We found a house

We found a house and should be moved in, Lord willing by Monday. We leave Tuesday though for Mosbach, Germany for training. Things are great and we will happy to finally start settling and having a place to settle. It is in a nearby town called Portrunny wich is on the tip of Lough (Lake) Ree. Portrunny Bay, Marina and Playground are all within walking distance. The property is adjacent to a sheep farm. This could not be a more perfect home. Our house is actually called Pear Tree Cottage. It is a newly renovated cottage with personality but modern conveniences. The walls of the house are 2 feet thick. There is plenty of space for the children to run and we hope to plant a small garden. There is a woodstove that we cannot wait to light. We are also within walking distance of another homeschool family with a child a little older than Griffin. We will post pictures soon.

Tomorrow, Saturday, we are going to the garda (police) to apply for a visa. Please pray that there are no complications, as none are expected. I am finally getting to know my way around town and a little out of town.

We thank you for your prayers as we know that God has his hand on us. Please pray for our continued good health and time in Germany. It is going to be very hard for me to be seperated from the kids while they are in childcare at the conference as we have been together 24/7 for weeks.

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Prayer Request

Lisa Brookshire is in my MomCare group back home. Her 6 week old son Aiden is in the hospital with RSV. Please pray for him.

Outing with the kids yesterday

Griffin, Ruthie and I walked to town yesterday so that I could get to know the area. Ruthie took a nap in the stroller while Griffin and I went on an "adventure exploring the new area". We found a wonderful bakery where you can get smoothies, and fresh breads, soups and sandwiches (like a family run Atlanta Bread company), then we found a family run grocery store (although they have chain ones that are like publix). We also found the train station and watched the train. We got to see one come in and the people get on and off. Then we found the local police station, the public library-which we are excited about, the butcher shop, fish market, barber shop, hair salon and then got to main street. There is a great book shop and art supply store. It has great supplies and I figure we will be in there often. There are great books to supplement the kid's schooling.

Griffin's legs were tired and he was cold so we turned around and came back. We are going to get some hot water bottles to put in bed with the kids to keep them warm. We have an electric blanket, but are going to get Griffin one. (We won't use the water bottle if we are able to get him one obviously). They have neat water bottles here and you fill them up with very hot water and then put the cover on them so they don't burn the kids. They have fleece covers with spiderman, etc.

You have to turn on the electricity at each outlet on the wall before using something and then turn it off when you are done. Electricity and gas to heat the house cost A Lot!

We did laundry yesterday. It takes about 1 hour to wash and 3 hours in the dryer to dry. We will be spacing that out as well as possible :)

I practiced driving Mary's car around the neighborhood and out on the road going away from town. I would like to go at night when the parking lots are clear to practice parking in the spaces are so small and you have to go back and forth a couple times to get in and out of the parking space. I am sure I will look like Austin Powers trying to turn the cart around.

We leave Monday to go to Germany and will be there through the 24th. I am excited because there will be kids for Griffin to play with. They will even have programs for the kids including how to adjust to a foreign country, how to make new friends, etc. The people here are nice.

Things are going well. I will be happy to get settled and make friends.

Could I possibly jump around more with details? I am mainly writing these for my sake because I know it will be a blur to remember. This way I have the journey recorded.

Grocery shopping

Well, today I went officially grocery shopping for the first time instead of picking up an item here or there. I was hoping I left the store spending under E100. Yeah! I did very well! We will see how well I planned. A lot are interested in the differences and commonalities with the States so here goes. The stores are smaller but it is a good selection of stuff. (However one store is a dept store and grocery store together. It is like going to JC Penny's and going around the corner and getting groceries. I would say WalMart but it seems nicer). The easiest way to describe it to Georgians is a small scale Publix-but not much smaller. The refrigerator/freezer section is huge.

There is a smaller selection of food but many new things. For instance you can find plenty of potato chips, but just not 25 different varieties-which is fine with me. I cannot imagine having a bigger selection. I will be able to tell you more in a couple weeks/months when I get more familiar with things.

Some of the immediate differences I saw were: The deodorant is spray or roll on instead of solid. . The coke bottles are different. They even have different tasting 7 up. The breads and meat selections are wonderful. There are lots of variety juices and drinks. Their cookies ("biscuits") generally come in a tube wrapper-like what you would find at a Brazilian grocery store in America. I even saw hot cross buns for the first time. I thought it was just a children's rhyme. The selection of fruit and veggies was good. There is a lot more fresh stuff than canned and not as many preservatives. Their wheat bread is about 5x as dense as ours-real wheat bread. It makes ours seem like we are eating air.

