Around the world and back

Our flight for America was scheduled for June 8th. we would arrive that evening around 10, and be ready for Nathaniel and Ashley's Wedding (Eric's younger brother and newly wed wife) less than 48 hours later. 

The week before our scheduled take off day was certainly a blur! We had lunch with Ninetta. She is an elderly lady at the church in Taranto. I havent mentioned her previously, because up until this point that we have been in Taranto, she has been staying with her son and his family in Florence. Now she is back in Taranto for the summer. We also visited Anna Maria, had a "farewell Taranto" pizza dinner with our students, went to the beach with Fabrizio, Luca, and Andrea, and then ended with a great visit from our friend Earl Lavender. He and his family have worked in Italy for several years now, in fact Earl grew up here in Italy. It was a treat and of course a great encouragement for us to personally get to meet him and discuss the work here in Italy. Saturday night (June 4) we, Fabrizio and Luca, Earl, and the Verardi family all met right outside of Ostuni (the white city) for dinner and then enjoyed the night together with a stroll through the beautiful city of Ostuni.

Waiting on the Verardi's. . . oh the things we do together =)

Ostuni

Earl, Eric, Franco,and Luca

Earl, Anna Maria, Me, Eric, Luca, Mino, and Fabrizio

Me, Eric, and Earl

This is a photo of one of the underground restaurants that we passed during the night. Its not the best photo, but if you look closely you can see the restaurant below. They were so neat.

Anna Maria and Me

 Since Eric, I, and Earl are all from Ohio, we wanted to spread a little bit of Buckeye pride while we were together. . . O-H- . . ! =)

The photo above was taken the night of our arrival in Ohio. My birthday is June 9th, so we went ahead and celebrated a little that night. Here is Marie helping open my presents =) 

Eric's brother's wedding set the time frame for our first visit back to the states after 9 months of living halfway across the world. This first visit for us was a much needed recharge and a chance to relax and enjoy our families. We arrived late in the night on June 8th and were back in Taranto midnight of July 2nd. In total a three week stay. Because of the wedding and our families both being in Ohio, this trip ended up being an exclusive Ohio visit. We really wanted to program in a trip south during this visit, but we agreed in the end that we very much needed this time of rest. We are in the process now of planning a second visit to the states in December in which we will take a week to visit our other supporting congregations, both in Arkansas and West Virginia. ..so we are coming soon! we cannot wait to see all of you in the south and share all of the things we are witnessing and are learning here in Italy. 

The next day was going to be a very busy one. Because Eric was in the wedding party, he had plans to be with the groomsmen all day golfing, and we would meet later that evening for the rehearsal dinner. I also had plans to get a much needed haircut (after 9 months), and a visit to the dentist for a check up. All of this to say, I knew that during the day there wouldn't be much time for cake, so I decided to have it for breakfast =)

I want to say a few things about landing in America after being foreigners in country half way across the world for nine months. There was a certain sense of fear and anxiety leaving what has finally become "normal"  to us here in Italy. I would say about three weeks before we left for America, Eric and I began to feel differently here in Taranto. Instead of being the "Americans" living in Taranto, somehow, all of the sudden, we became one of them. Something changed inside the people here. It's not that we were ever not welcomed or not included, nothing of the sort, but we felt what we were, which is Americans living in a foreign country. This being said, while on one hand we were counting down the days for our return to America, on the other hand, we were sad! Because somewhere along the way, we had changed. We had become in a sense Italian.

I cant explain to you how, or when this happened, but I can tell you that it feels great, and it has made everything worth it. We have turned the corner, and are seeing many prayers being answered and experiencing lots of growth, not only in ourselves but everywhere around us. When you pray for us, please prasie God! And please pray for God to continue to use us here. There is so much work to be done. 

Boarding the plane for America was surreal. For nine months we had imagined what it would be like and how we would feel. Our trip was a long one- 17 hours in total including layovers and time changes. The night before our flight we drove to the Verardi's house in Latiano, because it was 45 min closer to the airport. The next morning, we were in Brindisi, then to Rome, Rome to NY, 9 hours later we landed in Columbus. 

