Life is a Journey

Trading church bells for fog horns?

In case you didn’t know, we’ve moved, after 12 years of living overseas! We enjoyed a happy holiday season in Charlotte, NC, where we visited with both our families. It was one of only a few times that Ben’s entire family had been able to get together in the past twelve years - a very special Christmas for everyone.

We arrived on Sullivans Island (near Charleston, SC) on Dec. 27, settled in over New Years, shot fireworks off on the beach and then got Jack ready for school on Jan. 3. We actually started car pooling that very day with another “island” family since (Ben had to drive 4 hours each way that very day to pick Max up at the airport in Atlanta, and we only had one car.) This other “island family” lives about 4 blocks away from us and has been wonderful in helping us get settled in. Jack and their daughter Abbey both attend Trident Academy.

Jack has loved his new school from the very first day! Thank goodness. There are 7 boys in his class with two teachers Miss DiFabio and Ms. Powell. Jack also has a 45 minute one-on-one class every day with a third teacher, Ms. Jones, an Orton-Gillingham fellow. His school is one of 10 schools in the US accredited with Orton-Gillingham which is a very specialized program for children with learning difficulties such as dyslexia or dysgraphia. The school has about 80 students in grades 1-12. Each child has an individual program based on his/her specific needs, but they also study all the normal subjects of math, science, language arts, reading, writing, art, gym..etc.

We spent over 3 hours this past Tuesday in our first review at school talking with the head of the department and 2 teachers that work with Jack. They were all very pleased with his progress. We can not believe how blessed we are that we have found such an excellent school. Our wonderful, happy boy who skips off to school is BACK. He is so happy and learning so much… he is reading and doing all his homework with a smile on his face.

As to life on an island… we have traded church bells for fog horns! Well, that is misleading, the weather is lovely here. It has been in the mid 50’s to mid 60’s, sometimes low 70’s.. can be chilly at night, but it always warms up during the days. Occasionally the fog does roll in, though, and it struck us that we’d traded the background of church bells and clock towers in Bad Homburg for foghorns and bellbuoys here. We have had a few cold days, but not enough to warrant the winter clothes that I brought. We had to buy Sara some short-sleeve play dresses and she is thrilled! We live across the street from the beach and have so enjoyed walks everyday on the beach. We will be on the island until mid March … hopefully moving then into a house that we are buying. Our container should be delivered by the 20th. We can’t wait!

It has been very convenient living on Sullivan’s Island, but we will soon be moving into the “Old Village” of Mount Pleasant. We chose to live on Sullivan’s because it was the only place we could find a furnished house to rent for two months. We really lucked out because it has been awesome living at the beach. Since we are now so spoiled, the good news is that our drive out to the beach on Sullivan’s would be under 5 minutes from our house in the Old Village! Not bad… Jack’s school is about 15 minutes from the island, and would be about 10 minutes from the new house.

Ben, Sara and I have been enjoying the wonderful warm days at home together. We’ve spent a great deal of time trying to find a house to buy… that has been a real adventure! Both Sara and Jack can now give lots of interesting real estate information and beg to please not have to look at another house!! Ben is looking for a new job, helping out with the heavy house work and enjoying a little break from the rat race. Sara will miss the cut off date of Sept. 15 for starting kindergarten fall 2008, so she will start a pre-school program next fall, then kindergarten fall of 2009. She will go to a nationally awarded public school that is a couple blocks from the house we hope to buy.

Finally, my back feels GREAT! The surgery has been a great relief for me. I have very little lower back pain now. I do still have some pain in my leg from the nerve damage, but we’re hoping that will get better. I will see a doctor here in March to follow-up.

It is so beautiful here, if you love the coastal areas like we do. There’s water everywhere… marsh, beach, rivers, and gorgeous trees - evergreens, palms, and of course the live oaks with Spanish moss. We really love it here. The kids have met so many children and they play outside in the yard EVERY day! You’ve got to love that about America. We live in a giant nature preserve with so many interesting things around us. I truly didn’t realize how ready we all were to move until we were forced to do it. Thank goodness that was the case. There would be nothing worse that being terribly homesick.

We really miss all of you (our friends) and hope that we can stay in touch. We expect to have plenty of guest space, so we’re hoping for visitors. If you’ve never visited this part of the world you really should consider it!

Mary

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