Tomorrow marks three weeks since we left Colombia. The trip back to the U.S. was very rough. It was an awful travel day. And the dreaded happened: after a turn of events, we did not have enough time to make our connecting flight and then had to spend six more hours in the airport waiting for the next flight. We were already tired and were very excited to get home and have some time to settle in. Instead, due to terrible weather, our connecting flight was another 35 - 40 minutes late and we got back to the airport to have to scramble to claim our baggage and run yet again to try to make our train home. Three of our seven family members were overtaxed from sleep-deprivation, the two flights, six hours of walking through a giant airport, several episodes of panic-stricken running, and then the rocking, bumpy train...so they were miserable on the long, late-night train ride home. There was still much to be thankful for as our van was intact and although it was very late, we were able to drive home safely. We got home, unloaded our bags and did an ultra quick house tour and rushed everyone off to bed. It was between 2:30 - 3:00 in the morning before we got the kids to bed and then we collapsed ourselves soon after. Not the return home and beginning we envisioned but the Lord provided grace to help us accomplish the bare necessities (grocery shopping and some necessary errands and even corporate worship on Sunday) before Karl had to return to work early on Monday morning. This little travel story illustrates the hectic beginning of our family life at home 20 days ago.
Since then, the seven of us have been doing well - praise the Lord. These three weeks have seemed like a year! I am so thankful for the Lord's gracious provision of strength, endurance, and patience - and a great Husband! Beginning homeschooling has been surprisingly smooth as I didn't have a spare moment to worry. We started back to school on that first Monday home and it has been going very well. Joana and Ladi are very diligent students and never complain about assignments. We have been working on foundational phonics sounds, reading in both languages (we take turns: L or J read aloud Spanish and we read aloud the English), practical and important life skills, memory work, some introductory English vocabulary: days of the week, months, etc., and math, math, math. Math is a delightful endeavor because it is very useful and wonderfully bilingual. All that we need for most math work is to know the numbers in both languages and the terminology in Spanish for the type of problem. We have been putting our addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and number flash cards to extensive use!
Our family schedule is working out nicely and thankfully each day gets smoother. I can not even begin to explain the difficulty of trying to run a home and a family in two languages - it is truly a mind-boggling, bewildering endeavor. But God is helping all of us and even with all of the confusion and misunderstanding of household instructions and customs, etc., and language deficiencies, we are all getting along well and everyone is usually pretty happy.
We had our first required post placement visit this week and that went very smoothly. Our next visit will be in about two months.
We have been busy with appointments at the eye doctor, pediatrician (twice), and tomorrow we go to the dentist and back to the pediatrician to have the girls' TB tests read. We thank God for His gracious mercy for Ladi - she shouldn't be able to see with her bad eye but with a corrective lens, the doctor was able to help that eye see 20/20 which really was a miracle that her bad eye/brain responded to the corrective lens. We are thrilled and eagerly awaiting the arrival of her new glasses! The other amazing thing was that the first frame she tried on was the best and there was no agonizing involved - the process took about 7 minutes! Joana does not need glasses.
What else has been happening over the past three weeks? Mami came down a really nasty sinus/cold/virus. I was down a day and a half but thankfully am doing much, much better. We celebrated Andres' birthday! We have been reading bilingual books together. We have been doing a lot of cleaning and laundry and other chores! Five kids and two parents means a lot of work. Thankfully, all five kids enjoy chores (usually) and so we work hard each day together for about an hour to keep the house clean (a "must" for Mami's sanity so everyone benefits from a clean, orderly home). That time is built in to our schedule so we can keep the home in a good condition. Absolute "musts" each day on our chore list include cleaning the niño baño, cleaning our well-used homeschool desk tops and pencil smeared drawer fronts, crumb-duty, and collecting, washing, folding, and delivering clean laundry among other tasks. Despite the intensified cleaning necessity in the Armstrong home due to increased spills, drips, splashes, crumbs, and stains, our two newest daughters are wonderful, capable, and eager helpers! They are very sweet and we all work well together (when we are able to figure out what we are supposed to be doing and how to do it)!
A highlight is that the weather has been especially nice! The first Monday when Karl went back to work, the day seemed so long. The girls pointed to the backyard and our swing set and asked when we would go outside. I assumed it would be too cold and told the girls all about the winter and how it would be a while until we could play outside. Oddly enough, the day ended up being in the upper 50's and with coats, the kids were able to play outside and almost everyday since! The weather has been so warm that we had to get short sleeve shirts out - it's been in the low 80's! The weather has provided an opportunity for fresh air, exercise, and a nice break in the day's activities to look forward to for everyone. I am so very grateful.
We took a family photo this weekend and I would like to post soon. There's also much more to say but my time is running out.
I want to close by thanking my beloved Husband who gave me the opportunity for some much-needed shopping/
refreshment/reflection/alone-time tonight. He is the reason I am able to do this update. He came home after a very hard day at work today (and a very strenuous week) to sacrificially take over the responsibilities of things which included showers for each of the three younger kids, dinner, family Bible time, and dinner clean up. He even took the kids on a walk around the neighborhood and did the bedtime routine for five kids alone. He is not only a great Husband but also a super-duper, top-notch Papi and Father. I am very thankful and delighted to be Karl's Wife, parenting partner, and very best friend.
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