Its a funny story bc we arrived and found no one to great us! We thought, well the plane is over 30 min early, so we went on to baggage claim, got our bags, and waited for another 20 min or so (which felt like an eternity). By this point we were getting curious, where are they?! We only had Euro change, a couple of American dollars, and no cell phone, but around the corner I saw a pay phone. 5 min later, after asking someone for change for a dlloa and feeling like I was in the dark ages without a cellphone on hand,  I see my dad riding down the escalator! They had been waiting upstairs around the corner where we first came in! In fact my sister had made us two giant big welcome home signs! Later, my mom was telling me that everyone who passed were saying things like aw, how nice! Wish that was for me! How sweet! haha, They had been looking throught the crowds for a half an hour while we were waiting down in baggage claim!

It was SO amazing to see my family. It was as if no time has passed. We picked up right where we left off, and it seemed as if the life Eric and I had in Italy was a different life completely. A strange sensation indeed. 

Believe it or not, it also was really difficult to speak English at first! With my parents we skype in English; Eric and I still talk in English, but with virtually everyone else we speak Italian. Coming off the plane the airline stewardess said something like Goodnight thank you for flying with us! have a great evening! I stood staring at her because my brain was so confused. What language are you speaking? My mind was wanting to translate, and then after much debate I would realize, oh wait, I already understood what she said...talk about a delayed response. This reverse effect lasted probably for the first week. 

Arent they a beautiful pair? It rained literally every day that we were in America. This is very unusal for Ohio. However, I think God had a hand in keeping the rain away from 5-8 pm on June 10th.

Mom and Dad

My little sister Hannah and Me

Can I just remind all of you who have siblings how lucky we are?! Hannah and I had the best time laughing and cutting up for three weeks. I have truely missed my sister.

This is Eric's sister Stephanie and her daughter Taylor.

Both of Eric's sisters together: Stephanie and Angie- come belle voi siete!

Eric and Angie

The kiddos =)

Eric e Io

After the wedding, there was more down time fore relaxing with our families. Eric enjoyed going golfing with the dads and his brother, while I enjoyed some shopping time with Mom and Hannah =)

This is me squeezing my Minnie.haha. Those of you who know us well, know that our pups are like our children... literally. When we left America the first time, we certainly we heartbroken. 

It was soooo awesome to see them again!

Marie and Eric

A fun experience we had was taking the dogs swimming one day...I think we enjoyed it a little more than they did. Within the first 5 min Marie jumped head first into the water and of coure went under. When she came up, the look on her face was priceless- it said get me out of here! We're still not sure what she was thinking when she dove in nose first. . . 

Another not so fun activity was having to retake our drivers licence exam again! Since our license had expired while we were living in Italy, we were aware that we would have to go to the BMV and pay to renew our licenses. What we did not expect was having to retake not only the written test but also the 

maneuverability! Aparently, the reason we had to retest was because our old licenses were out of Arkansas. Anyone who comes into Ohio as a "new resident" has to retake the driver's written exam, and if the previous license is expired, you have to take both. Who knew after all these years we would have to face those orange cones once again!

Also, while in America we played some put put ...

Went to Kung Fu Panda 3 at the drive in movie theater with the kids. . . 

ate some American food....

and some not so American food....

enjoyed Starbucks. . .

watched two star softball players. . . 

celebrated Father's day at Donnie and Gene's. . . 

went to the lake. . . 

presented the work in Italy. . . 

cooked and enjoyed a "real" italian meal together... 

had a sleepover. . . 

watched Trent turn 8 years old. . . .

loved on our girls. . .

and cherished every second with our families. 

We feel so fortunate to have had this time to recharge and remember what loving and supporting families we have at home. God certainly has richly blessed us. Thank you all for your prayers, love, and support that allows us to spread the love and name of Jesus here in Italy. 

"Your love has given me great joy and encourgement. . ." Philemon 1:7

Youth Retreat in Firenze

I had to grab my red pocket sized planner to make sure I fill in all of the gaps from the last time we met.

