Tag: preschool

Life Keeps Moving

We may have had a major event in our lives this week with the birth of our third child, but that doesn’t mean that life here has just stopped. I had this realization today as I took Titus to school and picked him up today. His teacher handed me the photo above of his class which you may remember from the day they took his class photo a little more than a month ago. As I quickly found Titus in the top row middle, it was as if I just realized we have three kids. They are all at different places in their lives, especially Titus who plows ahead with Czech schooling and learning tons of new things. Avery continues to make us laugh, especially with all her new questions about baby Karis. As for Karis, she just loves to eat and sleep but I know it won’t be long before her preschool teacher is handing me a photo of her class. Life keeps moving.

Bethany’s dad (aka “Papa) and I spent a ton of time today mapping out our plans for the next week. Papa and Nana we will heading back to the States next Saturday and we are still hoping for them to see a little more of Europe. They have thoroughly enjoyed their time here, but Nana’s birthday is on Sunday so we’re going to try and take her to Krakow to celebrate. It’s only a 2-hour drive from here so we figure we can make that happen for her, even with a newborn. We’re hoping to leave tomorrow at some point so you’ll just have to read that blog and see what happens!

We had a handful of visitors today who came to see Karis for the first time. A few of our missionary friends came by to meet and hold her, many of whom came bearing gifts as well as our landlord who came down with flowers, new clothes, and a winter outfit (shown below). I love having all the pink flowers in the house and it was just nice to see our friends and even have the opportunity to introduce them to our family. You’ll also notice in the photo below a little card from our landlord which we couldn’t completely understand but was so nice (I should also note that along with the clothes and card, she handed me a bag with a bottle of champagne). Again it’s just fun to have people here in our home celebrating with us!

Karis is doing great and again gave us some good chunks of sleep last night. It’s never easy to adjust to a new baby sleep schedule, but Bethany has been incredible this week and I’ve been doing my best to help her. It’s a little different this time around as I still feel the pressure to spend time with Titus and Avery while also helping Bethany take care of Karis and this is just part of the transition from two to three kids, I guess. It’s definitely nice to have the help of Papa and Nana and I’m doing my best to convince them that they could adjust well in Europe.

Papa and I took Titus and Avery for a bike ride / run this evening and we discovered a great new place at the end of our street. I’ve never gone down to the other end of our street (barely two blocks), but tonight we went there and discovered the river and Polish border. We’ve been to the river and border many times but not right at the end of our road which was new and fun. The weather was perfect of a bike ride and I grabbed a few photos. The first photo is literally at the end of our street, about a 1/4 mile away from our driveway.

Finally, Titus found his kid-friendly razor and shaving cream that he got for Christmas and all day has been talking about “shaving” or saying “I gotta shave.” Tonight he finally convinced me to let him (note: it’s just this Spiderman themed foaming cream and plastic razor–no blade). So in keeping with tonight’s blog title that “life keeps moving,” I present this photo of my five year old. How is it that my third child is born and my five year old starts shaving in the same week!?

Tags bike, family, friends, fun, kids, preschool, river, Titus

365 Czech Republic

School Photos and Friends From Afar

Post author By Shay
Post date April 23, 2015
No Comments on School Photos and Friends From Afar

What a day! It’s just before 10pm here and I’m sitting her with a smile on my face. I’m looking over some of the photos I got from today and am just thankful for God’s grace and excited about the next few days. Here’s a little summary of the day:

First, we had to divide and conquer this morning because we found out yesterday that it was picture day at Titus’ preschool. Bethany had a doctor’s appointment (baby check-up) this morning at the same time that picture stuff was going on at the Titus’ school, so I stayed home with Titus and Avery while she went to the doctor. I got the kids all dressed and we walked to Titus’ school around 10 to get ready for pictures. I didn’t know if they were doing just a class photo or individuals, but we were ready for anything! It was an absolutely gorgeous day outside, and they ended up doing just a class photo outside under a beautiful blooming tree. Here’s a few photos:

I spent some time watching the other boys interact with Titus and also watched Titus’ reaction, but I can confirm that language is still a battle. The other kids are trying to talk to him and he’s still confused about what they are saying. I also noticed that they were kind of copying him, but I don’t know if they were being mean or just playing? It’s so hard to tell. At one point Titus hand his arms out like an airplane and was spinning around. The other kids joined him and were saying, “Ja jsem Ty Ty! Ja jsem Ty Ty!” which I understood as “I am Ty Ty! I am Ty Ty!” (the kids call him Ty Ty, not Titus). I just assume they were being silly? Speaking of silly, here’s Avery walking home today staring at her own shadow.

