pre-post post...

We just spent a busy, fun-filled week with Barclay's parents. I am sitting in the airport Marriott hotel (which is lovely, might I add...real beds & bathtubs...can I just stay here?), so I do not have the time or the camera cords to load & tell about the past week, but I will do soon.
Thanks for visiting, Key family! Thanks for the computer, my family! The kids are loving all the movies, Uncle Dave. Great job.
Langston turns 5 at the end of this week (I know, I can't believe it, either!), so we'll be taking a weekend trip to celebrate. I'm so behind on pix & posts, but I'll try to catch up a little at least when we arrive back from our birthday bash.
I hope everyone had a blessed thankful holiday. I know we did. (Can we say Pizza Hut for lunch?) We all shared what we were thankful for. (Langston = his house in IL :) Maybe dorm life ain't for him. :) Zora was nursing during the thankful talk, so we took hers as "breastmilk"....
Anywho, I hope you all felt blessed.

Langston-ology

One night after I nursed Z down & was praying with L, we started talking about what we prayed for or did that made us feel better when we were sad or nervous. He claimed that "singing a song...sometimes the ABCs or another song" made him feel better. Then he blew me away with some tiny man with an ancient soul theology...and although I'll put most of his words in quotes, I'm sure that I can't quote him exactly, which is a shame bc all those sweet, deep words coming out of that little mouth was something to behold. Here goes...
"Sometimes when I feel sad, I feel like the little piece of God in me...like inside my heart...like a liiiiitle light, gets a little bit broken. But then, I give my heart to God and he fixes it up again. Children can do this because their hearts are loose (I remember this phrase exactly), not like grown-ups. When you get grown-up, your heart gets bigger, but hard, too. It isn't loose like a child, so sometimes it cracks or breaks into pieces. It's better to give your heart to God before it breaks to pieces, but he can still fix it even if it's broken. So it's okay. I think everyone has a little piece of God in them. And it gets broken when we are sad or lonely or mad or nervous. So we need to give God our hearts all the time and he can keep fixing them."
Geeze! I felt my heart breaking into good pieces at the sound of all this! How beautiful and sweet is that understanding!? God resides in all of us. Children embody the 'tender heart' aspect of His love. When we are aching or fuming, let go and give our misery to God. I think the next time my fella begins to preach, I'll just record him so that I can listen again everytime I don't want to let go of anger or self-pity or anything else that wears down my spirit.
Langston is really something else. We've had conversations like this before & a few since then (even one last night as he clarified a few key points while I relayed this story to Barclay), but this one touched me so much. It also made me feel good about the kind of theology we discuss at home. We have had difficulty finding a home church in Macomb; not bc of people...if there is one thing we love about Macomb, it's the people. But we haven't found any one place where we felt enough connection with the theology to stay. So we've been home churching at home. Some weeks are more focused than others, but from what my little 4-year-old is preaching, it seems that our ideas have been absorbed, pondered and put into practice. My boy knows that God abides in him and from that draws peace, love and comfort. What more could one ask for?

our address in Poland

our address...the corrected version.

Asystent Hotel
rooms 503-504
ul. Slaska 11
25-369 Kielce
Polanditten tours

now...could we have your addresses? L is excited to send postcards. I need addresses from those who might like (their kids) to get a piece of Polish mail. :)
Happy Thankful Holidays to you all!

Breathing through the dark day

our ewwwww! shower complete with a tiny tub & two tiny kids. :)
I finally broke down & tried some...not that awesome...and I'm a kraut liker.
yes, that's kraut. welcome to poland!
Zora bean working on a puzzle in the English school area of our church building.
a self photograph by my main man, L.
Aunt Leane doing her helping thing.
my big fella & I in a hot air balloon! Lindsay, I thought of you!

