More on Camping

The camping trip I just returned from was run by an organization called World Challenge, and took place on Alladale Wildlife Reserve.

Twenty-two kids ages 13-14, 3 adults, and one 16 year old helper, all from Dornoch, attended the trip. The leaders from World Challenge were very focused on making sure the kids learned a lot by trial and error and worked through the difficulties they come across as a team, with little to no interference from the adults. Translation: I didn't have to do much.

I stayed in a tent with another girl about my age who works for the school. Have you ever met a stranger and then had to share a tent with them for a week, as well as deal with all the other challenges that come with wild camping? It's a situation that could prove to be awkward. But it couldn't have been better; we got along so well and were able to laugh a lot which, I found, was a necessity.

Besides dealing with our own tent and camping equipment, the kids did all the other camping jobs for us. They cooked and cleaned up, they did the navigating when we were backpacking, they led the group and made most of the decisions. It was pretty stress free. Well, I take it back, this aspect of the trip was slightly stressful. Especially finding a spot that was discrete. But, we all had to do it, so it got less awkward as the week progressed.

Here are a few photos from Day 1:
This is the team of kids I was with; they were getting all the intro information and basics of what the week would entail. That's why they look bored.

The tents, aka my home for a week:

Our campsite the first and last nights was next to a beautiful river and some falls:




I found myself continually overwhelmed with the beauty of our surroundings. It was magnificent. With all the challenges, it was such a privilege to be able to be a part of this trip. Would I do it again? Yup. I think knowing what to expect and how to be prepared would help a lot.

More to come on the animals we encountered (including the really annoying ones)and the fun activities.

Back from the Wild

I made it. I survived 5 nights and 5.5 days in the wild outdoors. I didn't step foot in a building other than a tent for the entire time. I've never spent that much time outside in my life.

It was an awesome trip. Challenging, yes, but really great. Thanks to all of you who prayed, I'm happy to report, there was no illness, scorching sun for two days, and it only rained for two of the evenings and a couple of hours during one day. That, in Scotland, is weather near perfection. The other thing I was worried about was that the battery in my electric toothbrush would last the entire week; my teeth and I are happy to report that it did.

I've never been so glad to see running water in my entire life. The first thing I did when I walked into our house was turn on the tap and drink directly from it. Then I used the bathroom. INSIDE! These are amazing things I'll never take for granted ever again.

I'm sure I'll be posting lots of stories and photos from the trip, but I'll start you off with before and after photos of me.

This was taken the night before I left. Notice here the enthusiastic grin, the strong back able to hold all that weight in the backpack no problem, the clean clothes and hair. What you can't tell is that I smell clean also.


This was taken today, not long after I got to our house. Notice here that although I'm smiling, it's a bit less enthusiastic. Note also the sun-kissed nose and cheeks, droopy eyes, bag full of the dirtiest clothes (everything in the backpack was only slightly dirty), and sore muscles. What you can't tell from the photo (and be glad) is that I don't smell clean and my hair is so oily from not washing it for a week that it looks wet.


Really it was an amazing experience. I was so pleased to see that the kids who went on the trip learned tons and grew in so many ways.

Now it's time to sleep. In a bed. In a glorious bed with pillows. In a climate controlled environment. It's going to be a good night.

Away 'till the 7th

I'll be "under canvas" until Saturday. If you love me you'll pray for these things:
-no rain
-no illness'
-a scorching sun every day all week, because in Scotland that is a miracle.

I'll be back soon to fill you in on the adventure, because I have no doubt that it will be quite an adventure.

The word "challenge" should have clued me in.

James and I are both going camping next week. But we will be on different trips, very different trips.

Here's where I'll be. Did you check it out? See those nice rooms and the sauna, full gym, and even clay pigeon shooting?

Oh, wait, I'm actually on the Alladale Wilderness Reserve on the Alladale Challenge trip. Did you see the photo of the kids all bundled up in their rain suits? Yup, that'll be me all next week.

The secondary school (middle and high schools) in Dornoch asked James and I if we were interested in helping out with any of the school trips that were happening during the week where most kids can choose a school-sponsored trip to attend. Some are going to Belgium, France, or Denmark, others are staying in Scotland for camping style trips. Of course, there isn't a shortage of chaperone's on any of the international trips; shocking. We told the school just to sign us up wherever we were needed.

Giving someone else complete control over planning a week for me wasn't the best idea I've ever had.

My week will include living "under canvas" (who knows what that means), no showering (unless I want to wash in the river), digging a hole to use the toilet, and all sorts of other challenging outdoor experiences.

James' week includes sleeping inside on a bed and going to a theme park during the week.

Seriously though, even though I'll probably smell horrible, be very cold and wet the entire time, and pee on myself a couple of times (if only I knew about these in time to order them for the trip. darn.), I know it's going to be a great experience. I'm really looking forward to getting to know the girls that are going on the trip. The most important question many of the girls had was, "will we be able to take our hair straighteners?"

It will be a week sure to push us all pretty far out of our comfort zones.

