Thanks for being a reader of this blog! The time has come to simplify our blogging life. 🙂 When we began our journey towards Spain, Daniel created a blog solely for that part of our lives. Now that we are getting closer to transitioning to Spain, most of the updates in life relate in some way to that journey. I will not be updating this blog anymore; rather, all updates will now take place at brinksinspain.com. If you are interested in keeping up with our family going forward, please remove this blog from your bookmarks and replace it with brinksinspain!! I hope to become more regular at updating — shorter, more frequent updates as opposed to longer, less frequent ones. But we’ll see…
This photo pretty much summarizes the month of May for our family.
It was as busy as we had expected it to be, but we are thankful that we survived!! May began with the trip to Houston (previous post), and then we rolled through Mother’s Day, my birthday, and the t-ball “season.” Belle’s Mother’s Day Out class had a precious Mother’s Day brunch for all the moms — here we are at her table:
I turned 29 in May, and despite the busyness of the week, I felt very special. The kids had a t-ball game on my actual birthday, but I had more than one sweet friend bring me cupcakes at the game! Daniel brought home pizza and cupcakes that evening as well, so I was a happy camper. 🙂 Daniel and I went out for a nicer dinner a couple of evenings later; we enjoyed our time together despite being pretty exhausted!
We moved out of our house Memorial Day weekend. The week of the move was probably pretty typical for anyone who has moved; eventually your kitchen is all packed, so you have no choice but to eat out. We used paper and plastic tableware for our final week, and at one point the kids even took their paper plates out to the sidewalk and ate on the ground. We had so much help from family and friends with packing, moving, cleaning, taking care of kids, etc — we felt so blessed. We spent Friday of that long weekend making preparations for the move, and Saturday was Moving Day. Several of Daniel’s friends came over to help us with the heavy moving, and we had a small army of sweet women from church descend on the house and help with the cleaning. Many hands truly did make light work! I was physically exhausted that afternoon as I was cleaning carpets (or rather trying to control the heavy carpet cleaner and not let it move me across the floor), and the emotions about moving out, what we are embarking on, etc, did hit me as I looked around my empty house that has been so wonderful for our family. I am thankful for the years in that house, and I am thankful that the Lord provided a buyer for it. I am thankful for Daniel’s parents who have graciously opened their home to us, and we are settled into life in their home. I am thankful for the pockets of time that I can deal with the emotional side of things and grieve the losses, but I am also thankful for the ability to get up and “do the next thing” since there are still plenty of next things!!
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This question was posed to Daniel this past weekend at the Spanish consulate in Houston, TX. “No ma’am, I am not” was his polite reply. But let me back up.
We suspected May was going to be an especially busy month for our family, and so far, it is living up to our expectations. We are so thankful to have a contract on our home, and as many of you know the moving experience comes with packing, finding boxes, asking insurance questions, making insurance changes, dealing with repairs from the home inspection, etc. Packing for a move across town is hard; I am not sure packing for a move across the ocean is any harder, but it surely involves some extra details. We don’t want to throw our things haphazardly in boxes since those boxes will be packed for three years — we want to label thoroughly and think through each box. Consequently, I have only packed 7 boxes, but I am gearing up for a big push over the next couple of weeks. 🙂 I do pray that each of us will learn something age-appropriate about having a loose hold on the things of this world and experience “dying to self” in new ways as pack.
Back to the title. For weeks and weeks we have been meticulously gathering documents for our visa application. I did not really realize how much ownership and pride I had in those folders of documents until I felt that they were under-appreciated at the consulate. 🙂 For awhile we’ve been waiting on this one specific document to arrive from Spain, and it arrived last week. Thanks to many of you for praying it over here! Anyway, we had planned to travel to apply for the visas as soon as it arrived, and we did so this past weekend. The Spanish consulate for our area is in Houston, TX — yep, our area. Because Houston is super-convenient from Memphis. We rented a car and headed to Jackson Saturday afternoon; the kids were going to stay there while Daniel and I dealt with the application. Sunday after church Daniel and I drove the rest of the way to Houston, and Monday, after the consulate experience, we drove back to Jackson. LOTS of driving.
