Posts by Jen

A Day at the Park

I’ve decided to start being better at taking Maisie to the park due to the fact that she is pretty much a lonely little puppy here. Daily she asks to play with friends. Daily she talks about her cousin Avery. Daily she asks if she is going to go to school. We tried to get her in school, but they are full and we are now on a waiting list. These are a couple of pics of  her yesterday after a little girl ran away from her in a square we were eating in. She was sad, needless to say. So with all this sadness and two year old depression going on, I decided I needed to be better about getting her around other friends and hopefully I can make a couple as well. Let’s just say that our first day at the park wasn’t the most successful. First of…

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Apartments, apartments, apartments!!!

First of all, we aren’t living in that little piece of you know what apartment anymore where it hurts my pregnancy parts to get out of bed! YAY!!! We moved into this fantastic little studio where rent is actually CHEAPER and the apartment is way CLEANER (and sort of stylish as well, which is a bonus)! We have neighbors here who have a couple kids that Maisie likes to play with, so that’s great too! Here are some pics of the apartment we now live in: Here is Maisie passed out in her little makeshift bed! Justin laying on the bed. Yes, his feet hang over the edge! Haha! Our little kitchen area This pic shows the “dining area” as well as the work station and behind that screen thing is a small little couch that turns into the bed you saw Maisie passed out on! It’s a great little…

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Getting on with Life

I am so happy to finally be getting on with life. For some reason, while I am in transition, it feels like I am paralyzed and can’t possibly have a routine (not that I like them anyways) or meet new people or do anything really outside my comfort zone. It is almost like I just have to survive and for some reason, that is good enough for me. I’m not saying it is the right thing to do, but it is the way I naturally function. Now that we have arrived in Spain I feel like I can get on with life again. I have been so happy to meet new people and start making friends. Just today I visited with two different women that I met at the park Maisie was playing at. They happened to be “on holiday” and not living in Barcelona, but I chatted with them…

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Honeymoon stage

I do realize that I am still in the honeymoon stage of cultural transition, but I am lovin’ it! We’ve been very busy “setting up home” without even having a home (as we are living in a temporary place right now), but living in Europe has allowed us (forced us almost) to spend more time together as a family. I think that’s probably what I am enjoying the most. Plus, Spain just feels right. We feel like we have found a European city where we “fit” and “belong” and that feels great!! Here are some pics of the last couple days.

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My Pregnancy Pains

Such an adventure. I remember being about seven months pregnant with Maisie and literally running/wobbling full speed to catch a bus or metro in order to not be late for our appointment to look at an apartment. We did this for a couple weeks before we found the right apartment. This time around is almost no different. We are looking for an apartment again, but this time around I am six months pregnant instead of seven. It also feels like the the baby might just shoot out at any point when I try to run across a street or run to catch a bus. I don’t remember that feeling with Maisie. On just a normal day in “the OC” I would complain to my sister that “my regions hurt.” Yeah, she would make fun of me and tell me to be quiet because people could hear! Well, now I am…

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Random update and thoughts

Because I haven’t written in forever, I’m going to give a quick update of our life. -I am now 24 weeks pregnant (which is about 5 1/2 months) with a little boy! -We’ve been waiting for Maisie’s visa to be approved so we can leave for Spain (a little later than our original thoughts of being there the end of July). -While we wait we are staying with my sister and her husband and two kids in their living room on air mattress and couch. -My roots are beginning to show like crazy and I am looking pretty whiskey tango (an important to me topic). -I have no idea where I will give birth in Spain and this brings a little bit of anxiety to the mix. -Maisie is supposed to start school in Barcelona in September, but we might have to hold off on that so she isn’t dealing…

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Missing home and not even gone yet

I value honestly and authenticity and I know that can be dangerous, especially if I decide to be those things on my blog, but oh well, it’s who I am, so therefore, I have to be honest. I have to think that other people in ministry go through the same things as I do and so I will write about what I am dealing with these days. I’ve been REALLY struggling with the idea of going back to Europe this time. It isn’t that I don’t love Europe or don’t see the need to be in Europe or that I feel like God hasn’t done amazing things to get us to Europe. It is just that I am terribly afraid of loneliness in Europe. I am also feeling anxiety about having this baby in Europe (yes, I am 12 weeks pregnant!). Every time Justin and I (and Maisie too) have…

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