Archive | family

love from Sicily

December 1, 2011 at 5:49 pm

Well, we’re here! Finally back in sweet Sicily, a lovely land that turned lush and green with autumnal rains in our absence. Right now Elliott and I are in the library on base, enjoying the internet for the first time in 3 days. Lena is crawling around as quickly as she can, smiling at the librarians and other visitors. A couple just walked in that haven’t seen her in 4 months and stopped to marvel at how much she’s grown up.

Four months! It has been 4 months since we first arrived on the island. A month and a half in Sicily, and then two and a half months in the U.S. for Elliott’s training… and now we’re back at last to set up house here.

House. Well, folks, you should see it. It’s chaos right now. We arrived in Sicily on Tuesday, slept for 12.5 hours that night in the hotel (!), and then on Wednesday morning the movers arrived with all our boxes. They brought everything crate by crate (7 in all) to our front door, and each crate was strapped in the back of a little pick-up truck because that was the largest size of car that could make it up the narrow streets of our Italian town to our front door. The entire process took from 9am-4:30pm because of the long lull between when each crate was finished and when the next one arrived. We thought we were all set at about 3pm but then realized we were missing some “valuable items.” The movers insisted we go through every box after that to find the valuable things, and we finally found them after we went through each box the third time. Our house looks like a bomb exploded in it. Gaaaah! But at least we can live in this state for long, so it’s highly motivating for us to get moved in quickly.

Today Elliott and I made a huge dent in organizing our kitchen (the most important room in the house, of course) and it looks so much better. I also met up with friends for a playgroup; it’s so good to see those friendly faces again and get back into the community. We also did a massive grocery shopping trip and–

— sorry, Lena found someone’s hair clip on the library floor and was eating it. Gross. Rescued.

Anyway, life is up in the air right now. We have no internet yet, which is why we’re at the library at 5:45pm. I also have no cell phone, but that should change soon, we hope. But we can see shepherds herding sheep on the hills from our bathroom window, and we heard a distant cock crow this morning as we woke up with the sunrise streaming into our bedroom. I can watch horses graze and Mt Etna smoke gently from my enormous kitchen window. We really are living in Italy. It’s a dream. It’s happening!

4 :: in family, home sweet home, Italy, Sicily, thoughts

headed back to Italy

November 28, 2011 at 5:18 am

Unbelievably, our time in the States has come to a close. Tomorrow morning we fly back to Sicily! I am both thrilled and miserable, realizing that all these happy days (especially those filled with family) are over. Now we’re moving back to a new community, a new home, a new culture, a new life.

This past week has been wonderful and filled with family. So many gatherings around dinner tables, so many games, so much conversation, so many snuggles of a beloved granddaughter/niece/daughter. The big news around here is that the Garber family gained a sister this week… Jonathan proposed to Erika! And tonight our little Lena was baptized at our church on Capitol Hill, a big celebration which many of our dear friends and all of our family attended. There are so many photos to share! But I’ll leave you with one of the best photos from the weekend: an aunt and her niece, both in cozy onesies. Quite indicative of the coziness of our Thanksgiving week.

Internet will be spotty the next few days as we travel and then set up house. I’ll share as I can. Hopefully (… fingers crossed!) I’ll be getting a new iPhone with video capabilities, so we’ll see if that leads to even more fun updates from across the pond. Sicily, we’re coming home!

11 :: in family, friends, holidays, home sweet home, Italy, Sicily, travel, Virginia

headed back to Italy

November 28, 2011 at 4:18 am

5 :: in family, friends, holidays, home sweet home, Italy, Sicily, travel, Virginia

a day to be thankful

November 24, 2011 at 5:18 pm

a visit to Israel with our 2-month-old daughter

This morning I woke up remembering last year. That Thanksgiving was a difficult day in this house. Elliott was on a one-year deployment in Egypt, I was 5 months pregnant with our little Lena, my grandmother died around 2am in Cincinnati, my entire family was with her except me, and I got up at 6:30am to get my dad’s phone call about my grandmother and then went in to work a 12-hour shift in the ICU.

It was a rough Thanksgiving. Although even then Elliott and I sought every reason to be thankful, we were very ready to pass that day by and look to the future.

Now we’re living the future, and we are together. Waking up next to Elliott instead of thousands of miles away from him… can’t ever take that for granted again! And now there’s Lena, too, our snuggle muffin and little joy. Although the difficulties of last year will always be with us (I miss my grandmother so much, I’ll never have a “newlywed year” with Elliott, etc.), God has indeed replaced a lot of our struggles with rich blessings and much joy these days. Take none of it for granted!

Is this Thanksgiving a special one of joy, or one in the middle of a year that you’re ready to see end? Life isn’t always “peachy keen,” I know. I’d love to hear about your joys and your struggles this year, knowing they often come hand in hand.

0 :: in family, holidays, thoughts

a day to be thankful

November 24, 2011 at 4:18 pm

a visit to Israel with our 2-month-old daughter

It was a rough Thanksgiving. Although even then Elliott and I sought every reason to be thankful, we were very ready to pass that day by and look to the future.