Grandparents, Cars and Colds

So the blogs will be sparse over the next couple of weeks as Munga and Grandma (Kleis) from Michigan are in town for a visit. They arrived safely this past Saturday and it is so good to see them. It was extra nice for them to only be 10 minutes away from our house upon landing. So much better than sprinting and searching for the right train tracks and nearly missing the train with 4 large suitcases in tow through Rome--then a 2 1/2 hour train ride to get to Perugia. Hands down, they like our new location for traveling.

Although, their arrival was welcomed by immediate car troubles (again). Everytime someone comes to visit us, there is a car problem! Jonathan was just about to turn down our street when they heard a belt break. Thankfully, Munga knows enough about cars to tell us it was the circ belt that broke and that it was undriveable. We called the mechanic but unfortunately they were closed for the day. The mechanic later saw that we tried to call several times and he was so kind as to return the call and let us know he could look at first thing on Monday. We love building relationships in our community, but really we wish the mechanic would not be on a professional basis. Know what I mean? Ah well, the belt is replaced along with a new pad of some sort and God provided the means for these unexpected repairs. So grateful for God's timing and that this didn't happen at the airport leaving them all stranded for who knows how long.

We were stranded at home all weekend and were bummed we could not take them to church. Fortunately they have 2 more Sundays yet. Samuel also missed school on Monday but that was okay as there was extra special time with his grandparents.

Yesterday almost everyone came down with colds. Some worse than others and Munga has spent most of the day in bed drugged up. Tonight Jonathan's parents were up to going to the Bible study and prayer time. Jonathan is speaking tonight so it will be nice for them to hear his improvement in the language from a year ago and to meet the group.

You can keep the kids in your thoughts and prayers. They are really getting attached to their grandparents on this visit....SUCH a wonderful thing to see! Everytime Samuel goes to bed he has to say "Munga & Grandma, you can stay here and sleep on the couch." It is not comment of permission, but rather one meaning, "don't leave while I'm sleeping." Samuel said he wanted to take a walk to "The Michigan" and he often mentions how he wants to go on a plane there as well. We wish we could just walk across the great "big pond." Samuel and Emma's comprehension of distance and good-bye's is so much more evident but still limited. Okay, so I have tears as I write this even now. It is very hard living so far away from family. Please pray for grace and strength for us all, especially the kids.

Well, this tired body is going to go find a warm spot on the couch under my down throw. Good Night!

Prized Fighter

Just had to post a couple of pics of our prized fighter who is most deserving of the name: bruiser. Poor little Luca, he is so accident prone and it always seems to happen to his face. Today he was holding a ball in one arm and his sippy cup in the other and that's the last I saw before I heard him crying. My view was obstructed by the couch so I assume his teeth did the damage or the tile floor. He didn't make out too well as blood poured from his lip but I was able to stop the bleeding quickly. Now he has a permanent "cuicio" on his lip to suck. He's just fine and ate a big dinner for a change!

Luca on a better day

Rocky with a smile

P.S. Samuel had another great day at school. His teacher's comment today was that he is stubborn/hard headed. I think she was meaning to say he has a one-track mind. If he wants to play with his truck (the only thing we ever hear about) then he'll just get up and go play or walk out the door if the door is open--the two examples she gave me. He'll learn the commands soon enough...but his teacher's got an extra eye on him for now.

First Day of School

First day of Scuola Materna

Emma wanted a picture too with her Pooh backpack

A milestone has approached in our lives way to quickly! We can hardly believe that Samuel went to his first day of pre-school today. Now that we all have successfully survived the first day, the nervousness seems to have settled a little bit. Thanks to all of your prayers Samuel more than survived. When I went to pick him up at lunch time it took quite a bit of effort to get him out of the school building. He wanted to stay and play...of course! What kid wouldn't want to leave a playground and classroom filled with new and cooler toys?! When we asked how school was and what he did all we got for an answer was a description of the toys. He has been asking all afternoon to go back to school.

We arrived punctually as a family to drop Samuel off. He made his way over to the toys and didn't waste anytime finding a large semi-truck to play with. Emma cautiously made her way over as well to grab a large lizard...she would make Aunt Jennie proud. We met his teacher, Vittoria, and she seems very nice. My guess is that she is in her 50s and must have a lot of energy to work with 25, 4-5 year olds. After talking with her about our desires for Samuel this first year this is what we have concluded for the moment. Half days, five days a week.

They really want the kids to stay through lunch before leaving for the day. We are hoping to hold off on that for as long as we can. She said a couple of months would be acceptable. However, when they charge you 5 euros a day for lunch that will add up super fast. That's around $7 a day for one meal. Now granted they give them the full 7 course meal...so Italian. They don't allow kids to bring lunches to school because they want equality so that kid's don't feel superior or inferior to each other. Clothing is more of a pressure and point of teasing one would think rather than if your mom packed you PB&J sandwhich versus a bowl of pasta. I would be all for the uniforms and bring your own lunch, but this is the system we find ourselves in.

Samuel will go to school from 9am to noon at this point so we can bring him home for lunch. Their time is mostly playtime and activities. This year will serve Samuel more for learning of the language than it will be educationally. At least from what we can see.

After school we went to pick up his list of school supplies. Hey Jen, we have to bring TP as well. I chuckled when I saw that. You bring stuff for the whole class to share it seems.

