visiting family

I guess by this time, if you are reading my blog, you have realized that I am a horribly inconsistent blogger. The thing is, that once something becomes normal, then there doesn't seem to be a big need to update the general public on all of the "normal" things one does everyday. So I water-colored with some young children. So I crossed the border 6 times today. So I went to IKEA with some friends. So I went to Milan for the week. So I got sick. So I planned a trip to Prague. So the weather is (hopefully) warming. So I have gotten pretty involved in a young adults group in Geneva. So I go to French class every Thursday....This all just becomes a part of life..and I thereby lose the drive to type out my activities and opinions for your perusal. I apologize for my lack of blogging discipline.

One thing I have been very good at is documenting my time in pictures. I have some great pictures of all of the beautiful places I have visited, of my gorgeous surroundings, of the wonderful children I take care of...and some of those pictures make their way here, but most of them are on my facebook.

I just got back from Milan, Italy, where Sam Fiore's (the father of the family I take care of) family lives. It was such a great trip. The only thing I can say poorly about it was that I got sick. The air in Milan is really polluted and I think it took my immune system by surprise. But other than that, I loved every part of it! I LOVED Sam's family. They were so welcoming and warm. His parents and sister live just a few minutes away from one another. I got to spend the week hanging out with family (which I miss doing, so I have to make up for it with some adopted family), reading, eating AMAZING food (thank you Nina) and cookies (thank you Glory), watching everyone else dance to Wii, and, of course, touring the beautiful city of Milan. Sam's niece and nephews were so much fun to be with. One of them his nephews, Jake, gave me a nice tour around Milan and took me to a WONDERFUL little Panzerotti place (I think that was what is was)- basically imagine a calzone fried, but the bread and the ingredients explode with flavor in your mouth. It was amazing. He was very patient as I kept asking to sit down and take a break from our walking (little did we know I was really sick). He felt so bad because he thought he was forcing me to tour Milan and wearing me out.

It was so cool to be around a family that was so bilingual too. One second they would be telling me a story in English, the next second the phone would ring and they would pick it up and jabber away in perfect Italian. Can you say JEALOUS. The other nephew, Max, was reading The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis (I LOVE that book), and he let me read some out loud to him and Jake. (They are both dyslexic, so reading is kind of a struggle). It was so much fun having them get excited about the story. I enjoyed it so much, I would go back for that along.

I read some Francine Rivers books while I was in Milan (I just picked up what they had at the house). And one of them was "A Voice in the Wind" about a slave girl in Rome right after Christ ascended into heaven. Let me just tell you, never have I had a fiction book make me feel so convicted about my faith and my life. I realize that this girl didn't exist, but just the way the book described her faith, amidst the ridiculous and unbelievable persecution in Rome in that time made me think a LOT. Reading about her desire to glorify God in the way she lived and truly be separate from the hedonism of her Roman owners..I was struck by my own desire to sin and my own pride. I don't know if any of this is making any sense; but I guess, by reading about a slave, who was literally willing to die for her beliefs, yet still served others humbly and lovingly who could kill her if they knew what she was, made me see my own sin and depravity. I am ashamed of how proud I was of my righteousness...but its nothing...so..that's what I am working on right now.

Sorry to end this one so heavy...but such is life.

I miss America. I love it here, but I miss home. That is the sucky thing about change. Even when the new things are wonderful, you never really get over what you left.