It's not you, it's me...

Okay.  Let me just make a general apology for all of your unanswered emails and messages.  Sorry.  Please don't take it personally.  I love you, I miss you, I think about you, I feel guilty every time I think of that last message you sent that I STILL haven't answered.  I have been equally horrible at keeping in touch with everybody - family and friends.  It's not you, it's me.

And thanks for understanding, and still sending your messages.

Before coming here, I imagined myself spending lots of time keeping in touch with friends and family by email, Facebook and Skype.  Needless to say, that hasn't really happened!

So, please know these things...

We are well.  

Pat's not sick anymore.  Everyone is healthy, big picture. 

We are safe.

Yes, there are floods here.  But our apartment is up high and the school is up high.  It sometimes means inconvenience, but we are fine.  

Yes, there was a riot in Jakarta last week.  No, we were not in any danger.  It was in the center of the city.  We are in the south part of the city.  Some students went home early because roads were closed and traffic was bad.  We are fine.

Actually,  I feel safer here than I do in Langley sometimes.  You know how in Disneyland you can look around at any given moment and find at least five 'cast members' with walkie talkies who can help you find your lost child?  I kind of feel that way here.  From leaving our apartment door to entering the school, we are greeted by - no exaggeration - at least 20 friendly security guards, staff, cleaners, drivers, doormen, crossing guards...  The bajij drivers know us now, and we usually have the same one each day - the driver with the Batman mud flaps.  One of these days I need to ask someone to explain to him in Indonesian why my boys always insist on watching him turn around and drive away.  Batman mud flaps.

The boys are adjusting to school.

Mornings start early, with wake-up at 5:30am.  School starts at 7:15am.  I pick up Ezra at 11:15, then we stick around the school until Zeb is done at 1:15.  Pat picks up Dax at 3:15.  

Funny enough, of all three boys, Ezra is adjusting to school the most easily.  Who knew?

Zeb sometimes has a hard time going to school in the morning, but by the time I pick him up, he is full of stories of all the things he has done with this friend and that friend.  I tried to pick him up early yesterday, and he burst into tears because he wanted to stay right until the end of the day.  

Dax is having the hardest time adjusting to school.  This is probably one of the biggest stressors for our family right now.  This could be a whole blog post unto itself.  Another day.

We are part of an amazing community.

In a short time, we have made some really great friends.  We've found our comfortable people.  Dax has a buddy named Ammar who reminds him of his cousin Denayden.  Zeb is going over to a friend's house to swim after school today.  Ezra has fallen head over heels for our (fellow staff member) friend, Rebekah.  Well, we've all kind of fallen head over heels for her.

Friendships are formed quick and deep here, I'm finding.  I've made some very special friends already.  Friends who take me to their market and local spots.  Friends who genuinely love our kids.  Settlers of Catan friends.  My workout and coffee friend.  Friends who I can text in my not-very-good-parenting moments who will take our kids to for a few hours so I can decompress.  Friends who walk into our apartment without knocking, and that's ok.  Friends who will spend their precious Saturday afternoon at our five-year old's birthday party.

It's hot.

I can't tell you how glad I am to be warm.  All the time.  No jackets, no socks, no slippers.  No big, frumpy hoodies around the house.  I can swim in an outdoor pool with our kids and not be cold.  I can go out in the evening with a t-shirt on and not be cold.  Every day is a skirt and sandals day.

It's too hot to do much outside in the middle of the day.  And I'm a hot sweaty mess most of the time.  But so is everyone else.

I am a bit overwhelmed.

Again, sorry for not keeping in touch as well as I had planned.  

I haven't once opened up the Kidblog site.  The Minecraft server we were going to use to help Dax connect with friends doesn't work.  Internet connection was sketchy for a while, though I think we've got it figured out now.

We planned to be pen-pals with several people, but it turns out it's not worth trying to mail things to us here.  It likely won't make it to us.

I still don't really feel like I've figured out much of a routine.  School is crazy busy.  I am trying desperately to remember which mom goes with which kid in which class.  I've already missed a bunch of parent meetings and school events I was supposed to go to.  Drop-offs and pickups take up the bulk of my day.  I feel like I've made a million promises to our boys that I haven't come through on.  Things they sold back home that we told them we could replace when we got here.  Ways we were going to keep in touch with friends.  

It seems that everything here takes 20 times as long as it would in North America.  Groceries, cooking, cleaning, dishes, DRIVING, everything.  Yes, we have hired a part-time helper, and that is taking some of the load off.  I am still amazed at how quickly the day gets filled up.

This all sounds pretty whiny, which it is not meant to be.  Just explaining where things are at, and why I haven't been in touch so much.  

So, please know that I love you, I'm thinking of you, and I appreciate the small sound-bytes of communication we can squeeze in here and there.  Thank you for being ok with picking up where we left off, even if our conversation doesn't pick up again for a few weeks or months.

Laura