Thank you again for all of your thoughts, emails, phone calls, and most of all prayers! We love you all!

A Mother's Lament

This morning began our fall adventures of new responsibilities and schedules. I had my first class back with Alessandra this morning. It went very well and it was a joy to see her again. She remembered all the things we had planned for August and made sure to ask about them. I had to read an article outloud this morning and then answer some questions. I told her it was most helpful to have her correct me on my pronunciation because I told her that when I read outloud at home I never know if it's right or not. She then asked what I read in Italian and I told her my Bible. She was impressed because she said she reads the Bible sometimes and it is very difficult to understand. The language in the translation of the Italian Bible is very difficult as it uses a tense not really spoken and often doesn't flow with as much ease as we find in our 10 zillion English translations. Anyway, it was another small door of opportunity to share with her the importance placed on reading God's Word. Thanks for praying for my time with Alessandra (and the language too).

So here comes the real kicker for the day. While I was in class Jonathan got a phone call from the "Scuola Materna" to tell us that they have an open spot for Samuel. We are both in complete SHOCK as Samuel was #70 on the waiting list. We had resigned to the fact that he would not go to pre-school this year. They told us to bring him on Friday at 9am and to bring a change of clothes and that they would fill us in on what supplies he would need at that time.

Jon and I are both stirring with so many emotions right now. If they had accepted him last May that would have been one thing to have all these months to prepare ourselves mentally for this huge life change. Now that we have 3 days to absorb the information we are overwhelmed. We are wavering with the emotions of sadness that he will be going to school and then excitement for him to meet friends, learn the language and in turn for us to know more people in our community. We have been praying about which avenues to pursue for our pre-evangelism outreaches and God has placed a very unexpected opportunity right in our laps.

Please pray for us...for Samuel. It is really scary to be putting him in to a school system that is unfamiliar to us, to have him go without speaking the language, for him to be surrounded by other kids that he will learn both good and bad things from etc. Please pray for Samuel and that the training we have done here at home will influence his actions and that God would most of all bring Samuel to a point of salvation at an early age. The influences of this culture are very strong on kids and it would shock you to hear stories of things that kids learn in pre-school. We covet your prayers for wisdom and strength during this new phase of life for us!!

Since Samuel is four and still has one more year of pre-school after this year, we are planning to start him out by going 3 days a week from 9am-1pm. It would be just too big of a shock for everyone to go 5 days a week from 9am-4pm. Not to mention we feel his primary place of learning and development needs to be at home at this point with our training and influences.

We will keep you posted on how things go. I asked Samuel this afternoon if he wanted to go to school and he just responded softly and sweetly "yea." He has no idea what this all means!! Oh, the joys of being the oldest. We'll have to go buy a backpack for him which he was really excited about. Pray for Emma too as this will be a huge change for her as well. Samuel is her playmmate and they hardly are ever separated. What a joy to see their love for each other.

Okay, I will stop for now. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

Lawnmower

We (I mean Jon) finally broke down and bought a lawnmower this week. I have only been hinting at the need for one all summer. I think my seriousness of cutting the weeds with our hand clippers is what did it. When we first moved here I pulled all the weeds out of our yard but then never got around to seedding it. As the summer rains came we got a yard full of lush green weeds instead. We were holding off buying a lawnmower because we don't really have grass yet. But like I said we hit an end of the summer sale and got a little electric lawnmower that does the job just fine. The kids are thrilled! Now the yard is a newly discovered area again. And now we won't have to be the sore eye of the neighborhood!

The area I cut by hand....before

...and after!

Start of Fall

It has been a good and busy week for us. Jonathan was asked on Sunday to give the first devotional for our fall kick-off with our small group. I guess it is a huge compliment to only be given four days notice to prepare a lesson in Italian. Needless to say, he spent the first half of the week working diligently on putting that together.

Catherine was able to come over last night for dinner and then stay to watch the kids for us. For the first time since March I was able to attend the prayer meeting with Jonathan. It was great to see everyone and to be a support to Jonathan as well. He did a great job working his way through the overview of Acts. He will conclude next week and give the answer for why he asked us to turn to Acts 29 in our Bibles. We are praying that Catherine's schedule will allow her to come over every other week so that I can join the small group meetings. She is such a servant to volunteer her services to us!

I also registered for my private lessons and will begin this coming Tuesday. I will have my same teacher, Alessandra. She is a wonderful teacher and I pray that I might be a shining testimony and that she might start to ask some "why" questions that will take our conversation to a deeper level. So that means I need lots of prayer as I continue to learn and grow in the language.

The kids are doing well. We have noticed a marked difference over the past few weeks in their use of the Italian language. We are so excited to hear them interject phrases and words in to their everyday interactions with each other. Even Luca used his first Italian word yesterday. He brought over his sort shaper (you know the blue and red Tupperware ball?) and said "Apri" which means "open." I was blown away! Okay, so it may have been a fluke thing but I don't think so since we all know that we have the most intelligent kids, right? Haha!

Here are a few pics that just put a smile on my face...

Super-Emma...did we mention she is petite?

Emma found this bicycle helmet that goes with the child seat (still needing to be attached to our bike) and she would not stop wearing it for entire week. The mark by her eye was caused by Samuel who threw a book at her and now she has a lovely scar.

Hat day

Yes, Luca is quite the ham! He is such a chatterbox without his cuicio!