all scraped up... but not cut, so no stitches were needed!

So, despite my fears of 3 weeks of just craziness, God really blessed our time there... both with language AND with family time! We have some great memories! Thank you all for your prayers.

Daddy is always the best toy to play with!

Language Intensive

2011-08-30T00:22:00.000+02:00

As many of you know, we just finished a 3 week language intensive in Madrid. I remember what it was like when we were going to class all day, when we first came. It was really tough... I was exhausted and could hardly do more than "the basics" of cooking and laundry, etc. I expected it to be much the same this time, since language actually makes you physically tired... not to mention mentally! :) I was thankful that it wasn't quite as tiring this time. I'm sure culture shock has a lot to do with it before, AND the fact that our kids were not experiencing culture shock! :) It was much more peaceful this time. Thank you, Lord!

I'll write more later about our family's experiences during these three weeks, but for now here's the update on the language...

We started our first day of class with a placement test. It was helpful to know where we placed, but we realized quite clearly that our speaking levels were much lower than our grammar levels. Apparently it's normal, but the difficult part is that we needed to advance in both grammar and speaking levels. Initially, they had us stop the placement test at a certain level, based on our speaking level. But once they found out that we had been studying a higher grammar level, they had us take the next level up. We both did better on it than they expected, so it was a little difficult for placement.

They initially placed me in the level that I tested at grammatically, but I was very nervous about it. I asked for a lower level (b/c I knew my speaking level was much lower), but she really encouraged me to try. So I did. Oh, man... talk about stressful! I was familiar with the grammar that they were doing, but the entire class was speaking... and not just speaking, but debating! Any of you who know me well, know that debating is NOT comfortable for me... in English!... let alone in Spanish. It's just my personality, but any kind of debate puts me on edge, even when it's just for fun. On top of that, they were all at a much, much higher speaking level than I was. The whole setting was extremely stressful for me. There were only 6 of us in the class, and the teachers (who were both very, very good) made sure that every single person spoke, which is exactly what a good teacher does! But, for me, I wanted to sink through the floor. I kept thinking that Wes would probably love the class. :)

Before the end of the day, I had debated about what would've happened if Hitler had been killed early on. I debated about abortion, women's rights, family and religion. I was beyond stressed by the end of the day, so I looked into the next level down. The director tried again to convince me to stay in the class, but I didn't want to be frazzled like that for three weeks. Unfortunately, they didn't really have anything that fit me well.

Wes was in a class that had two guys teaching it, which was really good for him. For some reason, in our area, it's much easier to understand women then men. Maybe that's everywhere??? I have no idea. I decided to try his class, and ended up staying in there for the week (since I had already paid and couldn't get my money back.) BUT, I knew after the first day that I wanted something different. Wes loves people and the movement and variety of a class, so he was pretty content with his class. For me, I wanted to be more focused and intent on working on my weaknesses.

One of our friends there had a tutor with over 25 years experience who was available. I was thrilled, and God worked out all the details for transportation and the price, too. For me, it was a GREAT time of learning. Marisa was really good at explaining things and very knowledgeable as to how to utilize our time. As we talked, she could pick up on my weaknesses, and she would incorporate that in the next day's studying. I had one hour less a day than Wes, so after tutoring finished, I walked to a little cafe and studied what we had just gone over. It was the perfect situation for me, b/c I need long focused times for studying. I think I had a broad foundation before we started, but I now have a much deeper grasp of it all... AND I've had much more practice speaking, so hopefully that will help!

We will see... I know we both still need to learn much more before we take the exam in November, but I think this was helpful to get us focused in the right direction. It was lots of work, but very gratifying in the end!... definitely a blessing.

The night I fell apart...

2011-08-29T22:00:00.000+02:00

I know many of you know this story from me posting it on FB. I was completely beside myself! :) I mean, life with our family is kinda crazy all the time; so I'm usually pretty used to it, but this particular night... I lost it. :)

Many of you know that right after our two weeks in Germany, we turned right around to do a 3 week language intensive in Madrid. We had come back from Germany to find a colony of ants had taken up residence in our kitchen. You know how they make their little trail, and they each follow each other back and forth along this trail... well, the trail in my kitchen was as wide as my foot! There were TONS of them. Anyway, we spent our week at home trying to get rid of them and trying to un-pack and then re-pack our family of 6 for 3 weeks in a partially furnished apartment.

I think I was pretty stressed with everything going on, and I didn't even realize it. The night before we were leaving for Madrid, Wes was talking to his parents on skype; and I decided to cut the boys' hair. I cut Nathan's hair without any problems... Jonathan was in the wings watching and waiting his turn. I finished Nathan and then took him to the other bathroom so he could take a bath and get all the hair off of him... normal routine. We do it every month. This night just turned out NOT to be normal.

When I came back, Jonathan had the clippers in his hand and he had just touched it to his scalp. I was an instant too late... JUST missed being able to stop him. It was just too tempting for him... he had to try it out. I was flustered and scolded him, but for a boy its not that big of a deal. I caught my breath, and we buzzed it down to a 3. You could still see the bald spot, but I knew it would grow in fast. My emotions were still a bit off kilter; but in my head, I knew it wasn't that big of a deal.

How does a boy this cute get into so much mischief???

Fixing it....

A little bit better, right?

I took Jonathan into the bathroom this time so HE could take a bath and rinse off. It took me a bit longer because I had to get Nathan out and dried off, too. After getting both boys settled, I headed back to the bathroom. I was already a bit frazzled, so I was definitely NOT prepared for what I saw.

Carolina (who, previously, had been in with Wes talking to Granddaddy) was sitting on the stool with my scissors in her hand and longs strands of hair all over her PJ's. This time I didn't just scold. I screamed... not at Carolina, but just out of unbelief. I know that every mom has a story like this... I completely expected it to happen. I just didn't expect it to happen TWICE in a row, on the SAME night, with TWO different kids!

I took the scissors out of Carolina's hands and asked her (ok, maybe more like screeched) "what in the world" she was thinking... yeah, what a thing to ask a 2 year old! I think my response had just scared her in general. Momma does not normally act like this! She just looked at me with big eyes as I picked up strands of hair that had taken us 2 years to get exactly where we wanted them. I felt like I could hardly breath. I ran out of the room and threw open the door to the office, where Wes was skyping. I don't know what I really intended to do, but I couldn't get any to come out of my mouth. So I gave a silent, exasperated scream (maybe it was more a face, since it was silent... haha...) and shut the door again. Wes had NO idea what was going on. He was so confused. He got off the computer really quick and came in. I was just sitting there... and so was Carolina. Poor thing. :)

Wes took over from there, b/c I was done for. I didn't want to look real close; I didn't want to know the real damage. :) He got her cleaned up and headed for bed, all the while talking about how it's more important to be "pretty on the inside," which is something we talk about a lot with her. This time, I'm not sure if he was saying it more for Carolina or for her Momma. haha... :)

I followed them into her room, in a daze, I think. I literally sat on Carolina's floor and just stared. Wes left to go brush teeth and get waters for everyone; and when he came back in, I was still in the same position. I totally think I was on overload. I mean, of all the things we've been through in the past year, I've never quite responded like this... and then, over some silly hair, I totally lost it.

Sweet Carolina is truly her Daddy's girl. She enjoys being pretty and wearing lipstick and cute hats, but this night... all she wanted to do was to make me laugh. She could tell things weren't right, so she got in front of my dazed face and made all sorts of funny faces. She tried dancing; she tried laughing... none of it helped. Poor baby.

I didn't pack another thing that night. I was litereally useless. :)

The next day, I had a better perspective. I mean, I could have found her with her eyes poked out!! And after I finally DID look at the damage, I realized that she actually cut it pretty well. haha... she literally just cut bangs for herself. Granted, the ones in the middle were cut all the way to her scalp, but I cut some more to cover it up, and it is "doable." She doesn't have enough hair to really put in a bow anymore, so we've gone to headbands and hats... thanks to a suggestion from our friend Megan Taylor. :) Thankfully, crazy-cut hair does not alter a child's personality, and Carolina is still as sweet as can be!

Fun with Friends in Germany

2011-08-05T00:22:00.000+02:00

In Germany, we stayed in a house in the mountains that had an apartment upstairs and downstairs. We met our friends who live in Austria about halfway... about a six hour drive for both of us. It was so fun to see them and meet their little James for the first time! They stayed in the apartment upstairs and we stayed downstairs. The kids had a blast together running around the yard and playing on the play grounds... not to mention the exploring they did, and the random doughnuts that somehow just "appeared" after an afternoon of exploring. :) We had a fun week. Here are some snapshots:

Mr Mike and Wes and the kids played UNO on a daily basis!

We didn't want to carry the pack-n-play... just one more thing to lug around... so we decided to try Carolina in a bed! She did really well, except this one time when she somehow found Mommy's lipstick and decided it was just the right color for her. The thing is, we didn't even know she'd gotten out of bed until we found her later... just like this. Needless to say, my lipstick is no good anymore, BUT she didn't get it on anything but her lips! I was grateful for that!

We found a park nearby... the kids LOVED to pull themselves across the water on this dock. Carrie and I just about had heart attacks until we realized that the water only really came to Carolina's waist. :) It does look scary, though, doesn't it? For a 2 year old to be on without an adult? :)

The nearby creek that the boys (all of them...) played in every day. There was a beautiful lake, too, but the creek won out every time. They built walls and dams and pools with rocks. It was a blast for them!!

I think they are deciding which rock to tackle next... who knows. :)

The view from our cabin... and the yard out back.

Mike making hamburgers!!... They were incredible.

Boys and fire... not always the best combination. Well, no one got hurt, but it always makes me sooooo nervous.

Carrie brought all the makings for smores, so we all roasted marshmallows! The kids had a blast!!!!! Yummmm....

Carolina's first smore ever.

Mr. Mike and Carolina... Mr. Mike has become a favorite with ALL my kids!

Mike, Carrie, James, and Samantha... we are missing William, somewhere... :)

Carolina LOVED playing with Samantha!

Jonathan and Samantha riding the go-carts.

This face says it all... this was a ride that pulled them high into the air and then let them fall. All the kids loved it, but Jonathan just had the best faces. :) Does that say "thrill" or what. :) I wish you could've seen his eyes...

We sure did have a blast together! We were thankful for the fellowship and the sweetness of the kids being able to play together. God has blessed us with good friends! :)

Vacation in Germany!

2011-08-01T17:40:00.000+02:00

After AGM was over, Wes walked about 10 minutes down the street to pick up our rental car (gotta love Europe for that!) We had quite a time reserving a car before we arrived. I guess we are just so much bigger than the average family... we had to have a vehicle that seats 6. One too many for the "normal" cars. :) There were not too many available, but we finally found one... or at least, we thought we had.

Unfortunately, when Wes got there, it was not one of the two types of vehicles they said it would be. Of course. :) What were we to do?... at least it had enough seats. It just had absolute no space in the back, for our luggage. So, vacation started out in the normal way... improvising! :)

The kids had bags everywhere... under feet, etc. It worked, though!

Carolina is still not too sure about it. Poor thing. She was wedged pretty tight. ;)

Once we got everything in, we started on our way across almost all of Germany. It was so beautiful with it's green hills and bright blue sky!!! I was loving it. For some reason, seeing green makes me take a deep breath and relax. I love it. These were just some of the views...

Before we got into the mountains, it reminded me a lot of upstate NY... I guess that's why I loved it so much. It was like "home!" Well, it was similar... except for one thing, specifically. Wes is a great driver. He's not slow, but he's not crazy fast, either. Well, all of sudden, I looked up and noticed that EVERYONE was passing us. I've never felt like a poke before, when Wes was driving, but, man! They were all flying past us! I found out what it was like to "ride" (since I wasn't driving... and gladly so!) on the autobahn!

