First Update from France!

I’m finally sitting down to write a quick update because I’m finally letting go of it being perfect. I’ve been working on this post in my head, and it included well-written short stories, and nice pictures to go along with it. I’ve even started it a few times. Sigh. Instead, here is my heart-felt rambling about our first week and a half in France!...

We are living on the eastern boarder of France, just a couple of hours drive from Geneva, Switzerland. The views surrounding our home for the next 10 months are breathtakingly beautiful!! The small town of Albertville is surrounded by mountains on every side. These mountains are the base of the Swiss Alps, and are triple the size of the lovely mountains that surrounded us in Cameroon. We have yet to explore the mountains, as our first days here have been incredibly full. Also we haven’t discovered how to hike very far with all four littles yet…

The travel here went quite smoothly overall, and this was by far our best experience with handling jet lag. On the recommendation of several friends, we gave the boys a small dose of melatonin at bedtime each night during our first week here. It worked like a miracle! The boys slept through the nights and were up during the days right away. Anina struggled a bit more, but adjusted within a week. Though tired, Jason and I got through the first week well. We have truly been feeling the prayers being poured out on our behalf!

We arrived to our new home on a Tuesday evening, and were immediately pleased (and surprised) with our lovely apartment. We have a set of french doors in our living room that open up to a small porch overlooking one of the town’s main roads. There is another (tiny) porch out the back kitchen door that has an amazing view of the mountains. Every room in the house has a window, and we are located right across the street from a nice little park. We have three bedrooms, and the entire house is well-furnished. Our school, and the boys’ school, are only about a 5-10 minute walk away. We are feeling incredibly thankful, blessed, and spoiled by our new accommodations!

These past 12 days have been full of settling into our house, trying to find our way around town, our whole family starting school, and just trying to figure out life here. There have been a lot of ups and downs in just a short week and a half…

Highlights:

·      The food here is amazing, and we have tons of lovely restaurants within close walking distance.

·      The weather has been gorgeous so far! Some rainy days, but mixed with sun, and perfect temperatures.

·      We’ve been able to buy some quality bicycles, along with a bike trailer, and baby seat. We are excited for some family bike rides around this beautiful town, and for a quicker way to get groceries when needed.

·      We found some nice porch furniture so we could better use our porch, and have also been able to (fairly) easily find everything we need for organization and life here.

·      We’ve already met a local couple that we are hoping to build a friendship with. They run a little clothing shop just a couple doors down from our apartment.

·      Everyone at the language school has been very friendly and welcoming. There are a lot of other families with young children as well, so we are not at all alone in this crazy endeavor.

·      The boys’ school has also been very kind and welcoming to our children! Nathaniel and Zeke are doing an incredible job acclimating to all of the changes, and already love going to school each day.

·      Nathaniel was placed in the equivalent to ‘first grade’ here because of his age, even though we didn’t fully complete a kindergarten year before leaving the States. However, he is adjusting well, and has two hours a day of just french study, along with the other non-french speaking students. The rest of the day he is in with his regular class. He can already count to 10 in french, say some of the french alphabet and vowels, and is occasionally correcting my pronunciation of the few words I’ve learned thus far.

·      Ezekiel has grown by leaps and bounds this year. This past spring he was quite nervous to go into a new Sunday School class, and would still sometimes cry and cling to us. Yet on Monday, he walked right into his first day of pre-K in France with bravery and excitement. We are so inspired and impressed by this strong boy, and the “strength of God” in him (as his name means).  

·      Jason and I have only had two days of class so far – last week was a lot of orientation and introduction. However, it seems like the school has a lot of experience and expertise in french language learning, and we are SO thankful and excited for this opportunity!

Challenges:

·      Trying to figure out how to get groceries, stock our kitchen, buy needed supplies for home and school, and get around town when we speak NO french, has been quite a challenge. Furthermore…

·      Trying to get said groceries and supplies without a car has presented its own challenges. We are trying to learn to do things the ‘European’ way, and only buy small bits of food and household supplies at a time, but with four growing children, it feels like we need to go to a store constantly.

·      I (Meridith) have been battling persistent plantar fasciitis in my left foot for over 6 months, and all the walking here has increased my pain. My hip / back is still healing from my pregnancy with Anina, and adding this foot and heel pain has been incredibly frustrating for me. I’ve seen a podiatrist in the States, bought all new shoes, and am continuing to do a lot of stretching exercises. Appreciate prayer for both patience and healing!

·      Just a few days after arrival, I dropped my phone on our tile floor and cracked the screen (in spite of my ‘life proof’ case…). I know, I’m quite impressive. Hoping to get it fixed this week!

·      Our energetic Titus has been placed in the preschool at the boys’ school, instead of in the nursery at our school with Anina. The primary challenge with this is that he is required to be potty-trained. So… we have been working on potty training him this week in the midst of everything else! He is actually doing quite well with it overall, but has only been at the preschool for half days this week. If he’s not able to potty train by next week, and handle the preschool schedule, then he will transfer to the nursery instead. Time will tell… Appreciate prayer for our little man, and for God to guide us all in which place is best for him.

·      We’ve been told this week that the pace of learning at our school is quite fast. That said, there will need to be a lot of independent study and practice in addition to class time. Although expected, I’ve been overwhelmed by this reality the past couple days. Finding time to study each day, in the midst of our current life season, is just hard. Appreciate prayer for wisdom, creativity, energy, and perseverance in this!

There is SO much more that I could share and say, but I need to get ready for bed now, as tomorrow is Monday and our first full week of classes. The summary of all this is that I am feeling grateful, overwhelmed, excited, scared, and unsure of how in the world we are going to manage this life over the next 10 months. But God is reminding me today that I can’t do one single thing without HIM. HE is our Rock, and Sustainer. HE is ALL we need. I have to learn again and again – literally every single day – to lean into Him in surrender. It’s the only place I find peace. His Spirit is the only life I have. So I’m learning again today to stop running after balance, perfection, rest, energy, achievement… and to instead run as hard and fast as I can to GOD.  

Thank you all for your notes, prayers, encouragement, and understanding!! We are SO thankful for this incredible team we have in YOU!!

Much love,

    Meridith (for Jason and the kids too!)

p.s. For people who are wanting to know about how to best communicate with us -- you can email, text our US phone numbers and they will forward to us through google-voice (starting tomorrow), or use 'WhatsApp' (search under our name and US phone number).