Thursday, November 6, 2008

Austria





Last Thursday we headed by car to Riga Latvia to catch a Baltic Air flight to Munich and then by rental car to our missionary retreat at Schloss Mittersil. The travel went well with only a few minor delays so we got there almost on time. By the next day the boys had met the other children. They were eager to be with a group of older children. (At least more eager than they are to be with there own age group at preschool) Several of the adults and a few children were not new to the boys and that helped for a quicker adjustment too.

It was truly a blessing to observe how they interacted with other children and how they responded to other families there. They had quite a lot of freedom to wander in the large castle as our group was the only one this time, and they felt comfortable being out of our sight. We are so very grateful for the other families and their children as well as the child care workers who related to our boys.

The child care workers had a large range of ages to work with but they let our boys play around the other kids when they were not into structure. One day Erik got one of them to read to him the entire time- 2 hours plus 1 1/2 hours later- I think that's a record. The children made tie die tshirts with a mittersill emblem the workers had designed ahead of time- you will see in the pictures.

Erik got to running with the other boys, and David soon followed. Though he also went his own way and we found him in the game room with big boys sometimes. Erik got started somewhere along the way giving hugs, so the last day or so was interesting as we observed the older children taking their turn asking Erik for a hug. What a difference a year makes!!

The travel back was more difficult. Both boys were struggling with colds and it was a significant amount of driving for a day. We spent a day at home and David spent another one at home today again. Hopefully he will be better for tomorrow. For a while there he sounded a few years older- mixture of laryngitis and a very low voice! Quite funny really.



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