They were all flying by us.

And Wes was going pretty fast!... oh, btw, this is not MPH. It's in Kilometers. Hehe... before you faint.

Anyway, it was a fun trip across the country! It was really amazing, b/c you could find fast food restaurants all along the highway. It felt so modern! We have McD's in Spain, but you usually have to travel into a town to find one... and you really don't know where they are from the highway, unless you've stumbled on them before. So, we felt like we had it so easy on this trip!! We pulled of and ate at a Burger King for lunch- how easy!! :) Other than the fact that we had to completely unload (and re-load... and then unload and load again) the car to get the kids out.... and back in. :) AND I could order lunch in English! Amazing! :) I think we were all amazed at how many people spoke English. I was grateful! This was the start of our adventure in Germany...

AGM in Germany!

2011-08-01T16:10:00.000+02:00

We have an "Area Group Meeting" or AGM most years, where we are able to get together and hang out with other missionaries. Our kids really love this time, b/c they have built relationships with other Missionary kids in other countries. They look forward to getting together and playing... in English. :) PLUS, there are churches who come from the States and do VBS for our kids while Wes and I are in meetings. It's so fun for the kids to learn about Christ in English!... such a blessing for all of us parents! :)

This was the view from our hotel window, 14 stories up.

This year, we had our meeting in Germany. The only flight we could get left Madrid around 8pm. We had to leave Cáceres around 12:30pm in order to get to the airport on time. It was SO crazy. We were heading on vacation in Germany after AGM, so we had luggage for 2 weeks worth of travel.

We were traveling with a local, cheap airline, and there are no seats reserved. So, obviously, with 4 kids, we really needed to have seats together.... I've never seen anything like it. We showed up at the airport 2.5 hours early (the airline suggests 2)... and we barely made it through everything on time! We waited almost 2 hours just to check our baggage. It was so hectic. It's a very popular airline to fly in Europe, b/c it's so cheap. :)

I was thankful all our baggage was under the weight limit... I was a little worried. I've never been one for scales, so we don't even own one!! :) It's at times like this, that I wish I did... maybe we'll get one before we fly again. It was just stressful not knowing if everything would go through. But, thankfully, it did!! :)

We had reserved a wheel-chair for Nathan ahead of time. It's hard for him to walk through all those crowds and for such a length of time (not to mention if we have to hurry.) It's just easier all the way around, if we get help for him. By the time we finally go to the check-in desk, we only had about half hour to get to the gate. With 4 kids (not to mention security!!!!), that's a difficult feat! So, we quickly asked about the wheel-chair, thinking we needed to HURRY. She told us to wait over to the side and it would arrive within 20 minutes. Right. Ok. Great. It really didn't seem like anything we said could make them hurry... nothing much mattered to her! I'm sure she sees lots of stressed out travelers in her day, so we were no exception. The poor kids had been in the car for over 3 hours and then had to wait in a two hour line... they were so restless.

Wes and I debated and debated on whether to just leave without the wheelchair. We were so concerned that we would miss the flight. When I went to check again on the wheel-chair (like a good American...), she told me not to worry... that they knew what time my flight left. That didn't encourage Wes at all, but it made me think that they might plan to take us through security themselves, which would be a lot faster! So, we decided to wait.

Once the wheel-chair showed up, we were off. It was amazing. The guy assisting us took us right to the front of the security line. Wes got off easy b/c he was helping Nathan. They let him walk through without taking off shoes, belt or anything! I had the rest of the kids, so we struggled with all our different items and finally made it though. Praise the Lord, there were no further complications... other than trying to get 4 sets of shoes and coats back on, and not leaving a DVD player behind or something. (Gotta give another shout out to The Creek for those blessings... 2 portable DVD players... you can't know how much we have used them!!!!!!!)

The kids occupied themselves for a while, just watching the planes.

Once we arrived at the gate, the attendants were amazing. I was so very impressed. For this airline, everyone lines up in front of the gate as soon as they arrive... so they can get the seats they want. By the time we arrived, the line was forever long. But, the wheelchair attendant told us to take some seats and just wait. He would have them reserve 6 seats together for us, b/c Nathan needed to be in the front AND b/c we all needed to be together. He told us that everyone would board before us, but that there would be 6 seats in the front. WOW. My stress load was gone! Thank you, Lord!

Carolina LOVED the hot pink planes! :)

Sure enough. After everyone had boarded, we were brought on and had 6 seats up front, with no one ahead of us (which is really nice when you have a little boy who tends to kick the seat without thinking about it.) :) I had just passed out gum to the boys and a Starburst to Carolina (to help their ears get unplugged), when the pilot came on and said we were delayed... over and over and over again. So much for the gum during take-off ... I didn't have any more. Ha! It was only supposed to be a 2 hour flight, but we didn't get to Germany until after 1am.

Amazingly... well, I'm sure it was absolutely the grace of God... the kids did so well. We sat for hours on the plane, waiting just to take off. Wes and the older boys played UNO Spin, and Jonathan and Carolina watched a video and played games on my ipad. Nobody complained. It was actually quite fun! :) Praise the Lord!

We were definitely exhausted the next morning, but the excitement and energy from being with other believers was enough to get us all through the next day. AGM is a time of renewal for both adults and kids! We get to worship and be fed in our own language (which really makes you cry, after you've been away from it for so long!) Plus, we had training and got to hear from the hearts of our leaders. It was a blessing.

For the kids, they had VBS all week! :) I was so shocked when I went to drop Carolina off at her class. She let go of my hand, and walked in without looking back. I know it's just practice for what's ahead when she starts school! She is so her father's child! :) ... just like Wes. She loves people. :) At the end of the week, the kids all came in and did a little performance.

Carolina, singing her song at the end of the program... oh, and they made these dolls for them!

Jonathan

Nathan

Weston

What a blessing these couple days were for all of us! Plus... we knew vacation was ahead! :)

More Summer Fun...

2011-08-01T13:55:00.001+02:00

Our neighbor from our last apartment (Javi) came over several times before he left for the summer. He and the boys played several "futbol" games in the "paseo" between the townhouses. This is Nathan kicking the ball!

More games with Javi. He is definitely a "favorite" in our house! The boys get SOOOO excited when he shows up at our doorstep.

Javi and the kids after a very hot game of futbol.

We finally have a "yard"... you can see the size of it here. So, we decided the only option in the heat was to get a pool! ;) Our yard slants just a little bit, so the pool is lop-sided, but the kids have loved it. It's also shallow enough for Carolina to enjoy, too!

4th of July!

We got together with another missionary family about an hour away. It was fun to celebrate with other Americans on this day! :) This is Elizabeth playing Life with us.

The kids were anxious to get out of the house, so we decided to go for a picnic! Wes found this little fold out picnic table on sale at a local store, and it's been the BEST buy of the summer for us. It folds up into a little box with a handle. Perfect!

This lake is about 10-15 minutes outside of Cáceres. It's beautiful and quiet.

Weston pointing out some birds to Carolina.

It's been so fun to reach a point of independence with Weston. He is very responsible, and can even be trusted to watch out for Carolina! He and Jonathan had "explored" a bit and found a "treasure!" :)

We played "Yatzee" together at the lake. Wes kept rolling "Yatzees", so I had to document it! This is his third! :)

We had totally intended just to come for the picnic and go home. It's usually so hot that by the afternoon, you don't really want to be outside. BUT this particular day was so perfect! We ended up staying and staying... and then the kids couldn't resist the water. They all went swimming in their shorts! haha... it was so fun.

Wes and I got to rest and have adult conversation... it was such a wonderful, restful day for us!

End of School Fiesta!

2011-07-29T00:14:00.000+02:00

This is Shirley, who has stayed with Carolina everyday while Wes and I were in school. She's become a sweet part of our family. Carolina goes to school next year, so this was our last day with Shirley! A sad day... but, thankfully, she lives right down the street!! :)

The boys were all excited about the last day.

This was also Carolina's last day of having 'cafe' with the ladies. I don't think she really realizes what that means... :) She sure does love these ladies!

There was an "end of school fiesta" with lots of fun activities for the kids. Carolina FULLY enjoyed herself. :)

Weston's class, saying goodbye to Josefina, their teacher. The kids have the same teacher for two years. Josefina teaches 1st and 2nd grade, so we are hoping she will have Jonathan next year! She is a wonderful teacher... she even invited Weston over to her house this summer. She says she misses having kids around. :)

Nathan had a blast in the "bounce house"

Nicolas (the son of one of my good friends, and one of Jonathan's good friends!) with Jonathan and Nathan.

Nicolas, Jonathan, Nathan, and Inés.

Wes and Antonio playing ball with several of the kids

My good friend Pepi and her son Fernando.

Carolina was fascinated with watching this confetti fall to the ground... it was so cute, I had to try to capture the moment.

Jonathan's Graduation and Last Day of School

2011-07-28T22:28:00.001+02:00

School finished at the very end of June for our kids. It seems so late compared to what we were used to in the States! We do go back the 3rd week of September, though, so I guess it evens out in the end. :) The school doesn't have air conditioning, so they do the schedule with the heat in mind. :) It's much cooler here in June than it is in August!

The kids had a fun last couple days. Jonathan had his graduation, and his teacher was also retiring, so it was a BIG thing. It seems that the ladies I do coffee with everyday (most of them are moms from Jonathan's class) are the "leaders" of this group of parents. Each of them had some important role to do. I volunteered to do whatever they needed me to do. I was asked to wrap the gifts... I'd given a gift to my friend this past year, all wrapped in a pretty ribbon, and everyone was fascinated by it. Apparently, I am now known for it. :)

One of the gifts that they did was to ask all the parents to write a note, thanking the teacher for something. My friend Toña re-wrote them all and fit them together in a flowing story. She asked me to type it up and print it on pretty paper. I was elected to do this, b/c I had a computer and a printer. Interesting, huh? I think Cáceres is 15 years behind the times... and I'm really not joking! :) Well, I typed up the the story and I brought it in for the ladies to proof read before I printed the final copy. I was really nervous. Why would they ask the foreigner... who barely knows their language... to type this!? Well, I did pretty well, except for one major blooper. Oh, my goodness, we all laughed and laughed. I SHOULD have caught it, but at least we got a good laugh out of it! My friend had talked about how each parent had brought their child to this teacher's "door step" but I had miss spelled "puerta" and put "muerta"... so, in reality, it was more like saying "stairs of death." Not quite the idea Toña intended. haha... after we had a good laugh about it, they all just patted my arm. As if to say, "Poor foreigner." :)

But, other than that one blooper, everything went rather smoothly! It was fun to be involved in the planning of everything going on, rather then just sitting back and being clueless about everything (like we did last year with poor Nathan's graduation!)

Jonathan receiving his "diploma."

Each child had a line of "thanks" to tell Pepa. Most of the kids read theirs, but Jonathan memorized his. He spoke in perfect Spanish, and said it all exactly like he memorized it! He did such a good job!

His diploma! :)

This is Inés, my friend Toña's little girl... she is one of Jonathan's best friends.

Weston was in a play on the very last day of school! He had a blast doing it, and did his part very well!

This is Weston and two of his best friends... and Josefina, their teacher!

The LAST day of school!!!!

Recipe for Spanish Pisto

2011-07-05T22:35:00.000+02:00

Here's another recipe! This is authentic Spanish Pisto... we all love it.

1 Large can of pureed tomatoes (plain! no spices added)
2 T. olive oil
1 onion
1 green pepper, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 zucchini, diced
2 cloves of fresh garlic, minced (or 3 if you like garlic!)
1/4 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste (I do about 2 pinches of salt)

Sauté the garlic and onion in olive oil, add the rest of the veggies and cook until tender. Pour in the tomatoes and mix. Stir in the sugar and salt and simmer on low for 20 minutes to combine all the flavors. Serve in a soup bowl with a fried egg on top and with fresh, warm bread for dipping!

