Category: Czech Republic

Every post I wrote while we lived overseas.

Czech Swing

It was beautiful day in Czech. The weather was amazing, not too hot and not too cold, and the sun was out. Bethany went to Poland this morning with a friend to do some shopping there so I took the kids for a walk to the park. There were a lot of people out jut walking and I could see many of them carrying shopping bags, including one couple that was carrying a little table and chair they had just purchased. Although, I’m not exactly sure where everyone was doing all of this shopping? Above is a photo of a building next to the park. I think I take photos of the buildings to remind myself how amazing some of this old architecture is.

Do you see anything familiar in the photo above? You ever heard of “TK Maxx?” Now I’m sure you’ve seen “TJ Maxx,” but in Poland they call it “TK” and it’s the exact same store we have in the States but with a different name. Apparently there’s another brand in Poland with the name “TJ” so they didn’t want to be confused so they changed the “J” to a “K.” That’s where Bethany went this morning and did a little shopping. She got some great deals on winter clothes for the kids and a nice, small purse for herself. A lot of women wear smaller long strap purses as opposed to a hand bag. Some of that is for security, I guess, and a lot of ladies have recommended she get one too. I’m glad she was able to take the morning off and just enjoy some shopping.

Below is a video I took of Titus at the park. I had never seen him do this until today but he’s figured out how to pitch to himself. This is both amazing and depressing to me. Amazing because I didn’t know a 4-year-old could do that and depressing because I don’t know if he’ll still need me to pitch to him anymore!

Unfortunately for me we tried the same video again later this evening and I forgot how close I was (below). For the record he got me square in the chest as I was squatting and it stung for about 10 minutes. Had it been any lower I think we would’ve been making our first Czech hospital run and you would be seeing us on Czech’s Funniest Videos. Hey, “If you get it on cam, you could get it in crowns.”

A few weeks back we had seen that there were a few tree stumps left in the ground and that they had removed a couple larger trees. I was definitely confused by this until today when I realized what became of those stumps (photos above). Now standing beside the park is a wood carved jester, a squirrel, and what I believe to be a large snail (not pictured because it creeped me out a little). I don’t know if they are permanent installations or for something else, but they are pretty good size and I guess a mystery solved regarding those trees.

As I write Bethany is baking fresh bread in the kitchen. I joked that we’ve “gone full on Czech” with Bethany baking bread because they love fresh bread here. She’s making white bread I think mostly because she misses it. They have lots of different kinds of bread here, but I feel like everything we’ve tried has a distinct sourdough type taste to it. We probably haven’t exhausted our options but Bethany had yeast and dough so she’s giving it a try. It looked really yummy as it was rising in the bowl (photo below) and I hope it turns out great.

Early to bed, early to rise (bread pun intended) is how the old saying goes. Tomorrow is Sunday and we’ll be back in the pews at church doing our best to listen through a translator and hear God’s Word taught in a place that doesn’t have a lot of it. Sunday is always a reminder of the great needs for the gospel here. Even though we go to a great church, it’s the exception, and we will continue to pray for God to do a mighty work in the lives of millions in this country

Tags baseball, bread, fun, Saturday, shopping, TK Maxx

365 Czech Republic

The Post Office Experience and Why Getting Packages Sent Here is Awesome

Post author By Shay
Post date August 22, 2014
1 Comment on The Post Office Experience and Why Getting Packages Sent Here is Awesome

You would think going to the post office would be uneventful. At least that’s what I thought. I was dead wrong.

I should’ve walked, but I only had a few minutes before Czech lessons were about to begin so I decided to drive the short distance in town to the post office today. As I pulled into the only parking spot I could find I was greeted by the site of a person standing up with no pants on (they were wearing underwear but were not facing me). By the time I got the car turned off they were fully clothed and laid back down on the sidewalk. Clearly it was a homeless person who I think had just used the street as a bathroom.

Walking from the car to the entrance is usually not a problem but as I strolled on the sidewalk a medium sized post office delivery truck pulled on to the sidewalk right in front of me (missing me by a foot or so) and parked. To be honest I didn’t even really pause. I’ve gotten used to cars being closer and making quick moves around me as I walk–it’s just more normal here. Finally I made inside and there was only one person in line ahead of me (photo above). Score! Last time I was here it was busy.

