Third Culture Kids

Lime Burn

Family, Life in El Salvador, Third Culture Kids -

Lime Burn. We can file that in the “Weird Tropical Ailments” file right behind Jon’s bout with Dengue Fever. Lime burn is what happens when you get lime juice on your hand and then go out in the sun. Who knew? Last week while the kids were on spring break we spent a day at the beach. Tori ate a shrimp dish that came with lime slices to squeeze on top.  After lunch she headed out onto the beach to play in the sun. Twenty-four hours later her hand looked like this: We have since learned that a component of the lime reacts in the sun and creates a kind of chemical burn. However, it doesn’t show up for about 24 hours. It’s fairly common in El Salvador, and I remember a […]

Five

Family, Holidays, Third Culture Kids -

Today Ian is five years old. I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around this. When kids turn five, they suddenly seem so old, and the toddler stage has been left far behind. This morning I was informed by my sweet boy that I only have “one year of cuddles left” because when he turns six he will be too old for that sort of thing. (Oh Ian, I hope not!) So I will enjoy today celebrating his life and all that he means to me.  By the way, he requested carne asada for his birthday dinner. I have to admit, I didn’t see that one coming! Happy Birthday Ian!

Trip to Apaneca

Places to Visit in El Salvador, Short-Term Missions, Third Culture Kids -

One of the things I love about our job is that we constantly get to meet new people and do new things. For the last few weeks we have had the opportunity to meet lots of great people by teaming up with Possibilities International to host a short-term mission team in El Salvador. This organization is aimed at helping dreams come true for the hopeless.  They brought a team from Ontario, Canada into El Salvador to build a home, feed the hungry, and serve in poor communities around El Salvador. We were so blessed by getting to spend time with them! After their week of hard work, they did some “touristy” stuff and we got to tag along!  A highlight was a trip to do the zip-lining canopy tour in Apaneca […]

Rights

History of El Salvador, Justice, Kids at Risk, Life in El Salvador, Thinking About God, Third Culture Kids, Uncategorized -

    This is a picture of a recent assignment that Tori completed for her first grade class. Each student needed to explain and illustrate basic rights of all children. They chose five that they thought were important to include in their project. Under the title, “Children’s Rights” Tori chose to include: the right to eat, the right to clean water, the right to have a name, the right to health, and the right to learn. These were the rights that she felt were most important for all children everywhere. As a first grader, I don’t think I ever thought about children’s rights around the world. I took it for granted that I had a name, food and water, a doctor’s office to visit,and a school to attend. During the 80s, while […]

We’re Back!

Crossing Cultures, Family, Holidays, Third Culture Kids, Transitions, Uncategorized -

We didn’t fall of the face of the earth…we were just visiting a different part of it, and now we’re back! We had a great trip to the U.S.A. to visit our families in Maryland and in Pennsylvania. The kids had a blast, and it was a much needed break from our life in El Salvador.  It was so nice to catch up with friends and family, and we met with a few of our sponsoring churches. It was so encouraging to hear the excitement of those who support our work! It was difficult to say good-bye, and that won’t change no matter how many times we do it. The time with friends and family was exactly what we needed, and especially what I needed personally. The kids loved getting […]

Traditions

Crossing Cultures, Family, Holidays, Life in El Salvador, Third Culture Kids, Transitions -

Traditions are the things that bring families together, that give them a common identity, and that give them a reference point for “the ways things always are.” We get traditions from our culture, our families, and our friends. They make us who we are, and they give us a place to touch base year after year. One of the strange things about living outside of the U.S. is that our children have a hard time “touching base” with the traditions that were part of our lives growing up. Everything is just different from what we knew as children. We can’t pass down certain things, because they just don’t fit in El Salvador. Instead, we find ourselves making new traditions, unique traditions. This Christmas we had a lot of fun celebrating Christmas in […]

God With Us

Holidays, Kids at Risk, Thinking About God, Third Culture Kids, Urban Ministry, YWAM -

In El Salvador, Christmas seems to have less of the materialistic busyness of the States, and more of a focus on the birth of Christ.  We kept that perspective as we wrapped up our Christmas celebrations this week. We had a Christmas lunch with some kids from Apopa, a Christmas party with the Lighthouse homeless ministry, our staff Christmas celebration, and a party at CISNA.  Out of all of these celebrations, the one at CISNA impacted me the most.  There were less boys than usual, because many of them are spending the holidays with some family member or friend. Maybe a parent, or grandmother, or distant aunt or uncle. But the others had no such family to welcome them for the holidays. There is even one boy who has been […]

Christmas in the Slum

Family, Gangs, Holidays, Justice, Kids at Risk, Third Culture Kids, Uncategorized, Urban Ministry, YWAM -

  “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned…For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,  Prince of Peace.”     ISAIAH 9:2, 6 Imagine if you lived in poverty. Imagine that you lost your home in an earthquake, or a mudslide, or because you couldn’t pay the rent. Imagine that gangs were trying to recruit your ten year old son to join their ranks. Imagine that your home was made of carboard and scap metal that made it horribly hot, or let cool wind blow right through. Imagine that you went […]

Thankful

Family, Holidays, Thinking About God, Third Culture Kids -

I haven’t been keeping up with this blog too well these days, and that’s because I have personally been going through some difficult times. I don’t want to get into it all right now, but sometimes in life there are times that come where it’s hard to focus on the light, on the blessings, and on all that God has given us. Last Thursday was Thanksgiving, and so I was forced to be thankful…to look at the positives, and to count my blessings. Even when things don’t seem to be going my way, I am thankful for many things in my life. We spent Thanksgiving Day with our friends, and I do have many things to be thankful for… A husband who is faithful in the good times and the […]

My Top Ten Biggest Things I’ve Learned in the Last Two Years

Crossing Cultures, Family, Life in El Salvador, Third Culture Kids, Uncategorized -

Today I was chatting with another mom while we were waiting for Ian’s Kinder class to be dismissed. She asked me how long we had been in El Salvador. I thought for a minute and realized it’s been two years today! November 16, 2009 was the fateful day where we arrived in El Salvador with a lot of ideas, a little bit of  Spanish, and a whole bunch of unknowns. But two years changes a lot. So I decided to list “My Top Ten Biggest Things I’ve Learned In the Last Two Years”. Okay, that was a long title, but I promise the list only has ten things.  By the way,  if you’d like to read another really lame top ten list I made, you can visit this link. Okay, here we go: […]

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