It's so good to be invited!

It's hard to believe, but we have been here for nearly 4 months!  We are back to our normal routine for the rest of this week before Aaron's parents come to visit on Saturday;)  YEAH!!!

Our days have a better rhythm as we add more activities to the week.  Quincy still has drum lessons weekly and basketball school a couple times a week.  A boy from his basketball class sat with him at an LCC basketball game last week, so good to see!  That's the Quincy we know, making friends, even if he didn't remember his name;)

(Quincy at basketball school, he has on the white shirt and black shorts.)

Annie has started up violin, her face after her first lesson was priceless!  Such pride and joy.  It's so good for her to have something of her own to do here too.  Her attention to detail and precise nature may be to her benefit with the violin, there's a lot to learn!

Jackson and Nala seem to know what to expect each day and welcome our babysitters over quite eagerly, thanks Marija and Liza!!!  They keep our days hoppin'!  Nala loves to play in the sink right now, and in general likes to move chairs around and climb up to get all the things we have tried to move out of her reach.  She's determined and resourceful; nothing seems to be too high!

 And here is the new face Quincy has taught her...we call it the squishy face;)

Jackson likes to help mix in the kitchen...

 ...and loves to build with the Magnatiles.  Definitely on the Winkle best toy list!!!

These two, can't even imagine what the next few years are going to look like with them;)

For Aaron and I, we continue to experience LCC as a wonderful and enveloping community.  What a gift to walk into a place where new staff and families are welcomed and cared for so well!  There are moments we feel at home here, but then other moments where we feel like visitors to someone else's life.  At our home on Bates, we are often a hub of community, neighbors, family, and friends are in and out of our house frequently.  There are times when it feels quite lonely without that level of activity.

And then the last couple weeks we had several invitations to parties (birthday and Halloween!) and a pancake breakfast.  Just to be invited was enough, but then to have such a great time, to feel valued and cared for, and to be able to offer that back was life-giving.  It felt familiar, the sense of being a part of community, of sharing who we are and listening to others' stories.  It was something we have missed.

Our lives in Grand Rapids are comfortable and familiar.  We are known and loved, and it is so easy to be in our familiar surroundings with people we know well.  Here, we are new and unknown.  We are unfamiliar, there are a lot of us, and we only speak English.  There are many barriers.  But we still long to be a valued part of community.  These past couple weeks pointed out to us that we are establishing that here as well.  And that others are inviting us in.

So here is the challenge, for us upon returning.  How do we remember this feeling of being the other, of looking in?  How welcoming and open are we to new and unfamiliar?  How do we invite those that might feel 'the other' into our community?  How do we look past the barriers to listen to new stories? I pray this softens our hearts and opens our eyes, and helps us take action.



Here are a few pictures from the Halloween festivities.  It is not a holiday typically celebrated here in Lithuania, and many of the Lithuanian guests had never been to a Halloween party!  The closest celebration to Halloween in Lithuania is in February when kids dress up to chase away the snow (it seems you might want that in MI this year!).

 Quincy, Annie and I went over a couple days early to help decorate and carve pumpkins;)

 A zombie, 2 cats, and a bunny.

5 countries and 3,800 kilometers later...

5 countries, 11 days (not all in a row, thankfully!) 3,800 kilometers, and our sweet van made it--and all 4 kids!

In the past few weeks, we've been able to take a few more trips outside of Klaipeda.  We first went to spend a weekend in Riga, the capital of Latvia.  The city is beautiful, again a mix of medieval old town, Soviet-occupation remnants, and new construction.  Our first stop was the brand new library. Not so much because we are so infatuated with libraries, but it is a beautiful new building that is 8 stories high.  From it, we could see much of the city (and a few skateboarders for Quincy;).  We went to the zoo, walked around the city, had some familiar food at familiar restaurants (Subway!), and tried to take in as much as we could.

