April 19th, 2012 by Kim

Days here in Zilina are still cold. We keep waiting and hoping for some spring-like weather. It does comes, on occasion, but is gone again as fast as it showed!

This week we are happy to have a bit of a “slower” week. Normal teaching for me, normal school for the kids, and “normal” office hours for Zac. It’s nice to be normal once in a while!

Last Friday we  had another meeting for our “middle-school” group, eMKo, here at our house. We are so thankful to have dedicated leaders, Dusko and Anicka, as well as a commited group of students that come. We continue to pray this will be the time they hear something new that changes their life forever.

Also last week, the girls’ loft bed was finished and finally installed! I really have to commend them on their patience through the whole process. It has been almost 4 months since we have been back in Slovakia and nearly 2 months in our new house. It looks even better than we imagined it and it gives them so much more space.  We continue to unpack boxes and “accessorize” our house week by week 🙂

I continue to pray for the Kids’ school. Classes are more and more difficult, It’s not 1st grade any more! I’m impressed to see their commitment to studying,  preparing for  classes and for the extra hours of tutoring. I was encouraged when Emili came home last week and said, “I wrote my first essay in Slovak language”; pretty impressive. I was equally impressed when she told me Monday morning before she left for school that she arranged to have an extra tutor session on that day (Monday) to prepare for an upcoming test. Responsible. Fourteen. I’m impressed!

Her sister isn’t far behind her in impressing me however, Gwyneth doesn’t seem to have to study nearly as much (isn’t it like that in most families). Her brother also seems to give little effort in obtaining good marks. His battle comes in the form of attention span and focusing.

All in all, I couldn’t be more proud of my little bi-lingual family. I am proud they know Slovak so well (much better than their mom).  I am proud when people see how happy and content they are to live here in Slovakia. I am proud when we are considered  by Slovaks to be “normal”.  Sometimes normal is good.