Second Breakfast?

If you have ever seen The Lord of the Rings, you might recall the line where two of the hobbits are a bit aghast to realize their other traveling companions are not familiar with the concept of second breakfast or elevensies. We might just be living in a hobbit stage ourselves! Today’s adventure on an all day scenic train and touring combination included:

Breakfast yoghurt for all, a small snack box included in the fare, a bag of Cheetos the kids had been looking forward to having as a treat, small sausages that were a big hit (and were immediately put back on the shopping list), lunch included in the fare, ice cream (buffet again…but we had a better plan of attack this time, fewer people behind us, and we managed to go back up afterwards to get ourselves some scoops), more snacks, an apple, and the pizza for dinner since we arrived back so late. We might need to find another job just to feed everyone! As it often goes with adoption, just when you think you have figured some things out, you realize that kids were acting very different due to anxiety, change, and a million other factors. The first few days they hardly had a few bites for each meal. But now food is disappearing at a much higher rate. We also discover things after the fact that they aren’t quite brave enough to bring to our attention (such as someone the insole of one the shoes for Vinicius either never was there or went missing and he had just been wearing the one without an insole…which is quite uncomfortable…or that Pietro’s new shoes were two sizes too small because we were given the wrong sizes and he just hasn’t been wearing them…we weren’t sure if he didn’t like them, but then we found out today when Vinicius wore them that they were too small for him and so he has just been using his older ones). But baby steps are occurring and we are thankful for that :). Angel wanted to ride with Michelle back in the van, Vinicius was worried about Luke sitting by himself (since we had an odd number in double capacity seats on the train), Agatha’s personality and dramatic flair has us laughing, Elijah is doing better with interactions and being slightly more helpful and a little less contrary because of anxiety, and Pietro is even slowly emerging from his shell just ever so slightly. In a nice surprise we even had everyone add a little something for the first time tonight after reading a section from Mark’s Gospel…it was a relief to know that something is being understood despite the horrendous pronunciation while stumbling through the Portuguese translation.

Speaking of languages – today was extra tiring physically from getting up early for the train (5am), but also mentally tiring from operating in multiple languages. Our bus guide was thrilled to discover we lived in Germany as he said his German was better than his English. So that meant that today was a 4 language day – English with each other and a de other passengers who live in the states, German with the bus guide, Hungarian with Elijah, and very strained and stretched Portuguese with Pietro, Vinicius, Angel, and Agatha. By the end of the day we aren’t sure what language we are in anymore (and the excuse for grammatical mistakes in this blog). It is especially hard to see kids slowly becoming more conversant and to not be able to easily converse with them…translator apps help some, but as good as they have become they are still not that great…our broken Portuguese becomes a guessing game, and we have to get them to repeat things multiple times (which thankfully they are graciously willing to do). And we get to learn again to laugh at ourselves…because 4 of our kids are with various language snafus…and once we figure out what we said wrong it is very funny usually…but as any language learner will tell you, in the moment it is always incredibly embarrassing and yet another good opportunity to be taught humility. Our fifth child wants to know everything everyone is saying and has a hard time just not knowing and having to be told by us that we also don’t understand or that it is very hard to always try to translate everything we think (key word being think) we understand especially when it doesn’t connect to him.

But all in all, we are very thankful, very grateful, and very blessed. The Lord has been and continues to be gracious! Through the laughter, the embarrassment, and the tears (both internal and external), He faithfully upholds and sustains us. We are very grateful for His mercies that are new every morning.