Finally, another post

First of all, we need to apologize for not writing for over a month!! We were battling health problems, closing out the first quarter, and planning for field trip week all at once. But that is no excuse for not keeping you posted on all our fun and adventures. So, here's to make up for lost time.

Four major happenings.
Happening #1 Decorating our first home!!! Kyle had seen a picture on my sister-in-law's website that inspired him. He showed me and I got inspired, so I painted our living room. Kyle also wanted to spice up our corner table so he found a sweet looking stick in our yard and placed it between a lot of our wedding pictures. My next task is the bedroom.....wait until you see it!!!

Happening #2…closing out the first quarter. Grades Grades Grades. Oh my goodness we had to write so many reports for grades! And you can't just write the same for everyone, you have to make it personal. It's nice communicate to parents how their children are doing, but it takes FOREVER!! My students are wonderful and I love to talk about them. I love each one of the little rascals! They are sweet, kind, hilarious, and so darn cute! It's hard to ever be mad at them because of their cute little faces. Dimples, missing front teeth, puppy dog eyes, you name and I have it! We are in the middle of studying oceans/water. I will show pictures of all their ocean animals and water experiments soon.

Happening #3…Field Trip Week. Every year the entire school PreK-Grade 12 goes on a week long field trip in the middle of September. Each grade goes to a different place(s) in Southern India. My class gets the pleasure of going to Poondi Camp. The school owns a wilderness campus 2 ½ hours from Kodai in a town called Poondi. Since my kids are so young still (8 or 9 years old) we only went for 3 days. We had an absolute blast!!! Field Trip week is not just a random week off of school between quarters, it's an extension of the learning that takes place in the classroom. The kids were able to experience a wide range of activities at camp: Zip line, rock climbing, archery, team building to learn the importance of communication, hiking, getting lost on a hike and having to find their way out of the woods, how to make rope from leaves, making a fire, rafting, and creating team songs and skits to go along with all they learned. On Thursday, we took the kids to the lake here in Kodai to go boating and had so much fun. Friday was a recovery day because we were so tired! Overall, camp was amazing and we can't wait for next year!

Happening #4…Subduing the jungle. Kyle got inspired yet again to fix up the house. There is a jungle in our back yard with weeds taller than my 6'4" husband. He took our machete and went to work tearing out all the craziness back there. Now we have a pleasant little spot where he would like to plant a garden. While I'm painting the bedroom, he'll be planting a garden of string beans, broccoli, carrots, and who knows what else. Luckily for us, we don't get monkeys or bison around our house like all of our friends. We only have to worry about the darn crows that are always on the roof.

I promise it won't be another month and a half before you hear from us again.

Lynea

P.S. Check out our new picture links at the top, on the left or click here to see some of our newest ones.  Also, look below to see more of our living room transformation!

Lynea Transforming Our Living Room!!

pomegranates are so good!

with all the things that have been happening in our lives for the past few weeks, I might actually be most excited about the pomegranate that I (kyle) just ate.  I'm not sure how I missed out on these heavenly fruits back in the states.  maybe I didn't know about them or just didn't look on the right aisle, but i would encourage anyone who is reading this to stop, leave your computer, find the nearest fruit stand or grocery store, purchase a half dozen pomegranates, come back to the computer and finish reading the blog while enjoying this incredible fruit.  Go!!...

ok, so hopefully you have a pomegranate by now, but if not, make sure that you find one soon.  i can't get over how much i enjoy this fruit now.  it looks like a normal fruit,

 similar to an orange or an apple in shape.  but once you open

 the outer layer, you don't just find one piece of fruit like a banana or even a few pieces like an orange, but you find hundreds of little tasty treats (called arils) just waiting to be consumed by an appreciative mouth.  the color of the aril is bright red (looks to good to be true) , the taste is so sweet and yet, it is quite healthy.  ok, enough about pomegranates.  but seriously, it will enrich your life.(transition into what we've been doing)...

Lynea has been doing an incredible job with with the 3rd and 4th grade.  and i'm not just saying that because she's my wife.  i've been down to see her in the classroom a few times, and the kids absolutely adore her.  they are like little sponges, excited to learn and soak up everything that she presents.  the only thing the kids get in trouble for is getting out of their seats while raising their

hand because they are so desperate to answer the question.  they make little noises...oooh oooh oooh, me me me, aaah aaah aaa

h.  if only we could all maintain that excitement and desire for learning throughout our lifetime.  as for me, i've been teaching some middle school classes and coordinating events for the exchange program.  i've been able to visit 2 orphanages in the past couple weeks (a boys one and a girls one) with some of the exchange students from the Netherlands. 

