Dear "Anonymous"

before I vent, here's a pic of "All Saint's Day," which is a really neat celebration here that our shepherd introduced us to.

Alright, alright...I've been slightly disturbed by this comment on one of my posts by an individual apparently NOT familiar with anything that we have had to deal with in simply getting here, so here's the comment & here's my reply...
"Tell me why didn't you rent a fully furnished flat?

From this Domestic Property Market site, I see that prices aren't too big (350$-700$ per month for fully furnished apartment)

And why your husband did not check twice the conditions of your staying there? Especially when you were taking kids with you?"

Okay. First, my husband and I each spent many-an-hour sifting through the ads for flats in Kielce (& using google translate, which we are SO thankful for) to try & find a place to live. At the time we looked (& pretty much all the time, btw) there wasn't much offered that was within our price range (are you serious about that $700 per month being "reasonable?")--keeping in mind that we also have a house payment, car payment, health insurance, etc. back home and that we were not being paid from our university in the U.S. and that we had no promise to be assisted in our rent here in Poland--so money was an issue for sure.
Secondly, and maybe most importantly, we did not know anything in a timely manner. (Nor did those we emailing in Poland.) I wouldn't know where to begin with who or what organization "dropped the ball" first, but I will say that our shepherd was not aware that Barclay would be bringing family until a week or two before we all showed up. He even expressed to us when we got here that he was concerned bc he didn't hear anything back from those above him except "Barclay's coming!" for months. No details what-so-ever. Which is odd bc Barclay added us to each and every form he completed. There was never a time when he applied to do this by himself, and yet...somehow things got screwed up to the point that our shepherd (being helpful) finally took it upon himself to arrange housing for B. and send him an email about it. Of course B. replied, "Thanks, but no thanks, I'm bringing three other people with me!" Now, we are still working on being "helped" with payment for housing for the three of us (who knows if we'll get it), but B has been paid by the university here (which was optional for them, so we are excited that they chose to do that). And we do have a shepherd who tries to help us (which is more than I can say for some folks we've encountered). And we didn't have trouble with Visas (again, some folk have had to leave the country & take pictures showing their left ears (ha, Lisa!) & all kinds of things just to stay here legally), so we are thankful for the things that we've been blessed with. But Anonymous, dear Anonymous, we did our best. We just didn't have anybody over here who was on top of things & that made all the difference.