Madrid

Jonathan was home one day after returning from Hungary. Just enough time (barely) to wash and line dry a new set of clothes for the week before his departure for the annual Western Europe Field Leader's Meeting. This year's meeting was held in Madrid, Spain. All went well both for him and us on the home front. The only pictures he took during the week were from his dining experience at the oldest restaurant in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Their specialty...suckling pig!

Pig brains--yum! I told him this picture proves nothing and that a video would have been more convincing that that actually went in his stomach. But it did get a reaction out of the kids and therefore, accomplished his goal of grossing them out.😝

Budapest

We flew in and out of Budapest for our conference because really how could we not when it cost only 250 euros for our entire family of FIVE! Isn't that crazy-wonderful?! Anyway, after our conference concluded we drove back to Budapest where we spent the night before flying out the next day.  We basically just had a few hours on Friday evening to sightsee as it turned out. The kids were beyond exhausted after the week and were not exactly in the mood for traipsing around the city.  At one point I had two kids in tears on top of Castle Hill because of a sore foot and the other one was missing her new friends and bawling.  We had hoped to see more, but for the sanity of our family we called it quits after seeing St. Stephen's Basilica, Chain Bridge, Castle Hill and dinner.  We will just have to return maybe another time to explore more of what looks like a fabulous city. 

 St. Stephen's Basilica

 Walking along the Danube River on the Pest side

 Ready to walk across the Chain Bridge to reach the Buda side of the city

 View of Buda Castle

 View of the Hungarian Parliament building from Castle Hill

We hiked up the side of the hill in the dark to reach the top of Castle Hill, thus explaining and probably justifying the child melt downs. But the view was totally worth it!

We were surprised by a cultural experience that made the city appear very dirty and literally, trashy. Throughout the city on just about every block there were these huge piles of trash dumped on the streets with homeless digging through the piles. It was dark and very unnerving for Emma--she was not impressed at all with Budapest! We later found out that each city district, not only in Budapest but throughout Hungary has an annual dump your trash day where the city will remove your trash for free. It must be expensive to dump trash because the entire city seemed to have exploded. Guess we hit the special night!

Street performers were out as well and we were particularly impressed with this man playing water glasses.

The metro ride at the end of the night...need I say more about their tiredness?!

A week of learning and enrichment

A little over a year ago a friend told us about this wonderful organization called SHARE Education Services that is available to assist families like ours serving and living in and near our region of the world.  It definitely caught our interest as for a long time we have been concerned especially for Luca and his struggles in the national educational system and in language acquisition in both English and Italian. As a mother, I can't tell you the times I have questioned: Are we giving our children what they need to succeed educationally? Are there learning challenges that have gone undiagnosed? How do I balance or do I even attempt to supplement subjects like English, writing and US history when their school load is already over the top intense? And the list goes on. How comforting it was for me to learn that SHARE seeks to help answer and assist with such questions, because sometimes it feels like we are just floating out on the sea all alone. But no longer is that case.

We are so thankful to have had the opportunity to participate in the 20th annual SHARE family education conference in Siófok, Hungary from February 22-27.  Our first experience did not disappoint with the quality of speakers, workshops, counseling services, fellowship, spiritual encouragement and care that we received as a family. We just really had no idea how well rounded and refreshing this conference was meant to be on so many levels. All we can say is "WOW, thank you God!" It was a busy and full week and one that we have to take some time afterwards to unpack and process all that we learned.

The kids enjoyed a week of learning about ancient Egypt and had fun swimming in their free time.

There was a magic show for the dads and kids one evening while the moms had a fun evening together over tea, dessert, devotional and lots of prizes given away (I actually won a thirty-one tote!)

It is always fun to discover those "small-world" connections. This new friend, K. is good friends with a family that used to attend our home church and with whom we were close (we had our first babies just 45 minutes apart in the same hospital). 

There was also a kids talent show and time to just interact with other parents or meet with specialized volunteers and staff for counseling.

