The Big Cut

I know, I have not posted for a week and half! I am back into "normal" life now though, so keep watching on Mondays. :)

I had to post pictures today of the big event that happened yesterday. After two years of Hannah adamently not wanting to even trim her hair, she came home on Wednesday and said, "I want to cut my hair. . . really short. Right now."

The Before Shot

She can be a pretty spontaneous decision maker, so I told her she had to wait at least a day, so that she didn't make a decision she would regret. She's also a stubborn decision maker, so last night we made the big cut. Mom actually made that first cut a wee-bit shorter than first intended, but in the end, all turned out well.

Who knows what inspired this major life change, but she loves it. She does look super cute! We put the chopped off locks in a ponytail and will send them into Locks of Love, which made Dad feel a little better about such a major change. He's kind of partial to longer hair. As is Gavin. Try as he might, he just couldn't fake that he was devastated Hannah's hair was gone.

Cute, cute, cute!

Just after Hannah's birthday this year, Cody said, "So, I guess she's becoming a Tween." Yep, she is. It's fun to see her becoming more and more who God made her to be. Sometimes that can be more challenging for us than at other times! Though just a haircut, this was a great example of who Hannah is--risky, bold, determined and sassy. Che bella!

Italian Birthdays

I took these pictures on my phone, so sorry they aren't the best quality.

Last month we were invited to another slew of birthday parties. While at one of them, I was profoundly struck by how vital birthday parties have been in our ministry here, and how I'm convinced they are one of the main venues God will use in the future to allow us to share the love of Jesus with those He's put in our lives.

Birthday parties are huge here. There are 25 kids in Hannah's class at school, and last year, I think we were invited to almost 20 birthday parties. And when you have a birthday party, you invite EVERYONE. We could not possibly keep up. But it was after the first birthday party we attended that we began to see the walls crumble in relationships with parents at Hannah's school. It was also at that party that we met our dear friends Fabio and Alyssia. This year, as we've ventured forth even more, we see more and more doors opening for deeper relationships with a group we'll be with for the next four years.

This was a party held at a bowling alley. Honestly, it was just like walking into any bowling alley in American (AMF pins and everything!). Hannah shared a lane with 9 other kids. In case you're wondering, it took 2 1/2 hours for them to finish one game!

There is really no American paradigm for the community parents have here. Every morning we see each other as we walk our kids to school, and every afternoon we hang out and visit, as we wait for school to be dismissed. Hannah will be with the same students (and thus, us with the same parents) until she graduates from elementary school at the end of Fifth grade. And then there are the 20+ opportunities to hang out at birthday parties during the year.

Birthday cakes are a little different here, but this one was really good. Kind of a cross between a cake and cookie.

At this particular birthday party, God allowed compassion to sweep over my heart. I looked around at all these parents who are just like me--battling the same stresses and anxieties all parents battle. I was overwhelmed with thankfulness that the Lord had brought us to this place and allowed our lives to cross with these parents who have already become quite dear to us. I want so much to share with them the Hope that is within me.

The kids always sing Happy Birthday in Italian and English, no matter whose birthday they are celebrating.

If God brings them to mind, pray for this precious group of people God is connecting us with. Pray for their families. Pray God would use us significantly in their lives to communicate the very love of Jesus Christ. You can also pray for our own birthday party plans! Since Hannah's birthday is over a holiday, we are waiting until February to throw our first birthday party. We feel a lot of pressure! Pray it would be another opportunity to communicate our commitment to these parents and their kids.

January Already

Well, we got my parents all packed up this morning and drove them to the airport at 5am to send them back to the States. We were all a little stunned that our time together had already come to an end. It got off to a rather rocky start with weather re-routing them, then delaying them, and finally delivering them to Bologna without any of their bags. On Christmas Eve, three of their four bags arrived, but the one with the majority of the Christmas presents remained MIA. A week later it met us in Salzburg, Austria, where we spent a week just hanging out and enjoying being together.

Thankfully, my brother had arrived uneventfully. He had just returned from serving in Kazakhstan in the Peace Corps, so we hadn't seen him for two and a half years. He had never met Benjamin, so it was a sweet time with him.


We enjoyed beautiful snow in Bologna just before Christmas and had a great, if packed, Christmas Day. On the 27th, we headed north to Salzburg (about 5 hours from Bologna), to spend time just being together. We stayed in a flat that was part of a farm in the town of Anthering, only a 15 minute train ride from Salzburg. It was so quiet!! We didn't realize how accustomed to the constant hum of city life we were until we were out of the city. It was glorious! And the farm provided tons of space for the kids to play and run around on. That was a Christmas present in and of itself.