Recipe for Empanadas

2011-07-05T22:07:00.000+02:00

We've had a couple requests for recipes, so I thought I'd just post it here so everyone can use it! Please remember that here in Spain, they don't use exact measurements. They don't have "teaspoons" or "cups"... it's a little bit of this or a lot of that, etc. :) I've put it as much in American terms as I can, but even then I'm guessing and estimating. You might have to adjust to your own tastes!

Empanadas by Gaby

Filling:
1.5 lbs. ground beef
2.5-3 lbs. diced onions (yes! it's not a typo!)... I don't know, maybe several large onions.
2 sticks of butter (unsalted, if you can)
cumin- lots of cumin! (My friend says you know you've used enough when you can take a sniff and smell cumin!)
oregano- a couple dashes
2 vegetable bullion
2 beef bullion
1 T. Paprika

This is best if made the night before and let sit so the flavors mix overnight. Melt the butter in a saucepan and saute the onions until cooked through. Brown the ground beef, add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Store over night in the fridge.

Masa: (dough)
4 cups of flour
2 sticks of cold butter
1 T. salt
1 T. paprika
1 cup of cold water

Pour flour into a bowl, add in the salt and paprika and mix. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Add water until desired consistency. (it's very similar to making a pie crust!)

Hard boil 4 eggs. Dice and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Roll out dough to about 1/4 in. thick. We used a snack bowl (maybe a 5in circle) to make the cut-outs. Fill the circle with 1 T. of the meat and 1 teaspoon of eggs. Fold it in half and fold/pinch the edges closed (my friend actually twists it closed) and you should be holding a half-moon shaped Empanada! Take a fork and poke a couple holes in each empanada. This allows the air to escape, so it doesn't puff up. Bake on an un-greased cookie sheet until slightly brown and you can see the filling bubbling out of one or two of them. About 15 minutes for us here. (But I do find my oven here in Spain is different from the States! So, watch your first batch and time if for yourself.)

Yummy!! They freeze and reheat really well, too!! :) Enjoy! ... and many thanks for my friend Gaby who taught me how to make her family recipe AND allowed me to share it with y'all! :)

Easter!

2011-05-28T14:02:00.000+02:00

I can't believe Easter has come and gone so quickly!! I was sick this year (as I was last year... how crazy...), but Wes and the kids all went to church. We have a tradition of doing our own egg hunt in our house, right after church. We can't find plastic eggs here, so I decided to improvise (which seems to be the name of the game, living away from all things familiar...) I decided to hide BLOCKS. They each had their own color to find (since I figured Weston would grab them all first, if I let the just go at it. :) ) They each had to find 10 blocks of their color, and then they could open their "prize." The kids really enjoyed it, and it was really Carolina's first "egg hunt." Haha... :)

We also shared our tradition of coloring eggs with some of our closest friends. They had seen this on the "movies" before, but had never done it. It was so cute... they were so excited. You can't buy food coloring here, so they were quite intrigued with the colors! It's also hard to find white eggs, so we used brown ones... they worked fine; we just had darker colors than is normal for "Easter colors." It worked, though! The kids had a blast.

Marco is one of Weston's closest friends, and Inés and Jonathan are also in the same class.

This is in Toña and Antonio's second home in a quaint little pueblo outside of Cáceres.

Inés actually brought some of her eggs into school, so she could show the whole class. It was a fun day of exchanging different cultural traditions. We all went out to eat together, and we got to try some of the food that is typical for Easter Week here in Spain. What a blessing this family has been to us!!

Learning to Make Empanadas!

2011-05-28T13:18:00.000+02:00

These are some of Wes's favorite "finger foods." He had them first in Argentina and then again here in Spain. Apparently, each country makes them differently; and Wes has decided that the ones from Argentina are his favorite. Our tutor, Gabi, is from Argentina; so she agreed to teach me to make them during one of our "classes!" (in Spanish, of course.) :) It was a nice break from classroom stuff, and Wes LOVED the results! :)

Yummmm!! They were so good! It was fun making them... and interesting to discover that they don't use measurements like we do. It's a "pinch" of this or a"small spoonful" or a "large spoonful," etc. It's the same here in Spain, and it's taught me to explore and experiment with the flavors that WE enjoy. It's super fun!

Grandmommy and Papa!

2011-05-08T13:33:00.001+02:00

We dropped "the Matt's" off at the airport and picked up my parents at the same time! I was worried that Carolina wouldn't remember them or that she would be shy around them, but that wasn't the case at all! I'm SOOO thankful for Skype, b/c she completely KNEW them and was thrilled to be with them!! That, of course, made my parents' day! :)

Dad and the boys just after they arrived. The boys could hardly get enough of Papa! :)

My parents arrived on Friday and we left Sat. for a beach resort in Southern Spain. It was an amazing week of relaxing, swimming, and playing!

Carolina was SOOOO thrilled to be with my mom. She got lots of one on one attention, and she just ate it up!

Weston and Papa after a day at the beach.

They had a blast!

Carolina was hilarious. She proved to be a total girl here... she enjoyed laying on a lounge chair, soaking up the fresh ocean air! The sand here is more like sand mixed with dirt, and she didn't like getting dirty at all.

There were several days where Carolina took her nap right on the beach! It was so great for me!... the boys played, Carolina slept, and I got to read!!!! :) definitely luxury! :)

In every little town, there are all these little fountains all over the place for drinking, washing hands, or just getting refreshed. The kids are all a little too familiar with them, and before any of us could do anything, Carolina was drinking it... and getting completely soaked!

Marbella

Wes and I on a date in Puerto Banús... I've never seen such yachts before! It was beautiful.

We had a week together at the beach, and then we came home to Cáceres for a week.

My poor dad was sick for the first couple days in Cáceres, but Carolina couldn't resist being with him.

Mom and Nathan!

Mom and Dad at the top of the "mountain" in Cáceres... you can see all of Cáceres behind them.

One last pic together...

We all had such a good time together; and after not seeing them for 14 months, it was really hard to say goodbye again. :( But, we will treasure the memories of our time together, and hopefully see them again next year!! :) In the mean time... we still have Skype. :)

"The Matts" Visit!

2011-04-21T14:54:00.000+02:00

Our pastors, Matt and Matt came to visit at the end of March for a vision trip. They were able to experience a little bit of life here in Cáceres, and we were able to talk and dream about how we can partner together with The Creek to further the Kingdom of the Lord! It was a great time of encouragement and lots of laughter! :)

They came bearing a whole suitcase of goodies for us! The brought the boys 100 Baseball cards. Weston's face says it all. :)

You can see the mountain of clothes they brought for Carolina (exciting hand-me-downs from Trish!), and a Hello-Kitty travel bag. Carolina was thrilled: "¿Para mi?" or "for me?" she says... :) It was lots of fun.

Carolina just LOVED Matt Hahn. I told him she could be his... she looked more like him with her coloring than ours, anyway! She loved her snuggle time with him.

The kids just adored "Master Patt and Master Patt," as Jonathan kept saying. They were calling them 'Pastor Matt,' but it just kept coming out wrong for Jonathan. So, by the end of their time here, they were, "Master Patt." lol... The guys spent alot of time with the kids, just hanging out playing Wii, soccer, and wrestling! :) The kids loved the attention... and we appreciated their love for our kids. These are the kind of "heros" we want our kids to have!!

They spent time seeing bits of Extremadura and learning some of the history of our area. They also met us every morning for coffee with our friends. It was so fun to get to introduce them to our Spaniard friends. I explained to my girl-friends that they were our pastors from back home. The ladies were in shock. Wes, Matt, and Matt were sitting at the table next to us, and one of the ladies pointed to Matt Hahn. "The young one is a pastor????" 'Youth' here usually extends all the way up until a person is about 35, so Matt was VERY young in their eyes. Then, I told them that he's married with 2 little girls and another on the way. That was even crazier to them. Lol... I loved it! Everyday, whenever they saw him, they would make the comment about how young he is to be a pastor, let alone a dad! :)

We had just bought some outdoor furniture that, of course, had to be assembled. Matt Rice gave up his time of "rest" to help Wes put it together. They did a great job...

and we got to eat lunch there together the next day. The weather is perfect for it, right now... before long, it will be too hot! :)

They also took Wes and I out for a nice dinner! It was the first time we've had steak since we left the States! (Extremadura is known for their pork, not the beef! lol...) It was a GREAT meal, and we enjoyed the laughter and encouragement.

Before we knew it, it was time for them to leave! The kids were so sad to see them go. Thanks for coming, Guys! You were such a blessing to our family!

Adventures in Ikea... I don't think I ever want to go back. :)

2011-03-21T23:11:00.000+01:00

As far as furniture goes, there's not a whole lot around Cáceres. We knew we would have to go to Madrid or Sevilla to purchase the majority of our furniture. Since both cities are 3 hours away, we also knew that we would need to purchase everything at one time, as it's hard to make several trips that far away... not to mention we would have to have them deliver, so we only wanted to incur one delivery fee. SOOOO I planned and dreamed and shopped Ikea by catalog and through the web. I had our entire list made out on the internet, every room diagrammed as to what was to go where and what we needed to buy.

We decided to go to Sevilla, because we have some co-workers there that we love to spend time with. They live at the same exit as Ikea, so we thought we'd do to Ikea first and then go spend some time with them. As many times as we have mentioned never having been to Ikea before, not a single person thought about mentioning HOW Ikea worked. I never thought to ask, because I really had no idea... :) Maybe it's good none of y'all warned me...

I'm not sure if ALL Ikeas, all over the world are like this, or if it's just in Spain?... or if it was just this one particular weekend? I don't know, but maybe it was good I wasn't forewarned... I might not have gone. For those of you who don't know me too well, I am NOT a shopper. When I have to do it, I go in, get what I want and get out. So, now that you've learned that about me, some of you are just laughing... because that's SOOOO not possible with Ikea.

We arrived very close to the time that Ikea opened, and thought we'd get a good start before the "crowds." Spaniards don't like to get up early, so we thought it wouldn't be TOO crazy. Yeah, we were wrong. There was a line to park, that should have been our first indication. We had no idea what we were doing; so once we got in, we kinda just looked around a little, trying to get our bearings. We knew there was a kids' place, so we thought we'd be able to get a bunch done pretty quick. Once we got up to the front of the line, they had each of the kids stand up against a measuring stick. Weston was too tall to go in, and Carolina was too short. So, Nathan and Jonathan got to go in, but only for an hour. Well, Weston wouldn't be difficult to handle, but Carolina is a whole different story. She, quite opposite from her Momma, LOVES to shop. She loves to look at everything and TOUCH everything and sit on everything and open everything... need I go on? :) Well, 2 was still a little better than 4, so we started on our way.

We had our list, but it was all picked out from a catalog and the internet. I wanted to SEE some of these things. So, those of you who know how Ikea works, know that it's a maze. You can't just get from one place to another, even if you know exactly what you want. In addition to that, there were so many people there that we just had to stay on the path and follow the mob. It was wall to wall people, and there was no getting around ANYONE. I think we spent that first hour, just being overwhelmed by all the people and all the "stuff." I wished I could look and then go home and think about it... but, we didn't have that luxury. We HAD to be out of the apartment by Feb. 1st, which meant we HAD to buy furniture on this particular day, so that we at least had a bed to sleep on! :) I got a good idea of about half of the things on my list during that first hour... I wanted to see them and decide what I actually did want and what looked much different in person.

