Contracts, Illness and Matriculation Forms, Oh My!

On By laurasuzyIn Costa Tropical, The Stuff of Daily LifeLeave a comment

Have you ever entered into an international leasing contract, or filled out school matriculation forms in a foreign language?  The past couple of days have been very interesting.  I have been reviewing and editing a lease contract originally written in Spanish by a Spanish lawyer, and then translated into English, so that it can be reviewed and signed by me and the Dutch owner of the property (who doesn’t speak Spanish)!  The English translation was pretty bad, so I brushed up on my legal and translation skills (Say what?  I’m not practiced in translating Spanish legalese!) and tried my best to make it match the intent of the Spanish document and the verbal agreement we have made with the owner (in English).  The most entertaining highlight of the translation was the heading called “Exposed” – a term I’ve never seen on a lease! It was “Exponen” in Spanish, and I decided the closest thing for a legal heading would be “Presented”, because it was the section that outlined the parties presenting the contract, so let’s hope it works.

While I was reading two translations of same document, I was also intermittently reviewing a change in a new contract for the sale of our house in Virginia, and nursing a feverish sick baby who wanted nothing except to be held.  It’s really hard to read legal documents with a poor, miserable toddler in your arms!  The kids have been passing around the  intestinal virus that made me take Ella to the doctor.  She is better now, but Matthew got it (and is better), and now Cora has it, too.  Madeleine and Peter have yet to bite the dust, so we’re just waiting for that shoe to drop.  I’m hoping that Ryan and I have sufficiently mature immune systems that we remain clear of that mess.  Our lack of finalized house contract plus illnesses in the house delayed our plan for school matriculation, but tomorrow I’m making it happen!

We decided on the big house in La Herradura because ultimately, Ryan needs to be able to work, and having a dedicated office space away from the main living area will make that possible.  I’m a woman of two minds on this, because part of me is super excited to move there and enjoy the beauty, extra space, bigger pool, and quiet, and part of me is grieving the idea of leaving Almuñécar and the more frugally priced house we are in now.  (If you know me, you know that “frugal” part is key for me!) I love seeing the sun rise over the pueblo blanco out my bedroom window every morning, and I love being close to town.  But the big house has fantastic views, too, especially at sunset, and we can enjoy walking in the town of La Herradura and also enjoy Almuñécar, since we will be here at least twice per week for church and grocery shopping.  The decision was made for us, in the end, because while I was waffling and looking for some third option, the house we are in was rented for the summer.  As high season draws near, there are fewer and fewer options available that would work for our family, so the big house in La Herradura is the best one for us for now.  We are going to sign a 14 month lease, so I suppose we can always change our minds next year!

Since we are renting the house in La Herradura, I plan to enroll the kids in school there tomorrow.  That sentence made it sound like it was an easy decision, but it was not!  I really loved the school we had visited back in October, Colegio Publico La Noria, and I visited them again this week.  The teachers and kids were all so very welcoming!  The school yard has more play space than La Herradura, and the impression I got is that they have a more laid back atmosphere and have a little more fun there.  It may be an unfair impression based on insufficient information, but there it is… effecting my ability to make decisions! This transition into school (which the kids have never before attended), and on top of that, school taught in a language they don’t speak, is NOT going to be easy, so I am pulled strongly towards the place that seemed like it might make the kids feel more at ease and welcome. If all other things were equal, that’s where I would send the kids.

But everyone I have talked to says they have only heard good things about the school in La Herradura, and I did like it enough when I visited last week that I felt it was a viable option for us.  Still, something intangible about it ranked it as my second choice.  Nonetheless, here are the factors that made me choose the school in La Herradura anyway: the ability to walk to school, and the hope we will integrate into the local community.  We hope the kids will make friends at school, and we hope they will have the opportunity to see those friends outside of school hours, either at the plaza, la playa, or just in town.  And since we will be living in that town, walking in that town, and hitting the beach in that town, we figured it makes sense to give the kids a chance to meet the kids that go to school in that town, right?  Plus walking to school daily will get us all some good exercise, and get me out of the house and hopefully meeting some of the other moms after dropping the kids off.  If I enroll the kids at La Noria, I’ll have to drive them there every day, and I have a feeling that would get old really fast.  So we’re going to dive into my Choice B, but here’s the upside: there’s only 2 months left of school!  So if we hate it, I’m pretty sure I can make the switch and send the kids to the other school in September.  Here’s hoping I got the paperwork right and they can start on Monday!  And we’re also hoping to move into the big house this weekend so we can finally get unpacked and settled in.  It could be an exciting next couple of days for us!

