Skype Us!

Faith and I have been using a program called Skype for several years. You can download it for free here. If you've never heard of it, Skype allows you to talk to other Skype users for free - similar to how instant messaging works, only you can talk via your computer instead of just type. Additionally, if you have a web-cam, you can talk with with live video. This has been fantastic to help us keep connected to our families back in the states. It's great that the kids get to see their grandparents and cousins when we talk. It helps us feel like we're not as far away as we are. In addition to offering free computer-to-computer phone connections for Skype users, you can also purchase minutes and call regular cell or land lines. It's usually very cheap (think 2 cents a minute), and has also been indispensable for us as we have to do business in the states.

At any rate, Faith and I heartily recommend this free (or cheap) service. If you decide to join up with Skype, or already a member, let Faith and I know - we'll get your our Skype ID info so we can catch up.

More Potter?

Leave it to me to post about a cultural event long after it was actually popular to discuss it. If you did not already know, I happen to be a Harry Potter fan. Although I came to it late in the game, reading the first 6 books over a one month period in 2006. They have not eclipsed the Lord of the Rings trilogy as my favorite novels, but I did enjoy reading the seventh book and talking it over with Faith, and other friends who liked the books.

For those of you who like Harry Potter, I provide a link to an article by Alan Jacobs, a lit prof at Wheaton College. I have enjoyed reading his thoughts on Harry for a couple of years. Enjoy.

Coruña, Torre de Hercules, and some pretty big waves.

Over our Christmas break from schools, we spent one afternoon at one of our favorite scenic spots here in Coruña. It was dusk, and the waves were really big on a mostly overcast day. The evening produced some really fun pictures I wanted to share. If you read Faith's blog you've already seen at least a few (if not all) of these. I like these pictures not only because of the memories they bring up for me, but because they also show that Galicia retains a sense of beauty even on the grey, windy, and cold days. I don't know if I ever thought that of most places I've lived before.

I love this picture above, because it really gives you a good idea of the force with which these big waves were hitting the rocky coast. Those two guys you see standing in front of the big sculpure were probably 15 feet above the place where the waves hit. It was pretty awesome in the true definition of the word.

This picture is a little grainy, but I love the subtle coloring of the dusk sky against the dark green grass, with the well lit lighthouse at the center of it all.

This picture gives you a little more perspective of the point that the lighthouse is on.

Missions where you are.

Faith and I are following in the steps of our friend Matt, who blazed a trail to Galicia years before we arrived. He and his family have since returned to the states. We would not be where we are today if it were not for his family's faithful journey to live and minister in Santiago for six years. His wisdom and help have been a very significant part of our journey. I introduce him to explain why I'm posting this link. He has a blog that I enjoy reading, and is one source for some things I re-post here.

The link above is a thought that really struck me. When we were in the Chicago burbs for 8 years we had the joy of meeting folks of many different nationalities and backgrounds. It was a great blessing to live in such a large metropolitan area. It's not just the cities anymore - the burbs have plenty of immigrants. If you take the time to get to know some of them it is incredibly rewarding, and can really help expand your view of the world outside of the US. His post got me thinking about how much more I might have been able to do had I lived more purposefully in regards to reaching out to immigrants in my area.

Not that we don't have that same opportunity here. We rub shoulders with as many immigrants here as locals at the moment. Faith especially has been connecting with a few immigrant women here. One Brazilian woman has a child at the same school as Brennan - she lived in New Jersey for 8 years, and now lives here. Faith has also connected with a group for immigrant women through the local Red Cross. My daily Spanish class is also populated completely by foreigners (of course!). On the whole it is fun, and interesting. It can also be both funny and frustrating to communicate with classmates where our only shared language is our limited Spanish skills.

Attack of the 'Stache

It's high time the world gets a chance to see my beautiful chin. Even though mullets are a HUGE fashion trend among the youth in Spain (the more creative the better - and I never knew how creative you could be with a mullet!), it seems to me I must be missing a little redneck aesthetic since moving here. At any rate - my standard goat had been pretty long for a while, and I playfully decided to go for something a little off the beaten path. Apparently, it is harder to take me seriously this way, and I now get kissed considerably less than I did before. So, as it appears this brilliant work of art is a limited time offer, I thought it'd be important to document and share the moment.

A year in pictures

I toyed with creating several different photo albums to post, but opted with one monster album encompassing all of 2007. Don't worry, I culled more than 2,000 pictures down to 88 of the very best. They are not in chronological order - but if you made it through my last marathon of a blog, you'll have a good idea when most of these were taken.