We knew that the visa process is notoriously frustrating, but we also were confident that we had the documents we needed, the right number of copies of each made, the translations for specific ones done, etc. When we entered the consulate Monday morning, it wasn’t what we expected. I thought that each applicant (or couple) might wait for a turn to sit at a desk with a worker and go through the documents, etc. Nope. You just talk to a consulate person through a plate of glass with a little speaker hole. Picture “Two please for Hunger Games” — felt like we were at a movie theater. Anyway, I won’t go into all the details here, but let’s just say it was slightly frustrating and that my pride in my document collection was exposed. The lady did not think we qualified for the type of visa for which we were applying because Daniel is not an ordained minister (hence the title question), so our sweet team members in Madrid are writing another document expressing why Daniel is qualified to come over to do religious work at all, and on this type of visa, and mailing it to the consulate. It was an adventure, to say the least. We do pray that this additional document will do the trick and that we’ll have no further issues. God is bigger than visas!!
The kids of course had a grand time while we were in Houston, and I believe they would have happily stayed longer with my parents. We came home Tuesday, and we’ve hit the ground running here. Belle and Harry are doing well, despite the chaotic nature of our family’s life right now, and I love to see them playing together and watching out for each other.
I took this picture this morning while they were listening to an audio book together. The photo doesn’t capture the sweetness of the moment…two kids just sitting quietly next to each other, listening to a story, and turning the pages together.
This photo was from yesterday’s time in the backyard. I looked out and saw this construction they had put together, complete with the broom for house cleanliness and the mower for lawn maintenance. I believe they were playing “Mommy Daddy” — it’s so precious (and often frightening) how much they imitate their parents!
On another note, Belle and Harry are playing T-Ball this month! Hilarious. We have never done any sort of organized anything, and the idea of playing church-league t-ball with several of the kids’ friends sounded like a pretty good starting place. Because of our travel schedule this summer, we will only attend 5 out of the 8 games. Our team has had one “practice”; watching all the kids in their green hats try to hold their gloves, field balls, or hit the ball and remember to run was truly hysterical. One practice is all we’re getting: they start games Saturday. So I am sure I’ll have some game-time pictures over the next couple of weeks.
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We had a garage sale on Saturday, and I got questions like this one often. We had decided that since we’ll be moving, a garage sale would be a good idea. Everyone told me that having a garage sale is NOT fun and that I’d never want to do it again. I will say that I don’t think I could get motivated to REALLY clean out if I were not moving. Faced with the prospect of packing it in a box to store for 3 years, getting rid of stuff seemed pretty easy. Anyway, we had marked April 21 on our calendar weeks ago, and I was determined to get rid of a lot and make some money.
Daniel was very kind to help me and put up with my compulsive desire to get rid of anything that remotely resembled “unnecessary.” We compromised on a few things, but he was a great help. My mom had helped me sort through some things too. I would NEVER want to wait till 2 days before to start preparing for a garage sale because it really is so much work. Sorting, pricing, unpacking, labeling, getting tables, setting up tables, getting more tables, arranging, etc is exhausting. BUT, for us, it was worth it.
Rain was in the forecast for April 20/21, but the Lord was gracious to move the rain through before 6am on April 21. At 5:45 am people started to arrive; I had advertised in the newspaper and on Craigslist, so the word was out. I think my neighborhood is a good one for sales too. Anyway, we opened the door at 6:00, and things started to go. It’s so funny to me that “garage saleing” is a regular, weekend activity for many of these people, and I chuckled to myself when some of them greeted each other by name. Lots of stuff was gone by 7am — the hard core buyers were there early.
We had no rain, but it was in the 40’s most of the morning. I wore a scarf, and we stepped inside whenever we could. Sitting at a garage sale provides a wonderful opportunity for people-watching and just hearing funny things that people say. We had a group of 3 older ladies come together, and I almost laughed out loud when one of them said to me, “Now, if I buy lots of these 50-cent items, can you give me a deal?” I mean, really?? The items are 50 cents to begin with — what kind of deal do you want? But I said, “Sure.” We wanted to get rid of the stuff and were not interested in getting every dollar we could, so in most cases we were able to give shoppers a lower price if they asked.
