March Madness

So although we are not huge college basketball fans, the title for this month of March only seems fitting for our lives. The first week of March has already zipped by us and the intensity and speed just seems to be picking up. We are truly excited for the new opportunities and happenings in our lives.

I'll try to give you a quick glimpse in to the schedule that now fills our weeks.

Mondays

• 8:45am - Drop Samuel & Emma off at school (M-F)
  
• 9:30-10:30am - Noella has language lessons with A. in Cirie' (20 min. away)
  
• 11:50am - Pick Emma up from school (M-F)
  
• 4:00pm - Pick Samuel up from school (M-F)
  
• 8:00-9:30pm - Jonathan goes to the gym for his Thai Boxing class

Tuesdays

• 5:00pm - Jonathan teaches a beginner guitar class to 15 students (ages 12-16) in Lanzo, which is about 40 minutes away. We all tag along as it provides Noella another opportunity to converse in Italian with the other parents.

Wednesdays

• We are keeping this day (or Monday) open in the hopes of soon filling it with two ESL classes. It is also a study day for Jonathan as he prepares for Thursday night.
• Opportunity to attend another Thai Box class in the evening if Jonathan is not too beat up from the previous session.
  

Thursdays

• Catherine comes over for dinner prior to our Bible study.
• 8:30pm - Bible study at the Farina's house. We usually return home between 11:30 and midnight.
  

Fridays

• 9:30am - Language lessons for Noella
• 8:30-9:30pm - Thai Boxing for Jonathan

Weekends

• 11:00am (Sat.) Jonathan meets with A. for English conversation
• We try to get together with neighbors and other friends as schedules allow and just spend some quality time together as a family.

Last weekend we were thrilled to finally get together with our neighbors C. & A. and their daughter L. (almost 2 yrs. old). We had a wonderful time getting to know them and we really hit it off with each other. We anticipate future times together as C. really wants to show us around the area, especially the mountains of which he has a great passion for visiting. It was so precious when we were saying good-bye to them because L. kept calling me "Zia" (Aunt). She is the same age as my niece so it just reminded me of her and made me miss playing an active role in my niece and nephews' lives. Maybe I can be L's adopted aunt!

Some more exciting things are in the works as well. Antoinetta is closing her shoe store in Caselle in another month and we are working at transferring her lease to our group. Although the locale is small it is the perfect starting point for our group as the rent is affordable and the location is good at the city center. It would allow us the opportunity to make our presence known in the community as we would seek to use it as a community center offering various classes and having our Bible studies there as well. We would appreciate your prayers as we work through these details over the course of the next month with Giancarlo.

On a closing note in regards to the month of March. Jonathan's dad will coming for a visit/work trip March 30-April 8. How is it work related you may ask? Well, he has offered to come and help take care of the kids so that I can then make a trip back to the states to attend my brother's wedding. I missed my sister's wedding in 2007, so it means a lot to me to be able to attend my final sibling wedding. Cody & Michelle get married on April 4 in Dallas, Texas. Therefore, because of the graciousness of my father-in-law (and my dear husband) I will be making a quick trip overseas April 1-6. I've never left the kids for more than a day, so this will be a HUGE stretch for all of us. Your prayers for 3 days of traveling mercies, stamina for the men with the kids, and understanding for the kids as Mamma won't be around for 6 days would be greatly appreciated.

That will wrap it up for now. Just wanted to give you an update on the major points of our week. There are many more things that fill our time but those are the regular occurances as we press on here in Italy. Ciao-ciao!