So we weren't even ready to start shopping yet, and the kids' time was up in the kids' place. We had a buzzer and it was going off like crazy. We'd only gotten halfway through the displays, though, so either we had to go all the way back the way we came or all the way through the REST of the displays, in order to get the kids!!! It was nuts! Carolina was pretty crazy at this point; definitely tired of being in a cart. So, we decided to split up, rather than trying to drag the cart all the way through all those people. Wes went to get the boys, and we were going to meet at the restaurant. I thought maybe if we could get the kids a snack, we could finish what we needed to do.

Once Wes returned with Jonathan and Nathan, Carolina was even antsier. I was flustered by trying to occupy her for the 1/2 hour it took for Wes to go get the other boys... Wes was flustered by HALF HOUR it took to get the other boys... :) haha... if you could have seen us! We sat down in the restaurant part (which wasn't really even open yet), and tried to put a plan together. Wes and I just looked at each other... how in the world were we going to do this? We had a whole HOUSE full of furniture to buy... not just a room, not just a few items. After getting some churros for the kids and coffee for Wes and I, we decided it was crazy to try to keep going. The kids were just ready to be done... already. I do think that part of that was because they were all anxious to get to our friends' house; they have a trampoline, and my boys just LOVE it.

We had planned to do lunch with our friends, so we called them and just decided to head their way. We'd have to come back. We were both so overwhelmed at the task... and the thought of doing it with all the kids! But, after we'd had lunch with our friends, and the kids got on the trampoline, our friends told us to GO. They kept the kids, and Wes and I tackled the task, kid-free! :) You'd have thought that would've made the whole thing easy!... yeah, nope.

I AM so thankful that they had the kids, though. I can't imagine what we would have done if we DID have the kids while trying to do this crazy thing. :) With just Wes and I, we were able to navigate the crowds a little easier (although, it was STILL wall to wall people, with a very slow, flowing mass walking the aisle.) We finished looking at what we needed and I had narrowed down my list... now, we just needed to GET it all.

So, we made it through the 2nd floor with a very full basket... I had things slung over my shoulder and we had two bags (full) hooked to the cart, but at least it was only one cart. Wes was determined to just use one; b/c otherwise, how else would we pick up the REST of the stuff? It was wishful thinking. We actually realized that it was just down-right dumb. There was NO good way for us to do this. We had already waited in all the lines to get the "papers" to pick up the big, bulky items after we paid, but it was all those other "medium" items we still had to get.

We started off with me pushing the cart full of the little stuff. Wes got a flat cart and began stacking boxes and crates on it. It filled up really quickly. So he went back and got another one... which filled up very quickly. Once we figured out how things worked, we began going row by row and getting everything we needed in each row. It got to be almost comical... Wes would head to the row with his cart, and I would make several trips back and forth trying to keep ALL our carts together, while he loaded yet another cart. It was nuts! You'd think, with spending SO much money in one store, someone would come help ... but, no. My guess is, it's just how Ikea functions, so that they can keep their prices down? I'm not sure... maybe it's just Spain. By the end, (before we had gone to pick up the bulky items) we had 6 carts. Yes, SIX.

This was one particular day that I was very thankful for a BIG, STRONG husband! I can't imagine what I would've done by myself!? Finally, as we got toward the end of our list, I just stood in the middle of the aisle with ALL of our carts, while Wes finished. I got tired of pushing and pushing. As I was waiting there, I saw two guys with shirts that advertised for "transportation." They were picking things off shelves and they took their cart through the check-out counter over to one side of the store. It made me think that maybe, once we paid for delivery, they might come help us get it through the check out. We didn't even know where to go to ask about delivery, so I found a guy who worked there (which, in and of itself was quite a feat!) and tried, in my limited Spanish, to ask for directions. I didn't know the word for "deliver", so I took the long route and used all my other words: "lots of stuff," "no room in my car," "carry to my house," etc, etc. You get the picture. :) I obviously didn't do a good job, because the guy just kept telling me that he wasn't allowed to help me. I think he thought I was asking for help to get it to my car? I have no idea. I finally made myself clear and got the directions I needed.

Then, for what felt like an hour (in reality, I have no idea how long it was... :) it could've been an hour!)... I waited in the middle of the aisle with six carts all around me and everyone staring, while Wes went to ask about delivery. He came back and told me that the guys couldn't help us push the carts, but they WOULD deliver (praise the Lord!... we probably should've checked that out first! haha...) So, Wes and I started the process of trying to check out... with SIX carts. I'm telling you, everyone thought we were crazy! By this time, it was well past dinner time and BED time for the kids, so we called and let them know we were just checking out and we'd be home soon. (Right...)

It was a little frustrating, because people kept pushing in front of us, b/c we had to leave the carts and go and push other ones. Wes finally got fed up and stood his ground. The guy argued with him and argued until someone from the line next to us (who had watched everything) said something to him in Spanish (which I didn't understand at all...). Apparently, he was on our side, though; b/c the other guy walked away. Wes ended up carrying on a conversation with this guy for the whole rest of the time. As we talked, I think it became apparent (or maybe obvious is a better word) that we were foreigners who were still a bit clueless. Wes is good at making friends; so by the time we were done, we had others around helping us push our carts up and making sure no one cut in front of us. It was actually kinda sweet. It took us about two hours to get through the check out line. They take out everything of your cart to scan it, and then put it right back in... so, we did that for SIX carts.

Once we got through check out, we had to go pick up our "bulky" items. We had to have EVERY item before we could drop our carts off at the "delivery" station. So, we pushed all six carts ... one by one, by one, to one station and waited for our mattresses and things. THEN we had to wait in another line to drop our stuff off to be delivered. Are you tired just from reading about it???? :)

After a total of THREE HOURS, we finally finished getting the stuff over to where they would deliver it. My feet were aching; and although he never once complained, I'm sure Wes was exhausted from picking up all those huge boxes!! All in all, we spent SIX hours in Ikea (just the second trip... without the kids...) We got back to our friends and picked up the kids and started our three our drive back home at midnight... and then, the fog was so thick Wes could hardly see on the way home. Talk about a CRAZY day!?!? We were just thankful to finally get home!

I know we got a TON of furniture for the amount that we spent; but man, we WORKED for it! It certainly didn't come cheap! :) At least we didn't have to load it and unload it ourselves!! And... after all that, my amazing man put each and every item TOGETHER, once it got delivered!!!...we are grateful for Ikea; I just don't think I ever want to go back! haha....

A Town-house!

2011-03-16T17:59:00.000+01:00

We have known for a while that we wanted to move from our apartment located in "downtown" Cáceres, but we weren't entirely sure where. We loved living downtown because we could see the school from our balcony, and EVERYTHING was close by... not to mention we loved our neighbors! The downside was that there was no place for the kids to play. We lived on a hill (not just a little one...), so it was difficult to get bikes out or even for one of us to walk all the kids to the park. There were always cars and tons of people. We decided the pros of moving farther out of the "center," where we would have more space, would outweigh the cons. We had been encouraged by some of our leaders to look for a "town-house" this time, as it would allow us to have a small yard AND a garage. Both of which give options for places for the kids to play! :)

This is a picture of our little yard (before it was actually ours...) This is now the view from my bedroom window. :)

This is our "back yard"... haha... our patio out back. All these pics are from before we moved in, when we were looking at it.

One thing to realize about Cáceres ( I don't really know about the rest of Spain...) is that there are no "houses"... like what we would consider a "house" in a neighborhood, free-standing and alone. :) That sounds funny. Ok, I guess I have to revise that a bit. There are none of these really available for the "normal" person. There is one neighborhood on the very outskirts, but they are "mansions" much more for the wealthy, AND they are ON TOP of each other... not literally, but nothing like we would think of as a typical American neighborhood. :) In addition to this, there are only really a couple areas of our city that even have "town-houses." It's the newer parts of towns, and very much on the outskirts.

We were really praying for direction and wisdom in making the decision as to where to move. We wanted to be where GOD wanted us, and not just where it was convenient for us. We were praying for direction and discernment... and many of you were praying with us! Thank you! God completely answered our prayers. There were two areas of town that had town-houses (each on complete opposite sides of town), but only one of those areas actually had something available. Yes, talk about clear. That kinda settled that! And then, out of that one area, there were only TWO town-houses available! The first one we walked into was amazing. I loved it, but our realtor kept telling us the other one was bigger, so we needed to look. It was bigger, but there was a lot of damage in it... as well as a lot of mold. Yuck. Again, a very clear answer.

SOOOO... we quickly decided on the one and only option that was healthy for our family! :) Thank you, Lord, for your CLEAR direction! :) haha... love it! The amazing thing is that this one and only option was absolutely perfect for what we needed. What a gracious God we serve!

The owners have been wonderful. They installed railings (we have TWO sets of stairs in this house!!) for Nathan, so he could easily (and safely) walk up and down. They also volunteered to put in a dishwasher for us! I feel like I'm in heaven!!!!... WOW, the blessing of a dishwasher! I think I save hours out of my day by having that beautiful thing! haha...

They also gave us the keys to the house a couple weeks before the time we were to actually start our contract. It was perfect, because we didn't really have a moving truck, so we began to move our stuff little by little over those few weeks. I didn't have too many boxes, either, so I kept packing and unpacking. It was actually nice, in some aspects. When we finally did our big move, I had a lot of things already settled. The one catch was that we were moving out of a furnished apartment into a technically "unfurnished" place. (I say technically, b/c we do have a couple of pieces of furniture from them, but not much.) We've known ever since we started this process that this time would be coming. We sold much of what owned in the States, knowing we would have to buy everything again here.

As we began to "pack and unpack" each room, we realized we needed to buy our furniture quickly, b/c I had no place to "unpack" my things. Read my next blog for our crazy adventure of trying to furnish our new home in Spain... talk about craziness!

This is out front of our townhouse. Our row of town houses is on the left, so you can't really see the houses themselves. BUT you can see the huge common area in between. It's totally a pedestrian zone, so the boys LOVE to play soccer here, drive their remote-control cars and ride bikes.

This is our living room/dining room... again, before we moved in.

And my ktichen!!! It was really what sold me on the house, because kitchens like this are about un-heard of here! It's huge. I just love it! You can see the washing machine next to the sink. They moved it outside and installed a dishwasher! The little white thing behind me (yes, it's shorter than me!) is our fridge...

Our First Mission Team

2011-03-14T23:39:00.000+01:00

Nathan, Hunter, and Amy came from CA to prayer walk and share the love of Christ here in Extremadura. All three were from our youth group in CA, and it was such a blessing to be with them again. Amy's mom, Michelle, came as a chaperon. They were such an encouragement to us!... just to see familiar faces and to laugh, talk, and pray together in English! :)

After a full day of prayer walking (in the rain!), they had the chance to build some relationships at one of the youth groups about an hour away.

They each shared their testimony, which was translated by our team-mate, Timon.

And then Wes got to share a little bit, too... mostly in English, but also a bit of Spanish!

It was amazing to see these kids build relationships, despite the fact that they didn't even share the same language.

This was a bible study held in another part of Extremadura. All the youth (none of whom normally come) showed up that night to hang out some more with Nathan, Hunter and Amy.


It was amazing to see how quickly relationships were built. Even still, whenever we visit the youth group in Mérida, they ask about Nathan, Hunter and Amy.


We had a great time with this group. They taught us some of their games and the youth from California taught some of their youth group games. All I can say, "Laugh out Loud!" It was very funny language learning experience.