This afternoon we finished cleaning up the house in preparation for our friends, the Severances, arrival! Steve and Judy are from our sending church in California and Steve is one of the pastors. They actually flew to us from being in Israel the past week or so. They had a flight from Israel this morning, a cab ride from the Prague airport to the train, a 3.5 hour train ride to us, then a short car ride back to our town. Needless to say, they are troopers! We picked them up from the train station around 5:30pm tonight and it was such a joy to see them. We ended up taking them to a nearby mall for dinner and coffee and just had a sweet time catching up with them. It’s seriously such a joy to see them and we’re so thankful to Placerita for sending them to us for the next few days. Here’s a few photos from tonight. The first is of Avery and Bethany playing a little clapping game while we were waiting for the train to arrive, the second is one that Titus took of us with Steve and Judy at the mall, and finally there’s one of the kids playing at the mall’s play place.

Tomorrow is Titus’ 5th birthday! The smell of a baking cake is wafting through the house as I type and we’re excited to a do small celebration with him tomorrow. On Saturday we’re headed to the zoo for a more formal party, so we’re all looking forward to that. I’m excited about what the next few days hold!

Tags friends, pastor, photos, preschool, school, Steve and Judy

365 Czech Republic

An Eclipsing Start to Spring

Post author By Shay
Post date March 20, 2015
1 Comment on An Eclipsing Start to Spring

I almost always work from home on Fridays and today was no different. Except at one point I walked to the kitchen to get something to drink and when I looked out the window I was confused at what I was seeing. I’ve probably looked out that window hundreds of times, but today was a bright sunny day and the window looked as if it was tinted. Like most Czech and European windows it swings open so I went to it and opened it and looked outside. Thats when I realized it wasn’t the window, but rather it was the sky that was tinted. We were experiencing a solar eclipse!

I confirmed this with another missionary online and then checked the news and sure enough Europe and parts of West Africa were witnessing a pretty amazing solar eclipse. For us in Czech, we were seeing about 75% of the sun being covered by moon. One of our windows had sun shining through the blinds and the tiny holes were showing the crescent shaped sun spots on the floor and table. Above you can see them in both photos. It was pretty fun and I’m glad we had clear skies today to witness it on this first day of spring.

Titus went to his second full-day of preschool and it was another day where he took the bus to a nearby preschool for the entire day. While he’s gone I’m always curious to watch what Avery does at home. Today she did the USA puzzle we have again and then later she was drawing on the white board in her little blue chair (shown above). It’s actually a little sad to see her search around for things to do because she’s just not used to having Titus out of the house so long during the day. Normally they are inseparable and play together all day, so I think in a small way this is a transition time for her as much as it is for Titus.

When I picked Titus up from the bus this afternoon he was really excited. He had a necklace on with a picture of Donald Duck (it actually read “Kačer Donald” in Czech) and it had a piece of candy stuck to the back. He also had a fruit cup snack and a little treat in his hand which he quickly handed to me to hold for him. I actually tried live streaming the entire thing to Twitter today so Bethany could watch from home and below is the video that I captured. It’s a little choppy, but you can get the gist. In the beginning you can hear me speaking English with the lady that I met on Wednesday. You’ll see how happy he is, but it doesn’t change how strange it is to be picking up my four hear old from the bus!

Tags bus, eclipse, preschool, solar eclipse, Titus

365 Czech Republic

A Big Boy on a Big Bus and Answered Prayer

Post author By Shay
Post date March 18, 2015
No Comments on A Big Boy on a Big Bus and Answered Prayer

Today was Titus’ biggest school day to date. I say “biggest” because it was packed full of new experiences for him and for us. Before I talk about that I want to say that the entire day was an answer to prayer from start to finish. If you read our blog yesterday and prayed for this then thank you! God was so gracious today.

Titus was really excited about school this morning which is in and of itself an answer to prayer. Considering how he was on Monday, this was a huge blessing. Bethany took him to school early so he catch the bus for his field trip to another preschool today. What made today different was that he was going to be gone for the entire day until 3pm, as opposed to us picking him up at noon. In the photo below you can see his little head and stocking hat peeking up in the center as he gets read to board the bus.

The bus left sharply at 7:45am and took the kids to a nearby village for a “school swap” thing where they just basically have a normal day but at a new place. We don’t really understand why exactly they did it, but here’s a photo of Titus on the bus as they were about to pull away. I think the school charters a city bus to make this happen because I don’t think the schools have their ow buses like in the States. And I didn’t ask Bethany if she cried, but I’m operating under the assumption that her eyes were just a little teary as she took this photo.

