Birthday Bash and a Castle

Last Friday, the 20th, Ted celebrated his 30th birthday. Our new friends hosted a birthday party for him. We, along with our very sleepy son, left the party at 10pm. Children here stay up till all hours of the night and on that night we were "cultural". Anyway, we got to our apartment door only to find that our key was not working. The apartment manager could not open it either and a locksmith was called. The good part of this was that our neighbors graciously invited us in. We sat in their apartment able to speak only a few words in their language. As I mentioned it was well past Lucas' bedtime and let's just say that he was not in the mood for socializing. The neighbor kept squeezing his cheeks, which he did not appreciate. Then he threw a toy (he likes to throw) which hit my glass, which made the drink spill into my lap! Oh well! All in all we are thankful to have been locked out so that we could begin to build a relationship with the family next door.

Our most recent adventure was to the ruins of a castle. The boys were excited as they climed to the top - even while I repeatedly asked them to please be careful! Another family here has four sons who made the trip with us. Our boys have really enjoyed their company and are constantly asking when they can go play with them. I was thinking the other day about how differently people here view mulitple sons as opposed to the U.S. As we travelled with our three sons people would come up to us and say "Ooh, three sons. You have your hands full." In this country having three sons commands the respect of others. Our tutor even said that I must be a really good wife because I have three sons. Sounds good to me! I'm kidding!

From the Mouths of Babes

Well our trip to our new home was quite the adventure. Prior to our travels I kept telling myself that it was just going to be one day and no matter what happened I could deal with it. Well, that one day turned into 40 hours! It seemed that with each little bump in the road the boys reminded me of what was really important. It was a little disheartening to walk up to our departure gate in Chicago to find that our plane was just pulling away from the door. We were told initially that we would have to wait until the evening of the next day to continue with our travels. As I sat their thinking that in the "one day" we would have only travelled from Louisville to Chicago I heard the boys break out in song. "Jesus loves the little children...." Okay I thought there in no need to be upset. Then after spending hours in the airport trying to rearrange flights we were told that we would have to collect all 16 of our bags and carry them back to the hotel. I headed to the hotel with the boys while Ted stayed behind to try to work something out. All the way to the hotel Josiah sang at the top of his lungs "Jesus loves the little children...". When we got to the hotel I tried to get all the boys to bed - we started our travels about 12pm and it was now close to 10pm for them. Then I hear Caleb call my name. "Caleb, please go to sleep it is late and we have to get up really early." "But Mommy, we need to pray." That's right, my sons keep me in line! The next day proved to be a little less dramatic, but we still had a few bumps. We missed yet another connection, but we were just rolling with the punches by then. As we sat on our last flight the announcements came on in a language we did not understand, the stewardess asked us what we wanted in a language we did not understand. For the first time we were "odd man out". Josiah's favorite song right now is "Once Again" and midway through our last flight, singing loudly in a language few if any on board understood, he began to sing it. "Jesus Christ, I look upon your sacrifice, You became nothing, poured out to death. Many times I wonder at your gift of life and I'm in that place once again." He repeated these lines a few times and I just sat in my chair and laughed.


Needless to say we have made a few adjustment since arriving in our new city. The biggest adjustment so far? Line drying makes softner ineffective! Towels aren't the comfort they once were. Oh well, We'll continue to laugh about our exfoliating towels so we don't cry about it.

Loving the Spot Light

I love this video of Caleb at his end-of-school performance. Needless to say, he loves to be on stage. He was very passionate about his singing. I hope you enjoy this video of my highly extroverted son! Just as an update, we are still in the midst of packing for our trip on July 4th. I am excited to not only arrive in our new home, but also to not have to pack again for a while! I'll try to update this again when I get to the other side.

One month down

Well, I thought that I would set up this blog so that those of you who would like to stay more updated on our happenings could. We have been in Virginia for a little over a month now and we are all enjoying our time here. Of course, the boys love to be around people all the time. Some days they are in class from 9 to 5 and they still want to sit with their friends rather than with their mom and dad. I don't get too upset because once we leave here they will be stuck with us whether they like it or not. As far as family news goes, Ted and I celebrated our 8th anniversary on the 5th (hence the title of our blog) and Caleb celebrated his 6th birthday on the 18th. Some of our quad mates bought him presents which he really appreciated. When Nana called to ask him what he wanted for his birthday he was very specific - he wanted a Spiderman 3 shirt but there were a lot of do's and don'ts about what he wanted on the shirt. When the package arrived I tried to talk to him about being grateful for whatever was in the box, no matter what it was. He responded with "It's okay Mommy, Nana always buys me good things." His birthday was pretty eventful. That Friday was our first immunization day and he received three shots (as did the rest of us) but he was brave even as the tears streamed down his face. Soon after arriving here in Virginia we were told that the smoke detectors in our rooms were very sensitive and I put that to the test in Caleb's birthday. In attempting to light his birthday candles I set the alarm off! Even though we called the fire dept to assure then that it was a false alarm, they still came. The neat thing was that they allowed the boys to climb in the truck. They thought that was pretty neat. I've learned my lesson though and hope that will not happen again. We have about 3 weeks left here in VA - time is flying! I attached a few photos of our time here.