Some People Go to Disney to See Castles...

Some people travel to Disney to see castles but we have been traveling through the Baltics viewing real castles! We've been on a bit of a mad dash to check off some sights on our "to see" list before we leave. In late September we took a day trip to Kaunas, which is the 2nd largest city in Lithuania. We had a great day which included a tour of a castle!

 

 

We stopped for lunch at this great restaurant... The name Antis means duck - the restaurant was below street level down the pictured stairs. It was a quaint little restaurant.

 

 

In a local church we found this statue of a "Pensive Christ" or "Man of Sorrows." We've come across these statues quite frequently in our travels here. I find the image to be haunting. Ken found a carved, wooden statue that he gave me for my birthday last year. I will always remember Lithuania when I see it.

 

 

Mid October didn't bring us to any castles but it was our 17th anniversary. We had a busy day. Ken and the kids had been training to run a race on the Curonian Spit. So in the mid-morning we hopped on the ferry for the race. It was fun watching Ken and the kids run. In this picture we were on the ferry heading back to Klaipeda.

 

 

Ken cleaned up and we headed out for an anniversary dinner.

 

 

We went to a local restaurant, Stora Antis (Fat Duck). We had an amazing meal. We ordered beef for two. The plate was beautiful and the food was fabulous. While we were eating the owner was cleaning menus with some kind of strong smelling solvent (we think it was diesel fuel). He was profusely apologetic for the strong smell and brought us some homemade blueberry vodka to sample!

 

In late October/early November we headed out for a little road trip during fall break. We traveled north to Tallin, Estonia. We were interested in visiting Tallinn not only because of the good things we heard about the city but also because it completed our Baltic State trifecta... We have now visited the capital cities of all three Baltic States; Vilnius, Lithuania, Riga, Latvia and Tallinn, Estonia!

 

Tallinn did not disappoint! It was full of quaint little streets and alleys...

 

 

Towers and Castles...

 

Amazing views...

 

 

 And medieval and Knightly moments...

 

 

For those of you who have seen The Singing Revolution, we also visited the song bowl. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

 

 

After our visit to Tallinn we headed to Cēsis, Latvia to visit another castle. This castle was partly in ruins but was so fun to visit. We were able to climb to the top of the tower. At times the stairway was so dark that we had to use the flashlight on our phones to see. It felt kind of crazy that we were allowed to wander all through the ruins. We had an amazing time. 

 

 

 

After our time in Cēsis we headed to nearby Sigulda for another castle or two. We had to ride a cable car across the Gauja River to hike to the castles we wanted to see. We had a bit of a damper after discovering our car had the beginnings of a flat tire right after we bought our tickets. We went ahead with our plans to view the castle and decided to deal with the tire when we were done. The first castle we came to on our hike was in ruins.

 

 

We hiked on to Turaida Castle. This castle had extensive renovations. It was interesting in this trip seeing the variety of conditions of all of the castles. I think we all found the castle in Cēsis to be our favorite, but had fun at the others as well!

  

 

So, here we are, with less than 1 week until we return to the U.S. We are starting to discuss as a family how we say goodbye to this place, this country that has been home to us. We recently hiked along the Baltic Sea at one of our favorite places, Olandu Kepurė. This is a national park that borders the Baltic Sea. There is forest, the beach and amazing cliffs. While we were there we spotted amber catchers out wading in the sea searching for amber.

 

 

Please keep us in your prayers in our final week:

• for our endings at LCC
• for our goodbyes to our friends here
• for the kids (and us) as we transition to a new place
• as we search for a house to buy in Alabama.

To our friends in Lithuania - we will miss you. We have treasured our time here. We thank you for the many ways that you made Klaipeda home for us.

 

To our friends in the US - we look forward to seeing many of you at Christmas. Thank you for your support while we have lived overseas.

 

And to everyone... Merry Christmas. 

The Only Constant is Change

Although many of you have heard this news already, we wanted to let everyone know that we recently made a very difficult decision to leave Lithuania earlier than expected.  For those who would like to know more about the reasoning behind our decision, we’ve written a (relatively) brief explanation of the decision itself and the next steps for our family…

Most of you know that we came to Lithuania in August of 2012, so that Ken could take the position of Chair of the Social Sciences Department at LCC International University (a Christian liberal arts university modeled after North American institutions such as Messiah, Malone, Wheaton, Gordon, etc.).  We made a three year commitment to LCC and tried to do all that we could to be able to stay for three years, or even longer.  We enrolled our children in a Lithuanian-speaking private school within a few weeks of arriving in-country.  We also paid for Lithuanian lessons for the children; this resulted in the children spending all day in a Lithuanian-speaking environment at school, then returning home in the afternoon to meet with their Lithuanian tutor, who also assigned homework (as did their school).  We also tried to do our part.  We took two Lithuanian classes and spent hours most weeks studying in the evening.  Ken arranged to teach on-line at Malone University; this allowed us to bank some extra money in order to save for retirement and to pay for airfare so that we could visit our family and friends in the US over the summer.  In short, we did everything we could think of to settle in quickly and to make service in Lithuania sustainable for a long-term period of time. 

Despite our best efforts, our plans didn’t work out.  Our children came to the end of their first year in Lithuania understanding some simple Lithuanian phrases and sentences and knowing a lot of vocabulary and grammar rules, but far from being able to study and communicate in Lithuanian.  This meant that they had learned almost nothing in terms of academic content for a whole year and were facing another year with similar prospects.  We also saw that both children were isolated socially; they spent much of the year either playing by themselves or living in “adult world” while interacting with us and our friends.  After trying two different schools and exploring various home schooling options, we realized that staying in Lithuania would mean that our children would miss out on important educational and social experiences.  After a lot of thought, discussion, and prayer, in June 2013 we decided that Ken would begin looking for employment in the US, with the goal of transitioning back to the US during the summer of 2014.

