Back to the Blogger Again: From Chaos to Unsettled to Settled

Over a year ago, I wrote my last blog for 2011.  For a while, I felt super guilty for not blogging.  However, I finally realized that first things have to come first.  And the truth is...blogging was just not a "first thing".  So, I let go of the guilt and made myself a promise that no matter what, for the New Year, I was going to start blogging again.  Well, here it is already June and I have yet to post a new blog!  So, what have I been doing?  I have been taking care of the first things: my family, my spiritual life, my house and our work with the church. I am pretty sad about the fact that my last year has not been documented at length (I have done journaling every day), but I have lots of pictures and I hope to periodically stick blogs in of what has been going on in our lives from May of 2011 up until now.  So, I will probably have lots of "flashback" blogs!  Because it is not that great things haven't been happening!  It is just that life has been happening so fast, that I have not taken the time to blog about them!

In May of 2011, we went to a reentry program that was for missionaries who were returning to the U.S. from various countries.  It was fabulous and exactly what we needed!  One thing that has stuck with me that we learned there was that when you move from one country to another, you go through various phases.  At first you live in your host country (the foreign country- in our case Paraguay) and you are "settled" there.  We lived there for almost 8 years, so we were very settled there.  Then you pack up your things and become "unsettled" and you prepare to move.  Then you actually move to the new country (which can be your home country or another country, but in our case was back to our home country, the U.S.) and you go through the "chaos" phase.  Every aspect of your life is totally different, even if you are returning to your home country.  Plus, your home country has changed while you were away and you certainly have changed while you were away.  Then, after time, you move into "unsettled" and gradually, the "settled" phase again. When we went to the program, we were in the midst of "chaos" and it was so comforting to actually be given a name for it and know that it was a very normal and necessary phase and part of the process.  We moved to the U.S. in late February, but we didn't move into our house until May.  And we bought a house that needed a lot of remodeling on the inside before we could move in and we continued that remodeling once we had moved in.  My living room was loaded with boxes until around January or February of 2012.  I remember people asking me at church if I was all settled in yet after we were just here for a few weeks and I wanted to scream, "are you kidding?"  I guess most people just have no idea what all is involved in an international move.  Especially with little kids!  And when you add remodeling a house into the mix, it was literally "chaos" almost every day!  I wanted to give a kind response to those who asked me if we were settled in, but I also wanted to be honest.  It took us a very long time to feel settled.  In fact, I would say that we were in "chaos" until the middle of the summer and then in the "unsettled" phased until early this year!  It wasn't until February that we finally hung pictures up on our walls and unpacked the rest of the boxes in our living room.  That was the most "settled" that I felt in over a year!    Now, don't get me wrong, we have not been unhappy through this journey.  We have enjoyed most of each of the phases.  Even chaos was kinda fun at times, but it was exhausting!  But it was still what it was- a feeling of complete chaos.  So, when looking back over 2011, I see a physical journey from Paraguay to the U.S. early in the year, but I feel an emotional and spiritual journey from "settled" to "unsettled" to "chaos" to "unsettled" and finally, finally to "settled".  And that is why I am now going to get back to the blogger again.  I have arrived at the "settled" phase and have been there for a few months.  I have longed for this feeling since we left Paraguay!  And I feel like I have finally moved back in to the "productive" mode!  Yippee!  I am back to the blogger again!!

Blessed Beyond Measure

I try to think often of the many blessings in my life and every time I do, I am amazed at the abundance of them that I have each day.  Especially while we are in the midst of great transition, God has provided for our every need.  I could make a list a mile long of our blessings, but it has really been on my mind lately the generosity of our church family at West Dyersburg.  When we arrived here a few months ago, the Frazier family had offered for us to stay with them.  I am very well aware that it is no small offering to let two adults, three children under the ages of 5 and a cocker spaniel stay with you for an endless amount of time!  And we also had offers from various other families.  We weren't sure how long we were going to be there and they seemed to be perfectly content with that.  Their daughter, Lauren, gave up her bedroom for us to sleep in, both of their daughters played with our kids for hours on end, Lauren babysat our kids while we looked at houses, Gail cooked a delicious meal for us almost every single night, they let us use their washer and dryer whenever we needed it, Mike showed us house after house until we finally found one that we wanted to make an offer on and the list goes on!  I even set their house alarm off one morning at 3 am when Toby, our dog, woke me up to go to the bathroom.  I didn't realize that the alarm was on and I woke up the entire household of sleeping people!  I was so embarrassed and I thought that they were going to kill me!  But they just laughed and said "guess that officially makes you a part of our family now!"  Our dog used their living room carpet and their ottoman as a back yard potty area!  We were so frustrated with this because he had not had an indoor accident in years!  And not once did they act upset.  They just said "well, that is just part of having dogs!"  (They have an indoor dog as well, which is the reason we think that Toby went a little crazy)  Anyway, my point is that God blessed us with a family that was patient, kind, loving, encouraging and that made us feel so welcome.  In the end, we were the ones who decided to leave and they wanted us to stay even longer.  We could not have felt more loved and blessed as we did during our time with them, and that was exactly what we needed as we moved to Dyersburg.

