It's All Grace

a journey with the Thomason family

The Carnival We Didn’t Know About

As soon as Titus, Avery, and I walked in to the door, I knew we were in trouble. The only thing that can explain all of these shoes in the entry way (shown below) is that the parents are at the school too. And if the parents are at the school, that means there’s a good chance that some kind of event is going on. While taking my own shoes off, I saw Pluto walk by (that is, I saw a kid dressed as Pluto–Mickey Mouse’s trusty dog). The kids said, “Daddy, we saw Pluto!” Uh oh. What is going on?

While making our way upstairs it became clear that there were lots of festivities going on. Parents were rushing up and down the stairs with their kids who were dressed up as princesses, pirates, fireman, and I even saw a little Darth Vader running around. Where were they taking these kids, I thought. Arriving at Titus’ classroom, we found the place completely filled with more dressed up kids, parents, and dressed up teachers. That’s when I called Bethany. “Uh…so this place is nuts and I have no idea what’s going on. But you better come and bring Titus’ Buzz Lightyear costume…and bring your camera!” The kids and I made our way through the camera wielding parents and I dropped Titus clothes off in their changing area. There were other families in there too so I snapped a photo of some boys and one of the dads.

In our defense, Bethany was aware of a carnival but she honestly thought it was going to be on Friday and that would only be in the afternoon. She actually had called me on Monday and asked if I would be available to come, but since I’m teaching a workshop at a conference this week I wouldn’t be available. Titus’ teacher did her best to make us aware of it, but again, the date just got lost in translation.

Bethany arrived a few minutes after I called her and she brought Titus’s costume. We quickly changed him so he could join the other kids. The teachers had congregated the kids in another room where they were doing what I believe was a fashion show. They were literally walking down a wooden plank on the ground and the teachers were taking pictures and video along with all the parents on the sidelines.

Here’s me getting Titus ready.

Here are the kids walking down the runway.

Meanwhile, Avery was enjoying all the toys in the classroom.

We were scheduled to have language lessons this morning, but with all the commotion we didn’t feel like we could leave. That, and Titus got really sad when we tried to leave and started crying and saying he wanted to go home. To be honest, it was hard. I felt caught between getting to our language lesson and taking care of Titus, and we just didn’t know what to do. It was decision paralysis. We tried to console Titus, who I think was just overwhelmed. Finally, we cancelled our lessons and stuck around with Titus. Eventually he calmed down and even starting participating with the class in their dance. Here’s a little video I got and you’ll see Titus dancing with his teacher.

Remember those parents rushing up and down the stairs when we first arrived? We found out where they were going. There was a professional photographer in another classroom who was taking individual portraits of all the kids. Titus’ teacher asked one of the little kids to show us where he was so he could take Titus’ picture. We made our way down and had a few shots taken. I seriously can not wait to see how those turned out. Later, that same photographer took a group shot of the entire class. Here they are in the main hall of the school getting ready for their class photo. You can see Titus in the upper left.

After some time, Titus was doing much better and we left. He did well for the remainder of the school day and Bethany said he came home really happy and excited about his experience. Apparently they had a clown who juggled and they blew bubbles and even passed out balloons to the kids. At the end of the day I can look back and laugh, but in the middle of it it was really difficult. I’m bummed we missed our once a week Czech lesson because that’s so vital for us long term. On the other hand, I’m glad I got to experience something fun with Titus and our family, even thought I had no clue it was going to happen.

January 28, 2015
Let It Snow

We’re a little enamored with the snow right now. As you can see in the photo above, Avery was sitting in our kitchen window this morning just staring at the falling snow. It is unbelievably beautiful to watch. Bethany even mentioned today that the snow actually makes Czech brighter which is just interesting. Everything doesn’t feel so gray and dreary, but nice and clean, and soft. Even some of the other Josiah Venture missionaries were talking about this today. One friend commented about the color of the buildings in Czech. Often they are bright orange, green, and even pink and he was observing that they look so much better against the clean white backdrop of snow. He’s right.

My team is preparing to teach at a big event this week here in Czech called the Josiah Venture Leadership Academy. There will be 220 attendees (if they trudge their way through the snow!). The communications team (which I lead) will be doing some training in the area of design and design software. Our class has 10 participants and people are coming from all over Europe to be together for a five day conference. Mostly these are people who are lay leaders in their churches and are just looking for some practical skills and training. I’m excited to teach a 3-day class with my team and hopefully share our combined love for design and Jesus! Pray for us as we prepare for that and for the time with our class.

Tonight Bethany had some fun baking with the kids. We have been talking about making cookies for a couple of days now and it just feels right to enjoy some warm cookies on these cold days. Titus some how convinced me to let him eat three cookies. Little stinker. They enjoyed using their Czech chef hats and aprons so we got a few photos of them. These are fun days.