First Two Weeks at Church in Spain

On By Ryan HammondIn Church, The Stuff of Daily LifeLeave a comment

We visited a local evangelical, protestant church in Almunecar this Sunday and last.  The church has historical ties to Holland, and may have been planted or supported by Dutch believers.  We could have walked 30 minutes but chose to drive… in retrospect, that was the best choice since the kiddos were very tired after the service.

Christian vacation/tour groups from Holland joined in with the local members for the worship services both Sundays.  Songs, scripture reading, and prayer were all conducted in Dutch and Spanish.  I always feel a deep joy when I’m able to participate in this kind of cross-cultural spiritual communion.  It underscores how all Christian believers are united in a single, global family, saved and loved by the one true Savior.

I was able to translate/absorb 90% of the prayers and the sermon/lesson.  The teachings were from Numbers 13-14, recounting how Israel sent 12 spies into the promised land but were discouraged and misled by the bad/unfaithful report of 10 spies.  Caleb and Joshua agreed with the facts of the report (the land was fertile but contained giants and fortified cities) but believed God’s promises and urged the people to have faith and take the land as God had promised.  The encouragement and admonition for believers today is to “live by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7) — to trust in God’s goodness, the commandments and promises of His word, the Bible, and to have joy and faith in all circumstances.

The kids were able to join with other kids from the church in a side room.  The first week, they learned about the conversion of Saul/Paul (Saulo/Pablo).  This was taught mostly in English with a craft.  The second Sunday’s kid lesson was about Tabitha/Dorcas, her faithful, tireless work, and resurrection.

Unfortunately, Cora wouldn’t be still/quiet long enough in either the main hall or the kids’ room.  Laura ended up taking her to the kids room the first Sunday, missing the teaching.  I took Cora for a walk the second Sunday, missing the teaching.  We need to figure out how to make this work so we can both join in the service together, if possible.  (Please pray for this!)

On the Thursday between Sundays, we met the pastor and a couple from the church for tapas.  Due to a long, hot walk with all the kiddos — combined with crossed communications and other mixups — our family members were all tired and semi-irritable that day.  In the end, despite our exhaustion, we all enjoyed the fellowship and getting to know one another better.

Our First Adventure with Spanish Healthcare

On By laurasuzyIn Costa Tropical, The Stuff of Daily Life1 Comment

I finally decided I needed to take Ella to the doctor tonight.  (ALERT: If you do not like reading the gory details about illness, or if talk of bodily fluids makes you squeamish, STOP READING NOW!)

Ella had been complaining of tummy aches for the past 3 or 4 days, and has had some diarrhea.  I am the type of person that lets a sickness ride for a few days to see what will happen.  I generally don’t go to a doctor unless I see something alarming.  Well, tonight I happened to be in the bathroom with Ella after we got home from our day trip to Granada (which is SO beautiful, by the way), and I decided to check to see if what was coming out was still diarrhea.  That was when I saw something alarming!  Blood in the toilet never inspires confidence, especially not when it’s coming from your seven year old’s rear end.  I told her we’d have to bring her to the doctor to check it out (which immediately made her burst into tears), and went to look up what’s available in town.

Doesn’t it always happen that when you finally decide you need a doctor, it’s right before the weekend, when everything is closed and your only options are emergency services?!  It was 7:45pm on Friday night, and I hadn’t the faintest idea where to find the health centers in town, much less the nearest hospital (which I have since learned is in Motril, a 20 minute drive to the next town).  Hoping that maybe the Spanish siesta hours might work in my favor, or that I’d find something with Saturday hours, I started searching the internet.  I found that one of the clinics in town has hours till 8pm!  By the time I called, it was 7:55pm, so I was not really even expecting an answer.  Imagine my surprise when I got a real person on the line!  I started to tell them why I was calling, in Spanish, and I was doing great… until…  “My seven year old daughter has blood in her….”  umm… what’s the Spanish word for “stool”?  Part of my brain was looking for synonyms for “poop” that might translate easily, when I finally gave in… “Do you speak English?”  Thankfully, not only did he speak some English, but he asked me where I was right then, and said that if I could get to the clinic in 5-10 minutes he would wait for me. “Si!  Ya voy!” and we hopped in the car.