A few exceptions to this rule were the items my elderly neighbor had contributed, the most interesting of which was an old mixer. It had to be from the 1950s and really would a cool item if you were into old things. The kicker was the price: she wanted $50 for it because mixers nowadays cost so much. Not sure if that logic stands or not. Anyway, I saw a $10 sticker on the mixer from a previous garage sale, and obviously, since it made an appearance in my sale, it hadn’t sold for $10. I politely pointed out to her that it hadn’t sold for $10 and asked if she’d like for me to lower her $50 price, but she said no. I had more than 1 shopper tell me it was a nice mixer, and one lady even tried to bargain with me for it. She would have bought it, but I told her I couldn’t go lower because it was my neighbor’s. After I explained that it was my neighbor’s, another lady told me that she wouldn’t get $50 for it. I agreed with her, but there was nothing I could do. So, at the end of the sale, we boxed up the mixer and returned it to its home in my neighbor’s storage room.
But we encountered some very kind people, and anytime we told people why we were moving, conversation started flowing. We met the most delightful young family who bought our double stroller! They are fellow Christians and MSU fans, and they were very interested in our call to Spain. I am sad that we are just now meeting them because I think we’d be friends!!
The kids spent the night away from home Friday night, which was a great decision. It was nice being able to stay up late Friday night and get up early Saturday morning without thinking about being quiet while they slept, feeding them, or tending to them. They appeared around lunchtime Saturday and had a wonderful time “working” the remainder of the sale and announcing when a new customer would appear.
I regret that I have no pictures of the event, but it was definitely worth the work. We got rid of 3/4 of our stuff and made over $450!! The rest of the stuff went to Goodwill or the trash, and I am very glad to have the sale behind me. I would do it again, but it was very tiring. I think Daniel and I both woke up Sunday feeling like we had a “garage sale hangover,” and we went to bed at 8:30 Sunday night!!
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We got our Easter pictures onto the computer, so I’ll post several here. Our whole family was together, and we had a great day. The kids hunted eggs, and each child had a different take on that activity depending on his or her age (ages range from almost 9 to almost 14 months). Belle and Harry had a great time, though Harry insisted on using a strange smile in most photos. We are infamously unsuccessful at getting a family photo with everyone smiling, but I’ll post a couple of the best.
YEA
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Well, once again, it’s been awhile. I was reminded by a dear friend that once we move to Spain, I am going to have to become more regular in my blogging!! 🙂 We agreed that blogging from overseas will most likely be therapeutic for me and that I will want to blog much more regularly than I do now. Right now I just feel like life is going in 10 directions, but that’s not a complaint. We are more-than-blessed!
We took a weekend trip to Jackson in March, and the kids (as usual) had a great time. Uncle Alan was able to be there, and we love our Uncle Alan!! He gives great shoulder rides…
We had a great Easter weekend. We recently purchased a new camera — a really good one to take as we move overseas and capture sights that we might never see again! Anyway, Daniel took our Easter pics with that camera, and I am not sure where the pics are right now (nor do I know how to work the camera yet). But as soon as we get them loaded on the computer, I will post some.
Belle is reading a bit; she’d probably be reading much more if her mother would remember to work with her every day. 🙂 She enjoys being able to read the little books we have, and I hope she can continue to improve as we get ready to move and learn a new language. Harry is absorbing some of it too I think, though he isn’t reading. I’m pleased with where they are!! They are still very sweet and have lots of enthusiasm about life. The perspective of a child is so simple and refreshing, and I am thankful to have them around to make things seem less complicated. Hearing Belle say, “I love you Mom. I love you always” just warms my heart every time!!
We are having a garage sale on Saturday, so this week is focused on preparing for it. We aren’t selling much of our large furniture, but we are trying to be fairly ruthless in our cleaning out of other things. If we don’t need to pack it and store it for three years, then it needs to go!!
Sweet and silly:
Loves his new swimwear:
We love the nice weather!!
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Our trip to Disney really was great. I didn’t tell Belle where we were going until we were on our way to Jackson to meet my mom; I knew she didn’t know what Disney World was, and when I told her that we were going there, she said, “Okay.” Priceless. I love the innocence of this age. She did fine on the flight and was very excited about hotel life.