Hi there. Let's get reacquainted.

I'd like to introduce myself, I'm the author of this blog, but you might not remember me, I've been away for quite some time.

If you look here, you'll find one of the reasons I've been MIA. When I wrote that post back in the beginning of April, I thought internet would be up and running in two weeks. That, I've found, was a gross underestimation. It has now been two months, and the possibility of internet access in our home is still barely visible on the horizon.

I'd tell you the ridiculous story of why our attempts at transferring internet to our new house has been foiled many, many times, but seriously, it's a horrible thing to even think of complaining about, when I have food, shelter, water, and lots of other stuff that so many people in the world only dream of having. I'm feeling slightly ashamed of my spoiled self at the moment, so let's move on.

Our trip home was AMAZING. Relaxing? Definitely not. Invigorating? Absolutely. We ran from social event to social event, soaked in the love of our family and friends, hugged at least a bajillion people, and totally crashed in the planes and airports on our way home to Dornoch. (Yes I did just call both places home, because at the moment, we have two homes. Kinda weird, but nice.)

Thanks to everyone at home for fitting us into your schedules and for making us feel so welcomed and missed, we miss you all so much! It felt like we'd barely been away.

So now what? Well, we've got about 15.5 months left of our two year commitment to live in Dornoch, Scotland and work with the kids here. It's going well so far; amazingly well, really. There are frustrations, of course, but those frustrations don't have anything to do with the kids we've gotten to know. They're all awesome!

Hopefully I'll be updating you more frequently, but I'm not making any promises. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

The Price of Petrol

Surprise, these might be the first positive comments you'll hear about gas prices (or petrol, as it's referred to in the UK). I'm thrilled that gas is only $3.50 here in Virginia, compared to about $10 per gallon in Scotland.

Here's my encouragement for you Americans for the next time you're filling up your tank: just remember it could always be worse, and for some people it already is.

Ahhhhh...

It's so great to be home. I can't express the joy and relief I felt when our flight from Edinburgh landed in Newark, New Jersey. No, New Jersey is not home, but it is America, and it was an amazing feeling just to be in America.

The first 5 days of being home in Richmond were a whirlwind. Mostly they were filled with lots of fun wedding activities for our great friends Blair and Zach's wedding. It's been wonderful to see so many of our friends and family. And the weather, oh, it's been so relaxing, I'm soaking it in and wishing I could store it up for later.

We'll be here for another 9 days, the schedule is pretty packed, we're hoping to fit in a couple hours of relaxation at some point. If we don't find that time, it's alright, being exhausted is totally worth the craziness of running around like mad people spending time with the people we love.

Hope to see you while we're here!

Two Weeks Until I'm At HOME!

In exactly two weeks we will be about to land in Newark, NJ to then transfer to a flight that will take us to the very best place in the world...RICHMOND, VIRGINIA!!!

I can not wait for our visit. It's going to be so great.

James and I are in a wedding and there will be all kinds of fun wedding festivities to partake in, which are always a good time. I'll get to hug so many wonderful people and I'm sure will cry tons of happy tears. I'll also get to go to all of my own doctors, such a treat! I've avoided any sort of medical office here, not wanting to have to get used to a new doctor, never any fun.

And most importantly, I've got a running list of restaurants we will be visiting. You want to see us? Let me know and I'll give you a choice of restaurants you can meet us at!

See you soon!

WOO-HOO!!!!!!!

I'm so stoked for Val and Ross! They're having their first baby! Seriously I want to tell everyone I know, even the people here in Dornoch who have know clue who they are, because, I'm sure they'll be absolutely thrilled for them, how could you not!?!

You need to add the two blogs linked to, to your list of blogs you read, because it's sure to be an adventure you won't want to miss.

I can't wait to hold little Catrow and snuggle against his/her wonderful baby smelling head!

The Joys of Moving

I Probably won't be around much in the next, oh, 10-15 days. That's how long it takes to transfer our internet service to a house 6 doors down.

But there are many many positives to our move, so I'll accept the inconvenience of limited internet access with a smile.

Moving Day

Tomorrow we're moving from our current house to a new one that's only 6 houses down. There are a few different reasons for this, and the new house is an answer to all those!

Today we've packed up pretty much everything in record time; it only took about 4 hours. I was thinking back to all the places I've lived and times I've moved, it's really quite ridiculous. This will be the 14th place I've lived in the last 10 years, and (including all the times I've gone from college to home for the summers, and back to college again) I've physically moved all my possessions 18 times. Nineteen if you count moving half of our possessions into storage before we came to Scotland.

I say "I've" moved my possessions, but that is actually very inaccurate. The one person who has been there for every single move is my Dad; my Mom has been there for almost all of them, and James was there for all the ones since we started dating. So really, there's no way I could've moved myself even once without those people. Thanks you three, and to the many others who have helped us move!

Shattered

Scots use this word as as a descriptor when one is exhausted to the point of uselessness. Shattered would be an accurate way to describe my state at the moment.