Quincy and I visited the Occupation Museum, which is noted to provide the most complete picture of pre and post WWII German and Soviet occupation.  It really is remarkable, and I was grateful that Quincy doesn't read all the postings or look closely at the pictures, so much tragedy.  What folks in the Baltic states have been through since the early-1940s is so very sad.  Occupation, extermination, forced labor camps, being sent to Siberia.  It's a dark history, and difficult to explain well with our kids.  We pray that they absorb as much as they can, and it makes more sense to them as they grow up and learn more.

 Inside the library.

 The view from the library.

 Lots of walking!

Freedom Monument in Riga, Latvia.

LCC (and Aaron) then had fall break the last week of October, so we took off;)  Our goal was  to get to Budapest, Hungary with a stop in Warsaw, Poland on the way.  We were in Warsaw from Sat night to Monday morning.  Warsaw will most be remembered by our kids as the first major city we took public transportation.  We were a bit outside of the center city (near a large stadium), so we took the tram over a river and a few bridges into the center of the city.  We spent time walking around, eating familiar food at familiar restaurants (it seems that KFC has taken over Eastern Europe), and going to a children's science museum.   It was here we found out that Annie can hold her body weight for a long period of time (she hung from a bar for 112 seconds, the daily record;) and where Nala may have started calling Aaron, Aaron!

Don't worry, Jackson is okay!

 Here comes the tram;)

 Notice the consistent expression from Quincy.  Nala now poses for pictures that way too;)

 National Stadium

Riding the wooden goat/cow/???

At the Copernicus Science Centre.  Turns out this is quite popular, even on a Sunday!

 More trams. More posing.

 This picture is from our brief stop in the Czech Republic, after being pulled over.  Yipes!  Turns out you need a sticker to pay the tolls in this part of the world.  We now have that sticker;)  We also drove through Slovakia "so that counts as another country we visited, mom!" from Quincy.  Doesn't he look happy here?!?

Then we made it to Budapest, a family favorite so far (we stayed for 4 days).  Our flat was 200 meters from the most amazing park.  Really.  It had something for everyone, and was right along the Danube River.  We spent every morning there, it was perfect!  Sometimes it really feels like we are living a dream.  A park on the Danube just outside of our flat!?!  3 cheers for the Winkles!

 Love these climbers!

 It was called Olympic Park, hence the rings in the background.

 A little futbol.  Yes, we have made the European transition;)

We were able to see Parliament, Castle Hill, St. Stephen's Basilica, watch the changing of the guards, attend a protest rally (protesting a national internet tax), go into the thermal baths (no pictures, sorry!), eat pudding filled waffles, and bike around Margaret's Island.  Again,  the history is so very rich, most of which we learned while we were there.  Apparently, Hungarians are quite fond of Ronald Reagan, so there is a statue of him in the city (they credit him with helping to get the ball rolling with breaking up the USSR).  And there is one remaining monument from the USSR (with a sign on it requesting that it be torn down).  The city is beautiful, especially when it is all lit up at night.

 Pudding waffles.  We may have been there more than once;)

You can even get them to go!

 A family bike ride on Margaret's Island.

 Changing of the guards in front of Parliament.

We have given up on taking a stroller with us when we travel, it just doesn't work on cobblestone.  So, Jackson gets rides on shoulders and Nala spends her days in the backpack carrier;)

 Castle Hill.  We're all there!!!

 Parliament from across the Danube.

And just for an additional reminder of home, there was a musical fountain on Margaret's Island as well!  I think my dad was smiling down that we went back to see it all lit up at night;)

But what we will most remember from our trip to Budapest is spending time with Calvin colleagues (Jeff, Julie, and Abby Bouman) and friends (Jeffrey, Lisa, Willem, and Xander Schra).  They were an immense help with our kids, helped us navigate the metro/tram/bus systems, showed us see much more than we would have on our own, and brought us a level of "home" that we all seemed to be needing.

 
Many miles, many countries, and even more memories!
Much love, Betsy.