Klaipeda Lithuana - Arrival

We have been in Lithuania for a few weeks now and I finally have found some time to breathe and think about sharing about our last few weeks. We left the states on August 6, 2012 with 8 suitcases, 4 carry on bags, 4 personal items and 1 dog.


Ready to Leave
 

Ken's dad drove us to the Philadelphia airport and we began checking in. We were surprised that no one asked to see the paperwork for the dog. (We had to take him to the vet and then drive to Columbus to have the vet paperwork certified by the USDA). They did thoroughly check his crate and collar. Everything went very smooth and before long he was checked in and we were waiting for our flight. The first leg of our journey was the longest and took us to Frankfurt, Germany. We had a layover there and then boarded our final flight to the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius.

Upon arrival to Vilnius we were walking to the luggage claims and I commented to Ken, "You know, they never told us where we would pick up Dexter...surely they won't send him down the luggage carousel?" While pondering where we would find the dog, Ken went to collect our luggage - sure enough Dexter came down the luggage carousel. He was fairly traumatized and eager to be out of his crate. We collected our luggage - Dylan was very helpful by bringing the luggage to me while Ken pulled it off the belt. Katie worked on calming down the dog.

We were amazed that again no one looked at paperwork and we just walked out of the airport without having to go through any customs/security. A student worker from LCC met us at the airport and we crammed all of our luggage and bodies into a van for the 3 hour drive across the country and to Klaipeda.

As many of you know our permanent apartment was not immediately available to us and we were in a temporary apartment for the first week. It had 2 bedrooms so we were a little squished but was fine for a week.

Our Temporary Apartment -The Pink Palace 

 Our first apartment had antlers on the walls and the kids had fun posing with this unique decoration.

We have been blessed by the new friendships we have already made and by the support offered to us. We were assigned a family to serve as our "buddies" - the Millikens. Rachel and John are entering their second year at LCC. They have 2 young children - Chayah and Noah. They met us on our first day here - showed us around - took us for groceries and MANY shopping trips as we found items that we would need for our apartment (I'm most excited by the frying pans I found which have a ceramic coating on the inside!) A funny moment with the Millikens occurred when Rachel talked to Katie about a "job" as a mother's helper. She offered Katie 5 Litas an hour and Katie was very excited about the prospect of a first babysitting job. Dylan quickly did the conversion in his head and announced that this was less than minimum wage. I think Katie was a little embarrassed but it was quite funny.

Another family that we met, the Benthem's are going into their 4th year. They have 3 children - Anika (9) Lars (7) and Lottie (3ish). Katie and Dylan quickly settled into friendships (Lars loves basketball). They were kind enough to take us on our first outing to the Baltic Sea. Unfortunately the Sea was green that day (some odd occurence with algae) but the kids had a lot of fun hunting for sea glass and amber. Both Dylan and Lars thought that they found some amber but we are not sure if it is authentic.

Dylan and Lars hunting for sea glass

 

Katelynn and Anika

The green Baltic Sea

Anika and Lars both attend Universa Via - the private school that we were considering. We had a very difficult time contemplating the right choice for school as many of you know. Homeschooling was a safe option but would have the drawback of being isolating for the kids. We prayed for clarity and consensus prior to our visit to the school and were so relieved that both Katie and Dylan wanted to give going to school a try after our visit. The administrators were very kind and seeing the school seemed to help both the kids feel better. Katie and Dylan both took a math test and did well but struggled with some of the different symbols and different ways that math is taught here. There is also a difference in how grades are structured. It was a bit disconcerting to the kids to find that they would be in the 3rd and 5th form. This feels a bit like a demotion to them but they will be with kids in the same age group as they are. We just went for uniform fittings today. Dylan will wear a uniform only on days when there are special programs but Katie will have to wear one every day (a dress/skirt). She still wants to go to school despite the dress code!

Please keep the kids in your prayers as we expect the first weeks/months to be very challenging. School begins on Sept. 1 with a special ceremony and then classes begin on Sept. 3.

Following are some photos from around town.

Klaipeda

Katie at the Meridian in Old Town, Klaipeda

Amy and Katie