As we were feeling more like we needed to get out on our own and trying to decide where to go next, two different families came to us saying that they had places for us to stay.  One had his mother's home that was fully furnished since she had moved into a nursing home and another had an apartment that had just become vacant.  We ended up choosing the apartment because it was so much closer to town and just a few blocks from the house that we are trying to buy.  So not only did God provide for us, but we even had options!  And the apartment was rent free for us until we could get moved into our house!  It has been so helpful to have people in the church to use their blessings to bless our family.  What a difference it has made in helping us settle in!

West Dyersburg Helping with Flood Relief

And here is another link to an article that appeared in our local newspaper.
http://www.stategazette.com/story/1728189.html

Soccer Kids

I find it somewhat amusing that we are moving back to the US from South America, the soccer capital of the world and our kids are starting to play soccer here!  We joined the YMCA so that we could get some exercise and so that the kids could participate in the sports that they wanted to.  We got here just in time for spring soccer season!  We went ahead and signed both Emma and Walker up to play.  Emma has been so excited, but those are not exactly Walker's sentiments. 

Now, we didn't make him sign-up to play.  He said he wanted to.  But, he did just keep saying "yes, I want to play, but just not right now."  So we weren't real surprised when at his first practice, he cried through most of it.  Here he is sitting with his teammates.  You can tell he is thrilled to be there!  His favorite part was snacks.

Olivia got in on the fun during practice.

Here is Emma kicking the ball!

This pretty much sums up Walker's soccer playing.

He just kept his head down while everyone was in the "hi-five" line.  It has always taken him a little longer to adapt to things.  Our favorite quote from him when we asked him if he liked soccer was "Yes, I like to play soccer, I just don't like to kick the ball."  Classic Walker.  Chris said "Well, buddy, kicking the ball is pretty much the way you play soccer."  Walker replied, "Well, I still don't like it!"  During one game the ball hit Walker.  When he came off the field Chris said "Buddy, you kicked the ball!"  He was very offended and said "No I didn't!"  Chris said, "Okay, so the ball hit you!"

This picture also sums up Walker's soccer playing.  He is oblivious to the fact that both of the teams (minus him) are playing and that the ball is right behind him.  I think he is coming over to tell us he is hungry here.  We are just proud that he is making progress.  He even kicked the ball the other day from the middle line (of course, I was out there with him holding his hand). 

Emma is playing defense here and waiting patiently for the ball to come her way.  She dances around sometimes when she gets bored.  It is entertaining to watch.  This past week she was so excited because she got to play goalie and she made a great save and got to throw the ball out into the field with her hands (she was also proud to have learned that only the goalie is allowed to touch the ball with their hands).  And she informed me the other day that she learned a new word from her coaches: hustle! 

And what is any sweeter than watching these kids pray together before they play ball!

And we are really looking forward to getting to know some of the families better in the soccer league who have just moved to the US from South America!  Some of them don't speak english very well yet, so what a great opportunity for us to get to talk to them in spanish and english! 

We Found a House!

After lots of looking, we finally found a house that we want to make an offer on!  It has everything that we wanted except for a basement.  We are going to have to find some way to make a storm shelter!  It also needs some updating on the inside, but nothing major.  The back yard is fabulous and the screened in back porch makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  It just feels like home. 

It is in a great area of town, near the park, which means a great walking track, numerous playgrounds and a swimming pool for the summer! (And I don't have to maintain it or worry about my kids falling in it when I am not looking!)



The back yard is fenced in, so the kids and our dog can play.  It even has a white picket fence, a tire swing and a tree house.  How much more American can we get?