January 27, 2015
Red Cheeks and the German Occupation

It continues to be a winter wonderland here in Czech even though it really didn’t snow too much today. The snow was piled high on the sides of the roads and sidewalks and while walking Titus to school today I saw multiple moms pulling their children on sleds. After I got Titus in to his class, I realized I forgot his bag so I ended up making the walk back home and then back to his school. When I returned I saw Titus sitting at a table alone, really focused on whatever he was coloring. I approached him and said something to him and he jumped. I saw a tear in his eye, like maybe he had cried after I left? It was a weird moment and I was reminded how hard this must be for him to be in school and not really understanding much of the language.

When Bethany picked Titus up in the afternoon, his teacher asked another mom who spoke English to translate. She wanted to tell us that Titus had been doing much better in class. This was good news to our ears as we have been really working with Titus on different things at home, especially listening and first time obedience. We tell him daily to listen and obey even if he’s not exactly sure what’s going on (which I’m sure is often). As a bonus, Bethany was excited that she met another mom who spoke English. She told me that she sees that mom often, so now she knows she can talk with her and maybe build a relationship.

Bethany let the kids play in the snow this afternoon after Titus got out of school. Our Czech friend Misa came over and was spending time with Bethany and the kids. She brought some presents for the kids and a few things for us which was really nice. While they were playing Pani Musilova (our landlord) saw them playing and knew that Misa could translate for us, so she talked with them for a while. One thing Pani Musilova mentioned was that it was good for Avery to get “red cheeks.” After some really basic research (I asked 3 Czech friends), this may have 2 different meanings:

1) It could be a reference to an old Russian fairytale. I am quoting our friend who said, “An old Russian fairytale when the ugly step sister put tone of red blush on her cheeks to get the queen to look.”

2) It could be a reference to good health. From our understanding, and we could be wrong, Czechs will often let little babies take naps outside in the cold. Sometimes you will even see a stroller outside with a baby bundled up, but their little face exposed. It’s possible they think the cold air is good for the babies and small children?

Or maybe we’re just really confused? That’s very possible.

Another interesting anecdote from that conversation which Bethany shared with me was about our landlord’s name. They were talking about Bethany’s pregnancy and baby names and Pani Musilova (Mrs. Musilova) explained that her first name “Helena” is actually the German version of the Czech name “Helenka.” She explained that she was born under the German occupation of Czech and they were only allowed German versions of the names. I’ve shared before that Czechs have their Czech Name Day where every day on the calendar is someone’s name day. All that to say, it was just crazy to think that she was born during the German occupation of Czech! I think Pani Musilova is really pulling for us to name this next baby with a Czech name, but I guess we’ll just have to wait on that.

January 26, 2015
Not A Typical Sunday

Today was not a typical Sunday. I’ll start with church.

We got a message on Facebook the other day from our Czech friends telling us not to go to church this week because apparently no one would be there. They explained that the entire church would be going to another town to celebrate another church’s anniversary. Church is hard enough as it is when it’s in our town, so we decided we wouldn’t try to navigate that this Sunday and that we would stay home (this actually turned out to be a good decision because we got a lot of snow last night and it probably wasn’t best to be driving out of town!). Bethany and I talked and thought we would sing some worship songs at our house and read devotional just to make it feel like a Sunday with time set aside for the Lord.

Bethany also thought it would be nice to invite some of our friends over in case they too were wondering what to do with their Sunday morning. The Yorman family was excited to join us and after a little snow shoveling today they made it over to our place where we congregated in our living room. I had prepared a few songs and printed up some song sheets for everyone. We started with modern song “10,000 Reasons” because it’s a tune everyone knows, especially the kids. Above you can see Bethany and the kids on the couch and “Grandma Linda” (Kristin Yorman’s mom) in the background. Below are Casey with his son Caleb, and me on guitar. Many thanks to Kristin for sharing these photos with us!

I believe we sang about four songs and then I ended up reading a little devotional from Paul Tripp’s latest book New Morning Mercies: A Gospel Devotional (which is a phenomenal book that we highly recommend–we have been reading it daily). For me, it felt really strange not to be congregating with a large body of believers today, but it was also nice to play and sing worship songs in English with friends. The kids were a little restless, I think mostly because of our the casual environment (e.g. our living room). At the end of our time I played the song “Pharaoh Pharaoh” and we had fun dancing and playing. Below is another photo while we were laughing and singing that song together.

Outside it was and is a winter wonderland. It has snowed nonstop almost the entire day. With the Yormans over we decided just to do lunch together, but we were out of a few things. Casey and I walked over to a little local grocery market and on the walk I was overwhelmed with the beautiful scene of the square near our apartment (shown below). Sadly, the little market was closed and we had to walk back, but it was so amazing outside it was well worth it. We ended driving to another store and got lunch for our families which we prepared back at our place.

