Rough Week

Hello Friends...I know it has been a while since my last post, but I've been busy. Really busy. In fact, I sent my friend an email this morning, and then I decided to copy it and paste a lot of it onto my blog, because it kind of summarized my life since last Friday.

If you can imagine how crazy a life would be transitioning into a foreign country and then multiply it by 100, that MIGHT give you a glimpse of our week. Here is a brief account of what has transpired over the last six days...

1. We received our shipment on Friday...YAY! Although it was an overwhelming mess just trying to take inventory (and I realized about a quarter of the way through the list that I apparently wasn't understanding them as well as I thought I was, because I kept finding out that the numbers they were bringing up were numbers I had already crossed off the list!) as the four movers kept quickly bringing in box after box and asking,"Where?" Then, it was even more overwhelming trying to figure out how I wanted to "decorate" (as the movers put it), so that they could begin unpacking and putting together our large furniture items. After one of the movers *almost* broke Ashlynn's trundle bed, I decided that it would be best if I just unpacked everything myself and at my own leisure.

2. I have partially unpacked said shipment...there are boxes EVERYWHERE, and not all the boxes are unpacked, yet. Movers can't come pick up the boxes until everything is unpacked, because they'll only come out once. I haven't been home long enough to get anything done! Chris just informed me this evening that movers are coming tomorrow between 2:00 and 3:00 to pick up boxes. Great.

3. We picked up my new iPhone last week, but I couldn't set it up, because it has to be connected to iTunes before it will work. When we found out that our shipment was arriving on Friday, we decided to wait and sync up my phone on our iTunes account on our desktop computer. So, I had to wait a few more days to get my phone working...

4. Having made a special trip to an electronics store to buy a "special" plug to hook up our desktop computer, we got ready for the moment of truth, and then...a spark, smoke and the living room went dark. We blew up the computer.

5. Since we blew up the computer, we decided to hook up my phone by downloading iTunes to the laptop. My phone finally works, but I don't know if it will ever sync up to our old iTunes account, since we had to set up a new one. :-(

6. The day after we got my phone working, I realized that, for whatever reason, I am not able to send or receive emails. :-(

7. Then, the day before school started, I found out that my email account is denying ALL emails from our school, so I have missed ALL the emails from the school since we arrived, including the emails that informed us of who their teachers were AND the invitation to the brief elementary school parent rotation scheduled for the first day of school.

8. We went out shopping for school supplies and only got a partial supply, because we couldn't find everything we needed.

9. I dropped the kids off at school yesterday for their first day, and experienced, yet, ANOTHER first day of school where I had to carry Avery screaming into the school building. This time was MAGNIFIED, because it started in the parking lot where ALL of the other parents were standing with their smiling, excited children, and no matter what I did, I couldn't bribe Avery into the courtyard of the school, much less into the building. No one knows our story of how he has done this for the past FOUR years, and now I seem heartless. I had an appointment with the counselor at 1:00 today...thank goodness I met her the first day, and we've already talked several times, or else I might be concerned that she might need to call in the authorities! We came up with a game plan of me dropping him off at his classroom door, giving kisses and then I have to leave. Essentially, it's the same plan I've had for the last four years, except that at this school, it is different from other parents' plans, because drop-off occurs at the playground outside. She pulled him out of class this afternoon to gently inform him of the "new plan," and he seemed fine with it. We'll see in the morning.

Are you still with me, because I'm not done, yet...



10. I have now successfully managed to run into the garage not once but TWICE with my "new" van, because I am having to maneuver a "yacht" (which is STILL considerably smaller than my "old" van) into a small parallel parking place that has a wall with a metal step stool on one end and a large concrete pillar on the other. Oh, and the kids' three bikes are ALSO on one end of the parking place, because there is no where else to keep them. OH, and there is ALSO another car parked right across from my parking place. The first time I hit the van, just a couple of days ago, I backed into the metal stepstool. This morning when I hit the garage, I managed to sideswipe the concrete pillar, which scraped the paint off of the door and also broke my driver's side mirror. Uuugh...

11. This past week, I went to lunch with a "new" friend, sat outside, and I got stung by a wasp. For the record, I've NEVER been stung by a wasp before.


12. I've also met SO many people that I can't remember anyone's name, where they're from or even if they have a kid in one of my kid's classes. The people here are very friendly, but frankly, I haven't been feeling super sociable this week.

But...

I'm trying to remain focused on the fact that God CLEARLY brought us here, and I still have no idea why he sent US. I was reminded today of Nehemiah. He was called by God to go and rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. He was obedient, and he answered the call. He was also faced with lots of conflict along the way.



I have been expecting the conflict.




I just hope it moves on...quickly.


On a side note, Ashlynn and Aaron have had a great time at school. Ashlynn really likes her classes, and Aaron really likes his teacher. Aaron's teacher, Mr. Davison, is British, and he reminds me a ton of Bear Grylls on the Discovery Channel. :-)