Month: March 2016

Our Trip to Spain with the Family

On By laurasuzyIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Just getting to Spain with five children is an adventure of it’s own!  We packed large duffel bags for each person in our family, plus 3 boxes, 3 suitcases, and 1 trunk of miscellaneous stuff we wanted to bring, plus 5 carry on suitcases, backpacks for each person, a diaper bag, a guitar, car seats, a baby crib, and a gate checked stroller.  Whew!  Look at our pile of luggage on the cart at Washington Dulles!

    The flight was routed through Dublin, Ireland, so our first leg was about 6 hours.  The baby slept part of the time in my lap, part of the time on the floor (while I tried desperately to find a way to get comfortable without stepping on her), and a decent part of the time talking, fussing, or just generally making it impossible for me to sleep on the the overnight flight!  When we got to Ireland, it was like a maze of twisting, turning hallways with somewhat unclear markings about where we were supposed to go, but thankfully it was 5am so it was not crowded.  The second leg of the flight was better – only 3 hours from Dublin to Malaga – and Cora slept most of it in my lap and I managed a little bit of a snooze, too.

When we arrived in Spain, there was a fairly long line to get through customs but it went fast.  There were no forms to fill out, they just looked at our passports and stamped us through. I thought it was funny – the man looked at each passport and read the name, then looked for the child.  When he got to Peter, he asked for Pedro!  (I don’t remember him asking for Mateo, but he did pause and look a little confused about Ella, which means “she” in Spanish.)  Then there was the confusion about retrieving our baggage.

We looked on the monitors and went to the indicated luggage carousel, and waited, and waited, and waited… and saw no sign of our stuff.  We did wonder if maybe this was going to be the solution to our “how do we get all this luggage to our house?” problem – if they lost it, they’d have to ship it to us, right?  So we walked towards the lost luggage office, and as we passed the monitors again, Ryan noticed that it said that bags arriving from non-EU locations would be on a different set of carousels!  We went through the doors into the specially enclosed area, and there, all lonely on the carousel, we found our bags.

At the Malaga airport, they didn’t have the huge luggage cart like they had at Dulles, only the smaller “carritos”, so we grabbed a bunch and started loading them up.  It took seven carts!  And of course, now we had a new challenge, because though we had seven people, only 5 of them could effectively push a cart (and Ella was iffy, too).  Can you say “inchworm”?

I went to retrieve our rental van (a 9-seater I was hoping would fit all our stuff), and after circling the airport road and talking to various policemen and other official looking people about 5 times, finally determined that I could not get back to the area where Ryan and the kids were waiting for me.  They all kept telling me that the family (and all of our luggage) had to go UP to the departures area if I was going to pick them up.  I knew that was virtually impossible, with only Ryan and the twins to push seven carts!  I was about to give up, go park somewhere, and walk to find them when I spotted Ryan down on the lower level as I was driving by on the upper level.  I yelled out the window, and he heard me!  (miracle of miracles!)  We decided to risk parking in the taxi area long enough to load the luggage.  After some prayer, a little tetris, and a slightly illegal seatbelt situation (4 kids squeezed into the second bench seat meant for 3), we managed to get everything in the car!   It took putting some luggage on laps, filling the entire back seat and every nook and cranny under the seats, plus the whole boot of the van all the way to the roof, but we made it happen.  Hooray!  No need to hire a second car just for our luggage!

It was about 3 hours after we landed by this time, and I was running on only a cat nap for sleep. As we drove to Almunecar, I had a hard time keeping my eyes open, but we made it alive.  We had not gotten any SIM cards for our phones at the airport, so we had no way to call our real estate agent that was going to let us into the house, so we went to McDonalds, and were very thankful that they had free Wi-Fi!  (Pronounced wee-fee in Spain.)  By about 5pm we had met our agent and made it to the house. I was very proud of myself for navigating the steep roads and successfully backing the huge van through the gate into the parking space of the house, which is on the roof!  You have to go down a set of stairs to a terrace where you enter the house at the bedroom level, and then go down another level to the kitchen and living area.