We returned to Taranto late Sunday night from the family retreat in Velletri. We then had a total of 36 hours before our take off to Florence Thursday morning. During these days, we blogged, cleaned, did 3 loads of laundry and hung them out to dry, prepared and had classes, welcomed the air conditioner people into our stuffy apartment, went to church, designed and created a new interactive bulletin board for Laura and my Sunday morning Bible class, had Bible class with Laura, and enjoyed lunch with our favorite neighbor and friend, Anna Maria.

Thursday started off when the alarm buzzed at a quarter until 4 am. Thankfully we had packed the night before. We met Franco at the bottom of our apartment a quarter after 4. Franco works early in the morning, so it was very nice of him to swing by and give us a ride to the train station. There we waited for about 20 minutes until the Puglia Airbus (which Eric discovered online! ) pulled up right on schedule and we departed for the airport in Bari (about a 45 min to an hour ride). The flight was fine and we landed in Florence a little before noon.

The new look of Santa Maria Novella. All throughout the winter they were working on the surrounding areas of Santa Maria Novella. Finally we can see what they had envisioned! 

This is behind the new benches, from this point of view, if I would turn around, I would still be facing the front side of Santa Maria Novella. They also added these relaly neat wooden...I dont know what to call them, but it was a nice modern touch in between the Ospedale degli Innocenti (the building in the back of this photo)  and Santa Maria Novella.

The retreat didn't start until late that evening. So Eric and I checked our bags at the train station and headed for a stroll through beautiful Florence. So many things were different since we had last been there, but mainly it was the heat and the tourists- both of which were everywhere. It was such a treat to take a stroll and take in the treasures of Florence.

AI team 2010

Later that afternoon we headed to the Bible School. Joele and Viktor (both from the Roma area) were the first of the teens to arrive. It was so good to see them again after seeing them only a weekend ago =) We helped organize around the Bible school and waited for the rest of the teens to arrive.

Angela was in charge of the game on Friday day night, and she did an great job! Her idea was to play the game Clue- but with real life size people! ha. Everyone in the Bible School dressed up as figures from the game. Each one had a station (room) in the Bible School where a short game was played. The rest of us were split into groups. Every 7 minutes we would change stations and leave with another clue that got us closer to solving the mystery. 

And the mystery of the game begins!

Here is Lorenzo and Ryan or I should say, Professor Plum, in the study.

Luca, Alex, and Lorenzo

Andrea and Ermenita

(Miss Peacock and Miss Scarlet)

Overall the Clue game was a great idea! I think the Italians really enjoyed it!  Very cute and well organized! Great job AI workers!

Arnold and Eric

Eric, Joele, Viktor, and Ryan

Marta and Andrea

Debbie and her friends from the states who came for a visit.

Me and Marta

Joele decided to give Eric a tatoo.oh, boys will be boys =)

By the way, this is where the Italians boys were supposed to sleep for the weekend. First, you have to know that the Bible school was packed full of people! Because the villa is still in the process of being repaired, half of the HUF students we staying at the Bible school. Also staying were Jim, Debbies friends, and Eric and I. The AI workers had turned the downstairs game room into a place to sleep for all of the girls, but for the boys, the only other option was the outback campsite. I didnt know this, but apparently, Italians arent very big on camping. The next morning we found the guys asleep instead in the living room! =)

The next morning we woke up to David fixing pancakes and bacon! I have to fell you in on a couple of things here. First of all, Italians barely ever eat anything for breakfast other than cafe and maybe, if they are really hungry, a croissant. Also, they have never heard of pancakes- it was confusing to them on how to eat them, and the syrup is normally too sweet for them. Lastly, they are always shocked when we say we have eggs or any type of meat for breakfast. It is unheard of here. Isnt it strange, the things we assume to be so normal, half way across the world, are unheard of? All of that to say, they all seemed to actually really enjoy the breakfast! It was a hit! I know for us Americans too it was definitely a treat =)

.Afterwards we all gathered up our packed lunches, soccer balls, sunscreen, volleyball net, jugs of lemonade, song sheets, and a few other things and climbed into the vehicles for the park! I wish I could remember the name of this park, but I am drawing a blank. On the way there, we made a quick stop to enjoy the view from atop Piazza Michelangelo. 