The past week has been hectic, inspiring, stressful, encouraging, joyful, sad, exciting, and jam-packed; overall, completely awesome. We just got back from dropping off the 12 team members from our church in Richmond at the Edinburgh airport. I'm in desperate need of a nap.

The American's are Here!

I've been MIA. It's because there are TWELVE Americans here in Dornoch! Those 12 Americans are all from our home church in Richmond, Virginia. And of those 12, they are all awesome friends of ours, one of them is James' mom! It's absolutely amazing. The only thing that would make it better is if my family was here too. After they leave and I have more than ten minutes to sit down in one place, I'll update you about what we've been doing and how fabulous the week has been!

Air-Con

That's how people here refer to air conditioning, or A/C as we would say. Air-con isn't used much, actually next to never. I was surprised to find that our car doesn't have it, neither do any cars that I've ever ridden in. My spoiled American question was, "well what do you do if there's a really hot day?." One answer would be, roll down the window. The Scottish answer would be, "what does a really hot day feel like?" Most houses don't have it either.

I went to a gym tonight with a couple of friends. During my introduction session, the girl showing us around told us all about the air-con and how it helps to keep the place from smelling. She also made sure we knew not to open the windows, or we'd just be negating the effects of the air-con and wasting money. I realized that even though that's common sense for people who live in a society used to air-con, it probably wouldn't cross the minds of people here.

It makes me wonder how many things are common sense to Scots that I have no idea about. I'll never know exactly how many times I've made a fool of myself when i didn't have a clue about something that is common knowledge. Scots are just too kind to call me out on these things.

It was St. Patrick's Day?

I didn't even realize yesterday was St. Patrick's day until I saw mention of it in a Richmond, Virginia newspaper online. If I were in America, there's no way I could get past the day and forget it was time to drink green beer, pinch every person not wearing green, or dress up like a leprechaun.

I would have thought that being so close to Ireland, it would be a fairly popular celebration here in Scotland. I guess not.

Maybe there are more Irish people in America than in Scotland. Or maybe America is overtaken by commercialism, or has more people that need an excuse to have a party. Even though I've never done much to celebrate the day, I miss at least acknowledging that it was St. Patrick's Day, especially with a last name like Murphy.

just a few more London photos

I know, I know, it's been a month since we left for our vacation to London, and I'm still talking about it. The only excuses for the numerous posts about this trip are that it was fabulous, and vacations for us are few and far between. If you're bored of it, just hold out for a few days until I update you on something current.

This guy was guarding Parliament. I was pretty intimidated, but I guess not too much since I felt comfortable asking to take his picture.

It's difficult to see in this photo, but toward the top left of this rack of meat, there was a bright orange thing. I have no idea what it was, but it was a bit frightening.

How cool is it that there is a Nags Head in London?

This place was a.mazing. It's the entrance to Westminster Cathedral, not to be confused with Westminster Abbey (the cathedral is Roman Catholic, the abbey is Church of England). The inside is covered in mosaics that were just unbelievable. I'd show you pictures of them, but if I took any they would've kicked me out.

The End.

When Stress is Funny

James has decided he wants me to be his hairdresser. This totally stresses me out. To date, I've given him three haircuts; each one is preceded by about a week of him begging me to do it and me procrastinating and making excuses. He's all into how much money this will save us over the next however many years, especially if we have a gaggle of little boys and I cut their hair too. While I'm all for saving money, I've never been inclined to be a beautician in the past, and don't have any sort of urge to now.

Today was a haircut day. I get so stressed out about it, thinking I'm going to screw up, that I can't hold in my nervous laughter. I have to keep telling him, "I can't help laughing, it's not because I've messed up, I just can't help it" Cutting his hair totally gives me the giggles.

You should see the scissors I have to use, it's the tiny kind you'd use to cut nose hairs with. You'd laugh too.

Month Six

In a way it's hard to believe today marks 6 whole months in Scotland, but in a way I'm wondering how it hasn't been 12 months. Isn't time funny like that?

That means we've reached the 25% mark of the time we've committed to be here. Unbelievable. It helps me put into perspective how much stuff can happen in a short period of time, as well as how fast time can get away from you.

I'm stoked to be here, but I'm also stoked to be going home. It's so bizarre to, at the same time, be glad that the time has passed quickly, knowing we're that much closer to going home, and also be disappointed that it's flying by, knowing we're that much closer to leaving here. Kinda makes my head go in circles if I think about it too much.

Best thing I've heard all day.

"I wish I could have jelly beans for peas, lollies (lollipops) for broccoli, and chocolate for bacon. I do like bacon, I just wish bacon was made out of chocolate."
-said by a 7 year old boy from Dornoch

An Eye?

They call it the London Eye, but it looks like a ferris wheel to me. This monstrosity was built for the millennium and over 3 million people take a ride on it every year. Apparently the view from one of the capsules is incredible but we didn't want to pay $60 to ride on a ferris wheel.