I think the most amazing thing that happened during this trip was the privilege of prayer walking through some of the small towns where, as far as we know, there are no believers. To think that we may have been the first ones in these towns to pray over them was an incredible experience. Can't wait to go back and see how our God is answering our prayers...AND to pray some more! ~ Wes

Three Kings' Day- January 6th

2011-03-14T23:37:00.001+01:00

This year, we had the pleasure of joining in with our culture and celebrating the way Spaniards do! They celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas and they spend time together as a family. Sometimes a family will open one gift on this day, but gifts are not the focus of Dec. 25th. Throughout all of Cáceres, there are nativity scenes set up... usually in every household as well as in many public places. Each day, the move the "three kings" closer to the stable... you actually watch their progression. The night before "Kings' Day" each city has a parade to celebrate the "coming" of the three kings.

As is the tradition, they threw candy to the kids. Many of the kids bring umbrellas, which they hold upside down, to catch the candy as it rains down over top of them. :) The very last float carries the three kings (which I didn't get a picture of!), as they supposedly "arrive" in Cáceres. It was a very fun experience for our kids.

It was also interesting because they don't "do" Santa Clause here... they have the three kings. The kids usually write letters to the three kings, explaining what they want for "Kings' Day." They go and sit on one of the three kings' laps, like we would with Santa Clause; and tell them what they want. They share gifts on Kings' Day in honor of the gifts that the three kings brought for Jesus. It is quite refreshing, because it's actually much more Biblically based than much of what we do in the States! We are enjoying integrating new cultural "traditions" into our lives. We enjoyed focusing on Christ this year... explaining the tradition of Santa Clause and the Three Kings, but focusing on the birth of our Savior!

Of course...

2011-02-25T11:48:00.000+01:00

I am so far behind on the blog, but I keep missing these great opportunities to share the wonderful craziness that occurs in our home on a daily basis. :) Sooo.... I decided I'm just going to pop them in, in between all the 'catching up' blogs. So here's an account of last night's drama... sorry, no pics this time. I should have, though... if I'd been in a better state of mind, it would've been GREAT to capture!

Wes headed out of town last night to visit a university Bible study that is going on in another part of Spain... just to see what/how they do things. He traveled about 3 hours away to join them, so I knew he would be gone well into the morning hours. That afternoon, we had found some curtains for the house, but they needed to be hemmed. I had planned to take advantage of the quiet house that night and get as much sewing done as I could. Before I start a "project" I like to make sure the house is clean and settled, so I had spent several hours doing dishes, cleaning the counter tops, sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor. I was feeling so good about everything being clean and in order... totally ready to start my evening of sewing... I had 8 curtains to hem!

So, of course, about an hour after Wes left, the boys and I were finishing up dinner. I told them to put their dishes in the sink, and I picked up Carolina to walk upstairs and put her to bed. As I was walking up the stairs, I heard a huge crash... it was like slow motion. I couldn't get there fast enough. I heard another crash and another... and then glass shattering and Jonathan screaming.

When I got to the kitchen door, there was food/glass/cans everywhere. The pantry was tipped over and resting on a chair like a huge wall blocking the entrance of the kitchen. Jonathan was on the other side of that "wall" holding his head and screaming. Shattered glass and food and "the wall" separated me from Jonathan. Jonathan was crying hard; but there was no blood, so that was reassuring. :) All the kids joined me in the kitchen doorway, and Carolina wanted to go in and "explore", of course. SOOO... I sent Weston and Nathan upstairs to "play" with Carolina until I could figure out what to do.

I had no idea what had happened, but I had to try to get Jonathan out of there without getting cut by glass. I mean, it was EVERYWHERE. I finally had him crawl under the table. When he got to me, his pants were covered in glass from crawling... but it was also in his hair and on his shirt. Whatever happened, he was near the glass when everything shattered.

He was still crying, holding his head; but I made him strip off his clothes before I led him to the couch. While I was picking out all the glass from his hair, I realized he had a huge egg on his head. He finally told me he was hanging on the pantry door, and made it fall over. Of course. He kept saying, "I'm so, so sorry..." Yeah, me too. :) I got some ice (thank the Lord I could easily get to the freezer!) and made him lie down.

I decided to leave the mess and try to get the rest of the kids in bed, b/c I realized that Carolina was screaming at this point. She wanted to come downstairs with me, but Weston was doing what I told him and wasn't letting her. Chaos.

I put Carolina to bed, and while the other boys were getting ready for bed, I returned back downstairs to survey the damage. I put my Crocs on to protect my feet and tried to lift the huge pantry to put it back into place. It had fallen, but had been stopped by the corner of one of our kitchen chairs. The chair had punctured the door of the pantry, and the pressure of it had twisted the bottom of the door off. I was afraid it might not hold and then it would crash to the floor, breaking the REST of the stuff there and the chair. But, no matter what I did, I couldn't put it upright, of course. I wasn't strong enough or tall enough. Talk about frustrating!!!

Well, my Weston is a pretty big 7 year old (just a few inches shorter than me!), so I thought maybe we could do it together. I made him put his Crocs on, and we tried and tried... crunching glass and squishing food that hadn't yet been squished. :) Nope... we couldn't do it... of course. I gave up, and had him change his clothes again and get back into bed.

When Wes left, he had taken our cell phone with him, and all our phone numbers are in the cell. It usually works well and we never misplace numbers that way... except that he had the cell and I didn't have a single number to call. I had thought to call Paul to see if he could help me lift the pantry and put it back. When I realized I didn't have his number, I called Wes. I explained what had happened, and Wes said, "Of course... only when I'm gone does something like this happen... of course."

So, he tried to call Paul, but couldn't get him... then he tried several of our other friends here and couldn't reach any of them (of course.) So, I just decided to try to get the boys in bed, make sure Jonathan was ok, and clean up the best I could until Wes returned at 2am in the morning... then he could help me put it back up. :)

After I put all the boys to bed; and I checked Jonathan for signs of a concussion, I remembered that Paul usually keeps his Skype on all the time. I went to the computer and wrote him about 5 sentences, seeing if would answer. Nothing. He must be busy. I decided that Jonathan seemed ok. I knew I would need to try to wake him every hour or so... but, he was tired, so I let him go to bed and go to sleep.

After getting boys settled in bed, I went back downstairs to see how much I could clean up. As I was picking up the largest pieces of glass that I could reach, I heard the phone ring... upstairs, of course. I couldn't get to in time, so I missed it... when I got upstairs, I went through each room but still couldn't remember where I'd left the phone. The boys said it sounded like it was coming from downstairs... I thought it was upstairs. When I didn't find it upstairs, I went back downstairs to look again. It started ringing again, and I KNEW it was coming from upstairs. I ran back upstairs, but still couldn't place it... then I realized. It was coming from behind Carolina's closed door. Of course. In my haste and craziness, I had left it in there when I put her to bed! So, I woke her up by going back into the room to get the phone (funny how the phone didn't wake her up, but the door did.)

It was Paul. He had been in a meeting, but saw my Skype. I told him what happened, and he said he'd be right over. I did what I could in the kitchen until he came. He walked into the kitchen and said, "Whoa."... yeah, exactly. :) He had to moved some stuff behind the pantry (which I couldn't reach) in order to pick it up. Every step he took made a crunching noise from all the glass underfoot. He made it look so easy and just lifted that pantry back into place... if only I was a little taller and a little stronger! :)

We realized that it had fallen forward and caught on another shelf. When that couldn't hold the weight anymore, it pushed the fridge over and it all gave way. Thank the Lord the chair was there to stop it from going further; it would have crushed Jonathan, otherwise!

Once we got the pantry back to a standing position, the mess didn't seem quite as overwhelming... but, I still knew it would take me the rest of the night to clean it up. So much for sewing. It's a good thing I had cleaned and mopped the kitchen earlier that night, right?... yeah, OF COURSE...

Our first Christmas in Spain

2011-02-21T23:52:00.000+01:00

Yes, yes, yes... I am so far behind on blogging! So sorry! I'm going to post some pics of the most important events that have happened in the past month and a half (there've been a ton!), just so that we can get ourselves up to date. Sooooo.... I will start with Christmas! How horrible that I am just getting here!

We had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of Jesus here in Spain. We worked hard to make it special for the kids, since we really didn't have family around. AND so many of you from home made it such an exciting day for our kids with all the love and gifts you sent! Thank you to all of you!!!!!!!! We have been so blessed by all of you... beyond what we could have imagined.

We made our traditional Christmas cookies! Candy cane cookies are the boys favorite!

And, of course the decorating!

We did fondue for Christmas Eve. The kids had a blast!

Carolina's new "pretties!"

Jonathan and Carolina

Weston and Carolina

Nathan and Carolina

These are new stockings in her hands... she LOVES to be pretty.

Add caption

Yay! Notebooks to hold the boys' soccer cards.

She's trying to hug the doll inside the box... :)

Carolina just LOVED her new kitchen set!

Timon, Paul and Emily (who happens to be Paul's girlfriend now... haha...) joined us for Christmas breakfast! What fun we had all together!! Nothing like family away from family! :) Great times, Great memories.

Jonathan's 5th Birthday

2010-12-31T00:18:00.000+01:00

Jonathan turned 5 on December 14th, and he had quite a day! Wes and I laugh, b/c somehow we always have birthdays the NIGHT BEFORE our final. Nathan was May 4th, and it was the night before our last final. This time, Jonathan's birthday fell just perfect... and AGAIN it was the night before our final! How crazy! We did our best to make the day special for Jonathan .... and then tried to squeeze in some studying too! :)

I think the pictures below kinda tell the whole story...

The birthday boy always gets to choose his birthday dinner. You can tell Jonahan's favorites. :) He loves chicken nuggets! He wanted "finger foods" for his birthday, so we had chicken nuggets, fresh bread, and all sorts of fresh sliced veggies. It's one of Jonathan's favorite meals. I really think it's b/c of the name... just the idea of being able to eat with your fingers, is so exciting to a boy!!!

I have no idea what Jonathan is doing, but I love his face!!!!

We had fun gifts from everyone!... Nana and Granddady AND Grandmommy and Papa!... and of course all of us.

He can hardly contain himself here... it's a "Land Before Time" movie from Nana and Grandaddy.

Jonathan has been wanting this Ben 10 watch for a while... his face says it all!! Thank you, Grandmommy and Papa!!

They love each other!! :) I always love seeing how sweet my boys are with Carolina!

This is Carolina's funny face that she makes when she is making silly voices. It's hilarious... she is SOOO much like Wes! :)

Definitely a Daddy's girl!

The cake!!... what boy wouldn't like a dinosaur merry-go-round??? He picked the color of the frosting, too.

It was a fun day!! I still can't believe my Jonathan is FIVE!!! :)

Our "Spain" Christmas Tree

2010-12-30T23:51:00.000+01:00

Ok, this was a little difficult for me. I know, of all things, something as little as this was hard! haha... well, we have ALWAYS had a real tree. Even when money was really tight, it was always a priority. I remember cutting down our own trees, growing up! Finding just the right tree... and the smell!! You just can't beat it. It's so much a part of Christmas, to me.

Well, we asked and asked and looked and looked. We finally did find a place that had a "real tree", but it was potted!!!!!!! (How European, right??) It was tiny, and it didn't even smell like a Christmas tree. I have no idea what that was all about, but that was almost more depressing than a fake one! ... so we gave in and decided to get our very first, fake Christmas tree. Such huge sacrifices we make over here on the field! ... haha...

Wes and I did our best to find the biggest and fullest tree; but... well, you can see the results...

Our tree in a box!

Weston loves to build things, so this was such a great adventure for him! I was so glad; b/c honestly, I was a little depressed. :) There's nothing like the beautiful excitement of children!!

Step by step our tree grew!

EVERYONE helped!

Adding lights as you go is so much easier, according to Wes! :)

Jonathan was "creating" his own branch. haha... The kids just loved it!

There!

