POLAND 365 :: WEEK 10

March 4-Both of our older two kids attend Polish speaking
schools. Isaac's is more of a day care type school and they
do fun preschool type activities. Karis' school includes
different subjects such as basic writing letters, religious
education and English class. Of course her main goal at
this point is trying to understand and learn Polish as best
she can. Next year she moves up to class one and that will
allow for the opportunity for her to have a language helper,
but now she is figuring things out as they come. And honestly,
she is doing great picking up on things. When her teacher
sends home notes, it's all in Polish and that leaves us to
figure out what she needs to bring or be prepared for the
next day or week. Sometimes she types the messages,
and that helps, but other times (more often) they are hand
written and it's hard for us to figure it out many times.
With the help of google translate, we make sense of many
of the notes, but there are a lot of times that we just resort to
taking a picture and sending to our language tutor or other
classmate's parents to find out what we need to do!

March 5-A late evening walk around a pond nearby our house to feed the ducks
and ride scooters was just what we needed to wind down for the day. It's a peace-
ful little place and it was fun to watch the kids get so excited about the ducks.
This picture makes me smile because if you look close, you will see Isaac (left)
is holding Olivia (directly in front of him) very tightly because he was very scared
she would fall into the pond. It's fun to see his protective brother self begin to
emerge and I am thankful for the special bond the kids have with each other. 

March 6-Usually we get all ready and go to church on Sunday
mornings, but this particular day, Isaac wasn't feeling so well.
He had started feeling off late Saturday afternoon and we thought
it just might be a little cold. But because he had a low fever we
kept him home from church. Turns out, in the morning as I was
at home with the two littles while Steve and Karis were at church
they were both cranky from being indoors. So what works better
to cure crankiness than a quick walk outside to splash in puddles.
The kids were so happy to do so and when we came back in the
house, it was like they had never gone outside and resorted back to the
cranky attitudes. So I put them both down for naps hoping that
a little rest would help. After looking back on this moment, I think
I had a big "mom fail" moment because little did I know that a few
 hours later I would be taking Isaac to the ER because his symptoms
 had worsened. He was admitted to the hospital that night for
Pneumonia, and thus began one of the craziest weeks
we have had in Poland thus far.

March 7-I spent the first night in the Hospital with Isaac
and Steve the next consecutive nights that Isaac was there.
While the kids were apart, Karis and Olivia missed their
brother and we were thankful to have many FaceTime
calls and sent pictures and text messages (mostly filled
with emojis) back and forth to each other. This was one
such picture that Karis asked me to take and send to Isaac.
It was a verse written in a book (that we got for our kids
when we were in the process of packing up and moving)
and this verse is Joshua 1:9, telling us to be Strong and
courageous for God is with us. She wanted her brother
to remember that verse and tell him that he could be
strong and courageous in the hospital because God
was with him, even there! We are thankful for kids who
are gleaning truth from God's word and it's awesome to
see their hearts begin to be receptive to the Gospel
even in the midst of much change and challenges. 

March 8-Usually we like to celebrate our anniversary in
a different environment than a hospital...but this year we
had no other option. We got an hour together today on our
8th anniversary at the hospital where our son had been
admitted for treatment of his pneumonia. He also had flu
and was on the infectious diseases floor, so we had to wear
masks while we were there to avoid illness ourselves.
Celebrating an anniversary while your son is ill in the
hospital really reminded us of the vows we said to one
another eight years ago, for better or worse...and we
continue to pray for God to sustain us and empower us
with the Holy Spirit in order to have a marriage that
will honor and Glorify Him and also to love and
cherish each other in good times and bad. 

March 9-It seems our week wouldn't let up with  just one sick child, but after
a doctor visit for our oldest and youngest and 10 pharmacy visits  (+ friends
who called others to help find the medicine prescribed)...I came home
with two more sick kids and medicine to hopefully help their bodies
heal quickly before brother would be coming home from the hospital.
At this point in our week, we were on survival mode and living on lots
of TV shows/movies, snuggles and naps. We are thankful for several
friends here who helped in so many ways, in addition to a vast amount
of people who held us up in prayer from afar, we truly felt the peace of
God in our hearts this entire week and couldn't be more grateful for all
the support and encouragement as we walked through this challenging week.

March 10-I missed seeing my buddy the previous day since I was running
around with the girls to and from appointment/pharmacy and home.
So to give Steve some much needed relief away from the hospital and to spend
time with the girls, we swapped spots during the day today. We were told that Isaac
would be released the following day if all continued to go well. Since I was
there during the day, I decided to take a picture of a meal that they serve at
lunch time here. Lunch, usually the larger meal of the day that is served included beets,
potatoes and some type of meatball (I think!) Also served with a soup and something else
(maybe juice I suppose, we didn't try it to find out!) All other meals mostly
consisted of bread with either butter, meat slices or some other type of spread.
Needless to say, our picky eater did not eat much of the hospital food and
we brought in snacks and meals several times so he would actually eat something.
Also, one thing we found to be interesting here and is different than in the States,
they do not bring you water regularly to keep you hydrated. We brought
our own bottles of water to the hospital and gave Isaac water as he needed it.
Overall, the hospital stay was decent and we are thankful for the staff that cared for
him and that we had a doctor who spoke a little English. It was encouraging to
know we could understand some of what nurses would say to us or each other,
it encouraged us that we are indeed learning this language - even if slowly!
Also, it was fun to see Isaac interact with the hospital staff,
he had everyone laughing most of the time once he was feeling better
(keeping true to his nature). Our favorite story of this is when Isaac would walk to the
bathroom, we would tell him to keep his mask on his face and he would hold it up,
covering his eyes and entire face and walk with one hand in front of him acting like
he couldn't see. People always walked by and giggled. We love this little boy! So
much more we could say about our time in the hospital, but that might
have to be another post in itself ;)