 everytime i visit a place like that, i find myself remembering my first experience with an orphanage in honduras when i was 19.  it changed my life forever.  it's the reason that i began traveling, the reason i married the girl that i married (because we have a heart for the same things) and the reason that we came here.  i know it might sound absurd that i would attribute

 my life now to a 2-week trip i took 5 years ago, but it was during that trip that i began to think more deeply about my life.  and it was all because of the kids.  out of all the huge and catastrophic things that are going on in life, maybe the most profound thing we can do is spend time with children, who don't seem to be worried about the election or global warming or the next paycheck.  sure, some can be quite selfish and bratty, but what i saw in honduras the first time and what i've seen at the 2 orphanages and even in my classes since i've been here is beautiful.  i'm not saying that everyone must go to a different country or to a foster home or an orphanage in order to solve your problems or

 experience true joy.  but maybe we all should consider what it means to become like a child.  they seem more worried about who's it during tag than if they'll have a meal on the table at night.  and even though these kids that i hung out with the past couple of weeks initially appear to have less than me (seeing that there's 32 of them in each home that's only slightly bigger than the one the 2 of us stay at), i think they actually have more of what really counts.  some are there because of the tsunami that wiped out their home.  some are their because their parents died or couldn't take care of them.  and yet you would think by their smiles and laughter that nothing had ever happened.  so may we all be more care-free, laughing and smiling more often.  may we gain a deeper sense of trust in God, finding fulfillment in the simple things in life.  and may we understand even better what it means to become like a child and see with our new kingdom eyes.

i just heard lynea say buuuurrrrr, and so i took the cue and put another blanket over her.  she's in bed not feeling so well.  she threw up last night, and i must say that it was pretty good for a girl.haha.  we're getting along fine and i'm learning how to be a better, more nurturing husband (i know that nurturing is motherly word, but she is sick and i feel that i'm giving her that type of love).  we don't really have a given set of responsibilities so far.  we trade off and switch it up often.  i usually make breakfast and she usually makes dinner.  though this could be switched depending on the day.  i did the shopping at the open air market today, though she's better at it.  we like to do most things together, seeing that we haven't even been married for 3 months (feels like 10 years...in a good way).  we have 2 bathrooms, one we use for the toilet (bec

ause the shower head points directly on the toilet seat) and one we use for showering (imagine a shower head placed randomly in your kitchen and turned on without a shower curtain...ya, everything gets soaked including the other toilet that we use for decoration).  but, although we have 2 bathrooms, we only have one bar of soap we share.  sometimes we realize that the bar of soap is in the other bathroom after we're soaking wet, trying to share the hot water that doesn't last too long.  no need to be worried, though.  this is one marital crisis that can be solved by a quick game of rock, paper, scissors (the loser has to run out of the warm, steam-filled bathroom to the other freezing cold one, retrieve the soap and come back).  come to think of it, a lot of things in life could be solved by a quick series of rock, paper, scissors.  or maybe we should just 

buy another bar of soap.  on that strange note (i'm trying to be somewhat open about our lives without going over the top), thanks for reading our update and being a part of our lives.  thanks for all of your prayers.  pray that lynea gets well soon!  we love you.

kyle and lynea

We're here!!

We made it!!! 56 hours later we made it to Kodaikanal.  Our house is perfect...well almost perfect.  Our showers make the entire bathroom wet, the toilets leak, and the power goes out on average all the time. But, it's perfect.  We love it. We cannot wait until our shipment comes so we can finish decorating and really settle in.  So far we have met a few new staff that we have connected very well with.   There are people here from all over the world!  I think there's about 40 or so nationalities represented between the staff and students.

Right now, we're going to lots of meetings, learning about our new responsibilities and trying to get over jet lag.  Lynea will be teaching grades 3 and 4 (they're combined) and I will be taking over the foreign ex

change program at the school as well as teaching a few middle school RE (religious education) courses.  It might not sound overwhelming, but I assure you it is!

Altogether, though, things are turning out quite nice and we are excited to see what God has planned for this season of our lives.

Uh oh.  I just got a call informing me that I do in fact need antibiotics!  Indian food is good to the taste but extremely hard on the stomach and I'm already having my fair share of aches.  Pray for us to get well soon, since Lynea is in bed not feeling well either.

Anyway, that's it for now.  We love ya.

Kyle and Lynea

Leaving...

We are sitting in the Orlando airport waiting to start our 50 hour journey to Kodaikanal.  I can't even begin to explain the emotions running through us.  We're excited, nervous, joyful, sad, and can't wait to jump in the puddles that this adventure brings us.  Before we leave American soil...I have to take a second to say Thank You. Thank you to our family for loving and supporting us.  And thank you to our friends for loving and supporting us.  Thank you to anyone who has offered encouragement, prayer, financial support, emotional support, or a hug along the way. We could not be doing this without you.  

We have successfully packed up our life in one shipment (that will arrive in about a month), four check in bags, two carry on bags and two instrument cases (that will hopefully arrive with us in India!!!!)  Packing up puts your life in a sort of perspective.  As you sift 

through your room full of memories, it reminds you of 

where you've been, where you are and as you shove it all in a suitcase...where you are going.