The First Day of School

Today was our first day of school. The day began with an all-school and parent assembly where we, along with the new teachers, were introduced. Mr. Musser, the Headmaster, said that earlier in the summer, there were only around 70 students enrolled (Grades 1 - 12) and that they need around 65 just to keep the doors open and pay the bills, so they were concerned about it being tight financially, but that over the last 8 weeks, the enrollment grew and this morning there were 88 students enrolled.

This year's senior class.

After the assembly, we were sent to our homeroom assignments. Not only are we dorm parents, we are also 6th grade sponsors, which means we will get to plan various activities throughout the year for the 6th graders. This morning we went over their schedules with them and helped them with their locker assignments.

The 6th grade.

Then tonight, we had our first family meal with our girls. Clockwise is Olivia, Corrine and Jesse. They are a GREAT group of girls and we are still so excited about what this year will hold for all of us.

We are finally dorm parents! After a year and a half of talking about it and planning for it, we finally have three MK's living in our house and are still waiting to hear about one more. Our first girl, Jesse, moved in yesterday and the other two (sisters) just arrived a few minutes ago. More updates to come.

In other news...

Tonight we were heading upstairs to give the kids a bath and I told Rachel which bathroom we were going to use and she said, "Well, I hope you know where the light is because I couldn't find it earlier and on Outrigger Island (a VBS she went to this summer) it says that the Bible lights the way so I took my Bible in there, but it didn't work!"

After laughing out loud for a minute, we clarified what exactly "Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path," means. The Bible isn't a flashlight. So funny.

Flexibility and Spanish Cuisine

From previous missions experiences, David and I knew that any job in missions requires an ability to be flexible. We knew that coming into this, but still thought we knew what to expect. And to a degree, we do, I guess. But in the three weeks we have been here, we have gone from expecting four girls in our dorm, to only expecting three, to having two additional girls on the fence right now, and we may end up with five by the end of next week. We would be thrilled to have a house full, but we would also like to have a smaller group to "ease into" the whole dorm parenting thing. The Lord knows our needs and the needs of the families represented by the girls, so we continue to wait and trust and be ready for whatever He sends our way.

There is a high school camp next week that David is considering attending. It's three days, two nights, and is mandatory for all the students. We think it would be a great time of relationship building with all the high schoolers, so hopefully we can work that out. Our greatest desire here is to open our home to all the high schoolers, not just the handful of girls living in our dorm. We want our home to be a place where they are all welcome any time, and we want the opportunity to invest and minister to them through hospitality and loving them in a mentor kind of way. We don't know what that will look like, but we know that that is the seed that is planted in our hearts.

These last two days we have had "new staff orientation" at the school. It was nice to have some time to spend with the other new staff and get to know them, as well as just learning about school policies, etc. Have I mentioned how welcoming and warm this community is? Not only have they been very sensitive to any needs we have had, they have been so great with our kids. On Thursday, the school took us to the one restaurant here in Camarma, "El Mar Rojo," (The Red Sea), where we had a choice of three entrees. Pork, pork or boiled squid. Spanish food is very different from Mexican food, for those of you who didn't know.

This is our table full of new staff (with a few administrative people)

David ordered the sliced pork with papas fritas.

I ordered the variety of pork, (sausage, Chorizo and fatty pork)

And our new friend Susan (the piano teacher) ordered the squid because she is braver than we are.

We aren't feeling homesick yet, but there is a level of culture shock that we are still experiencing. We are, however, enjoying the slower pace of life and the togetherness of our family these last few weeks.

Last week

Ikea...one of our very favorite places. This one is about 30 minutes from us.

Some Spanish countryside on the way home from Ikea

Thanks, Liz, for the cute stickers!

This was at a mall near us.

More pics of the mall.

Our girls

A brief note on the girls who will be living in our dorm this fall, for all who have been asking - They will be arriving the week of the 25th. School starts Thursday the 28th. We were expecting 4 girls for the fall, but just found out that one will not be coming after all. So we are now preparing for our 3 girls, Olivia, Corinne and Jessica.

Catholic country, Catholic holidays

Today is a federal holiday in Spain, Assumption Day, which celebrates the day Mary "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory." This means that Mary was transported into Heaven with her body and soul united." (wikipedia)

A federal holiday here means more than it generally does in the States. It is a Holy Day of Obligation, which means that not only are the banks and post office closed, every store and establishment is closed. Kind of like Christmas. The Catholic Canon states that on Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass. Moreover they are to abstain from those works and affairs which hinder the worship to be rendered to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s day, or the suitable relaxation of mind and body. (wikipedia)

Last night I was a bit annoyed at the fact that I can't go anywhere or do anything today, but David said that he thought it was nice that, unlike in the States, everything here closes so that the workers can stay home and rest or celebrate. In the States, many stores are open even on Easter and Thanksgiving now. A forced rest is a good thing.

Nuestra Casa (Our House)

More pictures of our house, for those who are wondering... We still have some rearranging and decorating to make it feel more like home to us, but we are thankful, nonetheless, for a furnished house to just come and live in.

This is the view out our front door towards the street. All the houses here are behind gates and tall fences. Someone told us that dates back to the days when Spain would be attacked by different armies. There is still a "fortress mentality," of sorts. We like it, though, because the kids are able to go out and play and I don't have to worry about them escaping. You can't open the gate without a key. Most all the buildings here are made out of brick or stucco, which we think is because of the lack of wood resources.

This is our front yard. Ours has grass, thanks to the house parents who lived here before us. Some are tiled completely. Others are just dirt and weeds.

This is our back yard and patio, also fenced in completely. Someone found this swing set in the storage container at the school and left it for us. David put it together yesterday. The kids love it! We've never had a back yard or a level enough yard to have our own playground.