While Titus was away on his trip, I worked from home and Avery was hard at work too on her USA puzzle. She did the entire 50+ piece puzzle by herself today with no help from Mommy or Daddy. She was really proud of it and so I took a photo of her “big girl” moment. Admittedly, she has done this puzzle with us many times so she has it almost memorized. But instead of state names she always, “Where’s the one with the cow?” or something like that. It’s great.

Also while Titus was at school, we had an appointment at 1pm to sign both him and Avery up for the next school year in the fall. Our friend Martina was kind enough to come help translate and talk Czech for us which was a great blessing. It ended up being a really quick appointment and we actually met with Titus’ teacher (this is also strange to me because why wasn’t she on the field trip?). She was really nice and we were in and out of there in just a few minutes. Here’s a few photos of us walking over to it.

This photo below is of Bethany, Martina, and Titus’ teacher finishing up.

About ten minutes to three I walked down the road to pick up Titus from school hoping for a good report about his day. It only take a few minutes to walk from our place to his school so I was there early and as I stood there a woman walked up to me and said, “You’re an American, right?” in perfect British accent English. I was surprised, but I calmly replied “Yes.” Then she told me that her son and Titus are in the same class and that her son speaks English so we should get them together outside of school. This was actually an answer to prayer because we have really wanted to have more relationships with Czechs. She went on to tell me about herself and that her husband is from the U.K. and he only speaks English. We were talking for a while and finally said, “Am I supposed to go some place else to get my son?” She told me the bus was expected to arrive until 3:10 (which I didn’t know). If you want my opinion, it was just the Lord getting me there early so I could have this conversation.

She was very kind and gracious and thought that just letting Titus speak English to another kid would be a blessing to him (which we totally agree). We ended up exchanging phone numbers and we might try and plan to do a walk or go to the park with their family on a weekend. Just thinking back on it now I’m smiling because God is so good. She didn’t have to walk up to me and introduce herself and talk for a while, but I was really thankful just to have a normal conversation with a stranger. It has a very long time to just have a full, open conversation like that in English with someone I don’t know. I know that might sound weird, but man was it encouraging.

While finishing up my conversation with the lady at the school, the bus pulled up right on time. There were a few cars blocking the street that the bus honked at and when I looked over I could see Titus’ face light up and he waved to me. I waved back and just smiled at him. He looked so big, but still so small. I was going to take video of him getting off the bus but since I was still kind of in conversation with that lady I only got the above photo.

All the kids got off and Titus ran towards me and I said, “Dude! Did you have a good day?!” He said, “Yeah, dad. It was awesome!” He told me all about the bus ride and the slide at the school that “doesn’t have any grass.” I asked him about nap time (which he’s never done at school) and he said, “I got my dinosaur pajamas on all by myself!” He told me he cried for us a little bit while they were walking, but I’m not quite sure where or how long, but I assume it wasn’t too bad because it didn’t seem to bother him. All in all, I think he did alright. The funny thing, if he didn’t do well, I probably wouldn’t even if we’d find out. The teachers don’t speak English and Titus isn’t always the most reliable source of info! I’m just happy that he was smiling when he got off the bus and overall he was exited about his day. He’ll be doing it all again on Friday and when we talked to him about that tonight it didn’t seem to bother him.

It’s weird to watch him grow up. Seeing him on that bus was surreal. I have memories of being on the bus around his age and I’m realizing he will probably remember this too. This is whole process is part of entrusting your kids to the Lord. He has to watch over them and I have to trust that God is taking care of them. The Lord is sovereign over everything including school bus rides! And I can’t and won’t always be there for everything Titus experiences, but I’m happy to be there to pick him up.

Tags preschool, school bus, Titus

365 Czech Republic

St. Patrick’s Day, Playing Outside, and a Prayer Request

Post author By Shay
Post date March 17, 2015
No Comments on St. Patrick’s Day, Playing Outside, and a Prayer Request

It’s St. Patrick’s Day. I’m sure you saw many people today walking around wearing something green and tonight people around America (not so much Czech) will celebrate by throwing parties and drinking beer (on a related note, I have an entire story about witnessing a drunk driving accident on St. Patrick’s Day that I’ll never forget). It’s sad to me that this is how we (as Americans) celebrate on a day that is supposed to remember a Christian man who loved gospel of Jesus Christ (for more on that, see Kevin DeYoung’s excellent, short post today).

