It's just two weeks until we move our family to Mexico. So crazy! The last couple weeks have been tough, and I'm sure that the next couple weeks will be as well. I'm trying to be diligent to record the whole process, but time is so limited. This post is my best attempt, but it's going to be a bit disjointed and (gasp!) have unedited pictures, but it's the best I have for the moment.
We are busy! So busy! Most days we have at least two things on the calendar. Most often these things are final visits with friends before leaving. We're so thankful for these visits; however, it sure is emotionally exhausting saying goodbye over and over again! I'm trying to be diligent to take pictures during all these gatherings, so that when we get to Monterrey we will have current pictures of our kids with those we love and miss. I've already bought the frames for a gallery wall in the boys' room in our new apartment! (It's fun to look forward to decorating a new place!) It will be a wall of friends.
Part of our busyness has been Levi's senior year of basketball at Columbia Christian. We've been watching as many games as possible, and now will head to Pendleton for the State Tournament at the end of the week. The boys adore their Uncle Levi and LIVE for playing on the court after his games.
With cousin Ellie after the District Championship game
Columbia crowd sings a short hymn after each home game. It's really special.
The bond between these two brothers is pretty amazing.
Look at this slew of boy cousins after one of Levi's games:
Jaiven, Mason, Titus, Seth, Sam, Judah, and Josh
Ben has been doing language tutoring for two hours a day, five days a week. He is progressing quickly as he is really good at languages! The boys and I have been trying to drive into Portland twice a week for our language classes. It hasn't been terribly smooth: it takes a three hour chunk out of our day and half the time I've had Josh with me. Having a three year old in the room while you're trying to learn a foreign language is so difficult. Now that we're so close to leaving I'm throwing in the towel of having the twins go to class; I'd rather have them hanging out with friends or grandparents for these last two weeks. We'll have plenty of time for language classes in Monterrey, as our initial days won't be packed with friends.
We're progressing well on our "things to do before we leave" list. We have people scheduled to live in our house for the first six months that we are gone, which is such an amazing answer to prayer. The "house instruction" binder is typed up. We got yard maintenance scheduled, bills changed to online, closets cleaned out, address changed. Duplicate keys have been passed out, lock box placed, and friends and neighbors set to help out at the house while we're gone. We're so thankful for the community around us.
Doctor check-ups for all the boys
Keeping Josh busy while the big boys have eye appointments. No glasses for Seth and Sam yet!
One of the greatest pieces of news is that we found a new home for Rosey! A retired couple who have been wanting a dog did a trial night with Rosey this past week and loved her. The boys got to see the house that she'll be living at and were all very pleased. They keep saying, "Rosey will be happy here." We haven't officially passed her off yet, and I know that the final parting will still be teary and difficult, but we're so thankful that she has a pleasant home to live at!
As this past month has been really rainy here in the Portland area (I heard record numbers), we have been dreaming about sunny days in Monterrey. We're really looking forward to the change!
Daily, my (and I think all of our families') emotions are all over the board. One minute I just want to move and get it all over with. The next I'm dreading moving away from the familiar: the people and home that I love. We've been having lots of conversations about the benefits of moving to a foreign country...and these are great, as they remind us of the core of why we're doing this crazy move. We're also having lots of sad conversations about what we will miss. I'm pretty sure that I've teared up every day in the last week just thinking about things and people that I will miss. Sometimes I feel brave and assured that this is the right thing to do and that the two to three years will pass by in a blink of an eye. Other times I feel scared, sad and guilty for leaving loved ones behind.
The kids are doing pretty good. We're doing minimal school (maybe some math and reading each day). Josh has been kind of a stinker, and I think it's the transition that he's feeling. It's been tough as we've been so busy not only with visiting friends, but also with projects at home. Ben has the week off and has been working really hard at handyman projects around the house. It's been wonderful for me to have the help, but difficult for the kids as they aren't getting as much play time with daddy. The twins were sad about it this afternoon, and I tried to remind them that "daddy will have much more time in Monterrey as he won't have any house projects to do." Seth's reply was, "But then we won't being playing HERE in our HOME." It kind of broke my heart.
Not much school going on means plenty of time for play!
Last week, two of three kids had sinus infections (that was Tuesday). Then Friday, we're pretty sure that Sam broke his pinky toe playing basketball barefoot in the entry way (because everyone has an indoor basketball hoop, right?). Sam was screaming because of his toe, and Seth had tears going down his cheeks because they couldn't finish their basketball game. You see, they are kind of on a time crunch because they have a lot of games to play. They created an entire 24 team basketball bracket, with all made-up teams, mascots, records, rankings, etc. and want to play all the games before we leave. They had me make a copy for each member of our family so that everyone could fill it out and now they are playing each game on the bracket and highlighting the winners. It's keeping them quite busy and Sam is diligently still playing the games with a bruised and swollen toe (it's taped to the toe next to it, so he can walk on it).
My parents came up the last week in January and my mom helped me tackle some closet organizing. The boys always have so much fun with my parents!
We celebrated another birthday with Grandma Luscombe.
We visited our twin friends Mason and Micah...it's so fascinating seeing two sets of identical twins together, especially when they all have such similar looks!
We spent the afternoon out at Aunt Tani's with all the Elliot cousins. It was so fun!
Seth made friends with a black baby bunny and named him Jack.
Josh wasn't too sure of the bunnies.
Sammy and his baby bunny; cousin Melita and her newest little sweetie, Madison
Jaiven and Joshy practiced driving the tractor
I can't believe that I got them both to smile at once
We went down to Woodburn and Celebrated Aidah's birthday at my sisters. Such a fun evening!
Nothing but trouble with these two
In fact, later in the evening as they were scooting a chair across the kitchen floor, they may or may not have bashed a hole in the dry wall. Crazy boys!
This is the famous "cousin hug" (Josh and Edmund are squished in the middle
Celebrating Caleb's 20th birthday at Buffalo Wild Wings
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