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365 Czech Republic

A Really Long Week and a Godly Wife

Bethany and I both agree that this has been the longest week, or at least it feels like it is never ending. Maybe it’s because we have basically slept for half of the normal waking hours and our schedules have just been way off, but whatever the reason it’s felt like the last five days were equal to a month’s worth of time.

Tonight I feel like I might be over the hump of the worst sickness. By no means have I reached the bottom of the hill, and I’ve been genuinely surprised how long it has taken me to recover. Through all the sleeping, the intake of juice and liquids, and now antibiotics I’ve still had a rough day today which included a new addition of a headache most of the day. My voice is still a little raspy from all the congestion, but I’m hopeful that another good night of sleep tonight will bring it back.

Despite all the sickness, I think we’re doing alright thanks to God’s grace which was seen this week through my wife. Bethany has been incredible even when I’ve literally just been stuck in bed for three or four hours during the day. She has made us meals, worked with the kids, done the dishes, done laundry, taken Titus to school, picked him up, and all this while being pregnant and even sick herself! I don’t remember her complaining (although I’m sure in her humility she’ll contest that statement). I’m constantly amazed at her and her willingness to lay down herself for me and our family. She is an example to me of someone who loves Christ more than her own life because I see it in her example to us and her faith. I write this tonight as way of building her up and in the vein of Proverbs 31:28, “Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her” (my emphasis). As sick as I’ve been this week, I really don’t know what we would’ve done without her self-sacrifice. I have more than once this week been reminded in my own heart of the vow we made, “…in sickness and in health…” and that Bethany is a woman of her word. Thank you, wife, for your love and care of this broken man. I love you. You are a helper suitable and I am blessed beyond words to call you my wife.

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365 Czech Republic

Our First Date Night

First Date Night (7/30/14)

Thanks to the help and kindness of Lindsey and Kailey (our house guests!), we were able to have our first date night here in Czech!

As we walked away from our apartment tonight to head to the restaurant Bethany said something to the effect of, “walking to the restaurant on date night is a first.” Yes, it is. But there’s a great place here in town called “Da Capo” that our friends introduced us to that we just love. No one that works there really speaks English, and even though we’re working on it we don’t speak Czech, but we somehow used what little we know to order our meals, get some water, and even have a little zmrzlina (ice cream) for dessert. You’d be surprise how stressful it can be just to try and order a meal when you don’t speak the language. We always feel bad when they are talking and we have no clue what’s being said, but our waitress tonight was very gracious, spoke slowly for us, and for the most part it was a huge success.

Da Capo serves Italian food and Bethany ordered bruschetta for an appetizer and I ordered the cream of broccoli soup. Here’s a few pics. Check out that sour cream (I think that’s what it is) on my soup!

First Date Night (7/30/14)

First Date Night (7/30/14)

First Date Night (7/30/14)

For the main course we both ordered pizza with meat on top and we topped it all off with some vanilka (vanilla) ice cream. At first we said, “dva vanilka zmrzlina” which is a rough way of saying “2 vanilla ice cream” and when our waitress repeated it back she pointed to each of us and said “dva… dva” as if to say, “two for you and two for you?” Being the good language students we are we quickly figured out that she was going to give us two scoops each but we were able to clear that up and only have one scoop each. Score “one” for language lessons (see what I did there?)!

First Date Night (7/30/14)

After dinner we tried to find a coffee place that was open but it looks like the whole town basically closes up around 6pm and we were too late. So we did a casual walk around the town square (photo above) and I’m still amazed and what we get to see. The old buildings and the European feel here are still new enough to amaze me. Finally we took a casual stroll home and walked off a little of that zmrzlina.

It was nice to get away for a bit and we’re so thankful to Lindsey and Kailey for watching our kids. At one point during dinner Bethany said, “Does date night include a nap?” I laughed in agreement. We have been going, going, going for over a month now and even still we have boxes we’re unpacking. It’s a lot of work right now and we definitely need time to rest and just enjoy each other. Lord willing we’ll be able to get some consistency with date night so we both don’t feel like we need a nap!

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Family Photography

Vasquez Wifey

Bethany hiking at Vasquez Rocks at 38 weeks prego. That’s what I’m talking about.

Vasquez...Vasquez... That's a Fun Word