Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I cannot believe it’s already time to start signing my checks
with 2013 (yes, I still write
checks)! Where does the time
go? I recall my mother saying the
same thing and thinking, “Why does she think time is moving so quickly?” Well, now I’M that mother…you blink,
and your children are as tall as you are, with interesting minds and lovely
stories to tell.
Even though
time seems to move quickly, it seems so much has happened with the Trimble
Family this year! We kicked off
2012 in Woodbridge, VA. The
children were 10, 9 and 3 (at the time) and it was so nice to be with old
friends in our old home in the Northern Virginia community again! But that was not to last too long…
After
a chaotic end to the school year, attending 5th grade graduation
for Mary, watching Will’s Little League baseball team take FIRST PLACE for the
season, packing up our house (again), saying all of our farewells to friends in
Virginia, and meeting up with old friends from Nairobi, we hit the road bound
for Louisiana and Texas with a van load of kids and a puppy! Sammy, the puppy, likes to travel, so
we were lucky that he slept a lot on the trip. We dropped him off in Louisiana and then went onto Austin to
stay with Karen, Joe’s mom, for a week.
Then back to Louisiana for another week to celebrate the 4th
of July with my family and friends. And THEN, we drove back to Virginia to pick
up our nine suitcases and get on a plane bound for Bucharest, Romania.
With nine
suitcases (it bears mentioning again), three kids, a puppy traveler, and a
stroller, we got to Dulles International with time to spare (3 hours to be
exact). We checked Joe and the
children in on a United Flight, and then went to check Sammy and me in on an
Air France flight (longer story).
It was at this point we learned that I could not fly on an Air France
flight through Paris with the dog unless I had my tourist passport, which I
didn’t. I only had a diplomatic
passport. Needless to say, we
spent the next three agonizing hours working closely with the State Department
travel agent, and both airline ticketing agents to switch Joe and me. We managed to accomplish this
with nine minutes left to board!!!
We swapped our traveling bags on the tram to the planes and skidded into
our appointed flights literally with seconds to go! Thankfully, everyone made it across the pond without incident
after that!
And so began
our three year tour in Eastern Europe.
We are now happily settled into a very nice house in a gated community
in a suburb of Bucharest, called Baneasa.
The children, now 11, 10 and 4, attend (or will soon attend in Suzy’s
case) the American International School of Bucharest. It’s Mary’s first year in Middle School and she seems to be
taking it by storm. She has been
on the Speech and Debate Team and debated in Vienna, Austria (I got to join her
on that trip!), has been selected to join the Gifted and Talented program, and
is making excellent grades. She’s
participating in an assortment of other extracurricular activities, but that
all changes so frequently, I won’t try and outline them here.
Will is equally
successful in his final year in Elementary School. He’s been selected to be a “Green Hat,” which is a group of
5th grade students who are responsible enough to assist the younger
children at lunch and on the playground at recess, as well as help keep
everyone off of the “green” areas at school. He has also been elected as the Student Council rep for his
5th grade class, and has also participated in several after school
activities.
Suzy and I are
at home together until the fall of 2013, when she will begin Kindergarten at
AISB. She’s a bright and
entertaining little thing, who keeps Joe and me young and on our toes! She loves her brother and sister and
watches all that they do very closely…often mimicking EVERYTHING. Suzy is also a great little singer,
learning the lyrics to all of the Taylor Swift songs that Mary is playing on
the guitar! Suzy is busy learning
her letters and numbers, and loves to draw and make crafts.
Joe is
enjoying his work at the embassy as a Political/Military officer. After a tumultuous summer in the
Romanian government, he was able to participate in interesting meetings with
several local and US officials and managed to even be seen on TV a few
times! Naturally, we don’t
understand what was being said, since it was in Romanian, but we loved seeing
him just the same! He is enjoying
bird watching on a new continent, too.
He’s found a few new birds to add to his list of sightings!
I keep
myself busy by hosting morning coffees and play dates, and spending time with
the children. Unlike as in Kenya, I
also have to clean my own house, which seems to be overwhelming at times. Ha! A group of our friends here on our compound hosted a
neighborhood party for Halloween where they roasted a pig, had trick or
treating, and a potluck dinner.
And at Thanksgiving, we hosted lots of neighbors and friends for a yummy
traditional dinner in our home.
It seemed December was here before we knew it…bringing snow, family, and
old friends to our front door!
This December,
we visited Sibiu, Romania with Karen and got to see a different part of the
country. Then an old friend, Anne
Louise Hanson, whom we knew from our posting in Holland, joined us for the
Christmas holiday. We have visited
all of the neighborhood Christmas markets, ridden on ponies and carousels,
purchased local crafts and goodies, and baked so many sweets that we should own
stock in the local butter company!
It has been a
great year, and we are blessed in so many ways…with health, safety, a lovely
warm home, and wonderful, wonderful family and friends! We miss so many of you during this
holiday season, and always, as we are so removed from so many! But we are equally thankful that God
‘prepares a place’ for us wherever we go, allowing us the privilege of making
new friends, experiencing new cultures and seeing new parts of the world.
We wish a
safe and wonderful holiday season for each of you, and pray God will shower His
many blessings on each of you in this New Year!
All our
love,
Joe, Alison, Mary, Will and Suzy
Trimble
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