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365 Czech Republic

Avery Tried to Eat Money and Titus Broke Glass

Avery tried to eat a Czech crown today. Thankfully it was the smallest coin of the lot, but in her attempt to do so it caused her to throw up…all over our bed. Avery has been sick like the rest of us, and kind of like me, she’s slow to recover. I realize she’s only three years old, but when she gets sick it lingers. Today she found a little pile of coins on my night stand (I will often empty my pockets at night and leave coins there) and in the process just decided to see what it would taste like. As Bethany describes it, Avery immediately threw up and then told Bethany, “I ate the money! I ate the money!” and then it actually came out the second time she threw up just a few seconds later. Thankfully she didn’t swallow it and her body did what it was supposed to do–that is, reject foreign objects. Bethany gave her a bath afterward and she seemed to be feeling better. Crisis avoided, I guess. Well, at least the first one.

Later today, Avery was napping and Titus was having “rest time” after he had come home from school. Sometimes Titus will nap in our room while Avery naps in their room because it’s just easier for Avery to fall asleep. Titus doesn’t nap every day, but we still like him to have a little rest time even if he doesn’t fall asleep, which was exactly the case today. Bethany was in the living room when she heard a crash in the bedroom and upon arrival there Titus was sitting on the bed with a broken glass picture frame. It had begun to rain hard this afternoon and he got up to look out the window and when he did that he knocked the picture frame on to the floor, thus breaking the glass, but then he decided it pick it up (yes, even the broken glass) and put it on the bed. When Bethany got there he was crying, not because he was hurt (thankfully), but because he was sad about breaking it. He said to her, “Mommy, I’m sorry. I’m sorry!” She told him she didn’t care about the frame but wanted to make sure he was OK. He was and all was alright. I think it was just shortly after this event that I received a text from Bethany which read, “It’s been a rough day. Do you know when you’re leaving?” (as in, when I would be leaving the JV offices). I left the office soon after and came home.

Bethany is 39 weeks pregnant and she’s been pretty uncomfortable the past few days. Today was hard on her, but she still amazes me with her attitude in the midst of it. She wasn’t complaining when I came home, but just mostly tired and in need of help. I did my best to pick up the house and help get things cleaned up (including the glass) but my job was so minimal compared to hers today. I tried to explain this to Titus tonight when he wanted to play with me. I said, “Buddy, mommy has been taking care of you and Avery all day and now she needs our help. We need to work and help her and then if we have time we can do something else.” The kids did help me. They picked up different things and Titus helped me vacuum. They also recognize when mommy needs help, even though they don’t always know what that looks like.

Thank you, wife, for always being an example to me of godly character in the midst of life’s chaos.

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365 Czech Republic

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.