Shay Thomason – Page 12 – everything beautiful in it's time

Titus’ Hardest Morning at School

Post author By Shay
Post date March 16, 2015
1 Comment on Titus’ Hardest Morning at School

I always have meetings on Monday morning and today I was running just a few minutes behind so instead of walking Titus to school I actually drove the car around the block. It’s ridiculously close to our house, but I just wanted to leave as soon as I dropped him off. On our way he kept trying tell me that “there’s no school today, dad.” I said, “Yes, there is.” Then when we parked he said, “See dad, the lights are off.” I looked up in to the second story window and indeed the lights were off, but I told Titus, “Bud, the sun is out today so they are probably not turning the lights on right now.” I didn’t really know if that was true, but based on the number of cars around I was pretty confident there was actually school today. When we got inside, sure enough, all the kids shoes were in their boxes and school was in session. Titus looked around almost bewildered and just began to cry…a lot.

Of course I did whatever I could to calm him down, but he just wouldn’t. I don’t know what was going on his mind exactly but he had at some point this morning decided that he wasn’t going to school if he had anything to do with it. I took him upstairs to the room where he puts his jacket and he wasn’t calming down. A grandma dropping off her grand daughter tried to console him, but that only made it worse. She said something in Czech which I didn’t understand but I just smiled as if to say, “Thanks for trying.”

I carried him to the classroom where he kept saying, “Daddy, I’m scared. I want to go home. I don’t want to go to school. Will you pray for me?” We prayed, but he was still struggling. His teacher approached us and tried to console him too but he was still crying. Bethany told me tonight that he has been struggling more of late, but not this bad. Specifically, he has been asking us to pray for him every time we drop him off. Finally, this morning, I sat with him on the ground and started playing with some dinosaurs. His teacher brought over some little knights and army guys and he brightened right up. He started talking to his teacher about something in English and I just got up, said goodbye and he was fine. From start to finish the whole was probably fifteen minutes and I’m still kind of scratching my head about it. Bethany said he came home happy today and was fine, so I’m thinking it was just a morning thing.

As a parent I realize what we’re doing. We are regularly dropping off our kid at a place where he doesn’t speak the language and the people there don’t speak his. It’s not easy for any of us. We trust the Lord is working in Titus’ mind to both help with the language and the process, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. This week especially will be a challenge because he’ll be going on a little field trip to another school and staying for a longer day away. We’re going to see how this goes and would covet your prayers this week. We trust the Lord for our kids, even when it’s hard.

Tags hard, school, skolka, Titus

365 Czech Republic

The Sunday Shredder

Today was a another great Sunday at church with our kids. I think it may be one of the last Sundays that I stay in Titus’ class, and we’re trying to figure out what to do about Avery and her class. In the States we would normally just let her cry a little when we leave the room, but it doesn’t seem to be allowed that much in her class here. However, we’re having fun spending time with each of our kids in their classes.

Below is a photo that I took of a board game that Titus got out during the play time after they had their Bible lesson. I have no clue what the game is, but the kids gathered around Titus when he started getting the pieces out and helped him set it up. It’s always fun to see him playing with other kids, even if they have no clue how to talk to each other.

Traditionally Sunday is a day of rest, but today our shredder was working over time! This past week Bethany and I realized the amount of paperwork that we have just lying around has gotten out of hand and we wanted to make space and clear out old files. So this afternoon we spent a few hours just separating the recycle versus shred piles and let the kids go to town putting paperwork through the “shrinker” (as they were calling it). Spring is only five days away, so we really felt like we were getting some Spring cleaning done! As I type Bethany is still going through files and I think we’re going to have a few days of this left, but it end we should have cleaner desks and a little more space.

That’s all from us today. We hope you had a blessed Sunday!

Tags filing, kids, paperwork, shredder, shrinker, Sunday school

365 Czech Republic

Play Place

Post author By Shay
Post date March 14, 2015
No Comments on Play Place

Today Bethany and the kids had fun with our friends the Yormans at a new play place we had never been to. I stayed home because I haven’t been feeling great the past two days and we also had a lady cleaning our windows which our landlord hired. Above is a photo of the play area that they went to and Bethany said there were only two families there, ours and the Yormans. Titus and Avery haven’t really had a lot of time experience playing in a ball pit, so this was really exciting for them and they loved it. When they came back Titus couldn’t stop telling me all about the ball bit that “had two slides!” An indoor play area like this is really great on days like today where it just basically rained all day. I’m so glad they had fun. Here’s another angle of the facilities.

