Transition. Travel. Time’s up! Our year-long language study here in Portugal has come to an end, and our adventure in Mozambique is just about to start! We are excited, nervous, and hopeful. Steve is ready to get in the air! I am ready to be settled. The girls are excited about… well, whatever we are excited about 🙂
We all completed our last days of language school this past week. What an accomplishment and great feeling to finally be done! Steve completed the B1+ level, and I completed the B1 level. Both are at the intermediate level. We learned grammar structure, how to write sentences, reading, pronunciation, verbal communication, and Portuguese history and culture. What a rich foundation to our Portuguese language journey! I can honestly say that we are conversational, and yet we are humbly reminded each day that we still have much to learn. This evening, our graduation was held in a ceremonial room in the Faculdade de Letras building where we studied all year. Bekah and Hannah finished their last day of school with homemade brownies for their classmates and little gifts, thank you notes, and pictures for all of their teachers. Bekah’s pre-school and Hannah’s daycare were much more than a place we could take the girls to be cared for while we attended class. The girls also received rich Portuguese teaching. They were immersed each day in the language and absorbed their environment, as little ones do so well. Bekah learned how to do little science experiments, make a camera out of a cardboard box, and bake a cake all in Portuguese. She learned how to communicate with her friends to share toys, swings, and hair bows. Her creativity and curiosity grew as a pre-schooler, but also as a little bi-lingual learner. Hannah grew from crawling to walking, baby food to little sandwiches, and shaking rattles to shaking her little hips to Portuguese kids music. Her only clear word is still “Olá” (hello). If you tell her to “anda cá,” she will indeed “come here.” She hates to be told to “senta-se” (sit down) and will cry when she hears the word “não” (no). If you bring your face close to her and say “beijinhos” she will give you a little kiss. Her Portuguese language learning foundation has probably surpassed us all 😉
What an incredible year it has been. The transition overseas has been more wonderful and more difficult than I expected. However, it has still ended up being more rewarding than I imagined and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Culture shock is a funny thing, as I have mentioned in the previous blog post. When we first arrived in June, we loved everything about Portugal (the classic honeymoon phase). Then, about 3 months into it, everything that was a little annoying before, became really frustrating and nearly disheartening. Thankfully, that phase didn’t last more than a few months, and we were able to finally come to terms with the “change the things you can, accept the things you can’t, and have wisdom to know the difference” (from the Serenity prayer). In January, I finally found where I could buy certain foods that I thought were just absent from the country (ie: bacon, decent ground beef, microwave popcorn, etc..). I learned short cuts home from school and started driving to places by myself. I learned which grocery line to go in, and which to steer clear from. I might miss my bus, but then realize why (or not) and be ok with it instead of overly frustrated and mad. Hannah started sleeping through the night (KEY!) and so did I. I started running again. I started getting back into spending time each morning in prayer and reading my Bible instead of just when I had time. I started to find balance. I started feeling a bit more healthy physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I started making this place home. And about 2 months ago, it hit me that we were moving again and I would miss our new home. So, I started to love (verb) everything I loved… spending more time with those things, those people, those moments. Because when this precious chapter is over, it’s those things/ people/ places that I will miss. The annoying things will be a distant memory, but my heart will ache for…
My Friday morning coffee/ Bible study girlfriends, my international fellow Portuguese language study buddies Eri (from Japan) and Ela (from Poland)
The view from our window at home. It still takes my breath away… every. single. time.
Date night. A reliable baby-sitter, the safety of going out at night, delicious international cuisine restaurants, the endless streets we could walk at night with beautiful scenery, history, and adventure.
These are just a few things that I will miss about Portugal. But probably the thing I will miss the most? How we grew as a family together. The frustrating times, the happy times, the growing times. The Hannah-learning-to-walk times, the Bekah-climbing-out-her-window-to-say-“hi”-to-the-chickens time, the breakfast-in-bed-Mother’s-Day time, the we’re-late-to-school-so-let’s-run-up-the-hill-as-fast-as-we-can times, the tickles-on-the-bed times, etc… You get it 🙂 But the good thing is, as we pack and sort and have to decide on what we can take to Mozambique and what we can’t, we will always be able take our memories with us wherever we go. Because home is not a place. Home is where my family is.
See you on the flip side!
The Simpson Scoop 