The Girls

Serenella and Andrea

It was about an hour drive total and the last half was spent climbing up the winding road all the way to the top! Once we arrived we ate our lunch and then split into group where we spent about an hour translating some English song to Italian.

Still translating. . .

Daniela

Ermenita, Alexandru, Clizia and Me...Im so happy Clizia got to come!!

Daniela her friend and her sister Alina

Daivd, Angela, and Andrea putting the final touches on the song!

Taking Zoey for a walk.

Alina

Viktor

Ermenita, me, Laura, Emily, and Clizia

Let the games begin!

Alexandru, Alex, Joele, GIacomo, and Viktor

Go Erme! 

I think we were all a little worn out on the way back to Scandicci.

Once we returned back to the Bible School, we had about an hour and a half to take our showers and get cleaned up for dinner. It was such a treat to eat some ribs on the grill! yummmmmm!

Andrea, Clizia, me, and Marta

Clizia and Me

What a wonderful gift of friendship <3

After enjoying a fabulous feast, it was time to move into the living room and enjoy some devotional time and singing. Eric had signed up for this night to speak. The topic given to him was overcoming difficulties with faith. I recorded it so you can see how good of a job he did, but for some reason it isnt uploading =( It obviously was in Italian, but in English, what he was saying was that ..... as Christians, we need to have joy in difficulties. It is through our difficulties that we are able to exam and test ourselves to see where our faith is. He used Paul's example in 2 Corinthians 11:1-33 and 12:1-6 where he boasted sarcastically about his weaknesses. Paul was highlighting the differences between the false prophets and God. We can boast in our weaknesses because when we are weak, He is strong. If Jesus overcame His weakness through crucifixion, we can overcome ours as well. But how? 2 Corinthians 13:5-6 which says we must test ourselves to see if we are in the faith. We will discover that Jesus will overcome our weaknesses, and they we haven't failed the test. After this, Eric facilitated the illustration of one person having to trust the other enough to fall backwards into the others persons arm's. The illustration shows the person falling is us as Christians, the person who catches us, is Jesus. We have to realize that if the person never falls there is no faith. Then Eric asked, but how can we know how big our faith is? He quoted Matthew 17: 14-21, if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, we can move mountains. He asked again, how big is your faith? and what are we not capable of doing when Jesus is on our side? He concluded with Deut 31:8, which says " The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you, nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

Sunday morning we all headed off to church. This was Jim's last Sunday in Florence and we were so happy to get to hear him speak again!

Overlooking Florence from the top of the hill at the Villa.

Robbie's friend Andrea, the pianist =)

After service, we walked down the street to enjoy some pizza together before all of the kids would be taking the train back to their different regions and cities in Italia. Eric, Clizia and I took the tram back into Scandicci to enjoy a gelato together at our favorite gelato place Gelatando. Gelatando, which when literally translated means, "ice-creaming". haha. Sadly, it was closed, but we found another shop that was open down the road. Clizia had homework, and Eric and I used a few hours of the afternoon to do a load of laundry. We came downstairs about an hour later to check on the laundry and found Viktor, Giacomo, and Joele! Apparently the trains had went on strike for the day and they were going to stay an extra night! That night was the devotional at the Harding villa, followed by a Piano concert, and Robbie invited us all to go. We ate, sang, prayed, and played volleyball all over again! What a great surprise to get to enjoy another night together =)

At the Piggy Market!

In front of the Duomo.

The next day was our last day before departing for Taranto early the next morning. Eric and I spent the morning walking around Florence enjoying our favorite city together.