All of our children received assessment testing. Samuel and Emma received the standardized assessment testing in the core subjects and did very well. Even without having formal English training they scored at grade level or above in those subjects. Math was a bit lower than we expected them to be at, but that in large part had to due with syntax (Italians use different division signs, commas and periods are flipped, for example 10 cents is written ,10) and measurements like inches, feet, yards etc. are unfamiliar to them. Anyway, it gave us a measurement to gauge where they are at in relation to American standards which was very helpful.

Luca had some very specialized individual testing and participated well with his best efforts. Sounds like he had his testers laughing a lot. What came out of his testing is that he is on the lower average of his speech and language capabilities, but since he is bi-lingual his scores were understandable, which leads us to believe that he is following in the footsteps of two siblings who were above average in language acquisition. We received some counsel on how to encourage growth in this area. The other thing that also came out was that he is extremely gifted in his spacial/visual IQ. Therefore, the huge gap between his verbal intelligence and his visual intelligence can make a traditional school setting much more challenging for him. Now that we know better how his little brain works, it gives us better insight and direction on how to help him succeed in school. Seriously, I cried when we heard this news. It was such a relief to just have some answers after all these years and to know how to help and understand my child.

Not having been raised as third culture kids, we are beginning to see the unique challenges that Samuel, Emma and Luca are experiencing as they grow older and how their needs and formation greatly differ from both their Italian and American peers.  How great it was for them to be with other kids who can relate to their lives both in the challenges and the adventures, full of joys and frustrations alike. The week was so worth it just to see our kids making friends and really being able to bond on a level they have never had before.  The emails, texting, and video calling with their new friends since our return has been so special for them and we are grateful to see the beginnings of lifelong friendships being formed.

Jonathan and I also made some special friends. We are thankful for the blessing of being able to meet some extended work family from other regions. Truly, God gave us a gift in these new friendships. We plan to cross paths again whether at another SHARE conference and/or visiting them in their countries. The invitations and doors are open on all ends--gotta love that!

I could go on about this experience, but life is moving along quite intensely here now that we are back home, so I will have to conclude with pictures and some links.


Dr. Kathy Koch was the keynote speaker. She was fantastic! On my nightstand to read are her books:
How am I smart? A parent's guide to multiple intelligences
No more perfect kids, love your kids for who they are
Screens and Teens: connecting with our kids in a wireless world

Karate Belt Advancement

The kids received their first term grades at school the same week as they took their mid-term exam in karate.  Everyone did marvelously well both on their school grades (Jonathan included with his master's essay) and in being promoted to the next belt level in karate. Samuel and Emma both expressed nervousness about the testing and had lots of jitters. Luca, well he didn't seem to show too much concern and kept volunteering to be tested. Most students were tested individually and then paired with another like level student to complete another set of skills. All of the white belts were paired up for both exams except for Emma as the sensei said he had confidence that she could do it on her own, which was a compliment. By the end of the night everyone who tested was promoted. 

Since Jonathan has taken karate in the past and has proven himself to hold his own in sparring black belts, he actually is skipping a belt and was promoted from white to orange.

Just when did Samuel get so tall? He did a great job and we are so proud of him and his perseverance even when it has been tough at times to master new moves.  Keep up the good work Samuel--you are getting stronger, believe me!

 

Emma is one of three girls in the karate club, apart from the "sensesse" (you would have to know Italian to understand that inside joke that the kids came up with for the female sensei). We are so proud of her and the confidence she is gaining as a young woman and her desire to excel and not be intimidate in a male dominant sport. You're tough, Emma! Keep up the good work!

 

Luca, you are one active boy full of energy! We are so proud of you, buddy and how karate is helping to teach you self-discipline and being a good listener (in Italian!) I wouldn't want to mess with you!

Here is the line up of fourteen students that are a part of the Caselle Karate Club ranging from elementary age to adult. The kids are excited to receive their new yellow belts at their next lesson. 

I loved this picture as they just ended the class with their eyes closed and said something in Japanese.  Emma and Jonathan heard the instructions to open their eyes, Samuel is having a delayed response or did not hear and Luca is peaking to see if he heard correctly. How typical a situation.

CONGRATULATIONS MY KARATE KIDS!