Let me go back for a minute and explain the drama that was happening in the background while I was searching for a doctor.  Ella was horrified by the idea of seeing a doctor.  She was wailing loudly, and saying things like “Why ME? Why do I have to get sick and go to the doctor when everybody else gets to go to the beach?” (We had no plans to go anywhere but bed tonight.)  And then she got even more upset.  “The doctor is going to hurt me!  He is going to have to stitch up the part that is bleeding!”  While I comforted her, I held back my laughter (are you with me on the implications of that one?!?).  But she had a previous experience with a split chin, and didn’t care much for having the wound glued shut, so you can imagine what was going through the poor child’s head about this particular blood.  Ryan took over comforting her and helping her understand things better while I was on the phone, and by the time we left she had simmered down to the whimper rather than a wail.  On the way there, she was starting to cry again… “What?  I might have to show my  private parts to a MAN?” but I assured her everything would be okay.

The ride into town took less than 7 minutes, and we parked on the street right in front of the clinic.  Thank you God for that parking space! After I accidentally spilled the entire contents of my “important papers” bag all over the street and then picked them up again, we made our way to the door.  It looked like a city apartment, with a buzzer outside, which we pressed to have them unlock the door.  Inside, it was dark, and there were stairs and elevators, and you had to find the light switches yourself as you made your way in.  We knew we had to go up, so we took the stairs because we weren’t sure how many flights up, and were very relieved to see a big sign on the door saying CLINICA on the first level.  Phew!  That was easier than it looked at first!  The doctor himself ushered us in, and the secretary showed us the waiting area for a brief moment.  Then we went back to his office and I explained what was going on half in Spanish, half in English.  He mostly spoke back to me in English, I think so Ella would understand – he spoke directly to her a lot.  He was so kind, and he put Ella right at ease, and even got a smile out of her!

We were thinking he’d check for hemorrhoids or parasites or something, but he did a basic exam which involved palpating her stomach and taking her temperature, and assured us that a little blood in the stool is normal after a bout with gastroenteritis, and that he sees it all the time.  He gave us some dietary recommendations to make sure we aren’t irritating her bowels and ensure she’s properly hydrated, and said if we still see blood on Monday to come back.  Sixty euros later, I have a bill to submit to insurance, (which is not bad compared to an American out-of-pocket doctor visit) and we were on our way to Mercadona to buy some bananas and apples for her to bake and eat for breakfast.

Overall, I was pleased with the experience, and was especially surprised that they were willing to stay open to wait for us.  In retrospect, I might have freaked out a little too much about the blood in her stool in the first place… though I know my mom would say I should have taken her to the doctor days ago!   I guess the weekend will be telling.  We’ll be praying we have no need to go back.

 

A Tale of Two Houses

On By laurasuzyIn Costa Tropical6 Comments

I am mentally in a tizzy because I cannot come completely to peace about our house choice!  We have been looking for a 4+ bedroom place with a private pool that is within walking distance of town and school.  We are currently staying in one, and we could rent it’s twin next door long-term (this particular house is already rented out for the upcoming September), but we would like just a little more space if we can find it.  So after considering several other options, we have two homes in the running: this one, in Cotobro, a neighborhood of Almuñécar, or what we call “the big house” in La Herradura, the small town next door.

Cotobro – The Smaller House

  Pros

The house we are in is beautiful and modern, and it has pretty much everything we need, including a baby bed and high chair, rooftop parking with auto-opening gate, gorgeous view, and king sized beds in each bedroom.  It has a very small private pool, the care of which is included in the rent. It even has a clothes dryer, which is not very common here, a poolside bathroom, and an elevator.  I love it!  We can run (literally, hoofing it fast) down to the beach in 5 minutes (or walk in 10), and the walk to school would be about 20-25 minutes.  We can also walk to the center of Almunecar for church, banking needs, shopping, etc. in 30-40 minutes.  I have already developed a strong fondness for the town, the paseos along the beaches, the great grocery store, and the view of the point with the cross on top.  The long-term rental price is significantly less than our mortgage in Virginia, which leaves extra money in the budget for easy travel plans.

