2 months into the internship: the very reason we brought our family to the other side of the world. Has it been worth it? Absolutely. Without a doubt. JR has been busily reading and writing papers, engaging in conversations, sitting in on meetings and gleaning from highly-respected, wise and faithful men, at every possible opportunity. We have been incredibly encouraged by the church community. Time is flying, as we anticipated it would. Some advice we were given at the beginning of the internship was to 'suck the marrow out of the bone' and we have been doing just that.
We've also been exploring DC! JR and I were spoilt with a number of date nights when we first arrived with babysitting care of some ladies in the church. We jumped on our bikes one night and checked out the Capitol Building, Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. At the next opportunity we went to a jazz gig in Georgetown by a saxophonist I was introduced to as a teenager by the name of Kirk Whalum. We also made it to the National Art Gallery and our first NBA match, which was an epic game with the Washington Wizards coming through in the last second (literally!) for the win. The kids and I have also been out and about on our bikes and have so far visited the Air and Space Musuem, the Bible Museum, the Postal Museum, the Spy Museum and the Library of Congress, as well as a private family tour of the Capitol building from a friend at church. We took the elevator to the top of the Washington Monument (once the tallest building in the world) and had a picnic outside the Lincoln Memorial. We moved house last week (only around the corner) and all of these places remain within a 30 minute bike ride! The girls run/ride around the city streets now like they own them!Did we get snow? Yes! Twice. It's actually been a mild Winter for DC, but we were thrilled to experience the freshly falling snow and the white blanket laid over our little garden. The cherry blossom trees are now gearing up for the Spring and many houses nearby have gardens of daffodils, which is a sweet reminder of home and family (my mum's favourite flower).
The kids have been making friends and Eden and Zai were thrilled to celebrate a combined birthday party with some of JR's extended family, friends from church, a neighbour and a fellow Aussie and her son that we met at a museum. The good old Honey Joys and Pass the Parcel were a hit and a new novelty to most. I think we've all managed to keep our Aussie accents thus far, though Mia loves to use American terminology wherever she can and deliberately writes little notes 'To Mom'.Here are a whole lot of photos of our recent adventures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/w2x7Dad7fV24J3Bq7
Until next time,
Robyn.