At the Josiah Venture office today there were a few people wearing green, and our Norther Irish friend, Rachael, brought green clover cookies for us to enjoy at our our meeting. They were (magically) delicious–sorry, I couldn’t resist. We had a great meeting a Bible study this morning from Philippians. I’d much rather be spending my St. Patrick’s Day around God’s Word then doing just about anything else!

Bethany took the kids to the park this afternoon and they said that had a great time. In fact, when I got home today the kids came running to the garage to tell me all about it. Above is a photo that Bethany got of the flowers near the park (and hey, there’s lots of green!). While they were there they even saw some kids from our church. Titus even found a new friend who was riding a little play motorcycle and Titus was just running around alongside him for a while. It’s been really nice to play outside and enjoy the warmer spring air. Here’s another photo from the park with Avery enjoying the sand.

Tomorrow Titus will head off to a longer day of preschool because they are doing a “school swap” thing where they bus the kids to another school in town about 10 minutes away. Normally we pick him up around noon but he’ll be staying until 3pm. I can tell that Bethany was prepping him today because he kept telling me all about what he’ll be doing tomorrow. He loves riding on the bus so I’m sure he’ll enjoy that. Below is a photo of the announcement about it at the school and we normally just use Google to try and translate it all. Thankfully this time around his teacher emailed Bethany directly about the trip and what she should pack for him. As I’ve been writing this, she as hard at work trying to get everything together for Titus’ backpack.

Our prayer request is simply that Titus would do well and not be scared. We have been memorizing a verse on fear together and we are continually reminding him of the words. He’ll be going tomorrow and Friday on these little trips so we’re hopeful that it will go well and that he would do alright. Thank you all for praying and for continuing to encourage us!

Tags outside, park, playing, preschool, St. Patrick's Day, Titus, trip, weather

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

The Carnival We Didn’t Know About

Post author By Shay
Post date January 28, 2015
1 Comment on The Carnival We Didn’t Know About

As soon as Titus, Avery, and I walked in to the door, I knew we were in trouble. The only thing that can explain all of these shoes in the entry way (shown below) is that the parents are at the school too. And if the parents are at the school, that means there’s a good chance that some kind of event is going on. While taking my own shoes off, I saw Pluto walk by (that is, I saw a kid dressed as Pluto–Mickey Mouse’s trusty dog). The kids said, “Daddy, we saw Pluto!” Uh oh. What is going on?

While making our way upstairs it became clear that there were lots of festivities going on. Parents were rushing up and down the stairs with their kids who were dressed up as princesses, pirates, fireman, and I even saw a little Darth Vader running around. Where were they taking these kids, I thought. Arriving at Titus’ classroom, we found the place completely filled with more dressed up kids, parents, and dressed up teachers. That’s when I called Bethany. “Uh…so this place is nuts and I have no idea what’s going on. But you better come and bring Titus’ Buzz Lightyear costume…and bring your camera!” The kids and I made our way through the camera wielding parents and I dropped Titus clothes off in their changing area. There were other families in there too so I snapped a photo of some boys and one of the dads.

In our defense, Bethany was aware of a carnival but she honestly thought it was going to be on Friday and that would only be in the afternoon. She actually had called me on Monday and asked if I would be available to come, but since I’m teaching a workshop at a conference this week I wouldn’t be available. Titus’ teacher did her best to make us aware of it, but again, the date just got lost in translation.

Bethany arrived a few minutes after I called her and she brought Titus’s costume. We quickly changed him so he could join the other kids. The teachers had congregated the kids in another room where they were doing what I believe was a fashion show. They were literally walking down a wooden plank on the ground and the teachers were taking pictures and video along with all the parents on the sidelines.

Here’s me getting Titus ready.

Here are the kids walking down the runway.

Meanwhile, Avery was enjoying all the toys in the classroom.

We were scheduled to have language lessons this morning, but with all the commotion we didn’t feel like we could leave. That, and Titus got really sad when we tried to leave and started crying and saying he wanted to go home. To be honest, it was hard. I felt caught between getting to our language lesson and taking care of Titus, and we just didn’t know what to do. It was decision paralysis. We tried to console Titus, who I think was just overwhelmed. Finally, we cancelled our lessons and stuck around with Titus. Eventually he calmed down and even starting participating with the class in their dance. Here’s a little video I got and you’ll see Titus dancing with his teacher.