Cons

The only thing this house is lacking is an office for Ryan to work in (or a seconding living area for Cora and I to be in during the day), and green space.  It has 2 terraces and a balcony, so there is some room for the kids to run around outside, but no grass, no flowers, no trees, and if they fly the paper airplane too high, it goes over the wall into the neighbor’s terrace. Who knows what would happen with a soccer ball.  The microwave in the kitchen is behind the kitchen door, which is a little tricky – if we stay here we would probably take that door off it’s hinges and store it away somewhere so we can get to the pantry and microwave without closing the door.  Visitors would have to sleep in Cora’s room and then we’d have to move her somewhere we could squeeze in her travel crib, and they’d have to share the hall bathroom on the bedroom level with the entire family or go downstairs to use the other one.  But the biggest issue is feeling like we’re a bit on top of each other, and that Ryan’s work place would either be on the pool patio in the shade, in the only living area in the house, or in our bedroom (and there is not really space for a desk).  If Ryan can’t work effectively, this whole Spain thing won’t work for us long-term, so this is important!  Of course, all of the kids are home all day right now, and soon, 4 of them will be in school from 9 – 2.  Maybe that would make all the difference?

The Big House – La Herradura

We discovered the big house by looking at homes that are for sale and asking if they’d be willing to rent. Turns out, this house is owned by a man from the Netherlands, and he’s had it on the market for a year already, so he’s willing.  The house is in the next town to the west of Almuñécar, called La Herradura, and is less than a 10 minute drive from where we are now.  I have read conflicting information about the exact size, but at least one source said the population of La Herradura is about 3,000 compared to Almuñécar’s 30,000.

viewfromterrace

Pros

The house is absolutely stunning.  The views are breathtaking – mountains, sea, trees and flowers.  There is a much larger pool with steps to enter it that would be great for me and Cora, several grassy areas, several great poolside seating options, a hammock, a lemon tree, a banana tree, gorgeous flowers blooming over the terrace railing that are automatically watered by an irrigation system, and an overall outdoor presentation that is the perfect relaxing oasis.  We saw it last Friday night right before sunset, and as we watched the sun set behind the mountains, my heart wanted to live there at any cost, despite anything my brain might say.  It is in a gated community and the road has a cul-de-sac, so there is a flat area where the kids could roller skate or bike a bit (if we had those things).  The roads to get there are generally less anxiety-inducing than the steep, narrow switch-backs in Cotobro, and there is even a lane on the side marked off for walkers and bikers. The house also has 4 bedrooms, but they are much larger, and they all have their own bathroom.  All of the bedrooms upstairs open onto a large upper terrace.  One of the bedrooms has room for a futon in addition to the bed, and it has an en-suite bathroom that makes it the perfect place for visitors.  The house is new, well-maintained, and feels luxurious, with things like heated towel bars, a wood-burning fireplace, stainless steel appliances and marble floors.  Most importantly, it has an office, two living areas (one could be the “kid zone”), a larger kitchen, and of course, the green space.  Real grass, as springy as a trampoline!  It would definitely be easier to be home with Cora all day in the this house – more places to play, more ways to change the scenery, less worry about our noise bugging others, and less likely to be a frustration to Ryan while he’s trying to work. Another benefit is that for now, the owner is leaving his kayak and wind surfing board in the garage, and has given us permission to use them.  Cool stuff!  Working directly with the owner will save us some real estate commissions, which is a nice benefit, and he’s willing to leave the utilities in his name and just let us know what we owe for them when the bills come, which seems simpler than the alternative.

