In October 2016, we moved to the capital city of San Salvador, El Salvador for Lane's job with USAID. Little by little, we are getting settled and learning our way around. It is a beautiful country and you should come visit!
Friday, October 21, 2016
We Moved to El Salvador!
In October 2016, we moved to the capital city of San Salvador, El Salvador for Lane's job with USAID. Little by little, we are getting settled and learning our way around. It is a beautiful country and you should come visit!
Saturday, October 8, 2016
Highlights from our year in the Washington DC area
We loved our year in the USA to be closer to family & friends! But it was tough to only be there one year. Here are some highlights from the year:
- We enjoyed the changing seasons and the kids got to see snow for the first time! The kids missed about 10 days of school due to the huge snowstorm that hit the Virginia area.
- Lane completed his USAID foreign service officer training and Spanish language at the Foreign Service Institute. He walked to the Metro stop and took the train everyday downtown to the Reagan building
- Anna spent lots of time with her sister Kelley and her new baby Faith and her husband David. We could get together with our families for events and celebrate birthdays together. They were able to come to several of the kid's events which was a special treat for the kids. It was great!
- Caleb (13) enjoyed scouts with Troop 187 in Fairfax and being in the school band at Luther Jackson Middle School. He switched from clarinet that he played in Rwanda to bass clarinet and made the District Band. He also took a trip with his school Model UN club to the middle school convention at the UN Headquarters in New York.
- Abby (11) completed 5th grade at Mosby Woods Elementary. She loved played soccer for the Fairfax and Vienna leagues and made the All-Star team both seasons. She sang in the school choir and they had a very nice performance of Carmina Burana with the Vienna Choral Society.
- Luke (8) loved playing Little League baseball. He even got to throw out the first pitch at the Potomac Nationals minor league baseball team. He finished 1st grade at Mosby Woods. He also completed a year of vision therapy which was a great gift to have that nearby.
- Joshua (5) started preschool at Fairfax United Methodist Preschool.
- We visited lots of museums and monuments in the DC area and tried to soak up all of the special things about our nation's capital.
- We loved the house we rented in Fairfax which came with a great backyard and a secret creek in the woods behind the house. It was great fun to explore! We loved having a basement for the first time.
- We also loved having several kids on our street that were instant friends with our kids. The 8 kids on our street all waited for the bus together in the morning and some of them were in the same grades at the elementary school. Abby even taught the girl next door to ride a bike.
- We jumped into a small group at Columbia Baptist Church and enjoyed the fellowship times with this group all year. They came to help us unpack when our stuff arrived from Rwanda, they prayed for us as we navigated the transition to our next post to El Salvador.
- In July, Anna and the kids drove two days across the country to Texas and spent an entire month there. A week with the Mears grandparents, a week with the Norton grandparents, time with Carlisle cousins, a week in our home city Austin, a visit to our great-grandmother in Baytown, a stop through College Station to see Texas A&M, and a stop through Waco for a quick visit to Magnolia Market. Then, we drove back, but got had car trouble in Memphis for an extra day, but made it safely back to DC just in time to see friends from Rwanda who had just arrived in DC.
- In August, we were invited to a luncheon honoring Anna's Great-Grandfather Harry Hooper by the Boston Red Sox. So many of the Hooper family was able to attend, it was great! The kids got to meet cousins for the first time and the adults cherished the rare occasion to get the family together. We had a private tour of Fenway Park, a luncheon hosted by the Writer's Guild, and then attended a night game against the New York Yankees.
- In August, our close family friends, the Howards, returned to DC for their new post. We loved getting 2 months with them. It's not often you get to live in the same city with your friends in three different countries!
- We enjoyed the changing seasons and the kids got to see snow for the first time! The kids missed about 10 days of school due to the huge snowstorm that hit the Virginia area.
- Lane completed his USAID foreign service officer training and Spanish language at the Foreign Service Institute. He walked to the Metro stop and took the train everyday downtown to the Reagan building
- Anna spent lots of time with her sister Kelley and her new baby Faith and her husband David. We could get together with our families for events and celebrate birthdays together. They were able to come to several of the kid's events which was a special treat for the kids. It was great!
- Caleb (13) enjoyed scouts with Troop 187 in Fairfax and being in the school band at Luther Jackson Middle School. He switched from clarinet that he played in Rwanda to bass clarinet and made the District Band. He also took a trip with his school Model UN club to the middle school convention at the UN Headquarters in New York.
- Abby (11) completed 5th grade at Mosby Woods Elementary. She loved played soccer for the Fairfax and Vienna leagues and made the All-Star team both seasons. She sang in the school choir and they had a very nice performance of Carmina Burana with the Vienna Choral Society.
- Luke (8) loved playing Little League baseball. He even got to throw out the first pitch at the Potomac Nationals minor league baseball team. He finished 1st grade at Mosby Woods. He also completed a year of vision therapy which was a great gift to have that nearby.
- Joshua (5) started preschool at Fairfax United Methodist Preschool.
- We visited lots of museums and monuments in the DC area and tried to soak up all of the special things about our nation's capital.
- We loved the house we rented in Fairfax which came with a great backyard and a secret creek in the woods behind the house. It was great fun to explore! We loved having a basement for the first time.
- We also loved having several kids on our street that were instant friends with our kids. The 8 kids on our street all waited for the bus together in the morning and some of them were in the same grades at the elementary school. Abby even taught the girl next door to ride a bike.
- We jumped into a small group at Columbia Baptist Church and enjoyed the fellowship times with this group all year. They came to help us unpack when our stuff arrived from Rwanda, they prayed for us as we navigated the transition to our next post to El Salvador.
- In July, Anna and the kids drove two days across the country to Texas and spent an entire month there. A week with the Mears grandparents, a week with the Norton grandparents, time with Carlisle cousins, a week in our home city Austin, a visit to our great-grandmother in Baytown, a stop through College Station to see Texas A&M, and a stop through Waco for a quick visit to Magnolia Market. Then, we drove back, but got had car trouble in Memphis for an extra day, but made it safely back to DC just in time to see friends from Rwanda who had just arrived in DC.
- In August, we were invited to a luncheon honoring Anna's Great-Grandfather Harry Hooper by the Boston Red Sox. So many of the Hooper family was able to attend, it was great! The kids got to meet cousins for the first time and the adults cherished the rare occasion to get the family together. We had a private tour of Fenway Park, a luncheon hosted by the Writer's Guild, and then attended a night game against the New York Yankees.
- In August, our close family friends, the Howards, returned to DC for their new post. We loved getting 2 months with them. It's not often you get to live in the same city with your friends in three different countries!
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