Monday, March 21, 2011

...just an update

Hi.
It's been a while, I know. So, I just thought I'd give you all a little update on what's been going on up here!
I guess we are mostly settled (after 5 months), but I've been surprised at how hard this transition has been! I thought (and told some of you) that my family loves change and is quite adaptable...I guess I was going off of the 2 previous moves that we made. The first when I was pregnant with my first child (technically he didn't make that move since his little womb-room moved with him). And the second (we moved from East Vancouver to West Vancouver) when my oldest two were 2 and 3 years old. Yeah. Transition was super easy back then. But, we all love change (for the most part), so that's what I was going off of. What I've been in the process of discovering, though? Transition is very different when you yoink your kids out of school, decide to start homeschooling a 4th, 6th and 7th grader (this was a decision made from circumstances and convenience, by the way...not a huge life conviction. Just in case you were wondering.) and discover that you are now totally responsible for their educational, emotional, physical and social well being!
I have come to realize that nothing can break your heart like your own children. I'm not really an overly emotional person, (I get stressed out and have laughing attacks) but I have found myself crying more in the last 5 months than I probably have in our 14 years of marriage. It's one thing to feel lonely. It is quite another to see your children struggle through it, to feel responsible for it and at the same time helpless to do anything about it! It's been hard and it's been lonely...for all of us.
HOWEVER!! There is a light at the end of this gloomy thought. As I mentioned earlier, we are settling in. We are adjusting! We now know where to grocery shop and where to find stuff. And we are having fun exploring the fun stuff around Seattle. My kiddos have slowly started making some friends, but it is such a process! It makes me realize how I had taken the friendships that they have had since baby-hood for granted. And, I'm not going to lie. They are going to a public school for homeschooled kids and there are a LOT of super dorky kids there. Picture a homeschooled kid...high water jeans, dirty, orthotics-looking white tennis shoes, messy hair...Yep. That's what the majority of them look like. I came out of the shower one morning and heard my boys fighting...and that was the insult of choice. One was crying because the other one said "you look like a homeschool kid". To which I told them. "You all look like homeschool kids! You are all being homeschooled right now!" Anyways. I know I'm being all superficial right now. Sorry. But, I probably won't erase it. I'm just trying to paint a picture of a bit of the culture shift my kids are dealing with...
Anywho, Hannah was so excited when she came home from painting one day and told us that a girl there had invited her to her youth group! (And, I can't even tell you how relieved I felt!!) Zeke has met friends in musical theater (which, I'm not going to lie...scares me a little), and EJ gets to beat up a kid with a mullet (bordering on "skullet") in Martial Arts (just kidding...he doesn't beat him up. He just kicks and "HiYAH!"'s on him)...Over all, though, I think having a regular schedule and the opportunities to connect with other kids, no matter how different from us, has helped them feel settled and hopeful. They are such happy little people...really.

So, now that we are somewhat settled, I DID end up getting what we call my "moving" strep. It's a strep throat I seem to get only when we move! But, this time it was kind of a blessing! I mean, it super sucked having strep and a super high fever and all of that, but there were some great things that came out of it. First of all, we may have found a DR. (or at least a clinic) that we thought was pretty great! And that ALSO makes us feel a little more settled. Second of all, when I went in to get checked out for strep, they discovered that I was anemic. I guess it was pretty bad (according to the nurse...my numbers were horrible and I didn't even have stored iron. I guess usually you have backup iron?) Anywho, it was bad. Now...a month later. I am so surprised at how many symptoms I had that were "lack-of-iron" related! I won't go into all of the details (as it's pretty boring), but I would have never guessed that dizziness, confusion, depression or a weird heartbeat would be related to iron...but it was! I had been thinking that I was feeling depressed or tired because of the transition! (seriously, there were a lot of mornings where I struggled to even get out of bed) And I thought dizziness and a weird heartbeat were because of high blood pressure or something...oops. And confusion, well...we'll see if that's any better next Costco or Winco trip. OH! And the biggie. I was always crunching ice AND I wanted to lick the sidewalks or eat dirt. Turns out, they're all symptoms of an iron deficiency! (Which is good because I was starting to scheme about how I could sneak a couple nibbles of dirt here and there...seriously. I had a craving.) And one more bonus...since taking iron, I've shaved almost 2 minutes per mile off of my running time! So, yeah. I am grateful for that little bout with strep. Because in the long run, it seems to have turned things around for all of us.
We really are hopeful for the future. We really like where we are living and are excited to explore more of it in the Spring and Summer! As for what is happening with planting the church...we're going to need a whole new blog. Stay tuned!



3 comments:

  1. Oh man. You're singin' our song...that about sums up our experience when we moved here, with slight variations.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fun to hear what's going on with you guys. I just told Steve a few days ago "I really miss Kristen and Micah". You guys will always be felt around here. I'm so happy you are feeling excited about your future and more settled. Hug those kids for me. I miss them, really I do. They are such great littleish/medium people.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's really hard to avoid missing you guys while reading this blog. Thanks for sharing what's going on =^)

    ReplyDelete