I brought some of our ornaments from home (not all, b/c I didn't know if I would have a place to store them. The special ones came with us...) We just let the kids put all the ornaments wherever they wanted. They were so thrilled, and Weston was tall enough that he could get the top of the tree! :)

Carolina was enthralled with all these "pretties!"

I think it exhausted her. haha... too much excitement!


So, that was the end result!

After the kids went to bed, I re-arranged some, but it still looked kinda sad. So I decided to improvise. I think I'm getting good at that here. :) I don't think I actually took a picture of the final product after I was finished, but the tree looked so small. I decided to put it up on a "stand." I found two empty diaper boxes (I knew they would come in handy sometime!!! haha....) I put a blanket over the boxes and then wrapped a table runner around the stand. ( I also can't find tree skirts here.) It at least made it look a little taller.

It still looked quite sparse, though, so I went to a nearby shop and bought a bunch of Christmas ribbon. I added the ribbon in all the empty places, and that seemed to help alot! Amazing what red ribbon and diaper boxes can do!

I forgot to get a full picture of the finished tree, but at least you can see it in the corner of this picture. :)

This was our first Christmas tree here in Spain! Even though I was quite sad to begin with, I think we did pretty well in the end. And the excitement from "building" the tree was definitely enough to replace the sadness!! :) What memories we are making!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-30T22:42:00.000+01:00

Wow! Time has flown by... and I need to catch y'all up on all the happenings here in Cáceres! I'll start with Thanksgving, which now seems like ages ago. One thing after another has occurred since I last wrote, and I feel like we've barely been able to catch our breath!

We invited some of the single missionaries to join us for Thanksgiving, so we could all celebrate together. I began cooking/baking a week ahead of time. It was so FUN!

Meredith came from Madrid, and it was so fun to have help preparing the meal! ... of course the kid wanted to help with everything. :)

Of course Paul and Timon joined us, too! It wouldn't quite be right without them! :) Here, they are all playing "I spy" in Spanish. My kids were LOVING it!

This is our treasure. haha... I finally found a whole turkey here in Spain. I know many of have already heard that story, so I won't repeat it. But, boy that was interesting! This guy still has some feathers. I tried to pluck as much as I could, but at least it didn't come with a head!!!! Oh, and I didn't have a rack to put the turkey on so it wouldn't get soggy, so I decided to improvise with carrots. Amazingly, it worked!

Working in tight quarters! :) (Although, I know that I am hugely blessed, b/c my kitchen is really huge for European standards!!! No complaints here!! :) ) The kids LOVED helping too... maybe THAT'S why it felt like tight quarters. Haha.... :)

Another issue we had here was that I couldn't find a pan big enough for the turkey. I had huge, long conversations with my friends about it, but they were all baffled. I didn't bring my roaster from the states, b/c I didn't think I'd have the space. I also wasn't sure it would even fit in my oven here. I think it might have! Anyway, I found a large pan in one of the stores here, but we didn't have a way to cover it. These are pics of Meredith and I getting creative.

We wrapped the whole entire pan in foil! :) It was a pan that literally slid onto the racks of the oven. I wasn't sure if it would still slide in with the foil, but it did work.

I think it took us forever to get it right... we were hoping it would keep the moisture in. Praise the Lord it worked!

The kids played all sorts of games all day... board games, "I Spy", I-pad games...

I couldn't resist putting this in of Weston. He just looks so old... and it totally captures the kid he has become. :)

Helping again!!

All in all, it was a really great meal, I think! It was about as American as I could get in Spain. Haha... no cranberries and no pecans, but we survived. :) Homemade apple sauce, banana bread, pretty paper plate, b/c I don't have a dishwasher, etc. I think we did ok... :)

I think the guys were still in awe over their "American size" cups we gave them.

Family!! ... away from family. :)

Oh, and we can't forget dessert! I made 5 pumpkin rolls one night. I made one for us, and the rest I have away as gifts. Wow, what a response I got from it! It was very fun. Cooking this big meal also made for great conversation starters with my friends. They were all so intrigued by all of it.


Carolina had a blast with Meredith. I think she really needs some girls around. She just loved being with her.

We all had such a good time together. Meredith came for a couple days and so it felt very "holidayish" with guests and all the special cooking. I'm looking forward to doing it next year as an outreach! By then, we should definitely have the language skills to pull it off! :) We loved our time together of thanking the Lord for all the MANY blessings He's given us this year!!!!

Javi :)

2010-11-19T19:49:00.000+01:00

During October, the weather went back to being cool enough to open windows. Opening windows is fun, because it allows the fresh air in, and somehow makes you feel a little bit more free. BUT, one downside is that all the noise tends to float up into everyone else's apartments! We are on the first floor and of course, with the three boys, we are always loud. When we've got the windows open, I try to keep the noise down; but sometimes, it's impossible.

Our apartments are built in a cube, with 2 apartments on each floor. There is a "patio" in the middle of our building, which is accessible only from our apartment and from our neighbors'. It's a patio that is open all the way up to the sky, so if you look out any of the kids' rooms' windows, you can see directly into our neighbors' windows. If you look up, you can see all the neighbors windows on the floors above us... and all their hanging laundry. It's a patio that is not open to the street at all. It's completely enclosed... so, our noise echos. Lucky for us. :)

Javi is the guy in the middle

One day, we had all our windows open and I think our neighbors could hear everything. The noise attracted the attention of our neighbors next door. We have 4 single guys living next to us... University students. Well, one of them stuck their head out the window and the boys saw him. They started a conversation and from then on... they've been fast friends. It's kinda funny; b/c when we moved in, they all told us that they didn't speak any English. We see them often as we are coming and going, and we usually chat with them in Spanish. I noticed after a couple days of the boys calling out for "Javi" that he began speaking to them in English! He's always been very kind with the boys. I always ask if the are bothering him, and he always tells me no. He says he really enjoys kids... and secretly, I think Javi is practicing his English with my kids!!! haha... :)

He has become a great friend (especially for Weston), and he has helped us a great deal from ordering pizza for the first time, to helping us turn our electricity back on after it's gone out. There have been many days when Weston heads over to Javi's to get help with his homework when Momma has no idea what the words are. :) He has been great.

I often send treats over for him... brownies, cookies, muffins, cinnamon rolls, etc. It's just my way of saying thank you. :) He went home one weekend (to the coast), and came back with clams as a gift for us. It was the sweetest thing! They were alive, so he cooked them for us that day and brought them to us... actually, he showed ME how to cook them. I had no idea how!

Wow. Ok, I really don't even like the SMELL of seafood, but this was really good! I had to at least try it! Wes ate most of it, but each of us tried it. MMmmm... it's good to broaden your horizons, ya know?

I think most of you have heard that we are planning to move to a different part of town in January, and we will miss having Javi next door. Even Carolina goes to her window and calls out for Javi. :)

Glimpses of October

2010-11-07T16:50:00.000+01:00

October came and went in a flash! :) Here are some random shots from this past month:

Do you see something missing in this picture???... yeah, no handle bars. I think it's time for a new bike for Jonathan! The handle bars got bent in the move and finally just broke off. The kids still ride it, though... mainly in circles, b/c it's hard to steer. haha...

This is an average hair day for Carolina

NEVER had this problem with the boys!!!! :)

Mohawk... without any hair products!

We have a parking garage under our apartment, and we finally resorted to allowing the kids to ride their bikes there. It's nearly impossible to take all of them (and all their bikes) down to the bottom of the hill that we live on. This is Jonathan riding Weston's scooter, since his bike no longer has handle bars. :)

This was a day that Carolina and I were sick, but she wanted to watch her brothers ride in the garage. She HAS to wear a hat whenever she goes "out"... even when she's sick and wearing sweats! She is SUCH a girly-girl.

Weston finally learned how to ride a two-wheeler! We've never really had a place for him to learn, so the parking garage worked great for this purpose! It took him NO TIME at all to learn it!

We bought a new carpet for our living room. The houses here do not have carpet... Spaniards kinda see them as "dirty" b/c you can't clean out the dust like you can with marble. :) BUT, our kids have missed having soft carpet to play and lounge on. Carolina likes to take her blanket and fall asleep on the carpet. We bought the softest, thickest one we could find.

It reminds them of "home"

The love it!

Carolina's Birthday!

2010-09-27T17:31:00.000+02:00

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

2010-09-26T20:05:00.000+02:00

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

2010-09-20T20:47:00.000+02:00

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

2010-09-20T18:07:00.000+02:00

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

Summer Fun

2010-09-13T16:44:00.000+02:00

For me, nothing says "summer" like lemonade! But, we can't really get lemonade like we're used to here, so we make our own! It became quite a tradition every week to make lemonade for "Mommy." Jonathan had it mastered... he did a great job!... and he enjoyed doing it! :)

One of the things we like to do is take the kids' bikes to the bottom of our hill and let them ride in the "colon." This is a tiny, circular park at the bottom of our street. It's actually in the middle of a very large traffic circle. The kids LOVE it when we do this, but it's such a crazy adventure every time we do it. We live on quite a large hill, and we have 2 out of our 4 kids who don't walk the greatest... they still need a hand as we go down the hill. ;) So, trying to take 3 bikes and 4 kids down a hill is CRAZY. The last time we attempted this, Wes was pushing Nathan (seen here on his amazing TREK tricycle that Grandmommy and Papa got for him) up the hill to go home, and they began to slip backward... that's how steep our hill is. haha! We are always quite a spectacle when we do this. People always stare and sometimes hold a hand out, worried that one or another kid is going to slide down the hill or fall. :) Always an adventure.

It is a favorite pass-time, but it does tire them out! I really enjoy it, b/c this is a tiny bit of green amidst our mainly brown little city. :)

As I've mentioned before, most Spaniards go to their home in the country-side for the summer. This is the home of our friend Francisco and his family. It's situated in the middle of a huge olive orchard, which they don't cultivate anymore. I guess there are so many olives here that it's not cost effective to cultivate them anymore. It was beautiful, though! They invited us to go swimming one day. We swam and then the kids played in the little courtyard. This culture really is amazing... after this afternoon with friends, I told Wes that my parents would LOVE this culture! :) In this picture, you can see two houses on either side of the courtyard. One is more like a guest house (with only bedrooms and bathrooms... no kitchen) and the other is the "main house." Most families vacation all together... grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. all in one "house" for the summer. The whole family all together for two months! The funny thing is that this home is literally only about 10 minutes from Cáceres, but they consider it too far to live here on a daily basis. They each have their own apartments in the city during the rest of the year.

This was the pool. It was literally just a concrete box filled with water. Francisco kept warning us that the pool was very old, but we didn't really understand what he meant. Well, we thought we understood... until we got there. It really was a beautiful home, courtyard, garden, and even the pool area!... but... maybe you can tell by the picture, or maybe not... but, the pool was green and filled with algae. The pool was "old" which meant no plumbing or pump or any way to clean the water. It scared me, to be honest. Normally, I would never have allowed my kids to go in, but it was very obvious we would have offended them. SO, for the first time, we did the "missionary thing" and PRAYED for protection for our kids and let them swim. I mean, there were thick, green 'things' floating around that would bump up against your legs and arms... not just on the edges of the walls. BUT, the Lord answered our prayers, and not a thing happened with our kids! :) Other than that little "scare" on my part, the day was SO much fun. It was wonderful to see the kids playing together and the uncles running around racing them. We ate crab sandwiches and had fresh figs off the tree in the courtyard. It was amazing!

Wes's Birthday!

2010-09-13T15:34:00.000+02:00

We had a great time celebrating Wes's birthday! The boys always love birthdays, because it means they get cake and ice-cream. It doesn't matter who's birthday it is, it's an exciting day! :)

Chocolate milk for all the boys!... it's such a "Spain" thing!

The boys always make their own "gifts" for Daddy.