After greeting the postal clerk in Czech I basically told her, “I don’t speak Czech” and handed her my slip. She just kind of laughed and quickly pulled up the information she needed and then walked away. The line behind me grew much longer as we we waited for about five minutes while the lady retrieved the package from the back. When she finally came back I saw her walk into another office, talk to someone, and then came back to me with a box and about ten pages of paperwork. She took the stack of papers, flipped a few pages, and then would point for me to sign. This happened three times and it felt more like signing mortgage documents than a package. “Identification?” she asked. I handed her my passport, she checked it and then pointed to another clerk window and said “2.” I walked over, she met me there as well, opened the glass window with a key and finally gave me the box. What was inside the box that took two weeks to get here, multiple signatures, a pants-less person, and a near death experience with a delivery truck? Let’s open it up!

The final inventory:

Streamers for Avery’s tricycle
Swedish Fish
Hello Kitty toy for Avery
Cars toy for Titus
M&Ms for the kids
Glow-in-the-dark stars for Avery
Soft baseball for Titus
New shorts for me! (Shay)
Flying toys for Titus and Avery
1lb of whole bean Starbucks Pike’s Place coffee! (that’s for Bethany and me)
Wii Sports (because ours got scratched)
And one of the best presents of the bunch: dish scrubber with soap handle (and refills)! There is a bigger story about why that’s so important, but maybe that’ll have to be for another blog.

Thank you, Papa and Nana for the wonderful box o’ goodness! I’ll brave the post office experience anytime for a box like this!

I’m tempted to end this post, but tonight we had our first Czech family over to our place for dinner. They are a young couple from our church and are so nice. Both of them speak great English and are a treat to be around. Romi baked this Estonian pastry dessert that was incredible (photo above). It looks like something you would see in a magazine and all your friends would pin on Pinterest. I had two helpings. It’s tradition to bring some kind of gift or dessert in Czech! So good…so awesome.

Great day. It’s great to be alive.

Tags package, pastry, post office

365 Czech Republic

Mail and More

Two things came in the mail today: 1) Our very first letter from one of our friends and 2) A slip to pick up what we think may be our very first package! The letter above is from a good friend of ours and was really encouraging. As much as I love the digital age we live in, a hand written letter can be special when it travels over 6,000 miles to get to you! We weren’t able to make it to the post office to get the other mail because I had the car and didn’t make it back before it closed. Hopefully tomorrow we can head over and pick it up.

As I left our place today it was raining. It wasn’t a hard rain but it wasn’t a soft rain either. Rain had been falling for a while because the roads were pretty wet. As you can see in the photo below it was a very wet and gray day. For the most of the day it stayed this way but late in the afternoon it cleared up and became a beautiful day. Check out the scene below in the second photo. You wouldn’t even think it was the same day.

Later, with the sun shining brightly in the background, I got this photo of an amazing spider web hanging on the JV office.

Tonight we had a little dinner at a friend’s house and Titus got all dressed up along with their sons. Good thing he had his Superman shirt on because with the mask and cape (and sword?) he was looking good.

Tags letter, weather

365 Czech Republic

Visa Registration and Potty Training

Post author By Shay
Post date August 20, 2014
1 Comment on Visa Registration and Potty Training

As early as we could get everyone out of the house today we loaded our van and headed to Ostrava to try a second time to register our short-term visas. I shared yesterday that we tried and failed because the office was closed, but today we made it to the “foreign police” office during business hours. Going to any kind of government office is difficult, but add to the that the newness and a language barrier and you’ll feel your heart rate go up just driving there. Admittedly, I was a bit anxious this morning. Yes, I know what Philippians 4:6 says and Bethany did a good job reminding me of that in the car on the way over. I have no excuse for my sin but I’ll admit that I was a bit on edge.

God graciously provided a nice clerk who helped us and the process went pretty smooth. The man behind the glass spoke a little English, I spoke Czech-lish, my translation app on my iPhone spoke Czech and together all three of us made it work. In the end we got the head nod of approval but honestly I don’t really know what exactly we did there. All we were told was that we needed go to the foreign police to “register our visas” and I guess that’s what we did? Only the Lord really knows that’s fine with me.

Check out this photo below. The clerk at the foreign police had a “Don’t mess with Texas” sticker on his coffee thermos. I laughed out loud (quietly, of course… you don’t want to make a scene in a government office). Even in the middle of Europe you can’t escape Texas pride.

