seeing through their eyes

Sometimes I forget that America is the new culture to my kids!  Kevin and I have noticed a few differences, but for the most part we feel like we've slid back into US living.  We were told sometimes the re-entry can be really tough.  Well, finding a job and figuring out what's next is hard for us...  But cultural things haven't seemed too wacky for us.  Now the kids...  They are almost experiencing the US for the first time.  Especially Elijah and maybe a little bit for Ruth.  Wow.   All he knows is Armenia.  I think he let most things state-side just slip away from his little memory and embraced life in Yerevan.

It was fun to experience Target with all of them.  A little overwhelming for us all!  So much stuff.  You don't go there to just get a doll... you have to decide between hundred of dolls first!  Crazy.  Elijah had no idea how big it was.  He was just thrilled in the first little corner where all the books are.  "Wow!"  And, "Look!"  Then we went back to the toys where we told them they each had $10 to spend on something they wanted.  They ran through the isles and looked and explored.  Then it got tough.  They had to decide!  Whew.  Talk about too many choices.  The boys ended up with new light sabers and the girls picked a fur real toy dog and a pet vet Barbie.  As we were walking out with our goodies, Elijah exclaimed, "This place is a MIRACLE!"  The miracle of Target!  :)

The cereal aisle!  Wow.  Again, hundreds of choices.  It's been fun to get lots of different cereals to try.   Breakfast is exciting around here.  When we were at Uncle Scotte's for Christmas, his whole cupboard was full of different cereals!  They'll probably remember that until they're old folks reminiscing on the days gone by.  I know I still remember how my grandma always had those little boxes of different cereals when we went to visit her.  It was a huge treat.  And I had lots of cereal at home, too...  I hadn't just come from overseas where there were about four choices!

After Christmas, Elijah's little stocking stuffer toy broke.  He was so sad but I kept reassuring him that we'd go to Walmart and look for a new one.  He kept crying.  I kept reassuring him that we'd look at Walmart.  Finally he looked up at me and said, "MOM!  I don't even know what that IS!?"  Oops...  How could he know what Walmart was!?  I guess the last time he was there was two years ago when he had just turned four years old.  "Baby, it's just like Target, the place that was a miracle!  Kind of like the big store in Armenia where we went Christmas shopping..."  (It's like a warehouse with lots of little shops in one big building.)  He was okay then!

When we went to Walmart together, we'd talked in the car about going to the library that day, too.  So when we stepped into Walmart Elijah said, "THIS is the Library?!"  Heh...  "No, baby.  This is Walmart!"  Walmart wasn't quiet as exciting because we were mostly there to get practical things and a few groceries.

This is the Grand Forks children's library...
I still need to upload the pic of him next to Superman
here at the Williston library!  :)

The kids have all loved the library!  There is even a picture of Superman flying while reading a book, which Elijah is SURE is the Bible, "because he's a superhero!"  I guess the superheros must all read their Bibles, right?!  We are planning to go every Friday afternoon and they're enjoying reading, reading, reading.  Benjamin checks out big ol' Astronomy and Oceanography books.  He brought home one on General Grant, too.  We've also read lots of Bearinstine Bears books and brought home a few videos, too.  Elijah likes finding the silliest books he can find...  last week it was a book about a Grump and this week we read a few books about chickens!  I read MaryBeth Chapman's book Choosing to SEE over a weekend!  Kev's been reading books about writing!  Library's are good.  It's funny the things I have to explain to the younger kids, though...  "We're  not buying these books!  We're checking them out just to borrow.  You have to give the lady your card and she'll swipe it and then she'll swipe your books.  Now she knows who has which books..."  I feel like explaining to the moms next to me...  we've been overseas!  And we always say, as we walk up to the library...  "What's the number one rule at the library??  Be Quiet!  Whisper!"  :)

I love how everything here has to be explained through the eyes of Armenia.  We had Mexican food on flat tortilla bread.  The kids kept calling it lavash and saying it wasn't as good as Armenia's lavash.  "Well, it's like lavash but not quite..."  And then when we had lefse, we explained this is a lot like lavash...  The lefse was a bigger hit for the kids than the tortillas were!  Yum.

Remember in church in Armenia when the kids went to class after the music... they do that here, too!  But everyone speaks English!  Remember Lover's Park in Armenia...  this park is kind of like that one.  Remember the fountains at the Republic Square...  Kansas City has lots of fountains kind of like that!  Remember the kababs...  a snack wrap is kind of like that but with chicken.  CanadInn, that's like Water World...  McDonalds has a playland kind of like Play City...  Or, the kids will say things like, "Why don't we just call a taxi?"  "Well, they don't really do taxi's here!"  Or at church one Sunday someone told us there was coffee after the service.  Elijah asked, "What about the TEA?!"  Only coffee...  good grief!  Lijah wants his tea!

our kids at the mall in Grand Forks, ND
the first few weeks we were back in the US

We've also moved from a huge city of over a million back to our little town of 15,000.  When we're going out the door, the kids all think they need to get books and toys for the drive!  We tell them, "We'll be there in 5 minutes!  You don't need to get prepared for a long trip across town here!"  You can pretty much get anywhere in Williston in 5 or maybe 10 minutes.  Kev and I timed it when we were dating...  it took 6 minutes to get from my house to his and we lived on opposite sides of town then!  :)

All in all, the kids are very happy here.  We are finally getting off Christmas vacation and settling into our new routines.  Homechool has started again.  And the kids are pretty content.  We're enjoying snow, which we didn't get too much of in Yerevan last year.  And we're looking forward to summer and green grass.  Lijah is looking forward to eating watermelons...  "When the snow has melted off of the little Mt Ararat!"  (Or around the Fourth of July...)  ;)