Babies All Over the Place

I was thinking today how I know tons of people who are pregnant with their first baby right now. I guess I'm just at that age where people start having babies. It was like that year after we got married; we called it, "the year of the wedding." We went to 12 weddings that year.

My one friend's due date is tomorrow, so she could be in labor as I type! She and I have been friends since the third grade.

This friend is due later in March. Here are some fun photos of us from our crazy high school and college days.

She has about a month and a half to go. We were in a Bible study together in Richmond, now neither of us live there!

This is a couple we met when we were going through training in Belgium to come to Scotland. They're in Spain.

There's a second couple who we met the same way, they're in Spain too and they're about 3 months ahead of the couple above.

Then there's a girl I went to high school with; we played soccer and field hockey together. She's one of the funniest people I know; she she's about 3 months along I think.

My pharmacist in Richmond, aka the best pharmacist ever, is due in June. She's been a gem and helped me stay seizure free by sending me my meds every momth.

I don't know this couple in the real world, but I've been reading about them for a while and pray for them all the time so I feel like I kinda know them, even though they have no idea who I am.

There are even three ladies I know here in Dornoch who are pregnant, but not with their first. Also, there's a couple who just had their first baby.

Babies are such a wonderful miracle. I'm so excited for all these ladies and their husbands!

London Bridges

There are tons of bridges in London. I would guess this one is the most recognizable, it's called the London Tower Bridge:

This was inside one of those long passageways that you see in the other picture between the two towers.

This was in the old engine room when they used to use hydaulic pumps to open the drawbridge. It was pretty impressive.

We were inspired by this example of dress at the time of the bridge's construction and are considering changing our style, what do you think?

Now That's a Flood Wall.

When we told James' aunt, who lives in London, that we visited the Thames Barrier and actually enjoyed it, she thought we were a little crazy. But really, this is an amazing piece of work!

View of the front:

From the back:

New Orleans, take notes.

Richmond onThe James? Nope...This is Richmond on The Thames!

Richmond, a Borough of London, sits on the Thames River (in case you Americans are wondering, it's pronounced Temz). On our last day of sightseeing in London, James' aunt and uncle took us to Richmond for the sole purpose of seeing this spot that is the inspiration for the naming of our hometown of Richmond, Virginia.

Being there was one of the best moments of our trip. Standing in that park and understanding William Byrd's rationale for naming Richmond, and being able to feel as close to home as possible while standing in the UK, was priceless. I can't wait for the next time I'm able to stand where Byrd stood in Libby Hill Park in my old neighborhood of Church Hill, and look out at the bend in the James River where he was reminded of Richmond, London. It's going to be fabulous.



A view from the bike path.

This was written on a plaque in the park.

Another view.

Can you read this? It's some poetry written about Richmond, London.

Just in case you can't get enough (like I couldn't!) another view.

This totally describes how I feel about Richmond, Virginia.

See how fun it was to see this place?!

Welcome Dornoch Friends!

Just a note to say hello to all of you out there who live in Dornoch. I know you're out there, thanks for reading!

I also wanted to let you know that you don't have to be a lurker (check out that link for the definition). Leave me a comment, it's really easy, and I'd absolutely love to hear from you!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

I've yet to go through all the photos we took in London, so I'll begin with a story from the end of our trip: the journey home.

Have you ever seen this movie? While we didn't meet anyone like Steve Martin and John Candy's characters, it felt like we were living out that movie yesterday. It was quite an adventure.

The mix-up began a few weeks back when we were planning out our itinerary. I was going to go to this women's conference in Edinburgh, Scotland that began the day we were going to get back from London. We booked our return flight to arrive in Edinburgh, and then the conference filled up before I could reserve tickets for me and some other ladies. We were stuck with flying into Edinburgh instead of Inverness, Scotland, so we ended up being 3.5 hours from Dornoch, instead of an hour.

After researching all the options, we decided on taking the bus from Edinburgh to Inverness, it was way cheaper.

Here's a summary of our travels. For comparisons sake, I'll share the departure details:

Sunday, February 17th
2:00pm: drove to a friends home in Nairn. left our car at their house, they drove us to the Inverness airport.

5:00pm: boarded the plane and flew to London.

8:00pm: picked up by James' aunt and uncle, they drove us to our hotel. It was a simple and easy trip.


Friday, February 22nd
3:00am: woke up, met James' aunt and uncle in the hotel lobby who so kindly offered to make the hour trip to the airport at that ridiculous hour.

6:00am: boarded Easy Jet for a prompt 6:30 departure (we even had a row of three seats to ourselves!)

8:00am: arrived at the Edinburgh airport, settled into some comfy seats for a nap to wait for our bus departure at 10:20

10:05am: James saw a Megabus pull up outside. Made our way downstairs to get some good seats (good seats on a bus? definitely an oxymoron).

10:10am: arrived at the platform to realize the bus had already left (but our tickets listed a 10:20 departure)

10:15am: talked to an employee, found out Megabus doesn't depart from the Edinburgh airport, but we are supposed to take a shuttle bus appointed by Megabus to another stop on the other side of the Firth of Forth. From there we would take a second bus to the Megabus depot.