While they were out I spent my afternoon working on our next support letter email which I’m hoping to send out this weekend (if you’re not on our email list you can sign up here!). We have been trying to hard to make time for that important piece of communication in between sickness, languages lessons, and other things, but it has proved harder this time around. I also spent some time writing thank you cards to our supporters which is also something we try and make time for every week. Every time I write a card I’m reminded just how thankful I am for all the people who support us and desire to the gospel brought to Czech. If you are one of them, thank you!

While sitting at our dining table tonight, I was putting some final edits on our email. Avery was sitting across from me and diligently working with Playdough. She was so content to sit there and make things and finally I peaked my head over my computer and took the above photo of her. It seems like lately she has been growing so fast and continues to be more independent. It’s bittersweet to watch our kids grow. I love that they are maturing and are more independent but so often it feels way too fast!

Tags ball pit, friends, fun, kids, play

365 Czech Republic

A Language Day

The last couple days have been wet and dreary. Even though the weather had warmed up a bit last week, it was really short lived and is currently just above freezing. Us southern Californians aren’t used to that because usually when it warms up it stays that way for a while. As I walked to Titus’ school this afternoon to pick him up I took the above photo to give a little bit of an idea of how it looked pretty much all day. The rain is like an all-day light mist and everything just kind of stays gray.

As I approached Titus’ preschool today I realized just how funny the entrance is (shown above from the photo I took today). After you walk through the gate and up the path you come to a large door that for an American is something out of a movie. The doors are heavy and loud and if you didn’t know that there were a hundred little kids running around inside you would think maybe I was entering some kind of castle. I like it.

When I got to Titus’ class they had just started the Lego movie (dubbed in the Czech language). Titus was pretty excited and didn’t want to leave so I let him watch for a few minutes. Plus, it’s always a bonus to hear kids movies in Czech because the language is usually simplified and I can try following along. I also liked that Titus had his hand on his friend Denis’ chair. Also funny was that it was basically almost all the boys watching the movie while the girls were in the other room playing.

We had our biggest language study day to date and it was absolutely wonderful. Our language teacher Tamara came to our house today because she had a car available and was already running errands (normally we drive to her place about 15-20 minutes away). For two solid hours we worked through our Czech language textbook, and we also had a little time to review a Czech tourism book that Tamara brought us (below). What I really enjoyed about our time with her today was that Tamara will just speak Czech while we do things. For instance, while we were looking at the beautiful photos and scenery shown in the book she brought, Tamara was just simply telling us about the places all in Czech. She was speaking slowly and helping us in English along the way, but it’s an exercise of just listening and paying attention to the words you can understand while picking up new ones along the way. Oh, and by the way, this is a beautiful country.

Between 2:30-4 we had a little break before our second round of Czech lessons started with Jenny and Landen. We also try to have hot water for tea and some snacks on the table (which you can see below). I took this photo today because I realized this has become the norm now and we’re well prepared to get into the Czech language!

Today was kind of special because Jenny and Landen brought a young girl from our church who speaks both Czech and English (I also think she speaks Polish!). Her name is Miriam, and she became a little bit of our “Czech helper” (it’s like a teacher, only she doesn’t have to prepare) and we had fun listening to her speak and laughing at all of our mistakes. I think this was the first week we have done five straight days of language time with Jenny and Landen in the afternoon so it’s been a really fun and full week. I can already tell that with how much studying we’re doing that things are starting to click in my mind much faster. By no means are we great Czech speakers yet, but we’re definitely making progress! Here’s a photo of all of us (minus me, of course) sprawled out on the table working on our lesson.

Since we had such a focused day of language, and because the kids did pretty well during all of it, we decided to take them out to eat tonight. It’s bit of a drive to find a place we can all enjoy, but it’s just nice to get out. We went to a newer mall about 20 minutes from our place and enjoy an easy dinner and just walked around a toy store together.