 

The job search consumed a lot of our summer, but we are happy to announce that Ken recently accepted a position as the founding chair of the Social Work Department at Samford University (in Birmingham, Alabama).  Because Samford’s administration and trustees are making a big push to start a number of new professional programs, the university wanted to hire a social work chair as soon as possible. In light of this, they offered Ken the chair position contingent on him starting in January of 2014.  So, we will fly back to the US on December 22^nd and will spend about ten days with family in Lancaster, PA, then we will drive to Birmingham so that Ken can start work on January 6^th.  The university has agreed to provide temporary housing until we can find a house.  As life-long Northerners, we are obviously facing another huge transition.  In fact, we’ve never even been to Birmingham.  However, we are really grateful for this opportunity.  Samford is a mid-sized Christian university that has a strong history of academic excellence and financial stability.  The university made a very generous offer, which will mean that Amy will not need to be employed and can focus her time and energy on helping the children through the process of adjusting to life in another new place.  As things settle down, Amy will also have the freedom to discern what is next for her (further education, a job, volunteer work, etc.) without the pressure of needing to take a job quickly in order to help keep us afloat financially.

 

The past months have been a confusing and bittersweet time for all of us.  In the midst of being immensely grateful for our new opportunity in Birmingham, we find ourselves mourning the fact that things at LCC did not work out as we planned.  It will be very difficult to leave colleagues who have quickly become close friends, students who are bright, motivated, and often searching spiritually, and a university that is truly unique in its mission.  We have struggled to understand why so much of our Lithuanian experience has gone smoothly, but one of the key things that needed to work out (our children’s education)  just didn’t.  From the very beginning, the process of coming to Lithuania has required us to relinquish our illusions of controlling our own destiny and rely on God to meet our needs; in the midst of our ambivalence and sadness, we’ve had to once again recognize our lack of control and our utter dependence on God.

We will post again before leaving Lithuania in December.  In the meantime, though, we want to thank all of you who have prayed, Skyped, emailed, Facebooked, visited, sent care packages, etc. while we’ve been here.  We sincerely appreciate the love and support we’ve been shown during our time in Lithuania.  Please keep us in your prayers as we enter another time of transition.

 

This and That

As soon as we returned from our European Vacation (see previous post) we moved across town to our new apartment. We found an apartment that was priced much better and was also closer to LCC. Many of you have asked to see some pics of our new place, so here they are - I'll try to walk you through the layout as you view the pictures...

 

As you enter our second floor apartment the first thing you see is a winding staircase.

 

 

The staircase leads up to a loft area. The kids have staked this out as their space. We put some blankets and pillows and they read up there and play games.

 

 

The apartment is laid out in a circle. So, if you turn right you come to a foyer area with a large closet at the end. Off to the right is a door that leads to a small balcony. Currently, we have Concord grapes growing out there!

 

 

If you turn left in this foyer area you enter the living room. The first picture of the living room shows the foyer and the door to the balcony, the second picture was taken while standing in the foyer. The glass windows in the second picture open to another small balcony that looks out to the backyard.

 

 

This is a little nook in the living area. I have some of our Lithuanian souvenirs displayed here.

 

 

Take another left off of the living room and you enter the kitchen. There are lots of cupboards, storage and counter space!

 

 

It's an eat-in kitchen with a great view of the backyard!

 

 

Off of the kitchen is a small storage room.

 

 

Turning left out of the kitchen takes you to a long hallway. On the left is the bathroom (imagine it at the center of the circle). The first door on the right is Dylan's room, the next door is Katie's room and the door straight ahead is our room. If you continue down the hall and turn left you are back to the entryway and those curved stairs leading up to the loft.

 

 

The bathroom...

 

 

Dylan's room - He's not crazy about the wallpaper, but has been gracious about it. The door opens onto a balcony that is shared by Katie.

 

 

Katie's room.

 

 

Our bedroom - the right wall is entirely closet space!

 

 

And finally, the view! This is what sold us on this apartment. The backyard is huge and goes down to the Dane River!

 

 

The mist comes in during the evening, it's almost magical to look at!

 







 

In early August we went out to breakfast at a hotel downtown, Navalis, to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of being in Lithuania!
 

 

We also started homeschool in August. The days were getting long and we decided having some structure would be a good thing. Starting early also gives us some flexibility to take some time off during fall break. This picture was taken on our first day of school.

 

 

We had a nice Sunday afternoon and took the kids to a local ropes course called, Kar Kar. Katie had been there with her classmates in May and has been itching to get back. Dylan was a little uncertain in the beginning (he doesn't love heights) but persevered and by the end he was having a great time.

 

 

 
We also took a trip to Nida, the southernmost Lithuanian town on the Curonian Spit. Dylan had the opportunity to throw an axe...

 

and Katie gave a slingshot a try...

 

 

Nida is known for it's beautiful sand dunes. Here we are approaching the dunes...

 

 

Enjoying the view from the top of the dunes... Nida has to be one of the most beautiful places I have been.

 

 

We also took a bike ride on the Curonian Spit. We road from our house, took a ferry across the lagoon and then biked on a trail. We took a break from biking and walked over to the Baltic Sea. We found a deserted beach that was gorgeous. While wading in the chilly Baltic, we spotted two jellyfish, one red and the other purple. I think we biked about 15 miles that day!

 

 

 

Last Saturday we took a road trip to see Trakai. This is a restored castle on the outskirts of Vilnius. The  castle is unique because it is situated on an island. We went on a beautiful fall day and we had perfect weather for touring the castle grounds, rowing on the lake and walking through this quaint and beautiful town.