Remember those parents rushing up and down the stairs when we first arrived? We found out where they were going. There was a professional photographer in another classroom who was taking individual portraits of all the kids. Titus’ teacher asked one of the little kids to show us where he was so he could take Titus’ picture. We made our way down and had a few shots taken. I seriously can not wait to see how those turned out. Later, that same photographer took a group shot of the entire class. Here they are in the main hall of the school getting ready for their class photo. You can see Titus in the upper left.

After some time, Titus was doing much better and we left. He did well for the remainder of the school day and Bethany said he came home really happy and excited about his experience. Apparently they had a clown who juggled and they blew bubbles and even passed out balloons to the kids. At the end of the day I can look back and laugh, but in the middle of it it was really difficult. I’m bummed we missed our once a week Czech lesson because that’s so vital for us long term. On the other hand, I’m glad I got to experience something fun with Titus and our family, even thought I had no clue it was going to happen.

Tags carnival, confusion, party, preschool, school

365 Czech Republic

Avery’s First Haircut and Another Full Day

Post author By Shay
Post date December 18, 2014
No Comments on Avery’s First Haircut and Another Full Day

Bethany had a “baby check up” early this morning that we took the whole the family to. Even though she wasn’t having an ultrasound today, they always do the little heart monitor on the baby which we had fun listening to. Titus and Avery thought the little “whoosh whoosh whoosh” sound of the little tiny heartbeat was great, and so did I. The next appointment we’ll be able to find out the sex of the baby which will be fun as well. Below is a quick photo of Bethany and Titus at the doctor’s office today while the doctor had stepped out for a minute. Everything happens in one single office from the medical side to the office side of things which is different than in the States.

As we were saying goodbye to our very nice, English speaking doctor, we said “Merry Christmas” in Czech to her. Then she started to say that she thinks people don’t understand why they say that phrase. It was a little confusing what she was trying to tell us but I think she was making the point that culturally people say “Merry Christmas” without really thinking about it. She said she knew it was clearly religious which is why she questioned whether people realize what they’re saying. We told her that we say it because we’re excited about the birth of Jesus and she just nodded her head. It was kind of a strange interaction, but maybe it will lead to more conversations about Jesus in the future?

We have never done a family haircut session until today. That’s because Avery has never had a haircut in her little three year old life, but that all changed today. Avery got a little trim and did really well. Bethany was a good distraction for her, but she was still squirmy (Avery, not Bethany).

This afternoon there was a special thing for families at Titus’ preschool that Bethany, Titus, and Avery went to. Everyone was supposed to bring an apple to decorate, along with toothpicks and “gummies.” When they arrived, they had candlesticks to stick through the top of the apple, juniper branches, ribbons, and cloves. With these they decorated their apples and ate cookies. Bethany texted me during it saying it was really full of people and that they were having fun at the party. Below are a few photos she took.

School is out now until the New Year which is great for us since we’ll be in states until the 13th of January. We’re getting clothes washed and ready for packing as we’ll be leaving on Tuesday to head to Prague. Our flight is early Wednesday morning so we’ll be staying in Prague one night to make sure we can get to our flight on time. Lord willing, all will go smoothly, but I guess you’ll have to wait until that blog comes out to find out!

Tags Avery, doctor, fun, haircut, haircuts, party, preschool

365 Czech Republic

There’s Lice at Titus’ Preschool

Post author By Shay
Post date November 10, 2014
2 Comments on There’s Lice at Titus’ Preschool

I just scratched my head. Does it itch? I really don’t think so, but now I’m paranoid because apparently there’s lice at Titus’ preschool.

Lice is not something that brings any kind of joy. Just the thought of tiny little bugs running around your head is horrible. I’m sure everyone has their own lice horror story. I remember there was a big lice scare at my public school when I was in kindergarten or first grade and just to be safe my mom shaved my head. My older sisters (twins) got it worse. My mom had to comb through their hair for what seemed like an eternity with some special comb and I don’t recall them enjoying it very much. As a reminder to myself about lice, I just spent a few minutes Googling it and it’s so creepy I couldn’t stare at it anymore. Lice just isn’t nice.

Bethany texted me about it this afternoon after she picked up Titus from school. She said she ran in to our friend who’s son is in Titus’ class and she told her there’s lice there. In fact, she said it happens every spring and autumn. The Czechs use Tea Tree oil as a remedy, but who really knows if that works? Just to be safe Bethany put some on Titus head today and did a comb through. At this point, we haven’t found anything or seen any signs of lice on our kids, but I really hope this doesn’t become a preschool epidemic. I guess head checks will be added to the daily routine now.