She was a bit overwhelmed our first day at Magic Kingdom; I don’t blame her. Stimulation is constant, and normal life doesn’t require waiting in line for everything. But she quickly got her groove, and she loved it. Her favorite ride of course was the Mad Hatter Teacups: I believe she rode it about 10 times. I hate spinning rides, but my mom sweetly rode it lots of time with Belle. A grandmother’s love is a special thing. My mom doesn’t love spinning rides either, and when we went to Disney as children, my mom did not want to ride this ride with us. But for her granddaughter, 8-10 times is no problem. 🙂 Gotta love grandparents.
We did 2.5 days at Magic Kingdom, a half day at Animal Kingdom, a half day at Hollywood Studios (formerly known as MGM), and a few hours at Downtown Disney. Belle LOVED meeting the characters. I really didn’t know how interested she’d be in that scene; she knows who some of the princesses are, but she is not overly interested in them. Well, she was VERY into meeting anyone we saw and having them sign her book. By the end of the trip, she had the routine down pat: chat with the character, have them sign the book, give the book back to your grown-up, and pose for a photo.
We were all tired by the end of the trip, but it was a good kind of tired. Our last day we lasted 8 hours in Magic Kingdom, and we did just about everything a 5-year-old could want to do. She is already talking about when we can go back; my parents are planning to take the whole family when we’ve returned from Spain.
Here is a link to the Picasa album.
https://picasaweb.google.com/109412315125288991924/DisneyWorld2012?locked=true
Speaking of Spain, you can check out our newsletters and support tracker at brinksinspain.com. As I’ve mentioned before, at some point we will transition to using just that blog, but for now, I’m sticking to this one for family updates. We are plodding along in our visa process, but we are pleased with where things are right now. Our biggest need is to sell our home! I am excited about this adventure the Lord has us on: it’s exciting to think about big things like being used for His Kingdom and smaller things like getting to set up a new home and experiencing life in a new place. However, when I get bogged down in thoughts about leaving our family, friends, church, and life here, I do struggle with sadness. But I don’t think that sadness is wrong; in fact, I would be concerned about myself if I weren’t dealing with it! We LOVE our family, church, and friends, and we are happy with our life here. But the Lord is calling us to give up those blessings for a time, at least to give up the proximity of them, and experience new blessings in a new place. I take my sadness to Him, knowing that HE is big enough to handle it and provide for my family and me over the next months and years!
The kids are doing well. Belle is growing into quite a little girl, and she’s learning to read. Her love of and enthusiasm about life hasn’t waned, and she loves her friends in her church and MDO classes. She is very helpful around the house, and she’s a great big sister. Harry is growing too! He’s a big 3-year-old, and I am starting to get asked if the kids are twins. He is still as sweet and happy as ever and has a BIG smile. He’s all boy and is learning about (ahem) obedience, self-control, and the like, but he’s a precious child. My kids truly are best friends, and we are so thankful for their close relationship. It’s sweet to notice that any time one of them receives something unexpected, like a nibble of something while I’m fixing dinner, Child A takes an extra of the nibble to share it with Child B. Of course we deal with plenty of the usual sibling quarrels, fussing, selfishness, etc, but at the end of the day they really do love each other and look out for each other.
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Just wanted to share this quote because it describes so much of where our family’s life is right now! My dad sent it to me; he received it from Ed Hartman, who has served with Mission to the World in Romania. Thanks Ed and Dad!!
The way of trust is a movement into obscurity, into the undefined, into ambiguity, not into some predetermined, clearly delineated plan for the future. The next step discloses itself only out of a discernment of God acting in the desert of the present moment. The reality of naked trust is the life of the pilgrim who leaves what is nailed down, obvious, and secure, and walks into the unknown without any rational explanation to justify the decision or guarantee the future. Why? Because God has signaled the movement and offered it his presence and his promise.
In other news, Belle, my mom, and I just returned from 4 days in …. Disney World!! Lots of fun. I will post pictures soon.