From the big house, you can walk on a somewhat scrabbly path down to the beach in about 10-15 minutes, and you can walk to the school in La Herradura in 20-25.  Or you can take the road and the walks are about 10 minutes longer (unless we can find a few more staircases that cut off some of the turns).  I visited the school before we saw the house, and liked it quite a bit.  I was encouraged that they also have a Spanish tutor to help my kids learn the language just like the school in Almuñécar, and the classes are small (about 16-17 kids each).  They have students from 27 different countries there.  There is a huge gated playground very nearby the school where I could play with Cora for a bit after dropping the kids off, and there is a soccer field right on the beach (a paved, enclosed soccer area) where I assume the kids would often play after school.  The town is small, has fewer options for shopping, and only one beach, but does have a branch of our local bank, some restaurants, and some small supermarkets.  The people are all very friendly, and I ran into people on Saturday that I met on Friday who recognized me and greeted me in the street!

Cons

The rent for this house costs as much as our home in Virginia, which means we’ll have to budget more carefully to achieve our travel goals.  I have run some numbers, and I think we can still do it, but it will take more cost-conscious planning than living in the other place would.  Thankfully, other expenses will be lower for us than they are in the states, including food, cell phones, and car costs (we’ll only get one, and won’t have any commute). Aside from the cost, a few other little things would be less convenient living at the big house: the garage is below the property, down the hill really, and only has a manual door, and is accessible only via outside stairways to get up to the house. That means going anywhere in the car with the kids will be a bit of a pain – we’ll have to get everybody down two outdoor staircases, and there will be no more simply saying “kids, go get in the car, I’ll be right there.”  There is no clothes dryer, and if we installed one, it could not fit in the laundry room.  We’d have to put it in the boiler room off the kitchen (which still would be better than hanging all the laundry for 7 people to dry!).  Also, the house is mostly furnished, but not fully equipped – meaning we’ll need to buy a few pieces of furniture (master bedroom bed, desk and chair for office), pots and pans for the kitchen, and probably some other miscellaneous items like towels and linens (though he does have some there we can use), and cleaning tools.  He did offer to help with the missing furniture, but since we don’t have a contract yet, I’m not sure if that means he’ll buy it for us, or give us some money towards the purchase.  So there are some start-up expenses (but also the fun of picking things out).

The other significant con about the big house is that the town we can walk to is really a tiny town, more like a suburb.  Though I hear the community has all the kid activities we would want, and we could walk to meet our basic shopping and dining out needs, we would need to drive to Almuñécar for the big grocery store, and also to church.  This is a somewhat difficult item to evaluate – an intangible unknown about what life might be like.  Would we feel like town is a little too tranquilo? I love being close to town in Almuñécar where we are now, and I worry that we might feel a little isolated in La Herradura, but it could be that I’m just more familiar with Almuñécar.  Perhaps once we got to know La Herradura, I would have the same fondness for it, and be glad for what it offers?  Another concern is that the area has more expats, so we may be less likely to make Spanish friends in that neighborhood/side of town.  I love the idea of having some english-speaking friends, but our main goal here is to be speaking Spanish.  The kids will be speaking Spanish in school, and making friends there, and hopefully we can make friends with the parents. Could we invite people over, and would they come? I do not think that neighborhood has many (or any?) kids in it that we’d just run into on the street, so we may have to work for friendships in a different way. And finally, because this is a more upscale neighborhood, I worry a little about being like an “elite” member of the community, which might make it more difficult to make friends, as well.

So those are our two options.  Which would you choose?  We will decide soon, because we need a rental contract before we can go get our residence cards, and that must be done within 30 days of our arrival!  Let me know what you think!

 

Fun Facts and Random Oddities

On By laurasuzyIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Here is a list of little things that are different and interesting:

There is a very confused rooster somewhere on this hill that crows all day long.

Most days we have slept until 9 or 9:30am instead of the usual 7am!

You can’t open any of the doors to the house from the outside because there are no handles.  Even the front door can only be opened with a key.

We park on the roof of our house.

All the bathrooms have bidets, but their location in the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms is swapped, making choosing the correct receptacle in the middle of the night a bit of a challenge.

I saw a grasshopper as big as the ones I dissected in high school!  At first I thought it was a defective hummingbird.

Guardrails, even on the most steep of mountain switchbacks, are apparently optional here.  (Yikes!)

The first thing we smelled when we walked out on the patio was jasmine.  Glorious!

Trash is collected daily after 8 pm.

We measured the grade of the hill you go up to get to our house.  It is 25 degrees in many places!!

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.

     

    Visas Approved!