10:20am: called the help number that was displayed at the platform. the man said no buses were being allowed to travel over the Firth of Forth bridge for fear of accidents due to high winds. we realized traveling to Dornoch by bus wasn't going to happen any time that day. (we still don't know what the Megabus that pulled up at 10:05 was doing, and why it left so quickly)

10:40am: got on another bus that traveled into Edinburgh.

11:00am: got off at the stop past a train station. it was the stop past because the bus driver neglected to stop at the train station stop. walked/ran 5 blocks in the wind and rain to the train station.

11:20am: bought tickets for the train to Inverness

11:40am: boarded the train. read, took a nap, enjoyed the scenery. (it was pretty cool to ride over the Firth of Forth rail bridge)

3:18pm: arrived in Inverness. walked a couple of blocks to the bus depot.

3:44pm: got on the bus to Nairn to get our car.

4:20pm: got off the bus in Nairn. waited for our friend to pick us up. rode to their house 5 minutes down the road.

4:30pm: drove our car from Nairn to Dornoch.

5:45pm: arrived in Dornoch. grabbed some food.

6:00pm: headed to the church for Youth Clubs

10:00pm: home. to bed. glad the day was over.

We're Back

Vacation was awesome, I'm totally exhausted, I'll share some photos and stories later.

Goodnight.

VACATION!

We're leaving tomorrow for London for 5 nights! This will be the first real vacation we've had since our honeymoon in April of 2004. Even though we've done a bunch of traveling since then, and it's been great and we've loved having those opportunities, there've always been agendas that went along with those trips. Most of them had to do with prepping to come here, so there's been a large element of work to those trips.

A relative of James' was incredibly generous in giving us the hotel stay he had booked for himself after finding out he couldn't use it or get a refund. We'll also get to see James' aunt who lives in London.

James recommended we not take our computer. OMG! I'm not sure how we're going to do it, there might be some slight withdrawal, but it probably is a good idea. I think it will help us totally disconnect from regular life and just relax.

I'm stoked.

One of My Most Favorite Animals Ever

These are Highland Cows. They're native to the Highlands of Scotland (that's where we live). Highland calves have got to be the one of the cutest baby animals. I've never seen one of those in person but here's a photo of one. They just look so snuggly.

"Baby Bible Bashers"

We're watching this documentary on tv and I can hardly believe what I'm seeing. It's kind of nauseating.

The Amazing Race: Dornoch Edition

The schools were closed for a 5 day weekend (have you ever heard of such a thing when it wasn't for a holiday?!) so we planned an event for them on Monday. We wanted to do something in Inverness since there are so many shiny, flashy things that kids love to do there. Transportation is an issue though since our American licenses don't let us drive anything other than our car. So an event in Dornoch is what we planned.

Kids got to our house around 11:00, we divided into two teams, and they were given their instructions. They had 2 hours, 35 clues, and a camera to prove the team had figured out each clue.

Both mine and James' teams started out in full-out sprints. The running gradually tapered down, but the energy level stayed pretty high. We all had a great time. James' team won by two, but by the time we started eating our hot dogs and fries, they were all happy.

The day ended with football on the beach, and then pool, ping pong, and basketball at the church hall. We were so exhausted. It was a great day.

Here are some photos of my team (James' team only had camera phones) as well as a mini tour of Dornoch for you.

The docotor's office. It was a beautiful SUNNY day!

This is called "Grants." It's the larger of the two markets in town.

Behind the kids is some of the newest construction in Dornoch, condos in the main town square.

Everybody calls this "little spar." It's the smaller of the two markets.

On the left is the Dornoch Free Chuch building (the church we mainly work with), to the right is the church hall where we have Youth Club on Fridays.

This is the war memorial, every town has one.

Mitchell's Chemist, aka CVS on a much smaller scale.

Another monument in Dornoch. You can barely make out the little gold baby; it's head had broken previously and been glued back on. These kids almost broke it off again. We quickly departed before there was an 'incident.'

They're pointing to the Dornoch Social Club up the hill. Not much socializing goes on there.

The Eagle hotel and pub. It has a real pub feel to it.

The Newsagent. Right next to it is the butcher's shop.

That's the Dornoch Hotel, it sits on the golf course. Now it's run by a company that specializes in tours for retired people. Our house is about two blocks to the right. (The kids are getting tired, can you tell?)

A post office box for outgoing mail. The mail people don't pick up mail from your house.

Can you read that sign? It says: "Donald Mackay hanged here on 26th May 1738 for murdering a witch, his was the last execution at Dornoch." Pretty crazy, huh? Our house is right behind that row of houses you can see.

American football on the beach.

Someone's camera shy.

Even though it was sunny, the sand was still really cold. These kids are crazy.

my little babies: the end of the story

I'll finally wrap up the story I began here, and continued here.

First, the conclusion of the scripture union wildness and broken pillow:
I spoke to the kids about being respectful and all that stuff, they were very receptive and understanding.

