How are your children adjusting to their new life in Uruguay?

This is probably the most common question I hear from our friends and support team back home. And for good reason. We have children of pretty much every age category under our roof, and anyone who has ever moved with children knows that moving is every bit as momentous and stressful for a child as it is for an adult. And then in a new country you add the dynamic of a foreign culture and a foreign language.  I appreciate the interest, and the many prayers for our “missionary kids.” As a mother, I am always concerned that my children are developing well spiritually, emotionally, academically and physically, and if you ask how you can pray for us, my children’s well-being will always be top on my list.

Over the four months we have been here, I have been observing my children becoming more and more acclimated to life here. It is different. We went from being a family who loved the outdoors to being urbanites. This is quite an adjustment, especially for our sons. We are making a vegetable garden on our roof, and are looking to buy a puppy to help keep them busy and out walking in the community (the dog will need to be walked regularly as we have only a tiny patio). But there is an advantage of urban life–the public buses are a safe and convenient option that allows teenagers some freedom. Our teens  have started using the buses to go the mall and the beach–something that is easier here than in the suburbs we used to live in.

For our daughters, I would say spending time with friends are among their highest values. Improving in the language is of course a necessary piece to making this part of life work. We have lived in Mexico before. When we moved out of Mexico 3.5 years ago, their Spanish was still a work in progress–they were better at understanding than at speaking. Over the time we lived in San Diego, the younger ones lost whatever Spanish they had and the older ones lost some of their abilities as well.

So, for all of our children, learning the language here is an essential part of making Uruguay their home. Everyone says that children pick up a new language so amazingly fast. I would say this is a bit of an exaggeration, especially the older the child is, as we found out when we lived in Mexico! So we are being very purposeful in this regard. For the months of January and February, we have been very blessed to have Spanish tutoring for the children. We have a Spanish-speaking missionary associate (short term missionary) from Indiana, named Allison, who has given incredibly of her time and abilities to teach classes to our children.

Allison divided up the children into 2 groups–the older ones and the younger ones. In January, she taught each of the groups, every day from Monday through Friday; and now in February she is teaching twice a week. Allison is a Spanish major who is in the middle of a study abroad program in Argentina. She chose to serve with our team during summer break (December, January and February). I have been amazed at the skill and creativity that she has brought to this teaching task.  And, I have been amazed at how the classes are helping the children improve in their skills. Allison has a blog, if you would like to see about life in Uruguay from her point of view.   We will be sad to see her leave us in a few weeks, as she goes back Argentina.

As summer vacation comes to an end in the next few weeks, we are looking at what activities for our children to get involved in. As a large family on a small budget, we have never been much for the lifestyle where each child is off in different activities–we’ve never had the time nor the money. But this school year we are desiring that our children have a lot of time in the community – for Spanish learning and getting acclimated. So we have been/are/will be busy visiting preschools, ballet, karate, orthodontist, music lessons…etc. etc. to see what we might fit in. We need wisdom from above as we make these choices. Most of all we pray that our children would follow the Lord, and that their experiences growing up would help shape them for service to God.