A Wales of a tale!

We have embraced life here in the UK which includes the festival mentality.  Many Brits I know have never been to the continent but they have been to a festival!!

What we haven't embraced is NOT traveling around Europe and the UK. One of the things we love dearly is being so close to so many awesome places, both here and there!!  Last year, our big summer trip was to Ireland and it.was.awesome.  Earlier this year, we went to Uganda (wondering now why I didn't post about that but maybe I'll go back to it later?) so that was our big trip for the year.

We had zero intention of going anywhere this summer, except a family festival, which we did in July.  It was a beautiful time for our family together at Naturally Supernatural with our extended church family.  My husband loved it so much he went to go work at another two Soul Survivor festivals.  However, given the make up of our family, if he was to be gone for 2 weeks, then we needed childcare!  My parents graciously flew from the States to hang out with our kids and shuttle them to swimming and on adventures.  Since they've only really experienced the city with us, I decided we should steal away for the bank holiday weekend and go on an adventure (sans, my husband).

This last weekend, we packed up the minivan and, despite it not starting when we were all in the car and ready to go, only a 2 hour delay hindered the trip and we were off and running!  We drove most of the M4 and in a short 2 hours, we were in beautiful Wales!  Our destination was near the area of Tenby, Wales in Pembrokeshire which is in the far southwest corner of Wales.  But for the last year, the boys have been asking to go to the seaside and I'm not one to want to disappoint!

I booked us in to a little cottage in a place called St Florence.  It's a quaint little town about 10 minutes (or less) outside Tenby and to be honest, I'm glad we were a bit away.  Since it was a holiday weekend, the town was bursting with people but my little crew needs their rest so being a bit outside and making sure we all got our sleep was vital!!  We stayed in a place called Ivy Tower Village Cottages which can be booked through multiple sites, but our specific one was the Corn Store booked on AirBnB.  It's a grouping of 15ish townhome like cottages in a peaceful setting that has a little indoor pool, gym, sauna, ping pong table, tennis court, play area, and mini golf course.  The cottage was just what we needed.  Nothing spectacular about the set up or furnishings but absolutely perfect.  Ours was 3 bedroom/1 bath (you could find some with more/less), a full kitchen and a nice little conservatory to eat in.  It came with beach chairs, golf clubs/balls for the mini golf, some sports balls, and a drying rack for all those wet swimsuits!  Oh, and did I mention pets are more than welcome?

The first night in Wales, we got in, got settled, and let the boys have a swim straight away.  Four hours in the car and they needed to get rid of some energy!  We all had a lovely time in the pool and then we got ourselves together and headed into Tenby to check out the town.  It is so beautiful!  The stone walls, forts, restaurants, and beaches, make this little fishing village one of much character!  Parking was not a problem as there were multiple lots and multi-story car parks that are so reasonably priced and very nearby the main area!  We ate and then had a stroll on beach where the boys explored some caves in the rock cliffs.  We meandered back to our car and headed back to St Florence for a restful night of sleep.

The full day we had there we decided to spend on the beach.  We left the cottage at 9am and headed to the Tenby South Beach Car Park which is right on the edge of the beach with no stairs or cliffs to navigate.  Parking for a full day there was only £3.50. We lugged our cooler and chairs and beach tent out to the massive, beautiful beaches of South Tenby and got ourselves settled before the lifeguards had even arrived.  We were practically the only ones on the beach and, despite it being a bank holiday weekend and a beautiful day, it was like this until 11am!  Even when it did fill up, it didn't feel crowded because of the expanse of the sand!  And unlike most British beaches, we actually had mostly sand with a little bit of pebbles instead of the other way around! That evening, we headed back to our cottage and the boys had yet another swim.  We made tacos for dinner and crashed after a long day of sun and surf.

The following (and our final) day, we had to check out by 10am but the pool opened at 9 and we had yet to check out the mini golf on site!  The boys headed out around half 8 to hit up the mini golf and then abandoned ship as soon as the clock struck 9.  This was the prime time to get the car packed and any last minute necessities ready for check out!  They were back by half 9, everyone changed and we were in the car a few minutes before 10.  Thankfully, Carew Castle was a mere 7 minutes away and it opens at 10 so we were there soon after the doors were unbolted.

The castle was a spectacular sight and there were so many things for little boys (and girls) to love.  There was a knight school (no, they didn't flunk out of day school) where they learned how to properly sword fight, they did archery (with real bows and arrows as Jack said) and watched a falconry demo.  There were other activities like painting a crest, learning calligraphy, and playing court jester games, we just didn't have the time to partake in any of those.  We loved going up the stone steps to the different levels and imagining life as we stood amongst the ruins.  I was very impressed with our little miss who was only a year old last summer when we explored all the Irish castles but this year was right behind her brothers up and down the steep spiral staircases!  With a little cafe and a long walk around the tidal mill (and an actual mill to explore) we literally could have been there all day!  There was something for everyone and I have to say from ages 2 to 68, we all really loved it.

But alas, it was time to get back in the car. Mummy had to go to work on Tuesday and life needed some sense of normalcy again.  So we set off, praying for traffic to not be miserable and it took us just about 4 hours of driving to get home again with the only real traffic being back near London on the M25.