I shared earlier this week that we have begun potty training Avery. Well tonight we had a bit of a celebration because Avery was able to make it all the way to the potty for the first time without having an accident (translation: she went “pee pee” on the potty)! I was on my computer working in another room when I heard Bethany screaming and clapping and then I heard Avery say, “I did it!” in her tiny little voice. We’re super encouraged by her progress and hope that life beyond the diaper is on the horizon.

Besides that we had another successful language lesson and we’re learning how to tell time. You feel like you’re in the first grade when our teacher has a clock out, shows you a time and you’re supposed to repeat it back in Czech. It’s so funny to listen to us butcher the language and try to say “9:00 o’clock” in our slow, broken Czech. Maybe I’ll just never tell anyone what time it is?

Tags Avery, potty training, Texas, visas

365 Czech Republic

Making Assumptions and Going on Our Second Date

Post author By Shay
Post date August 19, 2014
1 Comment on Making Assumptions and Going on Our Second Date

We broke our own rule today. Rule #1 in the Thomason Czech house is “don’t assume.” I believe I’ve written about it before, but basically it works like this: don’t assume you know how something in Czech works. Don’t assume you know how the microwave works, or how to drive a car, or that the store will have eggs in stock, and especially don’t assume government agencies work like they do in the States. This might sound easy, but in practice it’s very hard. You rely on what you know and what’s familiar and you start to make assumptions based on previous experiences. But that’s not always the right way to go and today and I did just that. I assumed. I assumed the “Foreign Police” office would be open until 5pm, but they closed at 2pm which was the time we had scheduled to leave our apartment for the office. Because of that we missed our day to register our visas and now we have to try tomorrow and pray they give us a little grace on missing our “three working day” window to get registered. I can’t believe I forgot my own rule.

On the bright side, we got to go on our second date tonight here in Czech. Our friend Claire graciously offered to babysit for us a while back and it just happened to line up with us trying to go to the foreign police. So we had her come over this afternoon and our plan was to go to the foreign police and then have dinner, but since missed the foreign police we went to IKEA and did some shopping and then headed out for dinner in Ostrava (a town about 40 or so minutes from where we live).

Date night didn’t start so great, honestly. We spent more time at IKEA than I thought we would and Claire had given us the name of a restaurant she likes but when I tried to GPS it we got lost and I didn’t take it so well. It’s not easy being a man and trying to take your wife on a date and then get lost…especially in Czech. We don’t know the language, we cant just find another place to go, and you have limited time as it is. After a 30 or more minute detour we made it to a really nice place and had burgers, pizza, and ended with coffee (photos below). The last photo is of a coal cart that was actually inside the Starbucks. I’m assuming coal mining is a big part of Ostrava’s history, but then again that would be breaking rule #1.

Claire was a champ with our kids and I could tell when we got home that they had a great time with her. She played Wii with Titus, read them books that she brought, took them outside to play, and after she left we realized she had even done our dishes! So nice. It’s too bad she’s heading back to the States this Friday to return to college because I think we would just hire her. Be sure to follow along with Claire on her blog.

We’re so thankful to have had another night out even though it didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped. I know now that I will have to do a lot more planning in the future. These are some of the growing pains of living in a new country and just like physical growing pains they can hurt a little. By God’s grace we’ll continue to grow in our understanding of Czech and how to live and adapt here.

Tags assumptions, date night, growing pains

365 Czech Republic

Eating Rabbit and Gospel Opportunities

Post author By Shay
Post date August 18, 2014
3 Comments on Eating Rabbit and Gospel Opportunities

Bethany: “So I had rabbit today.”
Me: “Really? Awesome!”

There’s a first time for everything and today it was Bethany having dumplings with rabbit cream sauce. How did this happen? I’m so glad you asked.

It all started yesterday. Bethany got a few texts from some other missionaries near us asking if she’d be interested in helping out at a local preschool here in town. The Czech and English preschool needed someone today and tomorrow to speak English to the little ones for the day. Normally they have a girl from Australia teach English, but she was sick. We talked it over yesterday and Bethany decided she was interested and since she could take our kids with her that made the decision a little easier. So early this morning, with the help of another missionary friend, Bethany and the kids left the house to be at the school by 8am.

Titus hasn’t started preschool here yet, but Bethany would say today was a really great little introduction to what it would be like. Schools in our town have been really full this year and normally they register kids in January but since we weren’t here until June we haven’t been able to get him in yet.