We looked all over the place for Wes's gift, but ended up having to buy it in the states. Things for cameras (which is Wes's favorite hobbie) are unbelieveably expensive here. I ended up buying it off Amazon, and they don't ship to Spain! One of our Journeyman (a two-year, single missionary) was vacationing in the States, so I sent it to him; and he brought it to España for us! (Thanks, Paul!) SO... Wes got a picture of his gift. :) hahaha... better than nothing, though, right?

A Day of Exploring

2010-08-03T23:42:00.000+02:00

The week we got home from Madrid, we were able to take a day with friends and go explore some new spots in our beautiful new country. We drove 3 hours north and went swimming in one of the "Natural Swimming Pools." It was beautiful and refreshing!

Weston is a really good swimmer... but that water was cold! :)

Swimming is one of the boys' favorite things to do!


I am so surprised at how much Carolina loves the water... even cold water!

After swimming for a while, the kids got hungry. We drove another 15 minutes and found a beautiful place near a creek. The boys loved being outside where they could be as loud as they wanted. I seriously think water and rocks can keep my boys occupied for an entire day. :)

These are some typical Spanish picnic dishes- a Spanish "Tortilla"- made of eggs and potatoes. Carolina loved it. :)

After we ate, we went hiking along the creek. It was so peaceful and GREEN! We have to travel north in order to find green. It's very dry and hot in Cáceres. :) After the kids got tired of walking, we drove to a nearby town for some refreshments.

This was the town square. We sat at a little cafe and got coffee... the kids got popsicles.

Carolina had her first popsicle ever. Can you tell she loved it? :)

This is very typical in Extremadura. That is ham hanging... very expensive ham, actually.

We had a long drive home after a fun day exploring, but it was so worth it. Spain is so beautiful and we have so much more to see!

Weston's 7th Birthday!

2010-08-02T23:38:00.000+02:00

What does every 7 year old boy in Spain want for their birthday... just days after the World Cup? Yes, you guessed it. A Spain jersey. My parents had asked Weston what he wanted for his birthday, and that was the ONLY thing he said... well, the jersey with the shorts and the socks and the shoes and the ball! (I can't believe how 'futbol' crazy my boys have become.) Of course, Mom and Dad couldn't find Spain stuff in the States, so we decided we would look here.

We looked everywhere in Cáceres, trying to find one, but couldn't. Cáceres is so small... there are SO many things we can't find here that I'm sure we could in a larger city. So, when we went to Madrid, we made it a point of finding one for him. He was thrilled. I think it was the highlight of his week!... and of course, he got to wear it the day of his birthday. :) (It's a bit too warm to wear the socks, but the rest works!)

We have several traditions for birthdays around here, and one of them is that the birthday boy gets to choose whatever he wants for dinner. Weston chose hamburgers and fries... a good ole American dinner! ... at least he hasn't become TOO European! ;) Anyway, that was totally a 'Wes' meal, so Wes made Weston's birthday dinner! The burgers were incredible, and he cut potatoes and fried them and everything. It was scrumptious! (and I didn't have to make it!!!!) :) The kids all loved it.

Of course, continuing Weston's latest obsession, we also had to have a soccer ball birthday cake. Ok, now I'm so hesitant to even put this picture on here. It doesn't even compare to the cakes I've seen some of my friend's make in the States!... that whole new marshmallow fondant thing being the new craze. :) I think y'all are just way better than I am. We don't have cake mixes here... we don't have canned frosting here... we don't even have marshmallows!!!! :) (So that's my excuse :) ) haha. :)

At Nathan's birthday, I couldn't find powdered sugar, so I couldn't figure out how to make frosting. I improvised there and made a brownie cake with just candy on top. But, I knew I couldn't do that for Weston's. I was so thankful for a friend who showed me where I could find powdered sugar and what it was called!! We had to buy tons of cans of it, though, b/c it doesn't come like we get it in the States. It's so funny how the most basic things are just different here! Anyway, I found an amazing recipe for vanilla and chocolate frosting on the internet, and it turned out pretty good!... it tasted good, anyway. :) I'm sure I'll get better at all this stuff with each passing birthday. :) It's a good thing we have a large family... I'll get lots of practice. :)

The other thing that has kind of become a tradition is that we skype my mom and dad, so they can be part of the "party" as well. Thank the Lord for technology! It's never quite the same, but at least we all feel a tad bit "less far away," if that makes any sense. :) I still can't believe my Weston is SEVEN! All in all, it was a special day for Weston!! :)

Madrid and the World Cup!

2010-08-02T22:41:00.000+02:00

The second week of July, we all packed everyone into the van and we headed to Madrid for a meeting with all the missionaries in the Western Mediterranean "Cluster"... we got to see many of our friends again! It was wonderful to be with other missionaries... and especially to worship together in ENGLISH! :) it's kinda crazy how we have taken that so for granted! There is something amazingly powerful about lifting praise to our King all together... in on accord (in words we could understand.) It was so refreshing. This meeting was planned before we were even here on the field... who would've ever guessed that Spain would be in the WORLD CUP on the first night of our conference?!?!

We left Cáceres early so that we could get to Madrid and relax a little at the hotel with the kids before we actually started our meeting. We were thankful that we did, b/c (according to our friends) the traffic ended up getting really bad with everyone coming into Madrid to celebrate and watch the World Cup. That night, we ended our meeting in time for everyone to be able to watch the game. There was a big party in the hotel, and they were also showing the game in the REAL Madrid Stadium (just blocks from us), but we had the pleasure of watching it with 3 excited little boys. :) Before we left home, we shopped around a bit and found España t-shirts for the whole family. It was such a big deal to the boys... it was cute. I had made some special snacks before we left home, so that we could enjoy the game together. So, we all piled on beds and couches in our hotel room and watched Spain win the World Cup! What a night!! :)

After the game was over, we could hear the screaming, yelling, hoking, and even fireworks very late into the night. It was so thrilling for the boys. :)

While Wes and I were in meetings and training sessions, the kids were with a group of volunteers from the States who had come on a mission trip to take care of all of our kids during this conference! They had quite a task ahead of them... there were SO many kids! The actually did VBS (Vacation Bible School) for them throughout the week. The first time we dropped the kids off was a little rough for Nathan and Carolina. It was almost like we had shifted back to our "transition mode," and they were insecure again. But, they eventually adjusted and really had a great time! The volunteers were wonderful. The last day, the kids all came in and did a little presentation for us.

It was a fun time to be with friends, worship, learn... and get our "American" fix. :) Most evenings, we went until 10:30pm (it was a long week for my kids who normally go to bed around 7:30!), but we did have one evening free. We took all four kids on the Metro in Madrid and went to Taco Bell! It was a great treat... although, I still can't believe we made SUCH a trip for Taco Bell. Thankfully, we had other families with us; and some helped us by trading off and on carrying Carolina and eventually Nathan. :) haha. BUT, we got Taco Bell... with fountain drinks and free refills! (Neither of which is normal here in Cáceres!) Wes and I also sneaked away during one of our breaks to find Starbucks! Wow... now THAT was a treat! There's no such thing as flavored coffee in Cáceres. I got the largest size, and savored every sip! :)

Saying Goodbye

2010-08-01T16:48:00.000+02:00

Left to Right: Timon, Joel, Daniel, Wes, Paul

In the beginning of July, we said goodbye to Daniel who was one of the Journeymen here with us. Daniel was one of the first people we met when we arrived in Spain. He and Joel picked us up in Madrid. From the moment we met Daniel, he has held a special place in our hearts. My boys fell in love with him from the start, and he often came over to wrestle and play with the boys... no better way to win over three little boys! :) During his last couple days here, we got together and had some "game" time.

Daniel's girlfriend, Natalie, and one of her friends came to stay with us overnight (our very first guests here in Spain!) at the tail end of a month long mission trip in Africa. We were so excited to meet Natalie, since we had heard so much about her from Daniel! I'm bummed I never did get a picture of Ashley. They were both so sweet, and we enjoyed the fellowship! And, of course, Natalie won the heart of my little girl. Carolina was just enthralled with her. I think she thought Natalie was a princess. :) AND she had "pretties" on her arm... it doesn't get better than that, for Carolina!! :)

We had a little going away party in the park for Daniel. The boys each drew pictures for him and; of course, they had to explain what each thing was. We have missed Daniel since he's been gone, but we know the Lord is using him greatly where he is right now.

Left to Right: Carolina, Daniel, Weston, Jonathan, and Abby (Joel and Angela's daughter)

Summer is HERE!

2010-07-05T21:20:00.000+02:00

Summer has started full swing, and we've been almost 110 this past week! It's been HOT! We used to have this type of heat in California, and so we're thankful that God prepared us a little bit for this type of intense heat. The one major difference is that in the States, we pretty much drove everywhere. We would go from our air-conditioned home to our air-conditioned car to the air-conditioned stores, etc. Here, we walk everywhere, so there's no escaping the heat. We DO have air-conditioning in our flat, praise the LORD! It's not the same as a/c in the states... we still need fans in every room, but it keeps the house somewhat comfortable.) In some ways, it makes us want to hibernate in our air-conditioned home!! :)

From what we are finding here in Cáceres, most people leave the city and go to their beach or "countryside" homes for most of July and all of August. Literally, they close down their shops and just leave for that time... and then things re-open after the heat wave is over. :) Obviously, where there is concrete and tall buildings, it's intensely hot. So, they all head to the beach or the countryside where they have pools/beach and a breeze. Most of our friends for the month of July only work half days until the middle of July, and then they have "off" for the 2nd half of July and all of August. Isn't that crazy??? :)

Well, the Lord has provided a new family that has befriended us. Weston's classmate Patricia and her family have expressed interest in getting together so that the kids could practice their English and Spanish as well as practice for us adults! Wes has gotten together for coffee several times with Franciso (Patricia's dad), and this past weekend, they invited us to their little cabin in the countryside. The kids had such a blast. As I've mentioned before, it's been an adjustment, living in an apartment, so the boys really enjoyed being able to just laugh and yell, and have some fun. :)

Francisco has 3 horses, a pony, and several dogs... and a tiny kid pool for the porch. :) The kids got to ride the horses/pony and play in the water. They had a lot of fun together.

Spaniards don't like to get up really early, but they also don't like to be out too late in the afternoon. It's funny, just before 1pm, Francisco said it was time to go. He had mentioned before that anytime after 1pm, it's just too hot out... I kinda chuckled, b/c it seemed so important for us to be DONE before 1pm... as if it's not too hot at 12:45, but once we hit 1pm, it will be too hot. :) We do find that it is such a common Spanish thing to be INSIDE for the hottest part of the day. We were so grateful for the fun time, though. He invited us back anytime, and we plan to take him up on it! All the kids LOVED the horses, and it's such great therapy for Nathan. Francisco and Patricia were so kind, and I loved to watch Patricia with Carolina. They were both quite taken with each other. :)

The Last week of School

2010-07-05T00:17:00.000+02:00

Well, this whole entry is all about the boys, so I thought I'd just throw in one of my favorite pics of Carolina from the past month ... ok, now on to news about the boys... :)

The boys finished up school at the end of June, and we had so much fun with all the parties and festivals that came with their last week of school. It's hard to believe that they are already finished with their first semester here in Spain! We have learned so much about the school system here, and the Lord has been so gracious about providing everything we need at Practicas. It's such a great school with great teachers!

Jonathan has done great this past semester! He seemed to adjust pretty quickly, and he has learned lots and lots of Spanish! He is our little Spanish boy. You'll hear him say, "Mira, mama! Mira!" (which means, "Look, Mom, look!") among many other things. He has a perfect accent, and it's so fun to listen to! I've learned many new words from Jonathan in the past months. It's awesome. :) He will be move up to the next grade with the exact same teacher and classmates. I'm so thankful that he has adjusted so well.

