It's All Grace

a journey with the Thomason family

Back in the Saddle…I Mean, Sedlo

We were back at it this morning, continuing our formal language learning with our our Czech teacher. It felt really good to be back in the saddle and just pushing forward. Speaking of forward, that’s pretty much what we we were learning, that is, directions. In the photo below, you can see Bethany working hard at reading a sentence with directions on a map and then trying to understand where exactly we are supposed to go. Left, right, down, up, turn, forward, straight, go. These are the kinds words we were focused on.

For me, today was one of my favorite lessons because I’ve begun to write down confusing sentences and words in my Field Notes notebook so I can ask Tamara (our teacher) about them and get some clarity. I like the idea of capturing words and then working on what I hear. If you look closely in the photo below, my notebook has sentences like “I am not stupid,” “I’m cold,” “Let’s go (forward)!” and “Nevermind.” Those might sound pretty scatter brained, but they are legitimate phrases I’m curious to know and now have in my book where I can review and see regularly. Our ears hear lots of things throughout the day, so being able to say, “What does that mean?” and write it down is just really helpful.

We also had a little review time, which you can see in the photo above. Tamara was holding up photos and asking us certain things about the case (masculine, feminine, neuter) to see how much we could remember. Bethany was much better at recalling that info that me, so I have some studying to do!

We’re planning a little fun for tomorrow with the kids. It’s actually supposed to be sunny, but cold and we’re hoping to do a little sledding near the mountains. Titus has been asking me when Saturday is because we told him about it earlier in the week and he’s been pretty excited. We have a wooden sled that we got a few months ago, but I’m hoping we can find a plastic one on our way out of town. We’ll see how it goes!

February 6, 2015
Celery and an Early Valentine’s Day

As happens often I have to go on a hunt for a single food item. Tonight that item was celery. Bethany was making potato soup and needed a few things from the store. I went straight to the store that I thought would surely have everything, but for some reason they either didn’t have celery or they were out.

My quest was actually complete at the second store I visited. But while in line someone dropped a large bottle of some kind of alcoholic beverage. It smelled weird and went everywhere. I’m not sure if it was the girl that was in front of me or the guy in front of her that was at fault, but not a single person did a thing about it. Everyone acted as if nothing had happened, including the check stand lady and security guard standing right there. It was all very confusing for me because we just all began stepping over and into the liquid, making a bigger mess. No one was coming to clean it up and I honestly would’ve done it but trying to explain that in Czech would have proved more confusing than the situation itself. Spill on aisle 4 anyone? How do you say that in Czech?

On a happier note, I got home from the store and the kids told me “Daddy, we have a surprise for you.” They both brought me big red cards that they made with stickers and drawings (shown above). Avery also brought me that cat frame which she painted and added jewels to. The cat actually came with the frame. Bethany told me that Avery said, “Daddy will like that.” She is right.

On the back of the cards were lots of fun phrases that I will share with you here:

From Titus:
Why do you love Daddy?

“Cause he “raskles” (read “wrestles”) us a long time.”
“He’s our friend”

From Avery:
Why do you love Daddy?

“Daddy likes to play Candyland”
“Daddy likes to “raskle” me”
“Because he has an ‘A’ in his name”
“Daddy likes to give me a kiss.”
“Because I love him.”

It’s never too early to get a Valentine’s Day card for your kids.

February 5, 2015
Encouraged

Overall it’s been a really encouraging week. Many people have sent us kind words via email and social media in regards to our baby gender announcement (if you missed that post be sure and go check it out). Bethany and I have been working harder on reviewing our Czech language cards and I’m just encouraged by our daily progress.

Normally we have language lessons on Wednesday mornings, but Avery woke up in the middle of the night and threw up in her bed (my apologies to any weak stomach readers). Our teacher has a young boy who has just gotten over some sickness so we didn’t want to take Avery to her house and now we’re scheduled to have lessons on Friday. Avery has been sick most of the day with a runny nose and cough, but it doesn’t look like any of us have it yet. I assume it’s just a little cold and that Titus won’t be far behind her, but you never really know with kids and sickness.

Speaking of Titus, I walked him to school this morning while it was snowing and it hit me just how different his childhood already is compared to mine. Not once in my life did I ever walk to school in the snow. In fact, I don’t believe I ever even walked to school! And the one time I remember it snowing while I was at school, my mom picked us up early and drove us home because she was worried about driving in it. Titus, however, is walking in the snow and we do our morning ritual of getting him dressed in all of his layers. In the photo above, he’s wearing a snow suit, sweatshirt, jacket, long johns, and that fancy hat with ear covers. It’s such a different life than mine was, but I’m glad he’s getting to experience something I never did. In my mind, it keeps it interesting.

Bethany made banana bread this week and it sounds like we’re going to try banana bread french toast tomorrow. It’s a first for us, but we heard about it the other day and thought it was a fun idea. With that to look forward to, I think I’ll hit the hay. Thank you for reading and being such an encouragement to me and my family. We are so blessed by many of you.

February 4, 2015
Our 2 Year Visas Are Approved

Today was kind of momentous for us even though it never feels that way when you’re in a government office in the Czech Republic. Our two year visas were approved! Our friend, Katka, got a call last week saying the paperwork went through and that we needed to go back and do photos and fingerprints. Today we went to the Foreign Police and signed a bunch of papers, took photos, and gave them our fingerprints. I didn’t feel as comfortable trying to capture everything on my iPhone today, so I only have the one photo you see above. All in all, the process was smoothe and the kids did good getting their photos taken. We’ll go back on the 19th to retrieve our new “Biometric” cards which serve as our permit for residence!

For doing a good job at the Foreign Police we told the kids they could get hot chocolate at a nearby cafe afterwards. Above is a photo of them waiting together at the cafe.

Around sunset we decided to go for a little mini hike up around the big Josiah Venture hotel/training. Since my class last week, I have wanted to take Bethan and the kids up there to show them the snow and see the view. The sun was shining a lot today which was awesome, so we tried to catch a little of the sunset tonight. There were a few clouds so we couldn’t see it perfectly, but we had a great time together as a family in the freezing cold.

The temps were in the 20s so things were icy, but the kids thought it was hilarious when their feet would give out while we were holding their hands and walking. We didn’t walk a super long time, but we laughed and enjoyed our time together. In fact, the more I think about it the more I feel like it was special. We were just walking up and down a little hill, but the kids were happy, Bethany was happy, and I was happy. We were having a fun time together and it was devoid of distraction or trying to rush to the next thing.

It’s late and we have language lessons in the morning which I’m really excited about. It’s been a few weeks since we have had any formal instruction. Bethany and I have been working harder this week to review our vocabulary and do whatever kind of studying that we can on our own. I even started a new little “Field Notes” notebook of Czech words that I want to know or understand better. It was a tool they taught us to use at language school in the States and I’m excited to engage it more. Some how, some way, I am going to learn Czech! Pray for us.

February 3, 2015
Boy or Girl?

Instead of our normal written blog post, we thought we would have a little fun with video today. As you should know by now, Bethany is pregnant with baby Thomason #3. The big question on everyone’s mind: boy or girl? I guess you’ll have to watch this video to find out.

February 2, 2015