This is the view inside our house from the front porch.

This is the living room. The furniture was already here, although we did buy the curtains and pillows to give it some color.

This is the other half of our living/dining room.

This is a shot of Rachel and Mathis's room. We borrowed these bunk beds from another ECA family who weren't quite ready for them. They graciously said we could borrow them for at least this year.

Happy Hand-Me-Downs

A sweet family who served here the last two years thoughtfully left us 6 boxes full of toys, books, dress up clothes and a bike for Rachel. We have been so thankful as we've begun to sort through them. Among our favorite things so far:

Her very own bike, pink and purple, complete with a ladybug helmet. She says she is going to save her allowance and buy a bell, a basket and a headlamp. :)

Several dress up outfits, including this "Little House on the Prairie / Felicity (American Girl)" outfit.

And a bag of curlers, which she was very excited about. In Tennessee, whenever I attempted to curl her hair, it would hold for about 10 minutes, then go flat because of the humidity. Here, it stayed all day. So cute. :) In fact, she looked in the mirror this morning after we took them out and said, "Mommy, I look like Shirley Temples!"

Sunday

This morning we attended church at a church in Alcala de Henares, a larger town about ten minutes away from us. It is a bilingual church, so most of the songs were sung corporately in Spanish first, then in English. The pastor is a Spaniard, as are most of the leaders, but there is an English translator who stands up next to him. I would have taken a picture, but I didn't feel right taking flash photography during a worship service. I did get a picture before the service started, though. We sang for about 40 minutes, then the children were dismissed to their Sunday School class for the duration of the sermon.

There is another church plant that has just begun this year in Camarma, the town where we are, and we will probably try it next week.

It's so beautiful here. I mean, it's like a desert kind of, very dry and arid and not much green, but I love the blue sky and sun. Our house has lots of large windows that we leave open most of the time and there is a slight breeze blowing most of the day. On the road to Alcala, we pass by an olive grove. Olives and olive oil are one of Spain's largest exports.

Olive grove

There are very few traffic lights here. Almost every intersection has a roundabout. Here is a picture of one coming up. Again, I am so thankful to not have to drive here...yet anyway. I'm so glad David knows what he's doing. :)

First impressions...

This is the dorm. It is a just a house in Camarma that the school rents.

This is our street. Every house is exactly the same.

This is our minivan, provided by the school. It's very "mini," as is everything here. All the cars here are stick shift, which means David will be doing all of the driving. It comes in handy that he drove professionally for 3 years before he started teaching. :)

These are our appliances. The skinny refrigerator, small oven and tiny microwave.

Everything is small here. This is a litre of 2% milk.

This is our washing machine, in the kitchen, of course. We tried it out today, after having to call someone to come show us how to use it. I mean, could you understand this...

(click to enlarge picture)

Mathis loves watching the clothes swish around and around.

And this one is for Lisa. :) Most Spaniards do not have dryers, although our house does have one. It is unbelievably dry and hot here (think desert) so I took advantage of it to save energy. Believe it or not, these were hung out this evening in the shade and were completely dry within 2 hours.

Safe Arrival

After a very long day and overnight Monday, we finally arrived in Madrid Tuesday morning, with all our bags and two relatively happy children. Thank you for all your prayers! We had very gracious helpers all along the way, from the airline people who checked our bags, to a very sweet flight attendant who went the extra mile to bring us our kids' food before the rest of the plane and even helped us getting all our carry-ons off the plane. Then once we had gathered all our bags at the baggage claim, a very gracious man offered to help wheel one of our carts, since David had one and I had both kids. Thank You, Lord, for your favor.

We were warmly greeted by several of the staff at ECA, who helped us get all our stuff to our house (pics coming soon), provided snacks and dinner for us and have been extremely helpful in general with helping us get settled. We are six hours ahead of Chattanooga here so the children are especially tired, but hopefully they will adjust quickly. Last night, we all slept about 13 hours. Our phone and internet were not working when we arrived, hence the delayed update. But now I am feeling somewhat settled and ready to finally get back to my interneting.

David and Rachel on the plane

Mathis attempting to use the headphones. He didn't quite understand what they were for and they didn't really fit, but it was worth a shot. Another funny Mathis-ism is that when we were at the airport, he would run to the window and point at the planes and say, "Boat!?" I'm not sure why he thinks they are boats, but it's cute anyway.

It was sooo nice that each seat came equipped with its own screen, which allowed us to choose whatever TV or movie we wanted, when we wanted. Also, there were video games to play. "Bejeweled" kept me entertained for quite a while. :)

And this is our arrival photo. After David had stacked all those bags on the cart, Rachel said to Mathis, "Wow, Mathis! Look what Daddy built!"

We have our passports!

Thank you for your prayers concerning our lost passports. They were “found,” Thursday evening in the New Orleans post office and were delivered to us today. There is no question in our minds that it is because so many people were praying around 8:45 Thursday night that it "just so happened" the envelope was found and scanned right then. As we mentioned previously, David has his visa, but we are still waiting on Keri’s and the kids’ visas to be approved, but we can still enter Spain as “tourists,” as we continue to wait on their approval. Please continue to pray with us about this situation, that our visas will be approved quickly, but mostly Praise the Lord for such a quick and clear answer to your prayers about our passports. Not only do we have our passports in hand, we are thankful for the lesson in trust and for the patience and perseverance the Lord continues to work in our hearts.

Update

The express envelope containing our passports was scanned in the New Orleans post office as of 8:55 p.m. last night (two days after they were dropped off, but anyway...) We are anxiously hoping they arrive tomorrow. More updates later...

p.s. - I firmly believe that it is because so many people were praying around 8:45 last night that it "just so happened" the envelope was found and scanned right then. KEEP PRAYING!!