For anyone who has ever had the thought, 'Kayla is sure roughing it over there in East Asia,' let me clarify. Though some (ok, many) things are much tougher here, there are some things about my life that I wouldn't trade for the world.Most worthy of noting would be our living arrangement. We live in an apartment complex with quite a heap of other foreigners who speak English, and all of the moms stay at home like me and homeschool their kiddos. So, twice (count it, twice) every single day we bring our kids outside for an hour of romping in the landscaped courtyard under the ever-shining Spring City sun. We don't exclude the East Asian kids, but they are away at school from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. (even the kindergarteners) so it ends up being just us foreigners most of the time. Today, however, Brave wiggled and giggled with two other babies, both East Asian, while a beautiful, brown-skinned grandma gave them some strange pitted fruits to gobble on (they eat lots and lots and LOTS of fruit in this country).
One of our sweetest little neighbors is Sydney, our freckle-faced, 9-year-old companion, who comes ringing our bell nearly every day in late morning.
If the boys are not yet ready to go outside, she will come up and help me with dishes or sweep my floor or serenade us on the keyboard with a very good "Smoke on the Water." The boys are in love, I'm pretty sure. The sad thing is - and I haven't had the heart to break it to them yet - Sydney and her family are going back to The States, perhaps for good. There you have the bitter to accompany the sweet. People that do what we are doing are always coming and going. For now, however, we are in good company.