There does not seem to be a lot of processed meat except sausages. They have sausage links that are wrapped in puff pastry. Those are great. Especially when you are away from home and need a warm bite to eat. They can also cook potatoes 1 million different ways. I have not had anything bad yet.

The gas station convenient stores are a lot nicer than the States (i.e. hot bar where they serve you fresh food, not the tamale that has been sitting there for 14 hours :) ).

Things are a bit more expensive here but nothing stood out as outrageous. Toothpaste and razors were higher than I am used too.

Through Children's Eyes.

I am interested to see what God does in Griffin and through Griffin with this move. It is so touching to watch him adapting. He is very aware of things and does not always voice what he is thinking or feeling. Today he met a new friend, Joe. We were so excited to find Joe but it is going to take some time to build relationships like we are used to. It is so hard wanting a friend and then having to work at it. I know that God will provide the right friend just for Griffin. I thank God for Skype and Webkinz. Griffin was able to play with his best friend Grant on Webkinz while talking with him via video on skype. Isn't technology great. As we were logging on to skype Grant, Griffin whispered to me, "I miss Grant". I asked him if he was lonely. He said no, I just missed Grant. Then when we were done he was upset that he had to go to bed. He wanted to be back in the United States so that he could be awake longer. :) Grant's mom emailed me back to say that Grant told her today "I don't want to play with other friends. I only want Griffin."

Pictures of Our first Family Outing

I tried putting captions under each one but this did not work. The first picture is the local park.
The second children are unsupervised children in the toy store. Both the boys were up there but I could not get the camera out fast enough. Were their names Jonathan and JD? (just kidding).
Next is a great picture of Daddy and Ruthie at the playground.
Roscommon Castle is adjacent to the park/playground which is right off of mainstreet.

Lastly these are shops at Town Center off of main street.

Happy New Year from Ireland!

Happy New Year! We just got back from a friend's house in Ireland celebrating the New Year! It was so much fun. The neighbors at the house we are staying at and the OM team have been so lovely in making us feel welcome and taking care of us.

We left on the 29th. We were organized and worked hard up until the moment we left but due to luggage weight restrictions we worked up until then switching around items to make the luggage weigh the correct amount. We were able to get all the belongings we planned to take to Ireland in our luggage and did not have to ship anything! What a blessing! We were able to fit in toys for Griffin and a baby doll and baby doll stroller for Ruthie, and clothes for each of them to grow into. We are excited about that.

At the airport the luggage was right on the spot of the max amount that it could weigh! What a blessing! I could not imagine trying to figure out what not to take or what to switch because I spent so much time weighing and packing that I did not know what was where to be able to switch around!!!! We had a very sweet woman that checked us in. I did a Stacy Cochran prayer, "God please give us someone that is nice, and not a moron!" or as Pastor Johnny would pronounce "Moe-ron". I laugh everytime I hear that word.

Well back to the subject. We had people that were so sweet in helping us and getting us into special lines for families with strollers and medication. We had Ruthie's Ibuprofen with us since she just got over an ear infections and had her 9 month and 12 month vaccines the day we left-I'll explain that one later. Poor girl. She has done well and had no fever.

We had to leave the house undone. Thank you so much to Jenny Bagby, Jenny Iglesias and Trina Slatton for coming and finishing cleaning the house, carpets and taking out the trash. I am so overwhelmed to have these 3 women in my life that will come and do what they did. Thank you Todd Bagby for taking care of Griffin Monday. That was such a blessing for him to spend that precious time with Grant.

I have not cried for the longest time about leaving friends or family because we have been on survival mode and have been looking forward to getting to Ireland just to be able to settle as we have been living out or suitcases, etc for a while. However when we got to the airport and finally got settled I felt like I just had to call my family one, then two last times. I am sure the people around me probably thought what in the world was wrong with that woman! I called my grandmother (92) to talk to her but they could not wake her up she was so tired. It is just as well, I was a blubbering idiot. I did call her today and told her how much I love her, and was in much better state of mind (me that is-she is always in the right mind).

