For Daddy :-)

Well, Daddy is out of town this week - he is enjoying the whirlwind that is the Lotus conference in Orlando, Florida. Katie got her hair cut today and we thought he (and you :-) ) might enjoy seeing some pics of the new do. Katie could not stop looking at herself in the mirror all evening (not that that is terribly odd... but maybe a bit more than usual :-) ).

I'm feeling very patriotic today and am very thankful for slingbox to watch the inauguration on tonight! "God bless America - Land that I love! Stand beside her, and guide her, through the night with the light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans white with foam. God bless America, my Home sweet Home! God bless America, my Home sweet Home!"

Good night!

Santa Lucia

But 1st: A picture of our mountains! We live fairly close to some absolutely gorgeous mountains! Most of the time, you can't see them, but a couple of days recently have been crisp & clear and the mountains have been literally breathtaking. There is snow on the mountains and I don't know if the snow has especially highlighted the whole range, but it seems like we've been able to see more of the mountains than ever before. We really live in a beautiful place with amazing weather. I am especially enjoying it since most of my life has been spent in unattractive TX :-).

Yesterday at Katie's (Scandanavian) school, they celebrated Santa Lucia. Not totally sure who she is (see here: Saint Lucy) but it was fun. :-) My main connection is that this is the celebration where the girls wear the white dresses with a candle wreath on their heads - a bit the stereotypical image of Sweden. I don't know if you can see the girl standing in the front of the group, but that's the image that I recognize! Apparantly they usually do this procession in the dark early in the morning, and one of the Swedish teachers was very put out that we had to do it at 10 in the morning!

Katie did get to wear a white dress and take part in a parade and several songs. I knew they were learning a song in Swedish for the occasion - but she actually learned 5 or 6 songs in Swedish! It was kind of crazy :-). A highlight was the kids singing Silent Night in Swedish, then English, then Spanish! Times like this make me shake my head at the craziness of living in the mix of cultures that we live in :-). Katie looked so cute in her little outfit and really sang along well with all the songs, no matter the language :-).


Here is Katie with her best friends from school: Frida from Denmark, then Katie before she got her glitter on, then Malin from Denmark (Frida's sister), then Ebba from Sweden. As you can see from the kiddos - Katie is attending a school full of very tall, very blond girls and women!

And now at the risk of giving you a stereotypical video of my kid in the school program - here is Katie and the other kids singing her favorite of the songs she learned in Swedish. She is in the middle between the 2 boys w/ the cone hats on (as in the picture above - & just to the left of the girl w/ the red belt on). You can see her nodding her head emphatically as she sings along :-). Enjoy!

God's Grace

It's been a tough 10 days since we've been back from vacation. I've been wanting to blog about it (to ask for prayer!), but I've been too busy dealing with it.

Katie's been having a really hard time at school. We've had hints of it before, but after we got back from vacation it really all came out. She was feeling like she didn't have any friends at school in Spain. I'm not really sure what changed - maybe the reality of us being here for more than just a couple of months was setting in, I think there had been some unkindness from some of the girls at school, or maybe Katie was just feeling more frustrated by her attempts to communicate with the friends she had been playing with. Not sure. But she has been really discouraged and very sad about going to school. This had escalated into screaming prolonged fits when we dropped her off at school each morning. Not fun. Jason even took her yesterday (something that has worked in the past), but she was just as bad for him as for me.

It's just so hard to know what to do in these situations. Clearly screaming fits are not acceptable, but she was clearly hurting and just really sad. Added to our confusion is the fact that school is over tomorrow for the summer - a good thing that we knew this stage would be short, but I was concerned we wouldn't really come to any sort of resolution in this - just a postponement until Sept or some later date.

In praying and thinking about this I had just realized that Katie was listening to a lie and not the truth - she does have friends at her Spanish school, friends that LOVE her... just that don't speak much or any English. (and yes, I well remember listening to this same lie as a girl...) So I started praying that she would choose to focus on the truth instead of this lie. I also read a great book my mom had given me about kids moving cross culturally. It told a story in there about how the author's son had faced a very difficult day at school with a situation he didn't know how to handle, they prayed for God to help him, and then after he left for school, the mom prayed fervently that God would visibly show up for her little boy and that he would SEE God working in his life personally. So I also started praying that this would be an opportunity for Katie's faith to grow and for her to see God's personal help in her difficult times.

I think it's hard for me to pray those sorts of prayers... b/c God does say no sometimes when we pray... and who am I to "expect" something like that from Him.

But God's grace abounds.

This morning started out the same as the past few - Katie was really clingy all morning, really anxious, really vocal about not wanting to go to school. Even as we walked up to the building, she was wanting me to pick her up and was starting to cry like she had the past few mornings. My main new strategy of the morning was to leave as quickly as possible - to try to avoid her having time to really get worked up. So I sat down near her cubby with her in my lap, and she still wasn't really crying. Then her teacher, Amanda, came to sit down by us to say good morning. I said I was going to go and let her go with Amanda, so Amanda asked if Katie wanted her to hold her hand or pick her up. (pick her up of course - and yes, her teacher is truly wonderful) Then they made a plan to go to the window of the classroom and wave at me as I left. And KATIE DIDN'T EVEN CRY!!!! I could tell she was still really scared and sad, but she held it together and was so brave. I was so proud of her I could have burst! (and yes, I was doing the crying for her :-) )

As I left, and as Katie & I talked about it after school, I realized how specifically God had answered my prayer. She saw Him help her in such a tangible way. And she was able to do what for her was impossible because God helped her. After school she told me "it was the best day ever". Some of this was due to them having the end of the year party today with loads of candy and junk, eating hot dogs & ice cream for lunch, etc... :-) But I think it was also because she sees God's love for her in a new way.

In between the amazing things we are experiencing here in Europe, this gig is really tough sometimes. But God brought us here to Spain for a reason, He is using us and giving us meaningful work to do for Him here and He is always faithful to help us through the rough patches.

Thanks for supporting us in the good times and bad!
Becca

Pics of Katie

Well, I figure this blog won't always be all about the move... so we'll start today :-)

I thought I'd post some pics of Katie from the week - she got a new short haircut (like Lily's, she says), today was Drive In Movie Day where the kids dressed up in 50s attire (BIG fun!!), and we got a Valentine's present in the mail today (thank you, Mimi!).

Enjoy!
Becca

p.s Oh - and about the move. :-) We didn't get the work permit today, but it has been promised to us tomorrow!! Yippee!