Around 1, after lunch, I got a phone call from my friend Danielle. She had had her beautiful baby boy 3 days earlier, but he had been kept at the hospital for these three extra days because he had jaundice. Anyways, this day was the last day and we were more than ready to finally see him!!! Thankfully Danielle helped us figure out what bus to take to the hospital and then how to find the right building/door/entrance. Ha. Danielle and her husband Luli looked so happy!! It was so great to see them, and especially this time as parents! Eric and I waited for about an hour and a half while Danielle and Luli were filling our paperwork for the baby's release. In the mean time, we had already made plans to be with Clizia and her dad around this time and ended up having to leave without seeing the baby!! Tragic, I know. However, we are thankful that he is healthy and at home now, and that we did get to see our wonderful friends, even if it was a short visit.

By this point Eric and I were running a little late, because I just kept thinking, they will be finished any second, just one more minute and Im sure we will get to see the baby. haha. We went and bought a few bus tickets to try and trek across town, when all of the sudden we remembered that the buses were to go on strike that day after 3:30 pm. Sure enough, it was after 3:30 pm.=( So we took off walking, but thankfully Clizia and her Dad were able to meet us half way in the car!

At the entrance of Clizia's dad's studio. . .

.  .  . On top of Clizia's dad's studio!

Talking about art =)

By this point Eric and I were running a little late, because I just could not leave! I just kept thinking- they will be finished any second, just one more minute and Im sure we will get to see the baby! haha. We went and bought a few bus tickets to try and trek across town, when all of the sudden we remembered that the buses were to go on strike that day after 3:30 pm. Sure enough, it was after 3:30 pm.=( So we took off walking, but thankfully Clizia and her Dad were able to meet us half way in the car!

Our plan for the afternoon, was to go and see Clizia's dad's (his name is Valentino) art studio. It was so much fun. We net one of his artist friend's whom I very much enjoyed listening to his thoughts on art today, and the importance of staying fresh and modern with our approach as artists. This coming from an 75 year old man! Needless to say, I was very impressed. It was a mix off emotions to be in this studio surrounded by art. It made me very much miss the creative process. The paints, the mess, the canvases; random combinations of objects. It's funny, even when I am not practicing or creating, Im learning that I am still an artist, and will always be an artist. I feel very blessed that God blessed me with the friendships of other people here in this foreign land, who think and desire to create the way that I do. Who knew 10 months ago, that we would be in a artist's studio in downtown Florence discussing art and developing friendships that have changed us forever?  . . . God knew! =)

Later that evening, we enjoyed dinner at out favorite pizza place with Clizia, Renata, and Behzad. Afterwards, we got some Gelatando together, and Monica (Clizia's mom and my old student and friend) was able to come and met up with us! It is always hard to say goodbye, but we will be seeing Clizia in July (she is coming to visit us in Taranto!! ) and the others when we travel to Florence in August for the Family retreat. I think I have been pretty honest with our blog. We have openly shared our discoveries, new found joys, as well as our difficulties and struggles. I can say, that the friendships that we have made here in Italy, are what has changed us, is changing us, and what has made all of the struggles worth it. There are people that we have met here, that it is now hard to imagine life without ever have knowing them. God's power, and His plans are untouchable,and too great and perfect for us to ever predict or understand. How wonderful it is to be called His children and to get to experience the plans He has for us =)

Immediately arriving in Taranto, we were picked up again by Franco, who took us to his house to enjoy lunch with the family! Afterwards we had plans to be at the other Riccardi house (Franco's brother Enz and his family) by at least 4pm to help Laura get ready for her 10th birthday party! =) We had a little less than an hour to shower up and head over to their house. 

Carmela (Laura's mom)

Once we arrived at the party location, it was time to blow up balloons! 

Carmela and Enzo

La Mia Bellissima Laura =)

It was so sweet. Apparently Carmela had hired a type of party planner/organizer, and she did the best job! She played all sorts of cute games and in the beginning, she even led the girls in these cute group dances. Laura had a blast! 

Laura and some of her friends from school.

I learned that when you yell out Italia! The kids respond with thumbs ups, along with a response, but Im not really sure what that response was. haha.

Tanti Auguri a te! (Happy Birthday to you!)

We hope you enjoyed getting caugh up on the work here in Italy. Thank all of you for your love, prayers, and support. We love you! xoxoxoxox!