    On By laurasuzyIn Preparing to MoveLeave a comment

     I can’t believe it! Just 16 days after we applied, we found out our visas have been approved.  Ryan got an email back from the consulate that I did not see, so he planned a fun way to surprise me with the news. As you can see in the photo above, it involved mustaches, red flowers, and the closest thing he could find to a Spanish hat at party store (Mexican sombrero will have to do)!  When he got home from work, he called all of the kids to him and then had them come into the kitchen where I was making dinner, each singing, one word at a time “our visas were approved!”  It was a super fun and memorable way to find out!
    So now… The adventure REALLY begins!!  We hope to travel in two months, and there is a lot to do before we go.

    Why Do We Want to Go to Spain?

    On By laurasuzyIn Research and Planning1 Comment

    When I tell people we might be moving to Spain, I often get questions like “is your husband in the military?”  About half of the people we tell say “Why on Earth would you want to do THAT?” and about half say “Oh, what a marvelous adventure!  You will love it!” I guess it makes more sense to move for a job than as a family choice, and many people are surprised that we want to move to Spain!  Why would we leave our family and friends, and all the comforts of life in America, to go to Europe?  It’s such a big change, so it is important for us to know what we hope to get out of the experience.

    1. Family Study Abroad: Bilingual Kids and Parents!  First and foremost, we think of this as a “family study abroad” adventure.  Ryan and I both speak some Spanish, and have always wanted to live in Europe while the kids were young enough to learn the language easily.  We believe there is a major life benefit from being bilingual and  culturally aware, and we really want that for our kids.  Our kids are currently ages 10, 10, 7, 5 and 1, so now is the time!  Too much older, and it will be more difficult for them.  Plus, if we go for a couple of years now, we can come back to the USA for high school (or perhaps a dual enrollment homeschool high school/college plan that will practically get them an associates degree before they graduate from high school).
    2. Travel and Cultural Enrichment:   We have been homeschooling our kids from the beginning, and I have really enjoyed learning history for the first time in my life. It was always my least favorite subject when I was in school.  I’m excited about seeing some of the places we have studied (and many that we haven’t) together with the kids, and enjoying some world travel with greater understanding and also through the fresh eyes of our children.  We also really want the kids to experience how much diversity there is in the world, to better understand that not everybody lives or thinks like Americans, and to appreciate and respect the differences.
    3. Simpler and Slower Pace of Life: We live in northern VA, and life here is very fast paced, full of stress, with too many activities, and too much stuff.  We like the idea that the forcing function of an international move will cause us to really evaluate all of our stuff and activities, and determine what we really need.  We want to be intentional about what we keep in our home and our schedules. Spain is known for being a laid-back, relaxed sort of place, so we’ll see if that holds true for us there!
    4. Support the Kingdom Work of Christian Believers in Spain:  We have not been called to go to Spain as missionaries, but we do have a heart for the spiritual health of the Spanish people (and everybody else, really!).  Spain has a centuries-old Catholic tradition, but many Spaniards don’t understand or don’t care about the gospel, and so find no joy, hope or comfort in the love of Christ.  Sadly, faith has fallen by the wayside and many of the present-day impacts of the Church on Spain are purely cultural, devoid of any connection back to God.  Thankfully, over the past 20 years since I studied in Seville in college, many evangelical churches have been planted in Spain, and people are seeing and hearing the good news of Christ’s redemption in a fresh new way.  We want to support the efforts of the local Christian church there, and we hope to show the people we meet the love of Christ and the truth of His plan.

    Those the primary reasons we want to go.  I should throw in that I also look forward to living in a warm climate between the beach and the mountains, having a little more personal time while the kids are school, the personal challenge of regaining my Spanish fluency, and the family closeness that I think this adventure will engender.

    We recognize that some of the changes we want to make we could make here.  We could move to a smaller home in the US, get rid of a lot of our stuff, cut out some of our activities, and simplify our lives.  We could send our kids to public school here (gulp!), or even try to find some sort of bilingual immersion program for them.  But to learn it through daily life interactions while we see and live in places that are thousands of years old?  How cool is that?!  To be that much closer to so many great travel destinations?  To enjoy a climate where we don’t need heat or air conditioning most of year?  Sounds great to us.  We’re ready for the adventure!