Bethany has been talking a lot lately about how much baby #3 has been kicking and hiccuping. I believe she’s officially entered her third trimester and she’s starting to feel a little more uncomfortable. In the next month or so we have to begin to figure out which hospital Bethany will deliver at and put together a “birth plan” with a Czech speaker to try to minimize the surprises when she does go into labor. You can be praying for us as the due date gets closer and closer and as we begin to finalize our plans of having a baby in another country.

Tags language, preschool, school, Titus, weather

365 Czech Republic

Cold Water and Czech Spa Wafers

Post author By Shay
Post date March 12, 2015
No Comments on Cold Water and Czech Spa Wafers

“Daddy, the hot water is gone!” Avery exclaimed to me while I was in the middle of an important phone call this afternoon. I heard her, but I wasn’t listening. It’s one of those classic dad moments where I heard the words but I didn’t take them to heart and continued my phone call. A friend tried calling my phone, but I declined it because the call I was already on. I also heard Bethany’s phone ring and still ignored it (lets just pause here and thank the Lord that nothing dangerous was going on because no amount of warning would’ve alerted me unless I was actually on fire or something). Fifteen or twenty minutes later I hung up from my call and Avery said again, “Daddy, the hot water is gone!” Confused still, I said, “Where’s mommy?!” She pointed to the bathroom and that’s when I heard Bethany’s voice, “I’m in here!…There’s no hot water!” As she was showering the hot water went off and now she had been stranded in the shower for at least twenty minutes with soap in her hair. That explains what Avery meant!

Why was the hot water off? Well, that’s a story in a story. Last week while the plague swept our house we got a notice regarding the gas meter being replaced. Mostly we understood it but were a little confused about the times and day they would come. I guess the gas company people did show up but our doorbell is broken so we didn’t hear them. Yesterday we got a phone call that was completely in Czech and I was so confused and did my best to understand. Could this be the gas company trying to call? I thought I understood the man on the phone asking me when we would be home, but my Czech just isn’t good enough to respond and I was already unsure what was going on or who I was even talking to. Finally, after a few minutes of frustration, the caller said “goodbye” to me in Czech. This morning Bethany got a phone call in Czech. Was it the gas company? Just like me she was confused and the caller hung up when they couldn’t communicate either.

Fast forward back to the cold shower. I ended up boiling hot water for Bethany so she could rinse off and no longer be stranded. I checked the hot water boiler we have and I could see the pilot wasn’t lit. It’s not a hot water heater, and doesn’t store hot water in a tank like most places in the States; it kind of heats water when you need it. That’s when I called back our friend who tried calling me while I was on the phone. Basically, she told me the gas company talked to our landlord and replaced the meter this morning thus turning off our gas while Bethany was showering, and she added they weren’t happy about all the miscommunication. She also told me that the water heater would be off and need to be relit which of course we already knew at that point. I was thankful for the clarity. I did finally get the boiler pilot light lit again. A little Googling and a lighter got us back in business.

We continued working on language stuff with Jenny and Landen this afternoon and they brought us a special Czech treat that we had never had before. It’s called “Kolonada” (shown above) and they said it’s a pretty traditional treat that Czechs give as gifts when visiting your home. It’s like a thin wafer with sugar and hazelnuts inside and it was delicious! Here’s another picture of it.

As for language, it’s coming along albeit very slow. We are putting together sentences and doing a ton of listening but it’s not fast and it’s not easy. Every day I’m amazed at our progress and continually am asking the Lord for His grace as we learn Czech!

Tags cold, hot, Kolonada, shower, wafer, water

365 Czech Republic

Czech Makes You Do Funny Things

Post author By Shay
Post date March 11, 2015
No Comments on Czech Makes You Do Funny Things

“You put the green book under the yellow head.” I think that’s the sentence that Landen was putting together in this picture. To the left you see his wife, Jenny, laughing because it’s hilarious how silly we look sometimes but how focused we are while we’re doing these things. You may not think that putting a green book under your chin with a color card would mean much, but for us it’s helping us understand adjectives and how those words change. In the Czech language the endings of words change often and that’s true of adjectives, like when you’re using a color to describe an object (e.g. “the green book”). So we’re building sentences from simple objects and trying to listen as Jenny tells us what we’re doing in Czech. Fun times!