Now on to the conclusion of the Youth Club spear-throwing event. I gathered the huge sticks and walked into the church hall, gathering kids along the way. I announced that all the games were to stop and everyone gather around.

As I stood there with about 10 of those sticks, almost trembling from frustration, I just started talking. Not yelling, but talking, in the most stern voice I've ever heard come out of my mouth. I mentioned all the negative aspects of their actions, the worse things that could have happened, (injuring someone in the yard or house if they broke a window) and the legal trouble they could be in if someone pressed charges (I spoke of all the most horrible things that could have happened to get them shaking in their wellies). I finished up by talking about how disappointed I was and that I expected the guilty parties to apologize, and that they would be completely forgiven.

As I spoke, I looked out at their faces and realized they were seriously scared of me, in a good way. They were all standing, and I don't think I saw much movement at all, at times I wondered if they were still breathing.

I finished and told them Youth Club was ending early. After most people had left, one boy came up to me, confessed, and apologized. During the week, the three other boys apologized as well. I made sure they knew they were forgiven and discussed when we would go to the ladies house so they could apologize to her.

A few realizations came out of these happenings:

-It wasn't anger that was so overwhelming when I first found out about the spear-throwing, but disappointment. I was so disappointed because I care for them so much and want to see them grow and mature, especially in their understanding of who God is and what he desires for their lives; and I don't want to see them screw up. (I also realize how much like a parent I sound)

-When the boys apologized, and when I found out other kids were encouraging them to do so and expressing their concern for what happened, I found myself feeling a huge sense of pride. I was proud of the positive changes that we're witnessing in these kids lives; not as a result of anything we've done, but because of God's love working in their hearts.

-In hindsight, we're realizing we needed something like this to happen to secure an understanding of the role of authority we have to play in their lives. I think up until this, the kids were unclear on how to view us: equal? older friend? authority figure? Now they have a better understanding of our relationship with them: we are their friend, but we are also in a position of authority and we will enforce the rules and encourage them to do what is right.

-We had a great opportunity to display what forgiveness looks like in real life.

-I am so grateful to have an amazing husband who is a fabulous teammate. It was confirmed yet again that there's no way I could do this without him.

my little babies, part II

Continued from here:

So that Friday at 1:00, James was on his way to England, and I headed to the Secondary school (ages 11-18) for the weekly scripture union. It's a period of 30 minutes during the kid's lunch break. We don't make it very structured, the kids just like having some time during the school day to hang out. We have a short lesson applicable to teenage life that relates to some Biblical truth.

This particular Friday, the school was doing some experimenting with lunch schedules. As a result, tons more kids were able to come; 25 in a tiny room when we typically have about 12. Since the schedule was different, the kids were able to stay longer than usual.

They were understandably rowdy since the weather was nasty and they didn't have the chance to be outside. The room we meet in is decorated nicely and has a bunch of fun pillows and nice couches. Well, during the course of the meeting, one of the pillows with styrofoam beads busted and they got all over the room. I won't go into the rest of the details, but they include the headmaster forwarding me an email the next day from a lady in the school who was not very pleased with the busted pillow or the noises of excited kids coming from the room. The headmaster was awesome and very understanding and supportive. Anyway, I knew I'd have to talk to the kids the next week about being respectful of other people's property.

On to the next story of the day:

Friday nights are the Youth Clubs that we hold at the church hall we're working with. From 6:30-7:45 the wee ones (ages 5-10) are there, and from 8:00-9:30 the older ones (ages 11-15) come. We have tons of games for them to play, a parking lot they use for dodgeball or football (soccer), and they love running around like crazy in the balcony of the sanctuary. We have food they can buy too, for super cheap. Tons to do, and the kids love it.

During the older youth club group, some kids went outside and no one was out there with them. We usually make sure there's at least one adult wherever there are kids, but they must have slipped outside without anyone noticing.

Suddenly someone comes running up to me speaking frantically about the neighbor lady, someone throwing sticks, and a ball getting kicked into her yard.

I walked outside, having no clue what I would find. The sweet lady who lives next door let me know that there were some kids who were removing portions of her fence and using them as spears, throwing them over the 10 foot hedge into her yard. I apologized profusely, and followed her into her yard, wondering what I would find. To my horror, these "sticks" ranged from 3-5 feet in height and were about 3 inches in diameter. Many of them were lying on the ground very close to her house and her beautiful antique windows.

I apologized over and over again and assured her that I would take care of it immediately. Her response, "Oh, I don't want to spoil their fun." This incredible woman had already forgiven them and was more concerned with the kids enjoying themselves than with making sure they got yelled at for being so disrespectful, rude, and careless.

Needless to say, I was incredibly disappointed.

This story is getting to be way too long for one post, so you'll have to check back for the third edition sometime tomorrow.

my little babies

In conversation, James and I always find ourselves referring to "our" kids when speaking about the kids we know from any of the events we lead weekly. I didn't realize just how huge a part of our lives they are, and how invested I had become in their lives until a couple of weekends ago.