When you walk in the building there’s a place for all the kids’ shoes. Bethany shared the building is actually very large (like the size of a high school), but the preschool uses one classroom about the size of an apartment. She also said it’s a little eerie because the rest of the building is actually empty and not being used at all. It was the Czech teacher’s first day on the job as well and her only study of English was back in 6th grade and she’s a college student now. Bethany said they could communicate just fine so Bethany was instructed to teach the parts of the human body (in English). There were only four students today plus Titus and Avery (so a total of six). She would say “chin” and point and the kids were supposed to repeat it back. They did okay for the most part, but Sonja (the Czech teacher) said they need to make sure they can repeat it back tomorrow.

Outside of a few little lessons like that there was snack time, lunch, nap time and free play. For lunch they had to walk as a class to the cafeteria which was back behind the building. Bethany didn’t know she would have to pay for the kids lunch but thankfully she had just enough cash on her. (Her meal was paid for because she was teaching). Like all Czech meals, it started with soup and today it was some type of egg soup with veggies. Avery seems to really enjoy the soup here and has gotten pretty good at slurping it with a spoon. It’s still messy, but we’re glad they’re getting a little practice in. The main course was bread dumplings and a creamy meat sauce which turned out to be rabbit. Bethany said to me tonight, “I definitely felt sick after they told me I had eaten rabbit.” There’s a first she’ll never forget. However she admits that the meal wasn’t too bad and that for our kids it will probably be a normal meal in school.

During snack times they enjoyed rolls with cream cheese spread and in the afternoon cookies and apples. They always serve the snack with unsweetened hot tea which our kids didn’t enjoy. Once Sonja realized our kids weren’t enjoying the tea she offered some syrup fruit sweetener which Bethany really liked (she ended up drinking their tea).

One of the great blessings for Bethany today was that she was able to practice her Czech with the teacher and the preschoolers because essentially that’s the level of language we are at! It was really helpful to hear the little ones talk in Czech and have the teacher speak in simple sentences over and over.

During nap time Bethany got to spend time with Sonja getting to know her. Bethany shared that as she was talking with Sonja it really struck her that if she doesn’t talk about Christ with this young girl, who will? She’s a full time student with two jobs and has a boyfriend in our town even though she lives about twenty minutes from here. Bethany said she’s a very sweet girl but she still desperately needs to hear the gospel. Bethany really wants to invite her over to our house for a meal. Please pray for this!

As well, a mom named Eva was picking up her daughter and Bethany got to talking with her because she also spoke English. Apparently she worked in Krakow, Poland at an English-speaking business but she has a British accent because she has spent time studying English in England and New Zealand. Bethany told her we had just moved here and was complimenting Eva on her English. Surprisingly, Eva offered to go to coffee with Bethany and told her to get her phone number from the school! This feels like an open door for a relationship. Side note: We have been so impressed how hospitable the Czechs have been. Please pray for Bethany to be able to get Eva’s phone number and hopefully go grab coffee soon.

My wife is courageous. She’s brave. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I felt about her leaving and going to an unknown school in an unknown place with our kids. But then I’m reminded why we moved here. We didn’t move our family across the globe to just enjoy Christ and keep Him to ourselves. We came here with the intention of diving in to a new culture and language with the goal of one day sharing the love of Jesus. By God’s grace, we may get that opportunity sooner than later and in may be even in English! Please pray with us that we would continue to move forward in bold faith and trust Christ with the results.

Tags preschool, rabbit, relationships

365 Czech Republic

Swords, Salsa, and Something Special

Post author By Shay
Post date August 17, 2014
2 Comments on Swords, Salsa, and Something Special

The photo below is of Avery running towards the doors of our church. We were about four minutes late this morning so you don’t see anyone standing around outside, but often there are many people fellowshipping and talking on and around those steps. Right when we walked through those doors one of the pastors saw us and greeted us by saying “Dobré ráno” (“Good morning”) and immediately pointed to his ears. He was motioning to remind us to grab our English translations headsets. Every week someone will translate via a little microphone to our headsets so we really don’t have any issues understanding the flow of the service and the sermon. It’s a huge blessing and I’m thankful for the different people who serve us this way. Even though we’re trying to learn Czech, it’s really nice to be able to come to church and understand most of what’s happening.