This is Weston's teacher, Josefina. During our meeting with her, she said that Weston (despite the fact that he has had 2 years less schooling than the other kids in 1st grade AND he doesn't know the language...) has caught up on every subject except writing and reading. She was extremely impressed with that, so we were excited. Obviously, the language is something that will hold him up a little when it comes to reading... but, we know it will come in time. Josefina also offered to help Weston this summer, if he wants to try to catch up. She told us she lives nearby and she gave us her phone number... how sweet!!!!

During this week, we also had a meeting with Nathan's teacher and some of the school officials to decide whether or not to hold Nathan back or not. Wes and I had talked and prayed about this at length, b/c Nathan is definitely behind his classmates. He was behind before he ever even arrived, and then you add the fact that he doesn't know the language... and he's really behind! I think I've mentioned this before, but the kids in Spain start school at 3 years old. By the time they are Nathan's age (the 5 yr old class), they are reading fluently and writing in cursive... and Nathan barely knew his letters, let alone how to write them! :) So, we knew he was behind academically, and it was hard for him to catch up b/c of the language barrier. But, on the other hand, he had finally come to enjoy his classmates. It took all four months that we've been in school for the kids to figure out how to be around Nathan... without knocking him over or without making him nervous... and for Nathan to become comfortable enough to assert himself. It was a joint effort between Nathan's teacher and I. Marisa was SO wonderful about everything. She was always so attentive to what Nathan needed, and so willing to bend over backward to help us do whatever was best for Nathan.

Thank you for those of you who prayed with us through this decision! It was difficult for me as we weighed all the pros and cons; but in the end, Wes and I both felt like it was important for Nathan to stay with the kids that he knows. The past four months were SO difficult for Nathan (and Wes would say that's an understatement. :)) that we just didn't want him to have to go through those social adjustments again. (The kids here stay together as a class from the time they start at 3 all the way until they graduate... they never mix up the classes.) There were MANY different factors that went into all this; but as we prayed, this was where we felt led.

The blessing was that when we went to the meeting, Marisa had come to the same conclusion. She felt like it was much more important for Nathan to feel secure and confident with his friends than to be on the exact same level academically. She said that Nathan is extremely intelligent, and that once he grasps the language, she thinks he will be fine. It is almost unheard of to keep a child back a grade, here in Spain. They would rather keep the child in the same class and give him extra attention than hold him back... not sure the why's of all of that, but I'm thankful for it! They have already set in motion for Nathan to have someone to help him specifically next year... and we will work through the summer to help him, as well. I was so thankful to have this decision made... and to have such a peace about it! As one of my friends reminded me... now, even if the road is hard, at least we KNOW this was where God wanted us to walk!

So, Nathan GRADUATED on June 22nd! Wes, Carolina and I were able to go for the ceremony (the other boys were still in class.) It was so CUTE!

One thing that Wes and I both realized as we were praying though Nathan's situation was that the majority of our friends/contacts have come from Nathan's class. It seems EVERYBODY knows Nathan, and it has opened so many doors for us to build relationships. We are so thankful for the Lord opening doors in this way! :) Many of the parents know Nathan and help him... they are all very attentive to Nathan.

This is a picture of Nathan's class party. They whole class had worked on gifts and a poem for Marisa. Each child was supposed to read a part of the poem, but... Nathan can't read yet. So, this is Antonió, the father of one of Nathan's classmates, helping Nathan recite his part of the poem. It was so sweet.

Then, the night of the last day of school, they had a big party at the school. It reminded Wes and I of a "block party" in the States. It was held at the school, and they had those big blow-up games and jumping house. (This is a picture of Weston with one of his best friends, Diego.) We all went, and it was really encouraging to Wes and I how many people we knew! We still don't speak the language, so we definitely feel like outsiders. But, during all these events, I could see how we were actually more in touch with the majority of the parents than even some of the other parents. That blew my mind... and it was all something that Lord has orchestrated little by little along the way. We've been trying to keep our heads above water, so it's not like we would go to school to drop off the kids and say, "hmmm... I'm going to try to get to know this person today." Or "hmm, I haven't talked with this person yet, so I'm going to have Nathan say something funny so we can interact." lol... no, usually, most of our focus was trying to keep Nathan in a routine where he felt comfortable and secure... and praying that he didn't cry and cling that particular day. :) lol... God did it all!... without any effort on our part. It feels like He has laid the ground-work for great opportunities as time goes on.

(This is a picture of Nathan {in the white shirt} and Jonathan {in the red shirt, khaki shorts} playing 'futbol' with their friends during the party.) What an amazing time this was for us as a family! The Lord has truly blessed us all with some wonderful new friends here in Spain. As outsiders, we never dreamed we could connect this quickly with so many people!

Open Doors

2010-06-01T20:54:00.000+02:00

School has now finished for the summer for Wes and I. It has been so nice to be able to be in charge of my own schedule again! :) We are still required to do our 40 ours of language a week, even without our class time everyday; but now we get to do language a little more catered to our own learning style (or at least I do)! We were trying to line up a tutor who might come in several nights a weeks (so we wouldn't have to pay a babysitter), but it's been very difficult to find in our small city of Caceres. So, I have filled up my schedule of 40 hours by spending "speaking time" with friends and reading fiction in Spanish!! ... in addition to self-study. I think it's been very helpful to assimilate all we've been learning in class... and actually use it. :)

I have really enjoyed the freedom I've had to go and have coffee with other moms from the kids' school. They had given up inviting me when I was going to class everyday, but now that I have the time, I go whenever I can. It's a very refreshing part of Spanish culture! I've loved it. It's helped me tremendously with my Spanish... since most of them do NOT speak English. It's really neat to see how they take 30 minutes out of EVERY DAY to just be together and share life. It's not hours... just about 30 minutes, and then they are off to do their daily activities.

We've had about two weeks since school finished up for us. That first week I spent a lot of time in the mornings with these ladies and specifically with my friend Toña. I think I've mentioned that I do an "intercambio" each week, and Toña is my partner for that. We meet weekly so that she can practice her English and I can practice my Spanish. She has become a wonderful friend. She is very patient as I think and put words together to form sentences. :) She has two children who are each in one of my kids' classes, so she often helps me with what's going on in class or in the school in general. She has taken me shopping to the little markets here and there... and the health-food store! She even went with me to get my hair cut! :) I have enjoyed having the extra time to build into our friendship.

So, that first week, I spent time going out and building relationships with people; and Wes spent that week trying to figure out how to get his Spanish driver's license. Poor guy. At this point, I am not even attempting it, but it has to be done, so he's doing it! :) The process here is much more complicated and difficult than in the States (surprise!) and the kicker is that it's all done in Spanish! ... of course! :) His license from the States is only valid for our first six months here, and then he is required to have a Spanish license. The thing is, it takes at least 3 months (and that's doing it quickly!) to get your license here. Anyway, lots of details but the bottom line is that Wes is doing "auto escuela" classes and studying online to take the driving test. It's a great language exercise (lol), since he has to translate EVERYTHING!

Also, during that week first week out of school, we finally had our appointment with Cadex for Nathan. I have no idea what Cadex is. :) But, from what we have gathered, it's kinda the starting point for getting Nathan into their social system for physical therapy. We've been waiting about 2 months for this appoint (I think I've mentioned it before.) They do social medicine here, and we are under "private" insurance. Technically, I think we are supposed to do all "private" doctors, but there's very few here b/c most people DO the social medicine. Nathan's school pointed us in the direction of Cadex, and I wasn't sure what was going to come of it. But, the Lord was so gracious.

The day of the appointment, we had to bring a translator along with us, so one of our friends came with us. Nathan saw a psychologist, a medical doctor, and a social worker that day. They all examined him and asked questions in order to give an evaluation. What we found out that day was that in order to qualify (if they let us "slip" into the system at all), Nathan would need to be evaluated as at least 33% "disabled." I'm not sure how they measure that, but I thought for sure Nathan wouldn't qualify. I mean, the kid is smart as a whip and he RUNS! :) lol ... on his toes, but he still runs! :)

I believe very strongly that the Lord was opening doors for us that day. Our friend, Angela, who is a missionary in another nearby town, made the comment as well. The Lord opened door after door for us to walk through. He has allowed us to meet and connect with all the right people who would be able to help us get to where we needed to go. We met the director of this Cadex when we first came in to apply. He was the only one who spoke English, so we established the beginnings of a relationship with him that day. The day of our interview, he came out and wanted to meet Nathan. He talked for quite a while, loving on Nathan. It was very sweet. And if you know Nathan, you know he loved that! Nathan loves to talk to anyone who will listen! :)

Anyway, the medical doctor told Angela that he was going to do whatever he could for Nathan. He said that Nathan is doing very well, but that therapy would be necessary for him to be at his BEST... which is exactly how I feel!!! Nathan IS doing well for having Cerebral Palsy; but he could be doing better, I believe. Apparently, the doctor had the authority to decide on a case by case basis. At the end of all those interviews, we found out that they had evaluated Nathan at 34% disabled. So, thank the Lord for softening the hearts of those who had the authority to "slip" Nathan into the system!

While we were there, they offered some other possible "helps" for us, and we asked a bunch of questions. I was so encouraged that day. I do believe that if we were in a large city, it might have been easy to be overlooked, but I think God softened the hearts of the people we were meeting with... and they had the authority to "do" what was needed!

There is something here called "Familia numerosa." Yeah, just like it sounds... they actually call it a "condition." We have the "condition" of being a "large family." :) We have to apply for a card that "certifies" us as a large family, and then we qualify for all sorts of different discounts. Here in Caceres, we pay for all the kids' school books, even though they are in a public school. Kinda different... and VERY expensive with 3 kids in school!! Familia numerosa would qualify us for a discount for books, medications, even air-line tickets within Europe! So, needless to say, we had been trying to apply for it.

My amazing husband had started at an agency that the school had sent him to... and it was not the right one. I think he walked for hours in the rain, all over town going from place to place trying to apply for it. He finally found the right place, but they told him that he had to have a "family book." In the States, obviously, we don't have a "family book"... we have birth certificates, marriage certs., etc. The guy was pretty obstinate about it. He told Wes that we would have to have all of our documents translated and put into an official Spanish "family book." But he didn't know where Wes would have to get that done. Lovely, huh? Nobody seemed to know. So, we were at a standstill on that... until this particular day... the day that God opened many doors!!

We had mentioned to the social worker that we had been trying to apply for it, but we were running into trouble. She made a phone call for us, and she said the guy was expecting us that afternoon. Praise the Lord! We walked in with all our American paperwork (the exact same ones they had "turned down" the week before!), and got all our documents certified and our application finished. The guy was so gracious on this particular day. He mentioned that since Nathan had qualified into the system at Cadex, he would actually qualify for 2 kids, putting our family into the next level of "savings." The only thing was that we didn't have the official letter from Cadex yet. The guy told us that it would be simpler to wait for that letter and then come back in, rather than re-applying in 10 days when the letter comes in. He decided to go ahead and authenticate everything for us, so we wouldn't have to bring our documents in again. He signed and validated everything and now all we have to do is bring that letter in with the paperwork he signed, and we are set! Isn't God good? It's amazing how God has been answering specific prayers!

As of right now, we are still waiting on that paper and also to find out if we qualified for some other "help" that Cadex recommended. Please pray that we do qualify, and that it comes back quickly! It is all still a process... a waiting game. We can't even begin to pursue the avenues of getting Nathan into therapy until we have that letter. He has been without therapy for probably about 8 months now. I don't think it's detrimental in the long run, but I do think Nathan could be doing better. So, please join with us in praying for a quick turn around of paperwork and more open doors for the right place for therapy for Nathan. :)