This is a picture of the Christmas Tree in downtown Bologna. This year, in an effort to promote energy conservation, they had bikes attached to the tree lights. To light up the tree, people had to bike to create the energy. Cody rolled his eyes several times at a Green Christmas, but before the season was over, he was out peddling too.

While we were in Salzburg, we celebrated Hannah's 8th Birthday. She is becoming such a beautiful little girl. We are stunned to begin thinking about the "tween" years, but we really delight in who God is making her to be. She had an absolutely incredible day. It was fun to celebrate her in such a special place.

The kids and I in Salzburg, with Hohensalzburg Fortress (the castle) in the background. We ate lunch at the castle for Hannah's birthday, which was an incredible treat for a little girl.

For Christmas (which didn't arrive until the 29th), Hannah got Mia, an American Girl, who loves to skate. At the farm we stayed on in Austria, there was a little frozen pond. Ever the one to play, Hannah decided she needed to take Mia "skating." Mia did great!

Our beautiful birthday girl! Wow, she's growing up!

It was such an encouragement to have family with us for Christmas. We are so thankful they were able to come. We commented today, however, that as thankful as we are for those times, when they are over, we feel like we've taken a step back. They cause us to count the costs all over again. It is hard to be so far away from our friends and family! So we are gearing up to dive back in. As hard as it was to say goodbye this morning to the comfort and familiarity of family, we know God has plans for us here. We are in the right place. Tomorrow it is back to all things Italy.

Christmas Is Upon Us!

Today is the perfect week-before-Christmas day! We woke up to snow falling, and it has blanketed Bologna is white. Somehow snow makes the constant overcast skies a little more bearable! It is beautiful!

Cody and the kids left a little early this morning for their walk to school so they would have some time to play in our winter wonderland. They had the best time making little snowballs, running in the white, and giggling to keep warm. It was contagious! As the elderly Italians would pass them, they said, "Che bella sorpresa questa mattina! (A beautiful surprise this morning!)" It is only the second time our kids have ever seen snow, so they still just get tickled at the wonder of it.

Christmas begins for us in three days when my (Jen) parents and brother arrive for the holidays. We are so anxious to have family with us! So we've been busy with all our little Christmas preparations. We'll spend Christmas day in Bologna and then head up to Salzburg, Austria for a week. It is only about five hours away, and again, promises more snow! We all can not wait for our week of PLAY!

December 8 marks the beginning of Christmas celebrations for Italians, so there are now a plethora of markets and festivals going on. Last weekend there was a little market right across the street, so we took the kids to see Babbo Natale (Santa Claus). Bless him, but he was the worst Santa Cody or I had ever laid eyes on! The kids first question: "Mom, does he speak English?" And then their first response upon seeing him: "That's not the real Santa, you can see the string that's holding his beard on!" Just as we were about to say "Ciao" to Babbo Natale, he had to make a quick exit because his pants fell off. Oh Mamma Mia! After some quick explaining ("Santa has to have a lot of helpers during Christmas since he can't be everywhere all over the world at once"), the kids were quickly satisfied when Santa gave them both presents.

Also at the market were booths with great food. We picked up some cinnamon-roasted almonds (an Italian Christmas tradition), some spicy salami and some bread for dinner. What we had to say no to were the blocks of this fudge-type candy that lined a couple of the booths. We did try a few samples though. More than anything, I was just impressed with how fun and festive they looked all lined up!

We hope this finds everyone enjoying a truly blessed Christmas season! We are overwhelmed with the truth of God's love poured out for us in Him sending His Son to be born in our midst. He has changed our lives.

Gavin Turns Five!

So this one is mostly for the grandparents, but our little man turned five today. He could not have been more excited! We've been counting down the days from over 100. Finally it was THE DAY. He was up at 5:10 this morning wanting to know when he could open his presents. I had hoped to post a video we took, but alas, technology got the best of me. Instead, here are some photos.

This was in Cinque Terre on The Man Trip Cody and Gavin took this weekend. Gavin had a great time, despite the fact that the boats were closed down for the winter.

Gav broke with tradition this year and went with a SpiderMan themed birthday.

We ended a great day by dinner at McDonald's with friends.





Among those who joined us at McDonald's were another American boy (Drew on the left) and a couple of boys from Gavin's school. Yeah! What a huge milestone that was to have Italian friends join us!

Cody and I commented all day about what a difference there was between this year's birthday and last year's birthday. Not the least of which was Gavin speaking mostly in Italian at his McDonald's party! We are so thankful for God's sweet provision of friends for our shy little guy. It's taken a little longer, but Gavin is finding a great place here in Bologna.