After lunch the kids, Casey and I all headed outside for a little snow fun. Our landlord had a man shovel the driveway so the snow was piled up nicely for grabbing and throwing at each other. Avery kept bringing me “big snowballs” so I could attack Titus, but she was quick to note that she was basically off limits from the snowball fight that the boys were enjoying. I guess you gotta set boundaries like that when you’re the only girl outside with all the boys.

Below is a photo of Benaiah (the Yorman’s youngest son) about to hit me with a snowball and one of Casey with the boys across the yard during the big snowball fight. We had a lot of fun playing with them and it was a special treat for the kids to be together.

We’re still expected to have a lot more snow this week, so we’ll see how things work out with driving and getting around. For this California family, it’s the first time we’ve really lived in snow and I know we have some more adventures ahead of us!

January 25, 2015
Our First Snow Day in Czech

Like a little child waiting for Christmas, I have been waiting for our first snow day in Czech. Today was that day, and it was beautiful. Bethany grew up with snow in central Washington, but being a child of southern California I didn’t see many snow days. There were a couple of them, but they were definitely few and far between.

Today’s snow didn’t really pick up until around 2:00pm, and we really needed to head to another town and do a few errands. After checking the weather forecast, we decided to take our chances and left early this morning for the mall that’s about 40 minutes away. One thing we needed was a cordless phone so we could connect our Internet phone which will allow us to make calls to the States. We ended up finding the perfect phone at a great price at the first place we looked. In celebration, and because our friends gave us a gift card, we headed over to Starbucks.

Much to our surprise, the Czech baristas wrote “Have a nice day” on our cup…in English! That and the drink we were a nice little treat. From where we were sitting in the mall we could see the snow starting to come down outside, so I wanted to make sure didn’t linger too long. Our next stop was the mall play place. Titus and Avery have mental maps of every mall we have ever visited with precision GPS that can guide them there so we really had no way out of that. This mall’s play place was actually new to us, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. One thing they had was this giant, 2-story twisty slide. Titus was too scared in the beginning to go down it, but Annie Oakley Avery had no problem climbing the stairs and shooting down the tube. Below is a video that Avery took while sliding all the way down. You’ll notice the little Czech boys in front of her trying to talk to her.

Eventually, Avery convinced Titus that the tube was “a slow slide” and he went down. Here they are going down together. You can see Titus leaning on his back (probably because he was nervous) and Avery is all smiles as they make their way down.

It’s always worth mentioning just how kid friendly Czech is. We went into multiple stores today that had little kid activity tables. Here’s a photo at the grocery store (yes, the grocery store!) that had a little Lego table. I played with the kids for a bit while Bethany grabbed a few items. As an aside, you’ll often find grocery stores inside the mall in Czech, and this one was no different–it’s actually quite convenient!

The snow had been coming down, but wasn’t really sticking much until about the time we were leaving the mall. Here’s a photo of us walking back to the car and it was just starting to come down harder. When we got to our car, there was just a thin layer on it.

Right as we were arriving home, the snow really began to come down and was sticking. The kids had fallen asleep in the car but we managed to get them inside and lay them on their beds without really waking them up. As soon as we were settled, I grabbed my camera and took a few photos along with a slow motion video of the scene. Here’s a little 16 second video I got that I added some music to. The church next to our place looked so incredible as the snow was falling.

This afternoon I setup our new phone and ended up talking to my mom in the States for a while which was a real blessing. It was just morning time for her so we chatted as I watched the snow continue to fall outside. When the kids woke up from their nap we got excited about going outside to play. Bethany had called her parents on the phone too and then we ended up video chatting with them, so they were able to watch us playing outside via the computer. Bethany held the computer by the window as we threw snowballs and made snow angels in the yard. I think I had just as much fun as the kids, and it was a real joy to just play with them. Here’s some photos from our time.

Avery had gotten a little cold and went back inside before I could get a photo of the three of us. But here’s Titus and me before we went back inside too. Yeah, I was excited.

I truly praise God that our first snow day came on a Saturday where I could spend it with my family. Just seeing Titus’ face and hearing him laugh when we were throwing snowballs at each other will be etched in my mind for many years to come. Watching Avery do her best to build a little snow man with the dry snow was cute and special. But even more than that, one thing I noticed today was how beautiful Czech looked. Even some of the grungier parts of the city were covered in white, perfect snow. That, of course, reminded me of the gospel and the great hymn “Jesus Paid It All.” All the grungy parts of my life–my sin–are covered by the sacrifice of Christ, and now I’m washed, “white as snow.” Praise the Lord for His amazing kindness and grace towards me.

January 24, 2015