We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Fête etc etc....

I haven't had the space to blog.
I am sure I could carve out the time but when I put my foot on the gas I realize the tank is empty.
Closed for the day...every day.

To catch you up...

November 2013 (wasn't that yesterday?)
We packed up our entire life and moved from our favorite place in the world, Louisville, KY, back to our roots, Texas.
We were so blessed to be able to live with family while we waited for apartment approvals and visas to come through.  This ended up taking four or so months longer than expected.  (SO thankful for those generous in laws that housed us that entire time!)  This was a sweet season for us to have extended time with both sides of the family (Texas Our Texas....), friends from childhood and college.  It was especially wonderful for Stella, and for us to watch her really bond with our family (she usually sees them 2-3 times a year for a few days each).  I would not trade those months.

March 2014: The Big Move
We finally nailed down an apartment and finalized our Visas and hopped onto a plane and the next thing we knew our lives were permanently changed.
With in a week SJ started public school at the maternelle (like preschool but public... all children start the year they turn 3 and have 3 years in maternelle before going into first grade at 6yo).
With in the month Drew and I were also in school and Drew was back at work (from home) and we were figuring out how and where to get groceries and sheets and lamps etc.
It was a beautiful time.
Everything was exciting and fresh and new.
All of God's timing and work seemed to clear and so right and we felt safe with Him as our guide.

It was also hard... mostly for SJ, which in turn was hard for our parental hearts.  She did not adjust well to school (read: cried every.single.day) and making friends is quite hard for her even in the states.
Then came summer, the end of school and the beginning of "The Sickness".
I can laugh about it now but it didn't seem super funny then.
We all seemed to get the "ick".  Where you just don't feel right and you don't know why.  Mild stomach issues for weeks and weeks,  severe stomach viruses and strange fever episodes and "the.rash"... the head to toe, doctor stumping, 10-week-long rash that mysteriously took over every waking hour.. which was every hour, b/c sleep could not tolerate such itching.

Consider the honeymoon cancelled. over. terminated.

In all honesty, even though it was really rough, we still managed to have a pretty good summer and truth be told, still loved France and our new city.
The fall was full of re-entry: back to working overtime, back to daily school for me and SJ and back to trying to parent the introverted english-only tantruming child.
Add to that VISITORS!
We had so many wonderful visitors in the fall, it was refreshing and draining.  Prepping for the arrival of, then hosting in the midst of struggling through our own culture shock and daily duties, then the goodbyes and trying to re-find "normal" and help our child to do the same.
Our family discovered that we do best with routine... our family also discovered routine is not to be found in living a cross-cultural life.
And with a skip, a hop and a nap... it's CHRISTMAS and we've been here 9 months!
(Pregnancy was truly easier. )

Hence the hiatus on the blog.
After rallying the troops in the morning and getting SJ safely into her class and then walking down hill to my class (breaking my head open with French) and then up hill to get SJ again, lunch prep, back to school for Stella, walk to the grocery, figure out French groceries and lug it back, head to pick up SJ, make it home, get dinner ready and get child in bed... my brain is blank.
A blinking cursor with nowhere to go.

Also, I HATE to sound like a complainer... and sometimes at the end of a long day that's all I have left.  But don't you feel like that too some days?  Even in the states life gets HARD or dark or busy and some times at the end of it all you just need some one to decompress with who knows that all of the hard and dark and busy doesn't cancel out the answered prayer, the joy, the victories!

So if you've made it to the end, whew, you are a champion.
I'm hoping as this new year rings in to decompress a little here.  Join me if you are so inclined.  There will be exhausted rants and there will be stories of joy.
That's how all true stories go.