  I thought we would all crash when we finally arrived, but the kids were so excited about the pool they had to jump in.  Also, our house has an elevator!  You know what that means.  We had to put the kabosh on the whole “an elevator is a toy” idea.  The view is gorgeous, the house is beautifully decorated and very modern, which is apparently somewhat rare in Almunecar.  It has king sized beds in each of the 4 bedrooms, and they even had a baby crib set up for Cora, a high chair, and a little walker we can use to contain her a bit (but haven’t used yet).  Two of the bedrooms have a balcony, so we chose one of those to be the “master” even though it’s not the biggest room.  Ironically, the baby has the biggest room, because it’s at the back of the house where there is no view!  I think we finally got to bed pretty late that night, trying to stay up long enough to beat the jet lag and get on the new schedule here.  We are so glad to have arrived safely with minimal difficulties along the way!

     

    Lessons from Selling My Car

    On By laurasuzyIn Preparing to Move1 Comment

    I sold my beloved South Pacific Blue 2012 Toyota Sienna, and I cried.  The whole experience was way more emotionally difficult than I thought it would be!  This is how it went down:  I had listed the car on Craigslist, and mentioned in the ad that I wasn’t actually able to sell it until the Friday before we leave.  Several people called and wanted to see it, and I had several very low offers via email, but one family called me and made an appointment to see it.  Earlier that week, I brought the car to CarMax for an appraisal, and I had another person offer me $2k more than CarMax did without seeing it.

    The day this family came, I was doing a million other things that I can’t even remember now, but I was a little stressed already.  Ryan went and showed the van to them, took them for a test drive, and then they came back to the house to talk price.  I wasn’t ready to talk price. Honestly, just the day before I was scheming ways to keep the van somehow and use it when we get back!  And then on top of that, they wanted to buy the car that day and have me get a rental car until we leave.  I was out of my comfort zone, under pressure to make a high-dollar decision very quickly, and faced with giving up a vehicle I worked really hard to find two weeks earlier than I had planned.  But here they were, with cash in hand!  (A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.) So we made a deal.  They paid $500 more than my other offer (which was $1500 less than my asking price), plus they paid for a rental van that we can take back to the airport the day we leave.  From a financial perspective, I wish they had just paid us that full value for the car and been willing to take it two weeks later!  That would have been perfect to me, both from a price perspective and timing perspective.  But the value of having the car actually sold, one less thing to do before we leave, and no need to borrow a friend’s car that last weekend was very high.

    So Ryan went with them to do the sale and get the rental, and I literally sobbed as they drove away.  What is wrong with me?!  This is a car.  It’s just a mode of transportation, and not one I could take with me to Spain (not easily, at least).  But I couldn’t get a hold of myself, so I sat on the sofa and had a good cry.  The kids – all 5 of them – sat with me a cried too, even the baby, though she had no idea why she was crying.  Ryan says we all cried harder about seeing that car go than we did the day we gave away our dog (and he might be right).  Maybe it was because we had time to mentally prep for the dog, but this was very sudden.  Maybe it was because I was a little too attached to that van.  I loved the color.  Every day when I saw it, it brought me a little bit of joy, seeing it sparkle in the sun.  It was my favorite color blue – a slightly greenish blue, and it looked different in different lights.  I always wanted a car that color, and just last year – less than a year, actually, I finally bought one.  I loved the convenience features, I loved having the 8th seat so we could bring a mother-in-law or friend with us, I loved the interior color, too.  And I hated selling the van for $3500 less than we paid for it just last May.  So I cried!  And I learned some important things from the experience.

    1. How I choose to respond to an emotionally difficult situation will guide how my kids respond, and instruct them on how to respond in the future.  I realized that this is a pretty big deal – the example I set for these sweet kiddos who are learning how to deal with life’s disappointments is really important. My kids cried partly because they loved the van, too, but mostly because they saw me crying.  What was I telling them by my tears?  What was I teaching them about the right way to respond when sad things happen in life?  What was I communicating about what is really important?  Thankfully, I have a wonderful friend who is always able to set me back on track when I fall.  I called her, and she told me exactly what I needed to hear, and what I knew I needed to do even before I called.

    2. It’s important to praise God first, even through our tears.  Praise You in this storm.  She encouraged me to “do the Psalms thing” and sing or verbalize, out loud, thanksgiving to God for the car and the provision of it’s sale, and also the raw reality of my feelings about it.   Just like David did, and like you see many places in the Psalms.  So I got out my guitar, and we sang “Lord, I Need You” and “Hosanna” and “God of Wonders”. We gave thanks for the luxury of owning a car at all, and for the beauty of that particular car.  We gave thanks that we were able to sell it without a hassle in plenty of time before our move, and that we have a rental van (which is white, by the way) that will meet our needs until we leave.  And we told God that we were sad to see it go.  I told Him that was sad that I didn’t stick to my bottom-line price in the negotiations, and though it was only $500 less than what I was hoping to get, I was mad at myself for not being more firm on the principle of the thing.  We talked about what we would miss, and we talked about how, really, the van is just part of the “stuff” of life – totally replaceable, not something we should be ruled by, and not something to take for granted, but really a grand privilege and gift.

