Our new contact information is not new at all – you can still send snail mail (paper only) to MAF and it will be forwarded to us (address on the bottom right of the webpage).  If you’d like to send us a package or just want to send it directly, you can send it to straight to France at:

50 chemin des Galibouds

73200 Albertville

France

Thank you to all who have asked already – we look forward to some old fashioned mail!

This is day five of our life in France.  It is going very well!  Axel is still on Mountain Time a bit, so we spend more time awake at night than we’d prefer, but he’ll get it figured out soon.

Our little three bedroom apartment is cozy and we’ve rearranged all the furniture to make it a little more like what we’d like.  We finally unpacked everything today, so we’re feeling settled.  I did my first loads of laundry over the weekend.  The washers are shared on campus and we lined dried the items.  There is a dryer, but drying outside is so fresh (and cheaper)!  We’ve walked around about half of the town and know where some of our favorite shops are now.  One can get anything here, so don’t feel too badly for us.  Oh, you weren’t feeling badly for us?  It has something to do with living in the French Alps?  Yeah, okay, I get that.

Matthew headed down with some other parents from the school today to register Levi for school.  He (Levi) will be attending the public kindergarten just across the street.  He will learn French so quickly, maybe he can help me with my homework!  He begins school the same day we do – September 2nd.

Yesterday we attended the local protestant church with some of the other families from the language school.  It was a great experience and though I understood only bits and pieces, Matthew understood the main points of the sermon AND was able to successfully (or at least I was thoroughly impressed) introduce our family and give a few sentences about where we’re from and where we’re going.  It’s a small church and the folks were very welcoming!

Please continue to pray for us as we settle in and figure out some of the nitty gritty of how to conduct life, get some paperwork sorted out, and even be praying as the other families are starting to arrive.  We know three other families (all going to Congo) on their way before the week is out – hopefully we can help them if they need it.  Thank you for your prayers thus far.  We are already finding new ways to practice our French and settling in to life here will make learning French better.  The best way to learn a language is to immerse in the culture.  We are eating enough cheese and bread to try and do that!

We have arrived in Albertville, France!  I think traveling a third of the way around the globe with three small kids is, you know, crazy.

Matthew and I stayed up all night, literally, to finish packing and sorting.  We were laughing that after fifteen months anticipating this day, we still had to pull an all-nighter to finish.  We were literally zipping the last bags and taking out the trash when our ride to the airport showed up!

We dropped off the truck with our Congo bins at MAF on the way to the airport.  Next, we checked our bins (10 bins/suitcases, three car seats.  We dragged our six carry-ons (well, five, plus a few “personal items”), stroller, baby backpack and three kids to the gate…and had about five minutes to spare before boarding.  Hurry hurry hurry annnnnd, mechanical issues.  Oh well, we had a four hour layover in Chicago, so it wasn’t a big deal to hang out for an extra hour in Boise.

The flight went well, though we were separated.  Since we couldn’t pick our seats until we checked in at the airport, we had to get seats apart, but to even get us that close they were “forced” to upgrade our seats to the ones with more leg room and fancy arm rests.  Poor us!  The little boys and Mommy hung out in one row, and Daddy and Amelia hung out a few rows up.  Easy.

After a couple of hours wandering in O’Hare, we boarded the fanciest airplane we’ve ever been on – my first 747!  We enjoyed a whole row of seats in the front of economy class and Axel got to use the bassinet that hangs on the wall.  It was an eight hour flight – not for the faint of heart or for the very tired with small children.  They fed us well, passed out toys to the kids, and had fancy screens with a huge selection of movies.  The kids watched their favorites (Tangled, Planes, Ice Age)…Matthew and I each got through about 30 minutes, over the course of the eight hour flight, of our movies, but the kids, unintentionally dozing, and all of the awesome treats kept interrupting us.  Oh well.  We survived and eventually we all got a little sleep!

The layover in Frankfurt was quick.  Customs was merely a passport check and a stamp.  We wandered the longest route between two terminals that was ever built.  I managed to describe and acquire our gate-checked stroller to someone who only spoke German.  At this point we were super tired, but still pressing on.  We didn’t have time for food, but we had been fed so well on the long-haul flight that it didn’t matter.  We finally boarded our plane for the last one-hour flight to Lyon, France.  The snacks were great, but the fatigue was setting in and our patience was tried.  Levi and Amelia ended up having a screaming match as we boarded, we were seated separately, Axel suddenly had a brief case of diarrhea, and we were nearly done.

Finally, we deplaned and then the real work began.  We hauled all of our things and a stinky Axel down to baggage claim.  We some how coordinated ourselves to get him changed and the kids together and all of our bins.  It was stressful to see one of our bins had been inspected by TSA but they had failed to apply a new zip tie, thus it arrived to us open.  We’re pretty sure it was intact (the expensive stuff in it was still there) and a few missing socks aren’t anything we’ll get upset over.  All of our things finally arrived and now it was time to haul them out to the car rental place.  Easier said than done, but we managed to rent three carts and wrangle ourselves across the airport, out to the bus stop and, with the help of a sweet stranger, we got all of our bags on board the bus and rode out to rent a van.

The van was an awesome van, but it barely fit our things.  We unpacked a couple of bins to stuff clothing in the empty spaces, and no one needed foot room, right?  The drive was easy – Matthew felt like driving was exactly like in the states.  We’re out in the country, so it was a lot of corn fields and vineyards and castles.  Yay castles!  Finally we arrived in Albertville.  We drove around downtown to see what it was like, stopped a store for diapers (I went in by myself and my shopping French came back easily…or I faked it well, anyway) and eventually found the school.  They showed us to our apartment here on campus and several students helped haul the things to our rooms.

There are families here to who began their school year in January, so they will leave in December.  Many of the families starting with us will arrive next week.  The campus is very small, about 25 families or single students.  I can’t wait to meet everyone and get to know them.  The few we met briefly yesterday were very sweet and helpful.  Lots of kids are here, as well as many toys and things for them on this little plot.

We looked around our apartment and figured out where we would all sleep.  We have the luxury of three bedrooms, so we’ll spend this afternoon rearranging the furniture to get it closer to how we want.  Then we’ll unpack and settle in.  So many things to think about, but it should be fun to finally get settled.

The weather here is only slightly cooler than it was in Idaho, so it’s nice to not transition that way yet.  We walked around later in the afternoon yesterday to see what we could acquire on foot.  There are a couple of small grocery stores, a pharmacy, a couple of bakeries within easy walking distance, so we’ll be just fine without a car.  We did drive to a large box store to pick up some other essentials that we didn’t bring.  It was a bit overwhelming, since we hadn’t been to bed in nearly 48 hours at that point, but we only had the car for a short time.  It is only a mile away, so still walkable, but nice to be able to drive.

The night actually went well.  The kids all woke in the middle of the night, but after eating and talking for a bit, went back to sleep quite easily.  We all slept in and, while the fatigue is still present, it’s good to get some rest!  We are grateful we have some extra days to do that before we launch into school.

It’s a beautiful little town and we can’t wait to continue to explore it!  Hopefully, I’ll get some pictures posted soon.  Thank you for all of your prayers.  Please keep them coming as we deal with jet lagged kids, new spaces, foreign expectations, and just life in general!

Just got this email from the French Consulate…

Bonjour Matthew,

Your visas were approved yesterday, they have been printed and will be leaving our office this afternoon. 

Enjoy your stay in France and have a nice weekend!

So, there’s that.

Next up:  buying tickets to, you know, France.