Another funny (maybe strange?) thing about Czech is an Easter tradition where boys use sticks to hit girls on Easter Monday (that’s not a typo, it’s the day after Sunday). Above is a photo Bethany got of those sticks today at the grocery and instead of trying to describe the tradition myself, here’s how one Web site explains it:

Young, live pussywillow twigs are thought to bring health and youth to anyone who is whipped with them. An Easter pomlázka (from pomladit or “make younger”) is a braided whip made from pussywillow twigs. It has been used for centuries by boys who go caroling on Easter Monday and symbolically whip girls on the legs. In the past, pomlázka was also used by the farmer’s wife to whip the livestock and everyone in the household, including men and children. There would be no Czech Easter without the pomlázka.

I guess I’ll make sure to keep Bethany indoors on Easter Monday!

Tags Czech, Easter, funny, language, silly

365 Czech Republic

Our First Hole in the Wall

Post author By Shay
Post date March 10, 2015
No Comments on Our First Hole in the Wall

Thanks to our friend Greg who lives and serves in Poland, we now have our nice big clock hanging up in our living room. You would think that I, as the man of the house, would be able to hang a clock on my own. I would say I probably could’ve done it, but we have never actually tried drilling in to the concrete walls before and because I was unsure I enlisted Greg’s assistances (and tools!) to help me. He came over at 8am because he was going to be in our part of town anyway and in about 10 minutes we had this new clock hung and looking good! So there you have it–our first hole in the wall.

After hanging the clock I headed into the Josiah Venture office for our big international team meeting. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to be there because of sickness, but I was so encouraged by the verses we looked at this morning.

Philippians 4:6-7

…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Dave, who was teaching, talked about having a “zero tolerance” for anxiousness. I really like that thought. The Apostle Paul is not saying you can be anxious sometimes, but “do not be anxious about anything.” Anything! I started to think how often I am anxious in my heart. Whether I’m driving the car, thinking about my family, thinking about ministry, or whatever I’m probably anxious a thousand times more than I realize. But God’s Word provides the solution to our sinful anxiety. “…but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Pray! Cast all our worries on the Lord! Be thankful! And what happens? “The peace of God…will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Amazing. It’s a simple truth, but it’s impact is far reaching. I love the simplicity and I love that when we follow God’s plan in His Word that He brings peace to our worried hearts.

That’s our Tuesday. Goodnight for now.

Tags anxiety, clock, drill, hole, time

365 Czech Republic

Back At It

Post author By Shay
Post date March 9, 2015
No Comments on Back At It

It really feels like it’s been a while since we’ve had a normal start to a week, but today we were back into the swing of things. Titus went to school this morning and Bethany took him while I got ready to head in to the Josiah Venture offices for meetings. It’s great to see a normal routine come back in to our lives. As our health continues to improve I feel like we’re catching up on things in our house and Bethany was hard at work today getting the kids’ room ready for baby #3. When we were at IKEA on Sunday Bethany really wanted to buy a little frame tray and she had a vision of what the kids dresser could look like. Today she made it a reality and texted me this photo of what she was working on. I thought it looked great!

It also has felt like it’s been a while since we did our last Czech lesson which was about a week and a half ago (we cancelled our lessons due to sickness). So it really nice to meet up again today with Jenny and Landen to work on our Czech language drills. We spent most of today just reviewing and getting our minds back around the last few drills which was really helpful. We’re learning prepositional phrases like “the book is next to the table” or “the paper is inside the book.” It’s amazing when you start to think about all those little things that we do naturally in language that you now need to train yourself on. Words like “on, beside, in, under…” are often used and we don’t think about it. There are so many ways you can say things! It was a good time today and we’ll be back at it tomorrow afternoon.

I took the above photo tonight around sunset from our kitchen window. It was fun to see the sun reflecting off the huge Catholic church. The sky was beautiful today and it was another “warm” day (mid 50s) and I’m thankful for the break from the cold. It might cool off later this week, but we’ll take all the warm, sunny days we can get!

Tags Monday, nesting, routine

365 Czech Republic

Sliding on Sunday

Spring is only a few weeks away, but it really felt like it arrived today. The weather was beautiful, sunny and even a little warm. A lot more people were out walking and riding their bikes because it was just the perfect day for a stroll. When I walked out of church this morning I looked up at the bare trees against the blue sky and loved just the contrast of the light and dark branches. I converted the above photo to black and white to really bring out that contrast and I know soon those trees will begin to bud and fill up all that empty space.

