5-Day School Break

We are currently in the middle of an unexpected 5-day weekend, thanks to the regional elections taking place here in Piedmont.  We received notice of the 3-day closure of our kid's elementary school just one week prior.  It seemed to take everyone by surprise which is odd because posters have been plastered up everywhere of candidates and one would think that the place of voting would be known well in advance that the teacher's would have expected the interruption during the final days of the school year.  I don't pretend to understand the Italian logic or their methods of communication and organization.  It is what it is, and our kids are thrilled for the extra days off, making their official countdown of remaining school days: 6!

Luca had a class field trip scheduled well in advance for this Wednesday.  His class will still go even though there is no school.  So Luca gets a 4-day weekend.  Emma's teacher has gone so far as to arrange the use of the church's annex for Tuesday and Wednesday mornings so that they can continue on with the material she had planned to cover for the year.  We were told of the arrangement on Friday afternoon and although not officially mandatory, if she missed she would have to make up any work from those days.  Therefore, Emma gets a 3-day weekend.  Samuel on the other hand will enjoy the full 5-day weekend.

With the end of school in sight and the anticipation of going to America the day after school ends, the energy levels of the kids has really ramped up!  If they are not bouncing off the walls, there are lots of sibling irritation and disputes erupting that are really starting to frazzle my nerves.  Trying to remain patient and loving among fights and what seems like constant whining is very tiring when I have a very long list of things to prepare for in leaving for 3 months.  Prayers for patience and strength would be much appreciated!

Spring Break: Greece

The kids had an unusually long spring break this year, so we decided to take advantage of the time and get away as a family.  Keeping to our family goal of an annual vacation is really important, because even though we will be stateside this summer it rarely is relaxing nor is there much isolated family time together.  So the break after our intense winter schedule and in anticipation of our busy summer, this trip was just what we all needed to connect, grow and refresh as a family.

Greece was on our bucket list of places to visit one day, and we found some really good airline and lodging deals as our vacation time coincided with Greece’s final week of off-season. We had the added bonus of visiting sites with low tourist traffic, not to mention the parking and kids were free at all sites.  We secured a house rental in a small coastal town just outside of Corinth.  It was perfect as we had direct access to the beach where the kids could play in the blue green waters of the Gulf of Corinth.  We prepared simple meals and enjoyed the Greek hospitality given by the rental owners.

We flew into Athens on April 19, the day before Easter.  The owners immediately made us feel welcomed, inviting our family to join theirs for the midnight fireworks display and Easter lunch where a traditional Greek meal of lamb on a spit would be served.  Even though we were away from our own family we were so thankful for the warmth of this big (I’ll resist saying ‘fat’) Greek family.  From young to old, everyone spoke English at a conversational level and they were very gracious in answering our questions of Greek history, language and culture.  The kids loved the Greek tradition of choosing died red hard boiled eggs and then tapping them against someone else’s egg choice to see whose would resist breaking. 

All day long you would hear gunshots going off and we learned that everyone has roasted lamb on Easter and when the lamb is fully cooked and ready to eat they fire a gunshot.  Like the ringing of the triangle dinner bell, it was a (much louder) call for neighbors and family to come eat.  Our hosts served us some delicious lamb roasted in the oven a couple hours after our arrival so the kids didn’t have to wait so long to eat.  We wanted to stay for round #2 with the lamb on a spit but decided that waiting until late afternoon was too long as the kids were itching to go swimming.  We did taste roasted lamb liver and intestines, which was not our favorite.  Samuel said he liked it and that it would be even better with ketchup.  I much preferred the roasted lamb, potatoes, tomatoes and feta, salad and Tzatziki instead.

On Monday, we started our travels always staying within a two-hour radius of home base.  There is much to see in Greece and we really had to keep in balance our desire to tour and also relax so as not to come home exhausted (which was all for not considering we had to leave at 3am for our return flight).  Apart from one full day in Athens, all the other side trips were half-day excursions.

Ancient Corinth:

Walking the city and seeing places Paul made reference to in his letter to the Corinthians was truly amazing.  Jonathan was enthusiastic in explaining the history and significance of the ruins to our children, making their experience come alive.  Jonathan spent much of the previous months studying the letters to the church in Corinth for his master’s essay, so to actually see all these places and artifacts was more than thrilling for him.  The weather turned cold and drizzly on us, but thankfully the kids didn’t complain too much.  We have found that sightseeing is much more enjoyable for everyone when each child has a camera in hand.  Sure I have to endure sifting through photos from every display in every museum along with selfies, but all in all it keeps them engaged in what they are seeing.

Athens:

Tuesday we left the house at 6:30am to drive to Athens.  We parked our rental car outside of the city center and took the metro to the Acropolis where we hoped to beat the crowds and mid-day heat.  We were successful on both accounts as we entered the Acropolis just after 8:30.  The city view and enormity of the monuments were incredible.  I am always amazed at how things were built prior to modern technologies and how they have withheld for 2,500 years.