James was out of town for the weekend with a bunch of guys at a men's retreat; I realized again just how important it is to be a part of a team on this Scotland endeavor and the other half of my team was gone. Not super detrimental for one weekend, just took a little more planning and energy on my part.

Suddenly I'm super hungry and need something to eat, so I'll continue this story later...

Value

I really don't talk a whole lot about what kinds of things take up our days, so here's one thing.

Every Wednesday morning we venture out to the local Elementary school to put on a short (15 minutes) assembly for the kids there. The kids love when we do short plays, (we can't call them a skit because they'll think we're talking about diarrhea, no joke) especially when James pretends to be a 5 year old.

This term we speak to the younger classes, ages 5-7. We'll switch next term and speak to the 8-11's. This week we were talking to them about what it means when something has value and how important our belongings are to us when we deem them as valuable. We had four items and we asked the kids to order them from most valuable to least. Here's what they decided:

Most Important: Video Games
Secondly: A huge bag of sweeties (candy)
Thirdly: A bunch of money
Least Important: A football (soccer ball) that represented all kinds of sports.

We ended by talking about how valuable we are to God. I told the Bible story of the lady losing her coin, searching until she found it and then having a huge party, and how God and his angels have a crazy party when one of his lost people come to him.

I could end with some cheesy life application point, but I'll just leave it at that.

Winter Wonderland!

It snowed, a bunch! There's maybe 2 inches or so on the ground, it's beautiful! It doesn't snow a whole lot here, the kids are super excited. At Youth Club tonight (the Friday night hang out/game time for kids in the community at the church) they had a huge snowball fight.

In other news, it's 11:57 here and I'll actually be getting in bed before midnight for the first time in as long as I can remember.

No Local News

We realized early on that local news and weather forecasts are not done here. A Scottish news report is limited to about an hour on the UK news station. We're pretty sure they don't try to do local weather because it's pretty much pointless; the weather changes all the time. The newspaper said to get ready for a blizzard, while the internet said a rain/snow mix.

One thing doesn't change from one country to another: kids hoping and praying for enough snow for school to be canceled.

Goodbye Owen

Our dog Owen died. She was hit by a car last Saturday night. We miss her more than I know how to say.

Feel free to read some prior posts about our lovely girl Owen:

This one is all about how wonderful pets are.

Poor Owen had a difficult medical problem.

This is when we were planning on bringing her to Scotland.

This is when we found out we couldn't.

These are some of my favorite photos of all three of us. Even when we forced her to make silly faces for the camera, she loved being right there with us.

One week into our time in Scotland, we were really missing both Owen and Naomi.

These are some of the last pictures we took with her, days before we left Richmond.


She loved, loved, LOVED to run. Especially when it was in a place like this. Lots of times she would remind us of a gazelle the way she would fly through the air.

time out

uh, I'm still here, just needing a break. see you soon.

Culture Shock

Here's the thing about culture: it makes a HUGE difference in any sort of human to human interaction.

I never really thought about it much until we started the different training programs for our two years in Scotland. MTW (Mission to the World; they coordinated our training and manage our funds) did a great job of helping us see the challenges that would come with being immersed in a totally different culture that we previously knew next to nothing about.

It seems that many conflicts that occur when more than one culture is represented probably stem from failing to understand cultural differences. From the perspective of being immersed in a foreign culture, I can look back on interactions I've had with people from other cultures and see how much I didn't understand about who they are and where they're coming from as a result of our differing cultures.

So many of our personality traits are deeply rooted in aspects of our lives in which we had no choice: birth order, number of siblings we have, what country we grew up in, what area of that country we grew up in, the culture and experiences that our parents had, etc.

I was having a conversation with some Scottish friends the other day about stereotypical characteristics of various cultures. One of those characteristics I thought was universally known (and 99.9% true) they were completely unaware of.

How many of these characteristics are out there that we don't know about, but are assumed to be universally understood? How many times have we totally misunderstood a friend because we failed to take into account their culture, even if it is the culture of the neighboring state or county? And the question I ask myself all the time, "How many times a day do Scottish people laugh their faces off after I walk away because I've said something that sounds so ridiculous to them?"

Sometimes practices of other cultures are just straight up bizarre, but they're probably thinking the same thing about you.

Photos of Parents Visit

I could post a ton of pictures here of all the fun stuff we did when my parents were here, but it's lots easier just to give you the link to their shutterfly page. If you're asked for a password, it's dornoch. Enjoy! And yes, it was as cold as it looks in the pictures.

My Brother

Today my brother Kyle turns 30. I realize I haven't talked much about him here, which is no indication of how much I think about him, he's on my mind and in my prayers constantly.