Today’s sermon was on putting on the full of armor of God from Ephesians 6. That was actually the first passage of scripture I ever memorized. I still remember it to this day and I even remember reciting it in front of my 6th grade class. At one point during the sermon our pastor put up a photo of a Roman soldier and just started to describe the spiritual armor that correlated with the photo. It was a good visual reminder to me and I think very helpful to the body. He even discussed that the “sword of the Spirit” (the Bible) is one of the only things listed in the passage that is offensive in nature and the other pieces of spiritual armor are defensive. His point was that even though a sword is an offensive weapon, he believes that in the context of the passage it’s defensive. Super interesting thought and something I’m still thinking through this evening. It’s a joy to watch these Czech pastors work through the text, try to understand the original intent, and preach it to us. To be honest, it wasn’t what I had expected we would find when we moved here and from what I’ve heard it’s not the norm throughout the entire country. For all I know at this point our church may just be the exception.

The photos above are Avery and Bethany going in and out of the grocery story this afternoon after church. I had taken the first photo just because I thought they were cute, but then watching Avery cary a few bags of groceries on her way out with Bethany was the cherry on top. Bethany even said that the Czechs were stopping and looking at her and admiring Avery as she was leaving the store because she even had the bags around her shoulders at one point like a purse. Cute kid.

Tonight we had some friends over for dinner and enjoyed a little “American comfort food.” Those are the best words I can use to describe any kind of Mexican food that Bethany makes. In fact, we finished off our only container of Pace picante sauce…let’s just pause and take a moment of silence…it was good run for our salsa, but as my mom always says, “All good things must come to an end.” Some sacrifices in missions are hard…even salsa.

We ended up video chatting with Bethany’s parents late tonight and it was extra special. They kids got to stay up late and say hi but we talked for a while longer after the kids went to bed. For all of the junk that technology produces, one of the incredible blessings is to be able to video chat with family who are over 6,000 miles away. Towards the end of our conversation Bethany’s dad asked what things they could be praying for and he wrote them down and prayed with us. That was special. I guess it was just really practical. He prayed for the things we mentioned and as I listened and agreed I was blessed. God is so good to give us family who care for us and even when life is a little disjointed for us we know that we have family and many others praying for us. And even though miles separate us and time zones separate us, we are united in Christ. Now that’s special.

Tags church, food, prayer, salsa

365 Czech Republic

Working With Avery

One of the joys of finally being more settled here in Czech is that we’ve been able to really have focused time with our kids. It’s not that we didn’t focus on them, but when you’re traveling the U.S. in a van for nine months during support raising some things fall to the wayside. Bethany would often say, “When we get to Czech we’re gonna _____________ .” For example, we’ve wanted to reinstate “room time” for our kids where they can just spend time playing while Bethany and I work around the house. Our traveling just didn’t allow for that kind of time for them and now that we’re here we’ve gone back to that which has been really great. Another thing we had talked about was small chores that the kids could help with, like emptying the dishwasher, setting the table, or helping do the laundry. The goal is just to give them some different, practical activities they can do with us. It’s been fun to see some of those things come to fruition.

Avery (she’s 2) completely impressed me this morning. I think it’s a combination of us working with them more and just Avery’s sweet heart, but while Bethany was making breakfast Avery came into the kitchen and I said, “I help mommy?” Bethany was making Swedish pancakes from scratch and there’s a lot of stirring so Avery helped mix ingredients and then stir everything together (photo above). Once she was finished, Avery grabbed some clean plates from the dishwasher and said, “These are for me and Titus…” and went into the dining room and put their plates on the table. Then Bethany asked her to continue setting the table so Avery grabbed all the plates, silverware, syrup, jelly and set the entire table herself (photo below). Minus the sugar in the glass container, Avery carried out everything and set the table all by herself and she said to me, “Daddy…Titus is sitting by me.” That was right after she explained to me that she was taking bowls to the table for her and Titus to have yogurt (which she also took out to the table).

After breakfast we went outside and Bethany said, “I’m going to work on potty training with Avery.” This is just another one of those things that got set on the back burner as we were support raising and preparing to move. We just never felt we could on it and we were driving so much that we decided to wait. But today we began the slow and steady process of teaching Avery how to “go potty on the potty.” With Titus we made a little chart and reward system so Bethany did the same with Avery today. Even though she had a lot of accidents, we were much more prepared and Bethany really worked hard with her. Lord willing, Avery will adjust soon and we’ll have another potty trained child in the house…and a lot less diapers!