Poland so far...has been an experience. I wish I could say it has been "lovely" and that all things have gone exceedingly well, but I cannot. That isn't to say that my babies have been sickly to the point of a hospital visit or that we've been lost or hungry...just lonely and very inconvienced.
For example...we've been stuck (smooshed) in our elevator shaft twice in the past two weeks...each time a rescue being 35-45 min. in the making. There is only standing room beside the jumbo stroller & each kid is in his/her seat as we sing & sweat & snack & hold our bladders 'til our rescue team arrives.
Then we have the *nasty* shared kitchen on our floor. I knew I wouldn't like it, but some days I really hate it. It gets smelly & gross & I seem to be the only person who cleans it or takes out the trash once a fortnight. ( I want to ask about it each time I go down past the reception desk, but no one but the manager speaks any English.)
Then there's the laundry, the lack of dryer, the icky shower, the lack of adult size tub (I squeeze my hiney into a large kid tub to shave), the general gray weather...cold, wet, & dark at 4 pm...*sigh.*
Add to this the sucky internet connection & the hours between all of us, as well as my hubby needing to work on the computer (which is a fact, not a complaint) & you get one sad mommy.
I think that if I had an outlet like in previous places (hooray for a great international community! three cheers for UF grad & family housing!), I would be less sad. I need moms & the kids need other kids. We've been searching a little & found a Helen Doran School of English close by, so we're going there twice a week & meeting other fams who speak ESL. I'm planning a lesson to teach the 8-10 year olds some conversational things. I hope to meet more friends this way, but it is seriously the only local outlet we've found. The few really nice some English speaking moms whom I've met have been in Kielce only for the day, so they would be "only weekend buddies," (when they happen to visit here) which wouldn't be bad, but it's nice to have a day-to-day mom-friend.
Poor Leanne! She's been my only girlfriend here so far! I'm sure she gets tired of my mom-ness sometimes, but she's been really understanding & we've had fun times. And poor Barclay. He is really trying to help keep us going, too, but this is tough. I feel slightly caged somehow. There are the million other things: Christine, how are you!? I feel like the worst friend ever bc I haven't gotten to call yet! Our computer has been out of commission & I haven't had a good opportunity to be the listener I want to be!
Mom, I'm sorry I didn't speak to you on your b'day! And my brain rattles on...Zora has had the worst diaper rash & so I've been trying to potty train her, but I think all the products here irritate her! I want to exercise so badly, but don't have my music to dance to & B doesn't want to download i-tunes here...(and somehow depression doesn't spawn a "get up & go attitude in me"...more of a "lay down & cry")...I'm doing some Yoga, though. Thank the Divine for Yoga, y'all. It's the only thing that reminds me to breathe sometimes. I know that is what I need more of. Breathe! Pray. Meditate on the Good Things. I'll make it through these next few months. I have a feeling Barclay and I will be closer because of it. I love him so much that I'm here after all! :)

Langston and his baby

starting sideways....sorry! I like this pic, though...
l-town pushing zee...a common happening during our playground outings.
we found a fun play area in the entrance to our movie theater...we saw "odlot" (or "up," for you non-polish speakers :) in 3D
arts & crafts at their table in their room..."the kids room," as the sign on their door reads. :)
watching an Elmo DVD
our first snow! it snowed LOTS, but didn't stay for more than a week...thank goodness!
mommy's final (& successful) attempt at keeping everyone satisfied during the last leg of a long travel day.
checking out an amazing pumpkin at barefoot gardens in macomb...just days before we left.
just chillin'...
I don't think I can express how thankful I am that I have these two wonderful, little people around who love each other so much. To see them loving in action is to truly see love. I hope they are always so smitten. I know I've said lots of this before, but I see it daily & it never fails to both humble me & remind me of how purely a little person loves.
They have their "ahhh!" moments with each other (as we all do), but they are constant playmates--so in tune with the other ones needs sometimes. I hope they learn to listen as well as their dad (one of the first things that attracted me to him), as I can already see they each have a natural fondness for showing affection the way I do (which I consider a good attribute). :)

a few pix of Z @ 18 mths

1st: I'm reposting this post bc I think it got a little overlooked with the whole "smarty pants video"...
2nd: this is my favorite pic. (Although I also love the "sugar tit" one...)
I was playing with my new camera. Zora was playing in the sandbox...and eating the sand...of course!
Sorry some of these are sideways...I'll try to remedy that asap. Enjoy!

deep breaths with daddy...she stays SO still for him! the only way I can keep her still is to attach her to my boob for the duration of the treatment. :)
z. & a friendly polish baby play in the ball pit at our mall.
dedicated to grandad, this would be zora's version of a "sugar tit"...made from a paper pack of sugar from Micky D's. and look at those amazing blue eyes! that would be from my side of the fam, y'all. L's beautiful brown come from B's side.
Lady Z: fully dressed for our 1st snow (Oct. 13th).
Bo-zee-phus in dad's "king of the hill" underpants. :)
eating...art? I'm pretty sure it was paints in this pic...

I feel so far behind on e-life. I'll try to blog more later. :)

smarty pants does the dishes

So...as Barclay explained in his last post, our "dish situation" ain't pretty. We wash 'em in a small sink b't th shower & toilet area (I"ll try to post a pic) & then take them (dripping, but we lay down a towel to drip on) to the dish drainer that sits atop the mini fridge in the room we've assigned "eating area." Anyway, it's a drippy, time consuming process. One afternoon, my boy complained of my damp floor that "sometimes gets his socks wet." He was protesting this wet floor thing; blaming me. He ended his whine with, "do you understand me?" (keep it dry while doing all our dishes, mom.) I told him that I didn't appreciate his smart attitude & he had no clue how much effort went into doing all our stupid dishes (we eat most every meal at home; I cook about twice a day; sandwiches at lunch usually). So, his "learning experience" that night was to do ALL the dishes for the day. Barclay thought I was a little hard on him. (I don't care if I was!) But by the time he finished all the dishes, he was ready to apologize. And he should've been. My plan is to help these babies of mine realize that the world doesn't owe them anything. That and to show respect, but take no crap, treat all people as they want to be treated, appreciate their parents, love their famiy, follow Jesus' example of radical love & action...and a lot more. If L. thinks dishwashing was a tough lesson...just wait. Mama's got lots more.