We spent our dinner hour tonight sharing two things. (1) The thing we loved most about living in France. (2) The thing we dislike the most about living in France. (Followed by ice cream to celebrate this momentous day!)
Here were the answers, in the order they were shared:
Ryan (age 8) - "I love the food of France." (He's been saying all year long, "Everything just tastes better in France!") "I dislike the weird culture of France. It's just different here. And I know when I go back to America I'll have to get used to the culture there and then come back to France and get used to the culture here." I guess Ryan is catching on to the realities of living in a foreign country.
Todd (age 4.9)- "I like the Greek sandwich shop. I dislike the little stuff they put in the Greek sandwiches." (We were eating a celebration dinner at the Greek sandwich shop.)
Lena (age 10) - "I love riding my bike on the roads (she means the busy roads the cars drive on). I dislike being away from my friends. I wish I could have them here with me."
Mark - "I love not having a car. I dislike not having a backyard (with a grill)."
Me - "I love seeing all of the famous places of France that I have only seen in movies and on cards. Without a doubt, the thing I dislike the most is FRENCH!" (I'll just qualify this by saying I'm a 40-year-old mother who has no natural ability or any prior interest in languages. Learning French is a hard job for me, but I am determined to learn French even if it takes me 5 years!)
In actuality, there are many, many things that our family loves about living in France. Most of all, is knowing that this is exactly where God wants us to be right now. There is an incredible peace from the Lord which we feel every day--even on the fantastic days, the frustrating days, and every day in between.
In honor of the celebration of our first year in France, I'm going to post various photos (I'm pretty sure none of them have been posted previously) as memories of our year:
Discovering the library near our home. This felt like the biggest gift to our family! We are big readers!!!!
Finding "home" again was just tremendous! There's nothing like sleeping in your own bed!
Discovering PomPots - applesauce in a tube.
Going to Louvre is just plain a thrill. And, Napoleon III's apartments are mind-boggling cool and still blow us away every time we see them!
Scootering all over town has been a BLAST!!! Who would have known we would all love scootering so much?
Todds' little yellow converse shoes. They fit his personality perfectly and were so very cute! We could spot him in a crowd at school in an instant with those shoes on. Ah....but we are learning shoes don't last that long here because we WALK EVERYWHERE! They are already coming apart at the seams. Still, I think until the day I die, any time I see yellow converse shoes I will think of Todd in France.
Watching our kids grow up before our very eyes. Here's Todd trying to be "big" wearing Ryan's glasses and reading Ryan's French dictionary at the desk in the boys' room.
But seriously, look at this photo of the kids just after we landed in Paris. (This was the first Sunday we were here, and it was the first time we had seen the amazing Place de la Concorde.)
And, look at them now! They have grown so very much in just one year - all 3 of them!!!!!
We've had magical Christmas moments, like the time we went to see the lights of the Champs Elysées. We arrived at 4:30 p.m. and were bummed to find the lights were not on. We didn't know what to do, so we decided to cross the street (I don't know why). Just when we got to the middle of the street, ALL the Christmas lights turned on! Oh, the squealing! It was amazing. We took this photo then.
And, we created some new Christmas fun.
We've found a church that we love; a great place to serve, to be fed by God's word, to improve in our French, to build relationships with fellow French believers and to learn and grow. While we pray for God to start a church like this near OUR home, we are so thankful for this church right in the heart of Paris. We love our church!
And, God has given us a great team to work alongside and fellowship with.
Discovering Shakespeare & Company (a used English bookstore) was a delight beyond words. Did I tell you we love books? Wow. Who would have guessed this would be in France!!!!!
Another young Pederson fell victim to the need for glasses. We think Lena looks quite nice in her spectacles!
We found the most amazing place for ice cream! It's like a super intense sherbert and they form the flavors into a rose. Heaven!!!
Our love for Nutella seems to intensify with each passing day...
...as does our love of a delicious crepe.
We've enjoyed bike riding..
...roller blading...
...skate boarding in the neighborhood park. (And sometimes we also play on the playground equipment and swing, too.)
And we've been known to spend quite a long time at the crazy popular and crazy fun zip-line in our other neighborhood park!
And, we finally got ourselves to the movies. (Toy Story 3 in 3D! Way too expensive. This won't happen again for a LONG time! We will gladly wait for the movies to show up in ITunes for $3.99. Lesson #umpteen learned.) Yet, it was really fun. And we Pedersons looked mighty fine in our 3D glasses (which we got to keep!!).
I've already blogged about many museums, Paris sites, trips we've taken, cultural discoveries we've made and, of course flowers. No need to repeat all of that. (And, I will still blog about the vacation we took in July. The picture at the top of the blog is a teaser.) But for today, I'll just say...
I've blogged more than I ever would have guessed that I would blog. It's been a sort of therapy for me. So many of you have been so kind in your remarks and have encouraged me by saying how much you enjoy reading about our adventure. Thanks for making blogging a TOTAL BLAST! Here's to a great 1st year...and many more to come.
1 comment:
Love it. This post brought tears to my eyes to see the Lord's faithfulness in your lives. Thanks for sharing!
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