My dad

I would like to ask you to pray with us over the next few weeks and months. About a month ago, my dad was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer. He will have surgery on October 22 so they can remove his prostate. We are praying that they will be able to get all the cancer out, that the cancer has not spread to his lymph nodes, and that the side effects will be as minimal as possible. Also pray for the time to go quickly - the surgery was originally scheduled for October 5, and it is not especially fun to wait 2 more weeks!!

For several months, Katie & I have planned to come to Texas at the end of October - I guess only God knew the whole reason we were coming. So our schedule has been arranged and rearranged, and will likely be rearranged again, but I am thankful that I will get to be there with my family.

I don't know what else to say. It's scary stuff and we don't know what the future will hold. But I know that God does know and He is big enough.

Psalm 142:3a "When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way."

Psalm 16:8 "I have set the LORD always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken."

1st Day of School!

Friday, 4 September, was Katie's first day of school. Katie has been in school 4 days a week this past year, but this year was a big deal:
1. Because this is Kindergarten!! For real (and no matter what country we live in), she is in school now!
and 2. Because she switched to a new school!!

Katie is now attending an international school called ICS (International College Spain). It follows the IB program and is much more similar in style and philosophy to schools in the states. We hope this will make her transition back to a TX school easier when that time comes.

We kicked off a new tradition this year, one that comes from my childhood: the back to school lunch! Katie & I enjoyed lunch together the week before school started, to celebrate the new beginning. We ate at a place called Frankie & Benny's that makes yummy American style pizza. Then we went shopping for her new backpack and to spend the money Mimi & Poppi sent her for some new school supplies. She loved the shopping and spending of money - maybe as much or more than the lunch! :-)

Thursday we got to go meet her new teacher, Ms. Moran. Ms. Moran is from Ireland. Katie enjoyed seeing her new classroom and the new school.









On Friday, Katie was up and eager to get on her way. She was ready WAY before Mom & Dad were! Katie doesn't exactly wear uniforms at her new school, but they have a gym outfit that they wear on gym days. Since they have gym 3 times a week, it about amounts to the same thing :-)




Unfortunately we can't quite walk to school, even though the new school is closer than the old one. We clocked it at 26 minutes the week before school started. A bit too much for EVERY morning! But we park on a street down the hill from the school and walk up the hill so as to avoid the traffic. If we get there on the late side, sometimes it feels like we're walking to school :-)





Each morning, they line up to wait for their teacher and their class's turn to go inside. Katie was REALLY upset when she found out at meet-the-teacher that we could not go upstairs with her to her actual classroom. But on the first day, she did great! It's actually a great system because any leaving drama is lessened by the structure and the distance from the actual classroom.

And finally: the actual back-to-school outfit :-). We had bought this before we realized that the first day of school was a gym day and that she would wear her gym clothes. So this was on Wednesday, the 4th day of school :-) Katie is LOVING her new school and has quickly settled in and made friends. This is a HUGE answer to prayer, as her transition to the 1st Spanish school was not so smooth. She is still adjusting to the schedule - by Thursday or Friday each week, she is pretty worn out. She goes 5 days a week from 8:50 -4:05 - 1 day and almost an hour longer than her school last year. Actually, I think Mommy & Daddy are still adjusting too - we get pretty worn out by the end of the week too! :-) But we are so thankful that we have found a place where Katie is doing so well!

France

Now for the grand finale of the "20 Day Trip"! :-)







We wrapped up our vacation by meeting some friends in Paris. These are French friends we met in Madrid, who moved to Dubai in March. They have a 5 year old girl just a little bit older than Katie and a 3 year old boy. Katie was sooo excited to get to see her friends again and to have someone to play with. We got to stay at our friends' parents' amazing 400 year old house in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the oldest suburb of Paris. It was a wonderful town and we enjoyed having coffee on the square and being spoiled a bit by her parents. It was so refreshing to be in a home with a family after 2 weeks of traveling! We enjoyed a fabulous meal with fabulous desserts - quite appropriate to kick off our time in France. In France, as in Italy, it is really all about the food :-) In Spain, the pastries look pretty but usually taste blah. In France.... oo la la!! The fruit one looks a bit prettier, but the chocolate one won by a mile! :-)

After this lovely morning in Saint Germain, we headed off to the Loire Valley, where there are many castles. On our way to the condo we stayed in, we stopped at the Chateau of Chambord. It was a very beautiful castle. It has a corkscrew staircase in the middle of it - 2 spiral staircases intertwined so that 2 people can ascend at the same time and not pass each other. You could just catch glimpses of the other person through breaks in the walls. It was really cool. After quickly touring the castle (we got there just before closing time!), we had a lovely picnic on the grounds behind the castle. Somehow roasted chicken, fruit, cheese & French bread taste sooo much better that way! The kids were able to play together as they ate = big fun!!

The next day we headed out to see the Chateau of Chenonceau. This one is much more grand and dramatic, especially because it spans a river. It was beautiful to see the reflection of the castle in the water! This was actually the dividing line of occupied France and non-occupied France during WWII. They smuggled people out of occupied France through this castle!

We also enjoyed the beautiful gardens of Chenonceau and enjoyed an amazing lunch at a restaurant in town. It was a wonderful day! Here's our toothless girl near the castle (and someone's lovely orange shirt :-) )

I'm finding myself short on words to describe what we did in France - we had a wonderful time, but what we saw was truly secondary to just spending time with our friends! It was priceless to have so much time to be together and catch up on each others' lives. We are so thankful that God has given us such friends in such a short time here in Madrid! We didn't really even begin to see the castles that there are to see - there are a BUNCH of them! We really just enjoyed the time together - and now we have a reason to go back!

We stayed in the town of Loches in a wonderful condominium. It was perfect to have room to cook, eat and talk without sitting on our beds :-) The town ended up being really neat in its own right - so our last day together, we spent exploring Loches. This is the view out the window of our apartment! It was really pretty! There was a castle in town as well (cool to visit, though not so photogenic as this building - we never did figure out what exactly this building is :-) ). So we explored the town and finished the day and our stay in France with a lovely meal at a creperie. A perfect ending for a perfect time!!