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A few days ago, Belle was rummaging through one of the drawers in my closet area, and she found my old Walkman. Now, the obvious question is WHY in the WORLD do I still have a Walkman? I have no idea. I guess it happened to live in one of the few drawers in my house that escapes periodic cleaning out. Anyway, she (of course) had no idea what it was. Feeling about 87, I proceeded to explain to her what it was and how people used them to listen to music. I also had the headphones but shockingly had no cassette tape to put in it. We turned on the radio, attached the headphones, and let the kids take turns walking around the house listening to the music. They were totally mesmerized.
We updated the activity a bit by using some kid headphones and an iPod or iShuffle with playlists for the kids. They love walking circles around our house, listening to their tunes. And if the mood is right, they can even share the device:
In other news, I recently went on a girls’ weekend to Atlanta with three of my dearest friends. We had the best time relaxing, eating, sleeping, shopping, eating, etc. I have so many wonderful friends here in Memphis whom I will miss terribly when we move to Spain. But my sweet high school friends, with whom I already have “long-distance relationships,” are just so precious to me, and I will miss them too!!
We are enjoying the oddly mild January here and continuing to pray for the Lord’s guidance and wisdom as we journey towards the move to Madrid and for His mercy in the desired sale of our home. The kids just left for an ice cream date with a sweet lady from church, so I’m off to run a couple of errands with just me, myself, and I!
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I cannot believe 2012 is here!! My goodness. We had a wonderful Christmas “break” and have settled back into routine here. We spent Christmas in Jackson with my parents and brother, and a good time was had by all. It was very special to be there for 5 nights and really spend some good time with family and friends there. Here are a few shots of the Christmas festivities:
We were very busy and didn’t take too many pictures, but we had a wonderful time!!
On New Year’s Eve we celebrated Christmas with (most) of Daniel’s family here — we missed his brother Josh and family b/c they were still out of town. But we did gifts and had a couple of large meals and just pretended it was Christmas all over again! Harry was a little sick for a couple of days around that time, so he and I didn’t participate fully. But we still had a great time. Despite this picture, he really was puny…
On January 2 we stuck a “for sale” sign in our yard! We had put the listing on the internet but hadn’t filled it out with photos or put the sign in our yard since we were planning to be out of town. But we now have a full-fledged “on the market” house and trust the Lord to provide a buyer if He so desires. If anyone knows of someone who would like a house in Bartlett, TN, in a quiet neighborhood, let me know! 🙂
That’s about it from here. We’ve started thinking about applying for visas, getting the kids’ passports, etc. I do feel a little scattered, but I think that feeling will remain for the next several months. 🙂 It’s not that my mental to-do list is any longer than anyone else’s; it just seems like the list is very disorganized and touches every category of life (the items are not related). 🙂 Normal life here and future life in Spain are going to start intersecting more and more, and it’s a balancing act to keep things going. But the Lord gives grace for each day!
Random rabbit trail here. I love sports…always have. I enjoy following most sports (not baseball or NASCAR), and I also love watching them. I’ve been so interested in the Tim Tebow hype this season and in the determination of so many analysts to make sure that their predictions of his failure are accurate. Let me be clear: I like Tebow, and I am thankful for his courage to be so open about his faith. He is very real and genuine, and you just have to like his story even if you don’t like him or agree with his faith. Anyway, I am so interested in how the media has spiritualized everything he does. If he wins, it’s due to his faith or because he has some special connection to God. I certainly hope that the Lord allows him to prosper and spread his witness as he does so. But often the Lord allows us to fail and wants us to spread our faith that way. I am sure Tebow knows all of that; I am just interested in the hype the media has placed around his faith. The fact that he is not a typical NFL quarterback joined with his amazing comebacks and his faith make the media go crazy! I am sure God is blessing him, but I don’t agree with the logic of “Because he is a Christian he is winning these games.” I love watching Tom Brady. Do I think he loves Jesus? No. Wish he did. But is he good at what he does? Amazingly so. I appreciate the talent and skill displayed by (presumable) unbelievers like Brady as well as believers like Tebow , and I’m just not sure we should over-spiritualize who wins and who doesn’t.
Okay random rabbit trail over. I’m sure I stepped on someone’s toes…
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Let Court and Doxology 