Click on the slideshow to be taken to Picasa to view larger versions of the pictures.

How was your year?

Here is a not so short list of milestones from 2007:

- Support raising trip to Colorado in early January. Lots of snow, sub-zero temps, high winds, beautiful landscapes and warm people.
- Birth of our third child Kathryn on March 21. Followed by the requisite recovery time from the c-section, visit from families and friends, etc.
- Preparing our town house for sale in May. Living with some good friends off and on for 6 weeks waiting for our town house to sell. Selling the house in July (closed in August).
-Packing up our house. Determining what to keep, what to send to Spain, and where to put it all in the meantime.
- Driving cross-country July 24 with the kids to Washington DC to spend our remaining time in the States with Faith's parents.
- Faith and I driving to Chicago and back to DC in 3 days to pick up our visas and finish all business in Chicago.
- Depart DC September 3rd
- Arrive in Coruña September 4th. Learn to drive stick shift immediately. Begin looking for a home immediately after checking into a hotel.
- Move into our new apartment September 19th. In that time we opened a bank account, applied for our legal permission to live here, registered the kids for school, met our new church community, and even found time to visit a zoo.
- October 1 - begin two-week intensive course for missionaries in Galicia, conducted entirely in Spanish (and some in Gallego). During this course our church was shut down by the local police and it remained closed for 3 weeks. We had worship outside for three straight Sundays.
- Mid-October, register for and start my Spanish class 2 weeks after classes started.
- Late October - host our first visitors - A college friend stopped by while traveling the world, and Faith's parents stopped by for a week on their way to Romania for a short-term missions trip.
- November 8 - my Grandfather died after a long 3-year battle with cancer. I was not able to return in time for the funeral on the 10th.
- The rest of November we attended an all church retreat with our new church, and hosted some leaders from International teams. Celebrated thanksgiving with other missionaries here in Coruña.
- By the first week of December things felt fairly normal. We were as busy as we had ever been, but the busy-ness felt normal. We finally seemed to hit a schedule and a rhythm to our life. This abruptly came to an end when several things happened seemingly at once.
- December 5th - I had my first significant test for my spanish course
- December 9th - our shipment from the states (40 items - mostly boxes of clothes, kitchen stuff, toys, books, etc) finally arrived. Nearly 2 months after we expected them. This re-ignited some chaos into our little apartment that we are just now nearly finished unpacking. Nearly.
- We also spent more time preparing for Christmas here than I remember doing in the US. We bought a tree and decorations for our house. We tried in vain to plan ahead with our shopping in an unsuccessful attempt to get gifts sent back to the states in time for Christmas. We did a healthy amount of shopping for the boys to help make their first Christmas in Spain a special one.
- We are thoroughly enjoying the 2 week break the boys and I have from our schooling. It feels like the first time in a very long time that we've had an extended period of time together as a family to simply be. Time to exhale, relax, and enjoy time off, and time together.

The Lord has clearly been good to us this year. He has always provided for our needs, but that fact stands out a little more for us this year than in years past. It's crazy for us to think back about how much we've been through this year. It's almost hard to believe.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!! May the Lord continue to provide you joy in 2008.

Two-thousand Eight-hundred and Thirty-one

This is the first (quality) picture we have from 2007: Pike's peak from my uncle's back yard outside Colorado Springs.

Today Faith and I looked through the pictures we took in 2007. It's hard to describe our year, much less describe looking at a pictorial history of that year. In one sense it seems like it was a really long year when we look back at a trip we took to Colorado in early January, because it seems like it was SO long ago. From here it almost feels like it was another lifetime, almost like looking back onto a previous life from another dimension. On the other hand, the year seems to have flown by to consider the ground we covered, both figuratively and literally.

I started to write a short time line of our 2007 - it's not that short, and would distract from the point of this post. Look for it in a post to come soon : - )

I did the math after our time viewing pictures, and by my non-scientific calculation we took somewhere in the ballpark of 2,831 pictures on the year. I'm not sure about you, but even in our family that is astounding. That doesn't count all the pictures we've accumulated from others (parents, etc). Obviously, not all of those pictures are keepers, and many have been deleted. Nonetheless, I still have 1,887 pictures in my 2007 folder.

I've shared a few of those pictures on this blog over the last several months. I'm going to try to put quite a few more out there in the days to come, before we get back into the regular routines of our lives here. Stay tuned.This is the last (quality) picture taken in 2007. Brennan and Ryan at a castle about 45 minutes drive away.