international community

This was the view of the sky tonight in Amstelveen after a cold and heavy, wet rain. We have two house guests with us tonight from the Luxembourg International School volleyball team, and we are their host family. we were waiting to pick up “Freakin’ Fresh” New York Pizza after Juliana’s volleyball game when I had to run outside to snap this pic. Juliana insisted that I didn’t cook something that they might not like!! I guess this happened to her before.

Our guests are originally from Iceland and speak several different languages. I love this little Universe we all live in. And seeing this sky made me think of Thousand Oaks and Sunnyvale and Texas and the one, big sky we all live under even thousands of miles apart.

And having girls visit from another country and watching them all play together with the iPhone 5 and joking around with Siri, eating Jolly Ranchers, watching an old Friends episode, and talking about how their brothers all play Minecraft, makes me think our world is really smaller than we think. I think we all have a lot in common.

One other small universe event happened this week too. This woman saw me walking through the school parking lot and stopped me, asking if I was new here. We ended up chatting about the international community and how to integrate the various international groups. She was Dutch, but was born in California. As we talked more, she told me she was from West L.A., near the area I was born and that her siblings were from Westlake Village – right next door to my family. Strange!! And then she introduced me to her friend, who is Indonesian. We shared stories of our Indonesian roots and another connection was made. I love how life works and discovering the commonalities and connections. It’s like that 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon…

I hope you all have a good weekend! xo

Believe it or not, I didn’t take a single picture today. That’s a first! I think I was too busy listening and being present at the kids’ (and parents’) orientation today. The best part of the orientation was that our big kids disappeared with their groups and were seen around campus smiling and following after their new peers. After all the testing and information sharing, there was a BBQ lunch for everyone. Our kids ate with their new friends and Jeff and I enjoyed chatting with and getting to know some of the new families.

The second best part of this new school, is that it fosters community and wants parents to feel welcome and a part of the school – not only for the kids, but for the international community that we are. To feel like we have a place to be and to gather and to build friendships and community. I love this. It’s what I’m good at – I love people. I love hearing their stories and learning from one another.

It felt a little bit like home too – a very diverse, multicultural community with several different languages spoken, and several different ethnicities from all around the world, gathered together.

We’re all excited to begin this next phase of our lives.

We loved seeing so many pictures of the first day of school from so many of our friends on Facebook today. It did feel strange to not be there with you and to walk to school through the neighborhood together. Seeing the pictures of the first day is like a milestone – representing change and growth and newness. Loved it. And hope to see more as more friends continue new beginnings too, just like us.