As we descended the city built for the gods upon a limestone rock, we came to a smaller hilltop called “Mars Hill”.  Here is where Paul preached and Jonathan read to us from Acts 17:22-31.  To read the passage and then see the Acropolis and city surrounding you, the words and significance came to life.  We were able to spend a bit of time on the slippery limestone hilltop just soaking everything in.

To end the morning we walked through the Ancient Agora, using our ever so valuable Rick Steves’ tour guide book.  Lunch was followed by souvenir shopping and eating gelato in modern Athens.  To top off our day, we headed to Starbucks where we enjoyed some real coffee!  We failed to learn in advance that Greeks are accustomed to drinking instant coffee over brewed. Yeek!

Epidavros and Napflio:

The finest and best-preserved theater of all of Greece’s ancient theaters is found in Epidavros (c. 300 B.C).  This theater seats up to 15,000 people and it was absolutely amazing.  One could whisper on the stage and be heard in the uppermost row, the acoustics were that good.  Luca enjoyed running up and down the stairs counting the rows and sections.

From Epidavros we drove to Napflio where we immediately noticed a distinct difference in what we had seen throughout the rest of Greece.  The economic depression is more than noticeable once you get away from tourist locations.  Napflio is a popular port town that caters to cruise ships, so all the shops and restaurants were much more up-scale.  Picturesque café’s and shopping would be a good reason to stop here.  We came strictly for the Italian gelato and seeing the mountaintop fort, which we did not visit because we were not up for the 1,000 stair climb to the top.

Mycenae:

Lions Gate - Mycenae

A fortress city atop a hill, the hub of a mighty civilization that dominated the Greek world between 1600 and 1200 B.C.  This is where the ancient Greeks vacationed to see an ancient city.  The highlight for the kids at this location was walking 99 steps leading 50 feet down into an ancient cistern in the dark with only the flash of the camera to light their way.  (We unfortunately left their head lights at the house)

Acrocorinth and Corinth Canal:

On our final day, we were debating whether to head back to Athens to see museums and sights we missed or whether we should just stay close to home.  We chose the later and were so glad we did.  We drove to the Acrocorinth (Acropolis of Corinth) which towers above the city.  The views were spectacular, with endless trails to explore the ruins.  It was lots of hiking and so enjoyable for several hours--that was until a snake crossed the trail in front of me, paralyzing me in my steps.  Another rustle from the brush a few minutes later down the path confirmed that we were done.

The Corinth Canal cuts through the Isthmus of Corinth making the Peloponnese an island instead of a peninsula.  It was completed in 1893.  It is 4 miles long and only 70 feet wide at the sea level base.  It had grand intensions for aiding in economic trade, but because of its narrowness modern ships cannot pass through and basically the canal is used more as a tourist attraction.  Samuel didn’t last long on the bridge for fear of heights and did not like that we joked about bungee jumping off the bridge.

We returned home on April 26, and although tired from early rise at 3am it was well worth the trip.  Hopefully our kids are beginning to understand and appreciate their unique lives, where they live, and how seeing as much of the world as they have at their young ages is a very special gift.  We continue to cherish these precious times away as a family and are thankful for how they draw us closer together and imprint lasting memories upon our hearts and minds. 

This post is long overdue but I was honestly just too overwhelmed to weed through the 1,000+ pictures, however, with summer vacation arriving in 2 weeks, I had to get something up for you! ( I am having technical difficulties in getting a slideshow to upload, so click on the photo album below to view more pictures.

Spring Break 2014: Greece

If I lost my blog...

...I would most definitely curl up into a ball and cry my eyes out.  Then I would lecture myself for the countless times I said I should make the blog into a book for our family but failed to ever act upon the idea.  Then I would cry some more thinking of all the stories of our children, events that have shaped our family and the journal that the blog has become for me to remind myself of God's faithfulness over the past 7 years.  It would be a hard loss--one that would make my heart ache.  And that is exactly what happened to me this week.

I was actually working on our spring break blog post in a Word.doc file when I popped on over to check email and saw the subject line "Your account ***@gmail.com has been deleted."  Nervously I called up the stairs to Jonathan, "Did you just delete my gmail account?!"  He casually responded "Yea, why?"  My stomach flipped as I informed him it was the account tied to my blog.  I immediately ran up the stairs and his eyes were wide and mouth agape covered by his hand as he stared at the computer screen wondering if he had made a permanent and fatal error.

Since this google account was solely used to get access to my blog I never sent or received emails from it.  And apparently I was way clueless when I set up the account 3 years ago (when our work email would no longer allow me to publish on the blog) that you needed to put a cell phone number NOT a landline number for my contact security information.  With that one small correction Jonathan's mistake would have been reversed in minutes.