The plane trip was 8 hours but it felt like it only took 4-what a blessing from God. The flight was not full so we could move around. Ruthie only slep 2 hours but was good for the rest. She was so tired she was a little fussy but not screaming. The plane smelled like a liquor store and most everyone seemed pretty much passed out, so it did not appear as though she was disturbing anyone. The flight attendants were great and we hung out in the back with them a bit. Griffin kicked me in the head several times in his sleep, one sent my earring flying. Ludie was wonderful helping with the kids but Ruthie was so sleepy she only wanted mama. It is just as good, so one of us could get some sleep and deal with the kids when we got off the plane.

Immigration was very slow compared to usual. It took us a little less than an hour to go through, but they were friendly as always. We got out there and got our luggage right before they were to haul it away for being on the carousel for so long. Thank the Lord we got there in time before having to go through that hassle. We then got in the minivan where our luggage miraculously fit with no room to spare. I vaguely remember leaving Dubline where they had a coloring book for Griffin and grapes for us to eat. Oh the best grapes ever! Then I woke up right outside Roscommon. It was wonderful. I felt like, "Oh we are finally home!".

We got to the house. It was not too cold outside, but the problem was the heat in the house was off. We had the key to the house but no one on the team had an extra key to be able to get in to turn on the heat. Oh my goodness, it was cold. That was hard being tired and cold but we were so happy to be there it did not matter. Mary Wallace from church is on the team and was so nice to let us borrow her car and house while we are here.

Griffin and I went to play with the dogs outside and met the neighbor, Orla. She is so sweet. She found out we were waiting for the house to heat so she invited us in to have tea and biscuits (cookies). After Ruthie had 5 I had to cut her off. Orla knew we were coming and so she bought some chocolate Santa's for Ruthie and Griffin. How sweet. Pria, the other neighbor made us some curry chicken. Junior from the team brought over groceries. Katherine came by and brought maps of the city, library hours and other information on the area, as well as DVD's and toys for Griffin. Alastair, the accountant of the team, brought some money for us to survive on and visited with Helen and the kids...finally....bed. AHHHH!

Ruthie slept for 15 hours. 15! I should have slept that that long too but I kept checking on her to make sure she was not feverish and was breathing well. When she woke up she ate so much oatmeal and drank a whole sippy cup full of juice. I woke up and have never experienced jet lag coming to Ireland, only going West to the US. Well it hit hard this time. I just got out of the shower, did not dry my hair and went to bed again. I did not wake up until 11 am (Ireland is 5 hours ahead). I slept through Katherine coming over and checking on us. She showed Ludie how to make tea (we had to be taught how to boil water) :) She is so sweet and we are overwhelmed at everyone's kindness and generosity. I do not know what was in the tea Katherine made but I have been great since.

We went to town today. We found out instead of making 20 turns we only had to go straight and make one turn to get to our destination. We know the city much better now! Ruthie got a good nap in adn we got to see the Garda (police) outside the bank waiting with their AK-47's for a money delivery. You know me, I usually wave and smile when we pass people. I did not wave this time. Yes I still smiled. We toured the town, fun but unintentionally and made it to the toy store, our intedended destination. They were having a 50% off sale so we took the kids and got them a toy each as a welcome to Ireland gift. That was so fun. The toy store had an upstairs. (Just like 2 stores in one-in Griffin's mind). We then ate lunch, and Griffin loved the food. They even had a Cajun sandwich. Cajun in Ireland. Things are going to be okay! We then went to the grocery store. Great selection, and found the diapers ("nappies"). We got tea so we would be ready for visitors now. Great day!

And now to finish the day we celebrated New Years at Junior and Luci's house and had a great time with them and some of the team. I so love these people and they are so welcoming. How in the world can you come to a foreign country and feel at home? I know that someday I will wake up and think, what am I doing here and how can I go home.

I am thankful to God for a first great day, and people that are loving surrounding us. I am thankful to God for my precious family, my wonderful husband that is my hero, and two great kids that make life so much fun.

I then put our 6 year old to bed at 1:30 am, told him "Goodmorning, now go to sleep". The thought that was funny. When I said "Goodnight" walking out of the room, he replied, "goodmorning"...to which we both laughed. Ruthie was in the playpen on top of her doll, snoring. We finished the night by calling mom and dad, along with the Bagby's and wishing them a Happy New Year, and missing the annual Mirramont Cajun Christmas Tree lighting, and the 20foot plus flame that goes along with it. And now my dear friends, it is 2:30 am and I am off to bed. Happy New Years to you in the next 2 1/2 hours.