American Kids in a Third World Country

For the random strangers that do follow my blog, sorry for my lack of posts this past 6 weeks.  I've had a revolving door of company and my priorities shifted.  Although we had bits and pieces of Mommy school finding the time to document and post them was another thing I just could not make time for.  I will catch you all up on theses activities and projects very soon.  Many of my planed weeks went unfinished and I still have loads of fun activities to get through.  Pre-K starts next week so my plan is to play catch up on our free days.

For the majority of this break we had a very special family come and visit us.

This is my sister Heidi her husband Chris and their amazingly awesome kids

Larissa, Brailynn and Caleb.

My sister and her family are missionaries in Africa.  I only get to see them every 4 years so to my surprise my nieces have both grown taller then me and my nephew is no longer a little kid.  For the first time my girls were able to build relationships with their Aunt, Uncle and cousins and I think it really stinks they live so far away.

Before the girls met their cousins they had a skype relationship with them.  Basically my nieces and nephew would call and ask "Can we just watch the girls?" and so via skype, my girls would entertain the kids on the computer.  When talking to the girls about their cousins we would tell them they lived in Africa.  They could point it out on a map and tell us they wanted to go see them.  Of course I told them it was a very long ride in an airplane so they mapped out a better way, first driving to the Atlantic, taking ship across the ocean and then (making me laugh to hear what goes on in their little brains) A donkey all the way across Africa!!!!  

When the girls learned that they lived near the Nile Coppelia asked her Auntie, "Is it still all bloody?" (The girls are obsessed with the story of Moses and all of the plagues, it's their favorite story to act out.)

People often ask me about my nieces and nephew, what are they like being American kids living in a third world country?

Well, their different... 

In a GREAT way!

The only way I can describe them is by comparing them to American kids and that's totally unfair.

In some ways they are way more mature. They are more thoughtful, compassionate and self-less.  They have not been marketed by endless ways of advertisement and are uniquely themselves and not a reflection of our consumer happy world.  They don't know who or what is cool besides what they themselves have determined.

The typical child grows up WAY too fast now a days and unlike them they have not lost their ability to  play.  An example...

We had to take off for a few days and my 13 year old niece says to the 15 year old, "want to play dollhouse?" The 15 year old says "sure" and they did.

Some of you may think that's weird, but I think it's refreshing.  Look what growing up to fast has done to the kids of today.  

more examples of how awesome they are...

They played 5 hours straight of hospital

complete with mental institution 

and I found this note when cleaning up

They were teaching my kids their training in disaster/crises situations. 

LOVE IT!

they took every floatation device they could find and built a boat

When given cardboard Caleb made some seriously cool armor

Sure they have little arguments but I've never seen siblings lift up and encourage one another like they do.  Nobody else will ever know what it's like to live the way they live or experience the things they experience.  More siblings should take the time to build those relationships.

I'll probably never become a missionary or live in a third world country.  But I hope my kids can turn out as good as them.