Sep 23

life without dad

By addysengrace, america, christian, family, mercyadoniyah, ministry, school, travel

Whelp. We are three weeks into this USA home education adventure and so far so good. It is weird not having kids go off every morning and come home every afternoon. There are some parts we really miss: the ease of uniforms, knowing that everyday we will be ready by 8am and friends! On the other hand, there are some parts that are really nice: less stressful mornings, getting carried away and doing geography or science all day long and it doesn’t matter! And of course we are making friends. It just takes time and energy especially when you miss your other friends. We started gymnastics (Addy goes 5x a week and is finally…calm. Ha!) Mercy has karate twice a week and loves it, plus her Sensei said she is a natural and has the perfect personality for karate.

Christian had his first week of solo traveling for Hope Takes Root (brand new site coming SOON!). He was able to attend a very interesting and helpful conference called BAM in Philidelphia. It was everything and more: inspirational, helpful, challenging, a networking opportunity, the list goes on! He is still travelling so I will have to wait until he gets home to get all the details. He was able to start the trip by visiting our friends, Mike and Shannon (and their boys) in Titusville. We spent a year in Moldova with them and they are some of our most awesome friends. The girls and I tried not to be too jealous! He is now spending the weekend in Harrisburg with other friends, originally from Thousand Oaks. He gets home early Tuesday morning.

It started well but included a little bug. Whoops.

Thank goodness it was short lived so while big sister had a middle school activity (what the goodness?), this little person and I went on a date.

Yesterday we tackled the shopping. We went to a USA mall which confused the girls (“where’s the grocery store, mama?”) to get my phone fixed. Then we did Sprouts and WalMart. My children think the Sprout’s cart is hysterical. Then we found Ursuletul Tedi which made their day but they wanted to know why tedi was spelt “so weird.” :-p

And let’s be honest. Everything is new or interesting. Why did Sprouts need to tell me my corn syrup came from corn? Does corn syrup every come from beets or wheat? And what in the world are boiled peanuts?

Sep 05

first day of school!

By addysengrace, america, family, mercyadoniyah, school

Today we started our 2018/2019 school year “officially.” I say officially because we tend to “do school” every day all day and all year long. We are blessed with slightly exhausting lifelong learners. (They might get that from their mama…or maybe dad too!)

You might notice they aren’t in an official grade. Technically they are enrolled in year 3 and year 5 in their UK program and grade 2 and grade 4 in their California school. Home education is really going to fit our needs this year as we conquer accelerated maths and catch up english. 😀 Transitioning from a completely different education system is interesting and unique!

A few quick photos for you to enjoy:

Sep 05

one month

By addysengrace, america, family, mercyadoniyah, travel

We passed the one month mark of life in the USA. I’d be lying if I said it was smooth but this past month was definitely filled with grace!

We hit some milestones. Both girls allowed themselves to be sad and grieve instead of forcing themselves to stay “angry” about all the changes. Both girls when asked the question, “are you loving it?” no longer snap, “NO! I miss Romania!” Baby steps. This is an emotional step in the right direction as we allow them to process their feelings in their own timing.

We also took a whirlwind road trip to celebrate Grandma Ducky’s bday and see our good friend Katherine and her son, Josh (9). We stayed with long time friends and even managed to see a couple special people like Auntie G and Great-Grandma Ruth. We didn’t mention to many people that we were down there and we promise we will be back SOON for much LONGER. We really wanted to see Katherine since this is the first time we have seen her since 2008 (she lives in Cambodia). But we had to hurry home because we started school today!

Jul 30

the goodbyes are the painful part

By addysengrace, bucuresti, christian, family, mercyadoniyah, romania

as our departure gets closer, the reality is setting in. we have been trying to simply enjoy each moment. here are few of my favourite photos. <3 bulgarian day trip fun!

our last community group, including gluten free chocolate cake and a beautiful wooden puzzle of romania with the names of everyone in our group. <3 park fun with good friends.

special dolls and special skirts.

our last sunday. <3