I continue to feel my strength and health returning and even though I’m not 100%, the whole family was able to make it to church this morning. We ended up staying with the kids in their respective classes again, which is always fun. Whether we’re in the main service or the kids class it’s a Czech language lesson, so that’s helpful! Right at the beginning of Titus’ class all four of us (that is, me, Bethany, Titus, and Avery) were together in Titus’ classroom and the kids were singing Czech Bible songs. We could understand that melody to the song “Read Your Bible Pray Every Day” and Bethany was singing in English to Titus while the rest of the class sang in Czech. When they finished they asked Bethany to lead everyone in the English version of the song which she did, and I could see one little Czech knew most of the English words! It was a sweet little moment and it’s always nice to do even just a little song in English.

After church we had lunch and had to run a few errands. We needed a few things from the electronics store and then some small things from IKEA so we took a little trip out of town. Next to IKEA is a mall with a huge 2-story slide which we’ve talked about before and the kids asked if we could go there so we did. The kids had a blast climbing up the big tower and heading down the slide (they must’ve done it fifteen times!). I got the blast of photos that you see above and you could hear them laughing from a mile away. It’s really fun to watch them play together and laugh.

Tonight we have mostly just been picking up the house and getting ready for the upcoming week. One of the things we picked up at IKEA is a new clock for our living room and I’ve been trying to figure out how to drill into our concrete walls to hang it. Our friend Greg is going to come over tomorrow afternoon to help me so hopefully I can get a photo of that when it’s up. Other than that, it’s just been a great Sunday and I’m thankful to get back into the swing of things, including language lessons tomorrow!

Tags church, fun, kids, slide, Sunday

365 Czech Republic

A Sunny Saturday

Today was the best day yet in regards to sickness. I’m feeling like my energy level are much higher and my head is starting to clear up, although I’m not out of the woods yet. I’m thankful for many who have prayed for our family during all the sickness!

We tried not to overdo it today, but we got a text message this morning from our friends, the Yormans, asking if we wanted to walk to the park and Lego store. We have only driven or walked past it the Lego store, so we were excited to go check it out. This was really the first time we’ve had an “outing” in a week so it was nice to just be out in the sunshine. For some reason Titus wanted to wear one of his new mustaches, so here’s a photo during our walk where he posed and said, “Dad, can you take a photo of me?”

As we walked the square right near our place, the crocuses were shining brightly against the green grass and we noticed they are all in a perfect half-moon shape. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Czechs did this on purpose. We have been seeing a lot of fresh flowers being planted of late and when you got to the store there are various sections of gardening and other things to get ready for spring. Here’s a photo of the white flowers in the half-moon shape.

We made it to the Lego store which was really fun. The kids were mostly just running around looking at all the Lego boxes from behind glass. We were only there a few minutes before other Czech friends just happen to walk in, including our language teacher Tamara! It was fun to see familiar faces and say hi. Here’s a wall of Legos that I took a photo of (below). It’s actually really nice to have everything behind glass because little hands can’t pick it up!

After the Lego fun, we made our way over to the park and hung out there for a while and just chatted while the kids played. Avery loves any toy she can sit on, so here she is playing on one of those springy rocker things.

Before long it was time for lunch and the Yormans invited us to join them at a local place in our town. I love Czech soup and this place has great soup, so we joined them and had a really fun time together. At one point Titus and their two boys, Beni and Caleb, were all playing a game on the iPhone (funny, it was a Lego game). Bethany took this photo of all three of them (below). Thanks, Yormans, for letting hang with you today!

Immediately after lunch we came home and took naps which was really nice. The sun was shining most of the day and it was nice to wake up and see it coming through our windows. We had our usual Saturday afternoon video chat with Bethany’s family and decided that it wouldn’t be best to push it too hard and try to make it to youth group tonight. We’re hopeful to go to church tomorrow and enjoy some fellowship there.

Tonight as we were video chatting with the family, Titus got out the mustaches again and quickly put one on my face. We were laughing about it and Titus wanted to take a photo of me. Here’s the photo that he got. I wish I had a photo of my dad to compare this to. We look a lot a like.

And now…I’m very sorry, but… I mustache.

Tags family, friends, Lego, lunch, mustache, park, store