In happier news, we got some mail today from the States which is always fun! Our friends sent us a little baby announcement, stickers, and some drawings from their kids to our kids. It was really kind of them and we’re thankful for that little envelope of fun (shown above).

Bethany is out tonight at a women’s Bible study. It’s been a few weeks since she’s been able to attend because we’ve all been sick for so long. Avery cried a lot for her tonight when I put the kids to bed which tells me it’s been a while since mommy has been out at night. That’s okay, though. Mommies need a little time away sometimes.

Tags challenges, lice, mail, preschool

365 Czech Republic

From a Bear to a Boom

I shared yesterday that Titus was going to be part of some kind of event tonight that we honestly thought was a play. The directions we were given was that he was to have a mask or costume and have a paper lantern on a stick. Bethany actually ended up making him a lion mask because Titus wanted one and we thought there were two parts or something to the evening. For instance, maybe the kids come in masks and then they change into something else for a formal program. Either way, we weren’t sure.

Bethany commissioned me to go to the store and hunt for a paper lantern and a stick. I don’t know even know where I would find that in the States much less Czech, but we texted some friends here and they pointed us to the store that had it–a paper store in the town square. I found what we needed about thirty minutes before the program was starting, went home, and we all walked over to his school. When we got there everyone from the school was lined up outside and there tons of families still walking there. Below is a photo of a few pumpkins outside the school that were lit up which was a little confusing. Was this a Halloween thing? I also noticed the lights on the school were completely off which the made me seriously wonder if we were ever even going inside. As I looked around I saw kids dressed up as witches, skeletons, and had their faces painted. Are we trick or treating? What is going on? These are the questions that ran through my mind. When I saw Titus’ teacher she was dressed as a witch and had a broom. Oh boy…what have we gotten ourselves in to?!

After seeing some of the other kids outside we realized there was a little misunderstanding about having a light inside the lantern so I ended up running (literally) over to the store and getting a stick with a light for Titus’ lantern. I had seen them on my first visit and knew now what we were actually supposed to buy. We just wanted to make sure that Titus had what the other kids had because remember, we still think he’s going to be a bear in a play. While I was at the store everyone ended up walking around the town with their lanterns, including Bethany and the kids. Bethany took a few photos of their walk (below).

I met back up with the family as they were completing their walk around the park in the center of town. I put Titus’ lantern together with the light. Here’s a photo of him with it.

Mostly we just followed the crowd around which brought us back to the school at the end of the walk. We all walked into the school property and the all teachers were dressed up with bags of candy and wrapped treats. It was dark and very confusing for us so I stayed with Avery by the gate to the school and Bethany took Titus to the teachers with the bags. He got a little wafer bar with chocolate that he shared with all of us. The crowd began to move towards another part of the school yard so we followed behind. Everyone ended up sitting on the picnic tables and benches out in the playground area. Again, it was dark, so we just found a spot towards the back of everyone and just kind of sat there.

After a few minutes the teachers and kids started chanting something that we didn’t understand. This went on for a few minutes. How long will this last? I guess there’s no play tonight? Titus ran over to the slide and was playing because he knew his way around the school yard. He told us he played there all the time. Not 10 seconds after he came back to where we were sitting, we hear BOOM! and suddenly fireworks are going off about 30 feet from us. They were close and loud. The kids quickly covered their ears and Titus started crying and yelling, “I want to go home!” He’s not a huge fan of fireworks. I grabbed Titus and put him in my arms and told him he would be OK and that it would be over soon. Below is a photo of the slide he had just been on before the fireworks started to go off.

The fireworks show lasted about 2-3 minutes. Titus kept insisting we leave, but there really was no way for us get back to the gate with everyone standing around so we basically had to grin and bear it. I just started laughing. This is just not something you would ever see happen in the States: a bunch of preschool and elementary kids with their families standing a few feet from huge fireworks that are literally exploding directly above them…in the playground of the school. Welcome to the Czech Republic.

The fireworks ending signaled the end of the night and also confirmed that there was definitely no play or bear suits tonight. In the end it all turned out OK. Titus cried a little more on our way home, but we assured him, as we often do, that Jesus is always with him when he’s scared. We walked back to our place with some Czech friends from our church who have a son in the same class as Titus. They are a great family and that was actually the highlight of the night being able to spend a few minute with them.

I guess the moral of the story is we’re learning to trust the Lord in new areas. We have no idea what we’re getting ourselves in to sometimes, but we trust the Lord will lead the way as we walk by faith.

Tags fireworks, lights, preschool, Titus