The day before Easter we attended the Kimberly-Clark Family Egg Hunt again (the 24th annual).

That night we hosted a “neighborhood egg hunt” in our backyard for some of our terrific neighbors and friends - we LOVE our neighborhood. The girls dresses were from Macy’s, the day after Christmas ($60 marked down to $12) and Angela bought the same one for Kelsey. Amanda has been one of Elena’s best friends this year in Kindergarten.

Then the Easter bunny came on Easter morning, but we didn’t get a chance to color eggs until that day.

Let me just say, for you readers out there, that I am sorry it has taken me so long to post since the last one about resettling into America. I will just say that it took a lot of time and effort for me to get settled with two kids, as well as begin the adoption process. I’ll hopefully be posting again soon with more information about that. Stay tuned.

Easter 2007 - Coloring eggs…

We attended a couple of egg hunts. Elise had an egg hunt at preschool.

Then we attended the Kimberly-Clark sponsored Family Egg Hunt, which was awesome!

Our neighborhood hosted a get-together with a mobile petting zoo, with baby farm animals. The girls loved holding baby bunnies and chicks, and stroking the baby lamb. (The painted bunny on Elise’s cheek is airbrushed from the K-C Egg Hunt party).

And this picture is from Easter morning. The girls got Raggedy Ann & Andy dolls from the Easter Bunny.

Too many photos to include Easter 2008. Please see the next post.

We were at my mom’s house for the first 10 days or so. What a daze I was in. So much emotion. So much to process. And my jet lag was prolonged (up at 2 or 3 am, unable to go back to sleep, for the first 6 nights). But what a relief to have my mom cook meals, help with the girls, even do my laundry. And the lush green yard was therapy. The girls LOVE the swings that Mom put up in the backyard and have had fun blowing bubbles and just running around. I sensed myself pulling back from life, shutting down like a newborn that sleeps when there is too much noise and stimulation. Floating in limbo, comfortably numb.

Then we came to Atlanta to work on our house, getting it ready to sell. The first full day I was so emotional. I wasn’t ready to change environments again! Elena suffered too. She had a breakdown over not being able to find her sunglasses. I asked her if she was having a rough day? Yes, sob, sob. Has there been a little too much change for her lately? Yeah. Perhaps I put words in her mouth, but my mother’s sense told me she was feeling it. But now, almost two weeks later, the girls are thriving at Jim & Margo’s house.

And healing has begun for Scott & me too. It started the night of Elise’s 06-06-06 party. Four of our dearest friends in the world stayed up late with us, while we poured out our pain, frustration and doubt. And they listened and prayed for us. What a picture of the paralytic’s friend carrying him to Jesus so he could be healed. The next day we met with a counseling pastor at the church, who also listened, prayed, and reassured us. And the next day we got together with Ray & Teri Sommer. They were missionaries in Budapest before we got there. And they left a year ago with heartache of their own. It was unbelievably refreshing to discuss our experiences with those who walked the same road ahead of us. There have been other, equally encouraging conversations that I haven’t mentioned. Being here in familiar old Alpharetta, with these relationships, has been like living in a cocoon of nurturing.

I miss Budapest. (The other night I thought I saw a shopping bag with “KIKA” written on it and started to shed tears of longing for “home”). But I am glad that we are here right now. The Friday before we left (the day before I miscarried our baby), when the packers put all of our belongings into boxes, I walked from room to room sobbing. I was remembering so many wonderful memories attached with that living space. If I were there now would I not also feel the pain of the loss of this pregnancy more acutely? God’s mercy.

So the Alpharetta house lists for sale this weekend. There was an amazing work team of volunteers from the church who helped clear out the overgrown landscape the first weekend of June. Then my parents stayed in the empty house, sleeping on air mattresses, for a full week, painting, cleaning, repairing. They were awesome. We have also been given contacts through church friends, for getting good deals on painting, carpet, garage doors. All in all the repairs cost half of what we feared. Now we need prayer that the house sells, quickly and for a good price.

Hopefully, I’ll have more to write soon.

Before this personal experience I believe I thought that the fact that miscarriages were common (I’ve heard 1 in 3 pregnancies) would make it less painful. I was wrong. It is still the loss of our baby. And the loss of a dream. And there are still all the awful questions…Why did the baby die? What was wrong that it didn’t continue to grow? Was there anything I did wrong? When did this baby die? Was it a boy or a girl? Will we be able to get pregnant again? Will we ever be able to carry an infant to completion again or will we suffer this kind of loss in the future?

For now I’m really too numb to decide anything about the future. My heart is not yet ready to hope again.

As a post script: Thank you to all of our wonderful friends in Budapest (especially the Cannon family, Coppage family, Nagy Gabi, Julie, Stirlings, Becky, Rebecca, Lippolds, and Tunde) for the love, words of sorrow and comfort, visits, gifts, and assistance to help us get through our last 2 1/2 days before moving. We love you!

 But we also have struggled with discouragement in so many other areas. (See scott.friderich.net for more details). Now we really need prayer for faith and provision for all of the other unknowns when we return.

 In the end, I am so glad we came and lived here in Budapest.  Though it can be a wearisome place to exist cross-culturally, it has been exhilirating to live this adventure and grow our family here.

 By the way, we are expecting baby #3 at the end of November!

Then later that night we did our egg dying/painting (of the beautiful brown eggs here in Europe). And Elena helped me decorate bunny cupcakes.

Here are the little dolls in their Easter dresses (very hard to get Elise to stand still!).

After church we went to lunch at our friends’ house where the girls got to hunt for the eggs we dyed. What fun!

Then today we conducted our own little egg hunt in the backyard garden of our building with plastic eggs my mom sent from America (filled with candy). The girls were thrilled to stuff their faces with m&m’s afterwards.

“I learned to get boogers out myself. I learned it from the Bible.” 

Scott said, “Oh really. What does the Bible tell you to do?”
 

” It says to get a napkin, stick it right inside the nose and then try to pull it out. That’s what is says and I can do it myself.”

Kids are so entertaining.

Saw Walk the Line last night.  Excellent movie.  You all probably already know that, since I think it may already be available on DVD in the US.  But it is just now playing in theatres here.  I was inspired by the portrayal of June Carter’s character to be the kind of partner/wife who is exceedingly supportive and loving even in the midst of trial. And Reese Witherspoon was fantastic.  Also a fan of Joaquin Phoenix.  Made me want to learn more about Cash’s real life.