Instead, we failed to correctly answer my security question and got blocked out.  How could I have remembered that I used Jonathan's information instead of my own to set up the account?  So to the internet we went trying every possible solution, reading and posting on forums and finally resigning to the fact that I just didn't have enough information to verify my account.  There was no customer support number to call google and by the end of the day I knew it was lost forever.

Jonathan felt sick about it and could hardly look me in the eye all day.  I felt just as bad for him as it was a completely unintentional mistake as he was trying to clean up our accounts.  Poor guy...I knew that being in his shoes was way worse than mine.  After a dinner he could not eat, he found a way to recover my last 1.5 years of posts and save the written content to the computer.  It was something and better than nothing at that point.

The next morning Jonathan and I went out for coffee after dropping the kids off at school.  By this time I was still teary eyed talking about the loss, but my heart was filled with peace and acceptance.   I could look deep into my husband's teary eyes and with a smile say "I love you.  I forgive you and I am going to be okay.  I have you, I have my children and all the memories tucked away in my heart." Only God's working through the Spirit and abundant grace allowed anger to stay out of my heart and mind towards Jonathan and the unfortunate circumstances.  I can't explain it otherwise.

Thursday afternoon I continued my internet searching again and started to contact family and friends I knew who read the blog to see if they could see any posts in their readers. It was not too long after that that I tried to verify my account again for the 100th time when my security question popped up.  With the help of my father-in-law in recalling Jonathan's first teacher (again, why I used his info that not even Jonathan could recall is a mystery to me) I got the right answer and it was enough for google to initiate a phone call to me.  Within half an hour they had confirmed my ID and reinstated my account.  Oh, the tears that flowed when I read the email!  Thank you, Jesus!

The moral of the story:  Make sure your account recovery information is correct, backup or print your blog every now and then, and communicate with your spouse! :)

Surprise Spring Visitor

April 1^st, my mom arrived for a visit—no joke!  Six and a half years had past since she had last visited us in Italy.  For Emma and Luca, this visit felt more like the first, as they are unable to recall memories of her previous visits.

Mid-February, we all were elated to learn of the unexpected gift of a transatlantic flight from an anonymous giver for her and dad to travel to Istanbul, Turkey the end of March to participate in a prayer conference where my brother and his family would also be attending.  I was overjoyed for them to see each other after a particularly trying and difficult year for my brother and wife in Iraq, as well as the opportunity for Nano and Papa to bond with their one-year old granddaughter, Zoe.  Cody and Michelle needed the encouragement and this visit could not have been timelier for them.  We were nothing but overjoyed for them.  

Mom and Dad would be SO “close” (just a 2 hour flight) and I have to be honest, it would have been hard to not see either of them knowing their vicinity.  Thankfully, after an invite from us that spurred on investigation, mom was able to include a leg on to her itinerary to come see us that ended up costing less in total than dad’s ticket.  Another God-provision!  Unfortunately, with demands of the farm dad was not able to extend his visit as well.  We missed seeing him of course but are thankful that we are now merely a couple of months away from reuniting again with him in person in California.

The 8 days we had together with mom were absolutely wonderful and cherished!  The kids were non-stop chatter from morning to night that I was actually glad they had school so that I could get in some conversation with her as well.  The kids loved showing off our new home, their school and just having Nano live life alongside them for a week.  Samuel was able to miss 1.5 days of school due to contracting pink eye and having the wire fall off his bracket--a definite silver lining to his discomforts.

Mom helped with some mending projects, ironing, cooking, cleaning, decorating Luca’s birthday cake and even relining my purse for me—on top of entertaining grandchildren.  She walked to and from school with me and was by my side in the kitchen.  The kids requested that Nano make her tacos and chicken fingers, some of their favorite meals in California. 

It was an eye opener for her as well to see a normal week of ministry for us.  It is always one thing to hear of people and ministries but completely another thing to actually see it all in person.  All the days of her visit except for one were filled with ministry, so her presence was more than a blessing and relief to me in lightening up my domestic workload.  Hopefully we didn’t wear her out too much!  On our day off we spent a beautiful spring afternoon at the palace gardens of the Venaria Reale and treated her to gelato.

Mom was a trooper as she braved the round trip journey from Istanbul to Turin, stayed overnight on her own in Turkey and then made the long 14-hour flight back to California on her own.  What a grandma will do to see her kids and grandchildren!  We love you so very much, Nano!

To the anonymous donor(s):  your gift of love and generosity to my parents was not merely a gift of blessing and provision for them, but to the entire family.  To traverse two years between face-to-face visits over the past six years has not been easy for anyone.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for providing such a treasured and unexpected visit for us all.  Our deepest love and gratitude to you, whoever you are—May the Lord bless you!