Me, Kyle, and his son, the best nephew ever, Noah

His first name is actually Benjamin, I'm glad my parents decided to call him by his middle name. Nothing against the name Benjamin, but I think Kyle really fits him, and is not all that common. Until I was somewhere around 6, we shared a bedroom. To some people this sounds weird, but it was perfectly normal to us. We slept in bunk beds and at night, when we were supposed to be going to sleep, we'd play tug-of-war with a Grover stuffed animal that had super long extremities. One day, we pulled him apart and that was the end of tug-of-war.

He is one of the most intelligent people I know. Seriously, his IQ is off the charts. He was one of those really smart kids that wasn't challenged enough and sometimes gave his teachers a hard time.

When we were younger, I always looked up to him and wanted to do everything the exact way he did. We'd frequent the candy aisle in 7-11, before the days when sugar was declared bad for you, and I'd refuse to pick something first. I would stand back calmly and patiently, waiting for him to make his choice. As soon as he did I would immediately pick the exact item he had chosen. It drove him crazy.

We fought a lot until high school. Then we moved from the fight all the time brother-sister relationship to being friends. He was super protective of me, and I loved it. I was, "Kyle's little sister" and being called that didn't bother me at all.

There's no relationship like the one you can have with a sibling. No matter what the issue, I have always been, and will always be the first one to jump to his defense, even if he's in the wrong. I know without a doubt I can be exactly who I am with him and he'll never love me any less, even with all my flaws. So many times he has been the one to comfort me during some crisis, he always knows exactly how I'm feeling.

Recently he's been through some very difficult challenges. Knowing he is hurting is like constantly having a vice grip clenching down on my heart. The worst part is not being able to do anything to help, and being separated by the Atlantic. The only consolation I have is knowing that God loves him infinitely more than I do and has the power to take care of him.

I love you and miss you Kyle and can't wait to see you!

Dornoch's New Year Celebration

All right, as requested, I guess I'll update you guy's on something other than eggs.

Even though New Year's Eve was over a week ago, I'll fill you in on how it goes down here in Dornoch. First of all, the celebration is called Hogmanay. Scots take their New Year celebration very seriously. I might even go as far as saying it's a more celebrated holiday than Christmas. They actually have January 1st and January 2nd as national holidays. I think it's mostly for the the recovery process from all the partying.

Lots of Scottish towns have their own Hogmanay celebrations in their town squares. Dornoch has had one since 2000. It's grown a lot since then, this year seeing about 3,000 in attendance. Not that significant when compared to how huge Carytown's New Year in Richmond was this year, but pretty impressive when you realize that Dornoch's population is a mere 2,500.

People started arriving in the square around 10:30, there was a band playing and one vendor set up that sold nasty-looking hamburgers. There was even an area marked off for people to do some Scottish country dancing. We didn't join in.

It was very normal, actually expected, that you bring a book bag with all your favorite libations. We saw various friends pull out full bottles of whiskey, champagne, tons of beer, mixers, you name it they had it. Alcohol is a big part of Scottish culture (unfortunately, there's a high rate of alcoholism as well). I'm guessing there's no such thing as open container and drunk in public laws?

At midnight a lone bagpiper played a song from the top of the castle (the building to the right of my parents) and then there was a fireworks show. We went back to our house afterward to finish an exciting game of Scrabble (I won, by a lot). My parents had a great time, and I'm looking forward to next year!

Twin Chickens?

I cracked an egg today to make brownies (found a mix at Costco, hallelujah! brownies aren't common and mixes typically aren't found in grocery stores here. But Costco is pretty much like being in America. I also found real, plain, corn tortilla chips for the first time!) and there were two yolks in it!

Does that mean it would have been twins? I was slightly sad that that egg turned into my brownies instead of cute twin chicks. But the brownies were delicious, so I wasn't sad for long.

What's up with these Scottish eggs?

Milk & Bread! Milk & Bread!

Anyone from Richmond knows what the title refers to. Any hint of a flurry and people mob grocery stores, clearing out the shelves, for fear that they'd be stuck inside for a month. (Leah, this phrase always brings to mind an image of you yelling it at the top of your lungs; it makes me laugh!)

Driving back from the airport in Edinburgh to Dornoch was quite an adventure. It usually takes about 3.5 hours; tonight it was a 7 hour trip. It snowed like crazy yesterday and today. The roads weren't bad until we were about an hour into the drive. At some moments it was a complete Whiteout. There was nowhere to stop, so we just crept along at a snails pace. The creeping ended we came to a standstill behind a line of cars.

There we sat for two hours while our little Clio shook in the wind. The highway people used their snow gates to close the A9 (the road we were on) since it was so dangerous, and then came to our rescue hours later with some snow plows. I'd never been so excited to see heavy machinery since up until that point, we thought we'd be spending the night in our car!

Goodbye Parents!

My parents are somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean at this moment. We had an awesome time with them. It felt so normal for them to be here, yet it was hard to believe they were actually with us in Scotland.

So many times I've wanted to share these Scottish experiences with people from home, and now I've had the chance to. It's exciting to know they can visualize where we live, what we do, and the people we interact with. I want that for all of you, so come visit!

Later I'll post some photos of some of the things we did when my parents were here, we saw some great stuff.