What a great little man God has given us! We were thrilled to be celebrating him today!

Thanksgiving Times Two

Several people asked last week if we were going to celebrate Thanksgiving. Oh did we! Not just once but twice! Being overseas is a great excuse to celebrate an American holiday as many times as possible. :)

Obviously Italy does not take the day off on Thanksgiving, so the kids were in school until 4:30 and the rest of the country was whirling as usual. We did get the day off though, which we spent plucking our turkey and cooking it for our staff team, who all came over for a grand feast.

Though not entirely covered with feathers when we picked it up, there were still a lot that needed to be removed. Oh, and Cody also had to bust out a hammer and chisel to cut off its neck! So worth it though!

Turkey fillets are popular here, but you can only find whole turkeys at Christmas, and they are more the size of chickens. So we ordered one from our butcher. I think they were tickled to be providing a turkey for an American Thanksgiving celebration! Italians know what Thanksgiving is, and their constant impression is of a huge golden turkey being pulled from the oven.

At staff team, and several other American friends we know arrived at 7pm with almost every imagineable sidedish known. Thanksgiving is one of the events for which almost everyone I know imports some special ingredient needed to make a favorite American dish. We had green bean casserole, sweet potatoe casserole, pecan pie, and corn bread stuffing, among other things, none of which can you find the ingredients for in Italy. I can not tell you how good those American tastes were!!! Yum, yum, yum, yum!

To top it all off, we hooked our SlingBox up to our TV and watched American football during dinner. Truly, it felt like an honest-to-goodness American Thanksgiving. We all had such a great time.

And then on Saturday, we did it again! Our family went out to some friends of ours who are Americans working at Caterpillar just outside of Bologna. We have kids about the same and really enjoy hanging out together. Again, it was glorious. And so good for our kids! It was a great opportunity to talk about a key part of our country's history AND to talk about all we have to be thankful for.

A great Thanksgiving week, even in the midst of dearly missing celebrating the holiday with our families. We are so glad for how God provides, even in the seemingly little things.

The Chocolate Festival

Another bonus post! :)

While I was away (see the next post about My Happy Place), there was a huge chocolate festival held in Bologna. So on Saturday morning, Cody loaded up all three kids and went to see what it was all about. I thought that was an incredibly brave thing to do!

Among other things, they ate (drank?) liquid chocolate out of ice cream cones and sampled a few of their favorite chocolate designs. They really do look incredible. They got a camera for me (of course!), and then picked up a few other antique pieces. They were so impressive I had to take a picture.

My Happy Place

This is Lake Como. Thus far, in my 35 years of life, it is my very favorite place in all of the world. I am so glad God made it. I picture Him delighting in it every morning as the sun rises (and in the case of this picture, as the sun sets). It is about an hour and half train ride from Bologna (just east of Milan), and we hadn't been there since our Florence Summer Project trip three years ago.

This past weekend, I went there all by myself. I spent two nights staring at the water and mountains, taking a boat ride to Bellagio and exploring it for an afternoon, reading, praying, processing and just being refreshed. I slept until 8am for probably the first time in over two years.

I'll be honest and say the Lord is doing some hard things in our lives right now. He is digging deep into our hearts. It is infinitely good, and the other side is going to be an incredible experience of health. But the process is exhausting. And sometime painful. I had reached a place of feeling completely worn out. So my sweet husband made a way for me to have a retreat. I do not take his sacrifice lightly! It was a perfect weekend and exactly what I needed.

This is Bellagio. It's a small, quaint gem of a town.
It's set on some hills, so as soon as you get off the boat, you start walking UP.

Lake Como is one of three lakes in the "Lake Region." Como is the biggest city on the lake, but it is still pretty small. That is where I stayed. I loved being close to the lake! Water is one of the most relaxing things I know. Just watching it breathed refreshment into me. And to be surrounded by mountains at the same time! Como is only 15km from the Swiss border, and when it's clear, you can see the Swiss Alps. They are just incredible.

Can you believe this is real?! There were several places around the city where the ivy was changing color, and the colors were absolutely brilliant. I couldn't get enough pictures.

God met me in such a sweet way during my weekend away. I have never taken such a retreat, and I was a little nervous about investing the time and expense and returning in the same place I went. God did not let that happen. He really filled me up and spoke His rest to me. I am so thankful.

This is a street in Como. They had already begun hanging Christmas lights and putting up Christmas decorations--it was just beautiful (in Italian we say, "Che Bella!"). I loved that this street also included a red carpet!