Tomorrow is Sunday and that means we’ll be at church. As I’ve written already, Sunday is yet another opportunity to work with our kids and teach and train them. Pray for us as we continue to get settled and spend more focused time with our kids.

Tags Avery, kids

365 Czech Republic

How Not to Dad

On the whole, we had a great day as a family. Bethany and the kids came out with me to the JV office this morning and we even had lunch together. I basically worked a half day because we had language lessons this afternoon, so while I was at the office the kids and Bethany and went exploring around Frydlant (the town where the JV offices are). There’s a creek nearby (photo above) and they even went to a little park too. I had a meeting that ran long so we rushed home to make it a little late for our language lesson. We enjoyed a pretty relaxed evening at home and some leftovers. I even spent a few minutes photographing the church out our kitchen window. That place still seems to grab my attention.

Tonight as I was putting away the dishes I said, “Hey, let’s go for a walk! It looks nice outside.” That was at about 7pm. In the town square they were having a big concert/festival, including a live band, rides, and little shops. We had seen them setting up for it on Wednesday so we thought it would be fun to go see it tonight. While walking around we came up to the bumper cars. Honestly, most of the rides looked a little sketchy at best, but the bumper cars looked fun so Titus and I got a ticket and jumped in car 17.

I put him in my lap because it was too hard to reach the pedals with him next to me and off we went. In the beginning we were having a great time (photo above) until we got bumped. A mom and daughter nailed us from behind and Titus either hit is face on the steering wheel or just got whip lash and basically put his teeth through his inner lip. I didn’t really see it happen but I felt him kind of curl back into my arms and I asked him, “Are you OK, pal?” And as I looked down I saw he was bleeding. He didn’t cry. He just kind of got quiet and sad (photo below). I kept checking on him as we finished the ride and I knew it if it was really serious he would be crying. Praise God it wasn’t more than just a bad lip bite.

It’s one of the moments as a dad where you feel like you’ve failed. You instantly start saying to yourself, “Man… we didn’t even have to go on this ride.” “Why didn’t I hold him tighter so that wouldn’t happen?” “Titus probably thinks I’ve failed him.” “I didn’t protect him.” As the ride came to an end the first thing Titus said to me was, “I want mommy.” Bethany was taking photos of our ride and had no idea Titus had gotten hurt. Looking back on the photos was actually encouraging because Titus was running of the ride with a smile on his face. Of course, I was heart broken…I had hurt my son. Bethany saw his lip and said, “Does he need stitches?” Calmly I said, “No, he’ll be fine” but in my heart I was saying, “Oh man, I hope not…I don’t even know how that would work in the Czech Republic!”

Our night didn’t end sad. From the bumper cars we headed for home and by the time we got there Titus was feeling better. His lip had stopped bleeding but it was definitely fatter. We did bath time and he seemed to get his personality back. As I was dressing him he said, “Those cars were so fun!” Heart attack over. Those words were soothing to a dad who honestly felt like a failure.

You never want to hurt your kids, even if it’s an accident. I know life happens and fat lips happen, but you feel the weight of it differently as a parent. It’s probably just a good reminder that even has a father and a dad I won’t be able to perfectly protect and care for my family. Things will happen that are outside of my control and other things will happen that I’m directly responsible for. But I serve a God who is in control. He’s always in control and He will always perfectly care for me and my family. Sometimes it takes a little fat lip to remind you of that.

365 Czech Republic

Third Time’s The Charm

It’s 1:11am. Normally I would write this after dinner, but tonight we had some guests over to watch a little Dodgers baseball on the TV. Bethany got me an MLB.tv subscription when we moved over here because she knows how much I love the Dodgers. Basically, when they are playing a day game on the east coast we can watch it live at a reasonable time, so tonight we had Zach and Kara Zegan over which was a lot of fun.

Today we went on our 3rd trip to Bratislava, Slovakia to pick up the kids’ visas. Praise God, they are in and we’re all set with all four of our visas! This is such good news and even though we had a couple hiccups in the process we’re hopeful that by early next week we’ll be set with our 6-month visas. This will allow us to get 2-year visas at the beginning of 2015 and we won’t have to go back to Bratislava (Lord willing) for that process.

Of course we couldn’t go down to Bratislava without getting a few photos so enjoy…I’m off to bed.

Tags Bratislava, Dodgers, friends