Updates (from Kim)

Well, we’ve had a pretty good last week.  No major issues or temper tantrums.  It’s like we are all finally getting used to each other.

We are just following our daily routine and the weather has been good so we’ve been getting outside as much as possible. 

On Monday (Mar. 5), we had a visit from Adam and the social worker.  We thought they would want to spend time with the boys but they really wanted to know how we were doing.  It’s more like they are worried we will change our minds or something.  We also spoke with Adam more about plans for leaving and he suggested we plan on March 22nd - YOOHOO!!

On Wednesday, I took the boys to the park for a little while before Aaron joined us and we headed to the water park.  YEAH – no incidents at the pool this time!!  In fact, things were going so well that I left after a couple hours to do some grocery shopping and some computer work. 

On Friday, we took the bus to Debrecen.  We went to the Reformed Great Church, we thought this was the Deri Museum but later found out we were wrong.  The lady working there was friendly and was able to tell us what to do with hand signals.  The first part she told us to go through was a 150 foot tall bell tower.  The lady had made this motion of going up, round and round and smiled, so we thought it would be fun and good for the boys.  We didn’t know what we were in for.  The higher we went, the smaller the ladders became.  It got really interesting when we met a family trying to come down a narrow ladder.  Aaron and Sam scrunched themselves into a corner and Drew and I stepped of the steps into a little cubby hole that I couldn’t even stand up in.   When we made it to the top, it was pretty cool but there wasn’t much to do but look out the windows and then climb down again. 

The next section we entered was the church.  It had a lot of history on Martin Luther and the Reformation.  One interesting thing is that church services are still held on Sunday, but during the week, it’s a museum.  Also displayed are some US bonds that were issued to fund the Hungarian Revolution in 1848.

The last section contained 15-17 little landscapes that depicted life in Jerusaleum, Nazareth, and Bethlehem during the time that Jesus was alive.  This was really cool and we liked that it also had the English translations so we knew what it was about. 

We left the museum to have lunch.  The boys love pizza – especially sonka (pronounced shonka) pizza or ham pizza.  This was one of the first words that we knew so we really connected over ham pizza.  Since this was Friday though, we had a margarita pizza and a 4 cheese pizza that was awesome!  One thing I like here is that the cheeses are wonderful!  I’m not sure if I’m too scared to try different things at home or what, but since cheddar is impossible to find over here, we’ve been enjoying feta, camembert, trappista and fresh mozzarella cheeses.

After lunch, we decided to try some shopping.  The boys are generally pretty good in stores but trying to find something that doesn’t say “Moxy Chix” or something else in rhinestones is almost impossible.  I don’t know how many times I’ve found something that I really like only to look at the back and see someone went nuts with a bedazzler.  Aaron thinks all of the men’s stuff is a little too fitted or European for him.

We also visited St. Anne’s Cathedral.  Luckily there was some English literature in the cathedral so we were able to learn a little about it.  The first church to be named St. Anne’s was built in the 1200’s, but the actual Cathedral church was built in the early 1700’s, but not a cathedral until 1993.  One wonderful aspect over here is that many of the churches were visited by Pope John Paul II and they all have plaques commemorating the event.  Even the Reformed Great Church had a picture of Pope John Paul II and it was a reformation church. 

It was a beautiful day and we managed to walk around for until 3:30 before heading back to the bus station.