Amazing time in Wales!  Highly recommend it for a long weekend trip!!

Visiting the village...by guest blogger, Kayla Cervenka

I promised you a guest post and here it is!!  I love the idea of sharing our thoughts and fears with each other and adore this woman and her heart.  She has been in Uganda for about two weeks now and will be staying for about 4 and a half months doing an internship with Sole Hope.  This post is from the day we did resettlement and it was quite an experience!  Can't wait for you to enjoy it from her perspective...

It was my first time ever visiting a village in Uganda. I was really excited for this new experience but also a little unsure as people kept telling me it would be a long trip there.  I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. All I knew was that I was so excited that these children who had been living at the Outreach house were finally able to be resettled with their families! These children who came to Sole Hope, severely affected by jiggers, are now jigger free and full of hope! It is a beautiful transformation to see and it is why resettlement is such an exciting part of what Sole Hope does.

We loaded up the van and headed out towards the village.  There were 21 adults and children, and three babies in the van so it was quite a tight fit. I‘ve come to realize that this is quite typical for Uganda, so I just went along with it as a tiny one-month-old baby slept in my lap.

Eventually we went from pavement to red dirt roads and the ride got a little bumpier. We headed into Kamuli and along the way we dropped some people off while others hopped into the car. I was quite confused as random people kept coming in the car and at one point there were 25 of us all crammed into the van. Once again, I didn’t ask questions but just went along with it because hey, this is normal (I think)! As we headed further into the different villages children would wave and yell “Muzungu!” There was lots of smiling and waving out the van window and we passed the children. When it came time to drop off a few of the kids being resettled, we would pull over to the side and they would hop out. Before the children could even get out of the van there was already a crowd of children from the village gathered together outside our van. They would all just stare at us, eyes wide full of wonder. Many of them would wave and smile, occasionally saying something in Lusoga. It’s funny to me. There is often a language barrier, which can be hard, but I find it so beautiful that people can still radiate joy and love to one another without even a single word.  There was so much staring, smiling and giggling between one another as we passed through the villages. My mouth hurt from smiling so much but my heart was filled with so much joy!

We kept on bouncing along the bumpy red dirt roads, dropping children off along the way to their respective villages.  As we dropped of one of the children for resettlement, I got out of the van and there was a little girl staring at me. Her beautiful brown eyes looked interested yet terrified at the same time. I held my hand out and smiled, reassuring her that I wasn’t going to hurt her. As I slowly walked towards her she sprinted in the other direction and hid behind her mom. She was scared of me. I was foreign to her. She had never seen a white person. I was slightly in shock. What would it be like to never have seen someone that looked so differently than yourself? I realized it must have been like looking at a monster of some sort. Her mom reassured her that I was okay and with the help of her mother, the little girl slowly walked towards me, still looking quite unsure. I kept smiling
with my arm outstretched reassuring her that it was okay, even though she could not understand a word I was saying. She finally grabbed my hand and timidly said hello in Lusoga as she bowed down.  Bowing is a sign of respect around here, and as she knelt to the ground I stopped down beside her. As we knelt there, hand in hand, I couldn’t help but become flooded with emotion. This precious little girl has never seen a world beyond what she already knows. Her village, her people, only her own skin color. But here we were, from seemingly two different worlds, hand in hand, kneeling on the red dirt together speaking our own languages.  Yet even still, there was such a beautiful connection between us in that moment.

I loved my first experience of visiting the villages. It was all new to me and I loved getting to soak it all in. From seeing children return to their families, to experiencing a little girl’s courage overcome her fear, to simply being packed into a van with 25 people, it was an experience I will never forget.

Thank you, Jesus, for blue

Every morning I take my (almost) 2 year old to his grandfather's ("Ho-Ho") house where he goes for childcare (have I expressed how blessed we are to get to do this?). We have about a 15 minute drive and during this time we usually sing songs and talk to Jesus.  Of course, my son is very young but one of our desires is to show him that God isn't this far away being that has nothing to do with us but that we can have a personal relationship with him and that he loves us very much.  With us, having a relationship means talking like normal people do to each other.

This morning as we're driving to Ho-ho's, I said "do you want to talk to Jesus?" to which he replied "yeah" (don't be impressed, he'd tell you he likes to eat elephant poop if you frame it correctly).  So we start talking with a "Hey God, hope you are well today."  I then went through a few things I was thankful for, prayed for our friend with leukemia, and asked him what he was thankful for, to which he emphatically replied "BLUE!"  I laughed out loud.  But then I stopped and thought about his answer.  My son, my amazing little boy, is thankful for the color blue.  So many times I am overwhelmed with things going on with life...especially right now.  Work is crazy, our adoption feels like it's stagnant, I'm getting ready to travel, going out of town this weekend for a wedding, life is just happening.

And yet, in the midst of it all, my son reminded me of why Jesus loved the little children so much.  Why he chose to be around them any chance he got.  He knew that those little children had a perspective on life that we adults forget quite often.  What if we didn't have the color blue?  What if we didn't have any colors at all?  What would my world look like without it?  My son's beautiful eyes, the sky on a sunny day, my favorite color in the world...everything would be different.  So thank you, Jack, for reminding me that no matter what's going on and how crazy things may seem, I can always find something to be thankful for.  Today, it's the color blue.