    I have been thinking about whether or not that van had become an idol in my life.  I certainly didn’t worship it, and caring for it wasn’t any sort of obsession that kept me from focusing on what is really important, so I don’t really think it was.  I think I just really enjoyed it, and it’s hard to give up something you really like.  Also, selling the van was a big step showing that this move is really happening.  It took the reality factor up a notch for us all, and though we are excited about our new adventures, it is bittersweet.  We will miss so much from our life here! But we know that Christ will strengthen us as we go.

    The day after we sold the van, the message at church was about finding joy and contentment in every circumstance.  Pastor Dave shared verses that were exactly what I needed to hear that day.  Things like Phillipians 4:4-7:

    4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

    I was tormented by regret the night we sold the van, worried I had made the wrong decision, and I needed some of that peace! Psalm 63 was the perfect reinforcement of my friend’s exhortation to “do the Psalms thing”, and James 1 was a good reminder that we can consider it pure joy to face trials of many kinds, even the kind that comes from the difficulty of letting things go.

    And Pastor Tom said something that really made me evaluate what was going on in my heart.  He said if you are carrying around a cup of some sort of drink, and someone bumps you, you will be able to see what was in the cup by what spills out.  What spills out of your heart when you hit bumps in life?  Is it gratitude?  graciousness? stinginess? fear?  I want my cup to be filled with the things that honor God.

    So now it it is a week later, and I am feeling much better about the decision to sell the van early.  I am so glad that it is done, because there is so much left to do, I still don’t quite know how I’m going to finish it all before we leave.  I guess that means I’ve learned a third lesson, too: difficult things get easier when time gives you new perspective.  I know I will need to remember that when we hit tough times in Spain.

    Plane Tickets Purchased… Move Date Set!

    On By laurasuzyIn Preparing to MoveLeave a comment

    Feb 4, 2016 (I forgot to publish it when I wrote it!)

    On Monday I bought plane tickets.  I have knots in my stomach.  Or butterflies, or something.  I can’t believe it!  We are really doing this – we leave for Spain on Monday, March 28th, the day after Easter.

    Why and How?

    When I posted this news on Facebook, several people asked “what is sending you to Spain”?  And I’ve already written about why we want to go to Spain.  But some other people want to know, “how?” No, Ryan didn’t get a job in Spain.  But he works in IT, so his work can be done remotely.  He will be keeping his US job!

    It was pretty cool timing, because right as we were finding out this was possible, our pastor was preaching on resurrected dreams, and talking about how sometimes God closes the door on things we want, but other times, the dream can be resurrected at a later date.  We have tried several different times over the past 5 years to get a job for Ryan in Europe.  First Belgium fell through.  Then Zurich.  And the funny thing was that neither of those were our first choice, anyway.  We always wanted it to be Spain.  So when Pastor Dave was preaching on Resurrected Dreams, we couldn’t help but recognize this opportunity as our own personal dream being given another chance, and give the glory to God.  We feel excited and humbled!  Why would God allow us to see this dream realized?  We had almost given up, and just settled into our comfortable lives.  We are sure He plans to teach us through this, and we will be looking for His hand at work in it, and sharing what we learn with you!

    Where will you live?  Do you have a house there?

    No, we don’t have a place lined up yet.  We are planning to get a temporary place in Almuñécar for a week or two while we make our final decisions about where to live.  We really liked Almuñécar and also La Cala del Moral on our scoping trip, but we didn’t get to visit a school in La Cala, so I hope we’ll get to do that before we decide.   Either way, we plan to settle on the Mediterranean coast east of Malaga.

    How long will you be gone?

    The plan is to stay for two full school years, so that’s about 2 1/2 years total.  We will be putting our kids in public school there (BIG change for us!), so the twins will finish 7th grade there, Ella will finish 4th, Peter will finish 2nd, and Cora gets to hang out with Mommy at home.  That said, there are so many unknowns for us!  If we find this adventure really isn’t our thing, we could come home after 1 year, or if we really love it, we might stay a little longer.  It is nice to have the flexibility, but we are committed to a minimum of one year to achieve our goals.