I love the screened in porch.  Too bad this cozy furniture is not included (other than the hanging swing).  And we have three hanging swings!

The den is also another neat room in the house.  Lots of windows and a great fireplace.

And we even have a little "in-laws" quarters, as they advertised, in the back yard.  However, we are told that it is a great rental apartment for college students.  We are so excited to have found something in our price range that has the space we need, a great play area outside, a porch that gives it that "family" feel and it is close to the church building and most anywhere else that we need to go to in town! 

Now we just have to pay for it!

Big Trucks!

I had always heard that everything is bigger in Texas, but little did I know that we would find that some things are even bigger in Dyersburg!  A few days after we moved here, we were driving down the road with a friend and we saw a truck that had enormous tires on it.  The kids got all excited and we were laughing about how huge they were.  Our friend told us that the driver was Justin, a kid from church!  And as we pulled into the church parking lot, he was parked there too.  What luck!  The kids were fascinated with how big his truck was and he was super sweet and let them climb all over it! 

We had to use a little step ladder that pulled down to even get inside of it!  Walker kept calling it a monster truck. We never saw any of these in Paraguay! 

Our Container Arrived!

On March 17, our shipment arrived to Dyersburg, TN, all the way from Paraguay!  They told us it would take 6 weeks, and amazingly enough- it really did!  Everything was in great shape and all seemed to be there!

We unloaded it into a corner of the church activity center (aka gymnasium). 

The guys worked really hard and had the entire thing unloaded in 22 minutes!

We are so blessed that on a weekday, 11 men/guys came over to help us get it all unloaded.  We thought it would take an hour or so, but they did an amazingly fast job!  And several girls stopped by as well, but we just stood around and watched and let these men work their magic.

And the container had the exact same lock on the back door that it did when we closed it in Paraguay.  It was a special lock that had to be cut to be opened.  That assured us that no one had opened the container during the trip.  That, in and of itself, is an amazing thing!  God is good!  Now if we just had a house ready to put all of this stuff in.....

U.S. verses Paraguay! Soccer or Futbol?

In March we were able to go to the USA verses Paraguay soccer game held in Nashville, TN.  When we heard about this game, we were still in Paraguay and we were so excited about it!  What are the chances that Paraguay and the US are going to play soccer in the US in a town a few hours from us right when we are moving back? 

And what made it even better was that our former teammates Enoch and Laura were able to be in Nashville at the same time and meet up with us to play with the kids one night and then the next night go to the game with us!  The kids were so excited to see them! (And we were too!)

Warm ups for the game could have been a little warmer.  It was cold out there!

Chris and I all bundled up. 

Let the games begin!

Several of the members at West Dyersburg church of Christ had visited us in Paraguay, so a group of them met up with us in Nashville to see the game. 

Chris and Enoch and Laura trying to stay warm and dry.  It rained on and off throughout the game, which did not add to the warmth of the night.

A close-up of some of the players on the big screen.

It was too cold to just wear my Paraguay jersey, so I brought it with me and we used it as a flag throughout the game.  I really was not sure which team to cheer for.  This is my sister Sheila beside of me.  Her and her husband live in Nashville, so they were also able to join us! 

I raided my sister's closet for clothes to wear because I didn't have any warm clothes in my suitcase.  She told me to get some long socks out of her closet to wear with her boots.  These red and white striped ones were the only ones I found.  She later laughed at me and told me that those were from a halloween costume.  But, they were warm and a fun way to wear my Paraguay colors without getting into too much trouble!  So, I had to show them off in a picture. 

The game was in full swing.  The crowd was great.  Everyone stood during the entire game!  It would have been fun if my sister's boots had not been killing my feet.  And if the guy a few rows down below us had not tried to start the wave 1500 times during the game.  We all went home with this terrible "We're gonna start the wave, we're gonna start the wave, we're gonna start the wave 1, 2, 3, 4" chant stuck in our heads.  He did somehow manage to get a wave going around the entire stadium. (I am guessing mostly out of just trying to get him to stop chanting!)  It went around about 2 full times and then something big happened in the game and it was lost.  He tried the rest of the game to get it restarted, to no avail.  But, he sure did manage to drive everyone around him crazy!  In the end, Paraguay came out on top 1-0 and everyone had a fun time!  Some of our friends in Paraguay were texting back and forth with us during the game :)  Technology is amazing!

