The beginning of the rest of her life

Summer is over, and tomorrow morning Addie will begin the adventure that will last for the next 15 years (not quite the rest of her life :).  She is starting school!!!  Tomorrow morning we take her for her first day of "école maternelle", French preschool.  She will be in this school 4 days a week for the rest of the year as Wayne and I continue our studies in French.  We (or I) am a little nervous but very excited for what this will do for her language skills.  We feel that the opportunity for her to be with French kids is invaluable right now.  She can understand a fair bit of French from her time in the nursery last year, but she really needs to be pushed to use the French she knows, and playing with  kids her age will do just the trick (especially little girls who like to have tea parties and play pretend)!

Please be praying for her (and for me, and Wayne for that matter as he has to take care of both of us!) tomorrow.  Pray that her teacher would have understanding of Addie's situation, pray that she would not be nervous and pray that she would begin to make friends quickly.

P.S. We start school on Friday and we are so excited!!!  I already have my bag packed.  Yes, that does up us on the nerd scale.

Ooohhh, Champs Elysées...

Here is a little slideshow of our summer which included visits from both sets of grandparents, a little time away as a family, some very intense French practice with friends in Switzerland, and a whole lot of fun!  Enjoy!

Wayne preached...in French!!!

When Wayne's mom told this to a man who knew Wayne as a child, his response was "I never thought I'd see the day when Wayne would preach, much less in French!"  I am so very proud of my husband for making the big step into preaching in his second language here.  He's my favorite preacher to listen to, I'm glad the people over here get to listen to him now too!  We are very thankful that our church here in France has given Wayne this opportunity and that he is able to minister to them in our time here.  

If you want to hear what Wayne sounds like in French (even if you don't understand) you can listen here.

Si vous voulez écouter sa predication, vous le pouvez ici.

Whose money is it anyways?

Life in Paris is different than life in Dallas, or probably most cities that I have ever lived in.  The last year that I lived in Dallas, I was not faced much with very poor people, those who would come up to you on the street and beg for money.  It just wasn't done where I went.  But here in Paris, it happens all the time.  On the metro, on the way to the grocery store, and definitely in the city where they know that there are lots of tourists.  And whenever I am asked for money, I always have to ask myself  "Do I give it to them?" and sometimes it's even "Do I give it to them again?  I just gave them some?"  Sadly, I think I too often err on the side of caution and don't give money  I often think "Well, what if they really don't need it but could just go get a job" or "Why are they still asking?  I just gave them something!  I think they are taking advantage of me."  

In reading Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount, I have been convicted of my attitude, specifically the attitude of not wanting to be taken advantage of.  I think that too often, I try to protect myself instead of doing what God asks me to do and letting Him take care of the results.  In Matthew 5 verses 38-42, Jesus speaks about retaliation, or I should say he speaks against retaliation.  It is here that we find the famous concept of "turn the other cheek." It is a difficult idea to put into practice for sure, but I think that most Christians know that they should do this and really do try.  But a few verses later, another concept is linked with the lack of retaliation, that is the idea of giving to beggars.  Directly following the command to turn the other cheek and give your cloak as well when someone just asks for your tunic is the command from Jesus "Give to the one who begs from you."  That's it, no caveats.  But if this isn't enough to convince you, keep reading the next section.  In this section is the famous concept of "love your enemies," but it was something else in this section that hit me.  God tells us to give and not worry about being taken advantage of because he does exactly the same thing.  "For God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." (verse 45)  God doesn't look at where he makes it rain and decide field by field who he will give rain to and who he will not.  The rain falls on the field of the just as well as the unjust.  And when a person does something bad with a good gift that God has given them, it is as if they slap God on the cheek, and yet he still turns the other to them, still gives them good gifts. 

Now I know that there are exceptions to every rule, that in Senegal it would be impossible to give money to everyone who asks because they swarm your car every time you stop at an intersection.  But I do not want my life to focus on the exceptions.  I want to have the attitude of Christ.  I want to give without expecting anything in return, even gratitude.  I want to give in faith, trusting that God will do what he wills with my gifts.  I want to give knowing that I have done what my Father has asked of me, not worrying about the other persons actions.  I want to give not worrying what others around me think, only what my Father in heaven thinks of me.  I want to give, knowing that it is all God's money, and he will do with it as he pleases.

News Flash!!

Addie parle le francais!!!  (Addie speaks French!)

Some things she has said to us...

Ça suffit  (that's enough)

Ne touche pas  (don't touch - I think she must get told these two phrases in the nursery :)

Un bisou (a kiss :)

Qu'est-ce que tu fais?  (what are you doing?)

Je ne sais pas (I don't know)

Allez, viens (come on, lets go)

A tout à l'heure (see you later!)

And every once in a while "Oui" will pop out of her mouth instead of "yes", even when we ask her a question in English.

And to see that she really does understand what she's saying, I said to her yesterday when she was trying to do something I told her not too  "J'ai dit non"  (I said no!) to which she replied with a big smile "J'ai dit oui!"  (I said yes!).  Now we need to keep working on the obeying part.

Happy Mother's Day

Fortunately, Mother's day is a few weeks later in France and so I had a little extra time to prepare another video for the greatest mom in the whole world!

We love you!!!!

High heel shoes, baseball gloves and books...an update on us!

So here's an update on what is going on in all of our lives ...

Addie (first because she's the most interesting right now!)

 - she is now potty trained! (I'm sure some of you really don't care, so sorry, but it's exciting not to have to pay for diapers anymore!)

 - we enrolled her for school next fall. Yes, our daughter will be starting French preschool in September (aahhhhh!!!!).  I'll blog more about this later

- she can do a 12 piece puzzle all on her own.  Not only that, it's a puzzle that's made up of blocks, so it's really 6 puzzles in one.  We think she's a genius (although we're trying to teach her that she can't call herself a genius :)

-she loves wearing high healed shoes, even outside. I think that's the only pair of shoes she wore yesterday.

- she's speaking a little French.  The other day, she said "Ça souffit!" which means "That's enough!"  When I asked her where she learned that, she told me that Nadine (her teacher) says it.  Hmmmm..

- she's almost gotten rid of her black eye.  Not quite sure what happened, but she and her buddy Elias were playing and as she tells me "We crashed together and I cried."

- she is looking forward to Grandpa and Grandma Van Dine coming next week!  She can't wait to get her new pink baseball glove!

Wayne

-is still greatly improving in French (at least I think he is!)

-he's started to read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in French.

- he actually likes to watch movies in French now, it's kind of relaxing for him (as long as he's seen it before)

-he's wrapped around Addie's little finger.  All she has to say is "Please Daddy!" and he'll do just about anything!

-he does just about anything for his wife too, which gives him the Best Daddy and Best Husband awards!

-he is looking forward to Grandma and Grandpa Van Dine coming too.  He can't wait to get his new books that he ordered from Amazon!

Hilary

- is making progress too.  

-  I'm reading Pride and Prejudice in French.  I got it from the library, but even when I read it everyday, it's still so slow going that I'm only about a third of the way through.  I had it for a month but had to actually go buy a copy because I think it's going to take me all summer to read.

-I'm actually learning to cook.  We haven't had pizza for dinner in about a month!

-I'm trying to get into running, but getting up at 6:30 am has been really hard!

-I'm really looking forward to mom and dad coming!!

Addie thought it would be fun to take a pretend nap with Wayne and read in bed!  I think they're both pretty adorable!