Third Culture Kids

A Walk on Good Friday

Family, Holidays, Life in El Salvador, Places to Visit in El Salvador, Third Culture Kids -

Yesterday we took a walk on the streets of Santa Tecla, just outside of San Salvador, to view the beautiful alfombras, meaning “carpets” in English. These are beautiful creations of sawdust and sand that are dyed bright colors and crafted into pictures of Christ’s life and death. They form the “carpet” for the Good Friday processions as they pass on their way to evening services. Different groups, churches, and families sponsor the carpets and they get up early in the morning to create these works of art in the streets. It has become a family tradition for us to enjoy the culture of El Salvador each Good Friday. Here are some pictures from our walk down the street yesterday: The kids and I! Ian checking out the alfombras. Street vendors selling […]

Karate Kids

Family, Third Culture Kids -

This past weekend we had the opportunity to go to Guatemala City for the kids to compete in a karate tournament. I must admit I never saw competitive martial arts coming when we decided to move to El Salvador, but the kids are having an absolute blast. They practiced for hours to get ready for the weekend, and they did great! Ian participated in 5 events, and got 4 trophies and Tori participated in 4 events and got 4 trophies. I love the fact that they are teammates and into the same thing (at least for right now)! They are learning a lot about hard work paying off…and participating in international karate tournaments is pretty cool, isn’t it? The family time away was wonderful too, and the kids loved that […]

Operation Chicken Coop

Family, Life in El Salvador, Our Animals, Third Culture Kids -

I know you have all been on the edge of your seats waiting to hear the latest on my chicken drama.  Well, the chicks are out of the huge dog cage just outside the kitchen door and into their very own chicken coop. I have to give the kids credit. They worked for two afternoons straight helping Jon to construct the little darlings’ home. For those of you who are familiar with chicken-lore, these two little guys are chickens of the “Pollo Indio” variety, and apparently the structure pictured below is what they like to hang out in (at least that’s what we’ve been told by local farmers). One is a boy, and the other is a girl so we should have more chicks in a few months, and lots of fresh eggs. Jon […]

Chickens?????

Family, Life in El Salvador, Our Animals, Third Culture Kids -

When the cat is away, the mice will play…or in my case, when the Mom is away the Dad and kids will add two chickens to our family. That’s right, folks, chickens. “We” have just added Ping-Pong and Jake to the mix. I’m still not quite sure how this happened…they were offered, no one could say no and next thing you know we’ve got chicks. Apparently Jon knows how to deal with them. I, however, do not.  So, I’m off to search for an “urban farming” blog or some such useful resource. In the meantime, take a look at the newest members of our family, the kind of gross and definitely smelly adorable Ping Pong and Jake.

Eight!

Family, Third Culture Kids -

On Monday, Tori turned eight years old. Eight! That seems unbelievably grown up to me. She got to celebrate a few times…once with my parents, then again on the weekend with shrimp tempura at a restaurant (one of her favorite foods), then presents at home on her birthday morning, an Angry Birds pizza party at school with her classmates, a serenade at karate class, and then pupusas and ice cream cake to finish the day off. Whew! That’s a lot of birthday, but she loved every minute of it! I know every parent is proud of their kid, but we are especially proud of how our 8 year old handles her life…friends, school, two languages, involved in our work, etc… She has such a compassionate heart towards others and the […]

24 Hours of Christmas

Advent, Crossing Cultures, Family, Holidays, Third Culture Kids -

We hope that all of our friends and family around the world had a very Merry Christmas! We began celebrating on the evening of the 24th, as is the tradition in El Salvador. We started out by going to a party in our neighborhood, then on to another friends’ home for dinner around 10:00, and then visited more friends close to midnight. We arrived home in time to watch fireworks all over the city from our terrace, and then we slept for a few hours before waking up  early to celebrate “American” Christmas by opening presents, swimming with friends, and eating Christmas dinner. We were also blessed to have our friend Roberto celebrating with us on the 24th and 25th.  By around 8pm on Christmas we were wiped out! Here are […]

A Turkey, A Birthday, and Four Generations

Family, Holidays, Life in El Salvador, Third Culture Kids, YWAM -

We’ve had a lot going on lately!  The month of November flew by at our house! Jon spent most of it in the Dominican Republic leading the practical phase of this year’s Discipleship Training School. I’m happy to report that the kids and I survived, but we sure missed him! The day after he returned, his mother and grandmother arrived for ten days and the next thing we knew it was Thanksgiving! We counted our blessings with some of our YWAM friends, and eating Gram’s homemade pies for the first time in years was definitely at the top of the list! The kids enjoyed special moments with their grandmother and great-grandmother making pies, decorating cookies, and trimming the Christmas tree! We were so glad that Gram got to see for […]

Sad…

Family, Our Animals, Third Culture Kids, Transitions -

It’s quiet in my house this morning…too quiet. No dog barking, no dog collar jingling….just quiet. Yesterday we said good-bye to our yellow lab, Buddy. He was such a good dog, and he made the “big move” from the U.S. to El Salvador with us. He’s been a part of our family since the very beginning, and I met Buddy when Jon and I first started dating. The whole family is grieving the loss of our “Buddy.” If you are an animal lover than you know how heart-wrenching it is to lose a pet. I will be forever grateful to Buddy for looking out for our family, and for making the transition to El Salvador a smooth one for our children. It feels like a chapter in my life has […]

And They’re Off!

Family, Life in El Salvador, Third Culture Kids, Transitions -

I haven’t been blogging too much lately, because I’ve been busy getting the kids ready to go back to school. Getting ready for school in El Salvador means buying and labelling tons of school supplies and covering every notebook in colored paper, and then plastic. I’m not sure what parents in the U.S. have to do to get their kids ready for Elementary School but I don’t think it involves yards and yards of sticky saran wrap like it does around here. The textbooks also get covered in plastic (see pictures below) and it takes forever to get all of their school stuff ready for the first day! But somehow I managed to get it all together, and this morning the kids were off to their first day of school! Both kids are […]

Re-entry

Crossing Cultures, Family, Fundraising, Holidays, Third Culture Kids -

Re-entry after our time in the States has been a little rough as we adjust back to a regular schedule, normal work hours, and a two hour time difference. The kids have handled it like champs, and they have become such great international travellers. We spent time in Maryland, visited my brother and his wife in Philadelphia, went to Pittsburgh, then returned to Maryland and took a day-trip to D.C. before catching a plane back to El Salvador. Despite a bout with the stomach flu, everything went smoothly and we had a great trip! We were really blessed by all of our friends, family, individual donors, and supporting churches who cheered us on during our visit. We had the opportunity to visit three churches, and to share with friends and […]

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