A trip To Disney

In March, on our way up to Tennessee from Florida, we stopped at Disney World. The kids had been to Disney several years ago, but they didn't remember a whole lot about it. We had a great, but tiring time! We were thankful for friends at the Palm Beach Lakes church of Christ who hooked us up on some free tickets!  And we were also thankful to find a hotel room that allowed our dog, Toby to spend the day in our room while we were at the park.  Our neighbors in the hotel were probably not very happy about that decision since Toby probably barked the entire day.  He does not like to be left alone.  And it was probably even worse since he was in a strange place. 

 

Emma got her picture made with a pretend Aurora at Downtown Disney. 

And Walker enjoyed watching the little train.  He is somewhat obsessed with trains.  And when you ask him about his trip to Disney, he tells you about how he rode the bullet train (aka tram) and the real steam engine two times.  That was certainly the highlight of his trip!  And it was while we were still in Downtown Disney that he was traumatized by the automatic flushing potties in the bathrooms.  15 minutes of our time there was trying to convince him to go to the bathroom!

We watched the 3D Muppets movie and Emma enjoyed her big pink glasses.

An attempted picture of the entire family in the Muppets theatre.

Do I look like Mary Poppins?  When you pull on this umbrella, it rains!

Olivia fell asleep in her stroller.

Chris trying to get Walker to smile at the camera.

Me and Emma waiting for the parade.

Olivia with a monkey on her back.  Everyone always says that this is like child abuse, but I say, it it helps you keep from losing them, it is worth it!

We got to see lots of the characters like Snow White in the Main Street parade.

Emma posing by the castle.

Walker finally took a nap.  It was much needed!

The kids playing on the Tom Sawyer island. 

Chris with all of the kids on a really fun bridge.  It was on top of barrels that were in the water, so the kid loved running back and forth and jumping up and down as it moved.  You could even get your feet a little wet if you jumped hard enough!

Olivia and Walker at the end of the day were really tired, but we all thought the light parade was worth staying a little late for!

The train float was one of the many fabulous things we got to see in the parade.  The light parade was the one thing that all three of the kids absolutely loved!  We had a great day!

Three Kids, A Cocker Spaniel and a Window

Over the years in Paraguay, I started catching our dog Toby, standing in our front window, looking out into the front yard.  After Emma was born, they both had the tendency to stand together looking out that window.  And then when Walker came along, the three of them would stand there together.  And I eventually even caught all 4 of them at the window when Olivia came along!  Every time I would see them over there, I would run and get my camera.  It became somewhat of a tradition for us.  The pictures that I caught are priceless to me because they show them all four literally growing up together.  I am not sure if our house was just really boring or if they just wanted to know what was going on in the world around them.  Now that we have moved from Paraguay, I am going to have to find the new "window" in our house in Tennessee. 

Toby and Emma in April of 2006.  Emma was 8 months old.

Emma and Toby in October of 2006.  Emma was 14 months old.

Toby and Emma in April of 2007.  Emma was 20 months old.

Emma and Toby in October of 2007.  Emma was 2 years and 2 months old.

Walker and Toby in January of 2008.  Walker was 7 months old.

Walker and Toby in March of 2008.  Walker was 9 months old.

Toby, Emma and Walker in July of 2008.  Emma was 2 years and 11months old and Walker was 1 year and 1 month old.

Walker, Toby and Emma in October of 2008.  Walker was 1 year and 4 months old and Emma was 3 years and 2 months old.

Toby and Walker with the orange chair in October of 2008.  Walker was 1 year and 4 months old.

Toby, Emma and Walker in January of 2009.  Emma was 3 years and 5 months old and Walker was 1 year and 7 months old.

Toby and Walker on his car in March of 2009.  Walker was 1 year and 9 months old.

Olivia and Toby in June of 2010.  Olivia was 8 months old.  I love that I captured them looking at each other!

Toby, Walker and Emma writing their names (and friends' names) on the window in July of 2010.  Walker was 3 years and 1 month old and Emma was 4 years and 11 months old. 

Olivia, Emma and Toby in August of 2010.  Olivia was 10 months old and Emma was 5 years old.

And I finally got them all together!  Oliva, Toby, Walker (and his car) and Emma in August of 2010.  Olivia was 10 months old, Walker was 3 years and 2 months old and Emma was 5 years old.  They really couldn't all fit in the window frame together.  As the kids multiplied, there tended to be pushing and shoving to get to the places at the window where you could see out.  Precious memories!