Poland (part I)

Words completely fail me as I ponder how to sum up 2 weeks of traveling half way around the world and back again with our Crazy 8.

First all, I am incredibly humbled and grateful that our family was even able to dream of planning a trip of this magnitude at this particular stage of our lives.  For a family who has never even spent a night at a hotel, the idea of a trip across the ocean really was almost unfathomable.

We began dreaming, planning, saving and keeping an eye on airline fares well over a year ago. 

A really great family dynamic was born out of our dreams for this trip. The children learned some great things about delayed gratification. Each child's personal bank account became less significant as we all worked together toward one cause. Together we witnessed how each small contribution to the account really did grow into something noteworthy.

Even with the most careful planning and saving, I look back and say, "surely the Lord prospered our efforts!!"  We give Him thanks.

The first leg of our journey began by traveling to NYC by car. We decided to leave one day early to do just a little site seeing in the city before heading to Poland. One of the benefits of this decision was the fact that we had all our work done 24 hours before our flight and we were able to get a good night of sleep at the hotel before our long day of flying.

The two highlights in NYC were riding the Staten Island Ferry and visiting Ground Zero. We explored a few remote areas of the city, mostly due to losing our way. (that's just a nice way of saying we got lost a few times)

Perhaps I should say here at the beginning that traveling with 6 kids was super exciting but very intense. I did not often find myself with a free hand for shooting photos. Part of me is disappointed with the lack of good photos. The other part of me is happy about the fact that I  was able to enjoy many special moments without feeling stress about capturing the perfect shot of each and every experience. The oldest two children enjoyed special permission to use the camera. They captured some shots that I would've surely missed. We did a fair amount of video coverage which I think our family will enjoy many times over in the days and years ahead.

A highlight of our hotel stay for me was waking up to these beautiful girls in the next bed.

This bedhead makes me laugh almost every morning

The children enjoyed their first stay at a hotel.  It was special to share this time together as a family.

"Hampton Inn just keeps exceeding my expectations!!" said Nicholas.

Everything went well for us at the airport. All the bad things that I tried to mentally prepare for did not happen. 

The 8 hour airplane ride was smooth but almost completely sleepless for the parents. I am convinced that it is impossible to get 6 kids sleeping on an airplane. We essentially flew threw the night and landed in Warsaw at 10 am with no more than 15 winks of sleep.

My eyes were like 1/4 this size AFTER our 10 hours of flying.

Our biggest glitch was realizing that only 2 of our suitcases arrived with us in Warsaw. Thankfully the rest of the luggage was delivered the following morning. In the meantime we were overjoyed to meet Shannon and JoElla and family at the airport. They escorted us to their home in Minsk Mazowiecki via train. 

Check out these happy cousin smiles. So delighted to get to spend time together again.

  A huge highlight of our trip was simply spending time with Shannon's family. They hosted us in their very nice and large home. JoElla put hours and hours into managing a house full of 13 people for 2 weeks. I tried to be as helpful as possible, but truly, the lady of the house absorbs a boatload of extra work when her household size more than doubles in an instant.

Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of JoElla doing all her serving. She continually went above and beyond what she had to do to bless us.  Just one small example: Even though she is not a coffee drinker herself, she prepared coffee to go for us just as we were heading out the door at 7 am for the airport. She inspires me!!!

We loved sharing many ordinary moments with these special folks. If the four us wanted to have any kind of significant adult conversation it basically had to happen late at night or early in the morning. The sleep deprivation was kinda starting to catch up to us by the end of the two weeks.

 It was a delight to see the cousins enjoying each other and reconnecting.

We were blessed with nice weather during our stay in Poland. It was a blessing for our travel plans and a sanity saver for the parents.

 I was especially happy that Elliana and McKenna were able to become reacquainted. They were young enough when Shannon and JoElla moved to Poland to quickly loose all memories of each other.  Elliana still gets a silly grin on her face when I mention anything about McKenna to her.

  Collecting and admiring snails was a happy past time for these young ones.

Spending late nights and early mornings together was certainly a bonding time for the cousins.  This picture of Brayden and Cassie melts my heart. The house was full of guests and lots of activity for the evening. I went upstairs and found they had escaped the noise and were quietly reading together.

Early morning story time.

These two are different in just about every way, but both just as sweet and charming and lovable as can be!!! One thing that they share in common is a deep affection for their paci.  Interestingly, they were both cutting eye teeth during our two weeks together, which meant some shared fevers and growling.

It was challenging to do a lot of activities away from home with our 9 kids, but we did manage to get out and have a few adventures together.  Because Shannon's have a small car we either had to super overload the vehicle or walk or take the train if we wanted to go anywhere.

 To market, to market to buy a few hats.....

 and indulge in some zapiekanki

 Zapiekanka is a very unique Polish fast food sandwich. I LOVED them when I lived in Poland 16 years ago. I have tried making my own here at home but I've never quite pulled it off perfectly. And there is nothing quite like the experience of buying one at market and standing in the hot sun to eat it as people break their necks staring at you.

We enjoyed an evening together in Warsaw....

Exploring Old Town and visiting the Multi Media fountain park...Click on the link to see some beautiful photos of this amazing fountain!

The kids really enjoyed running through the play fountain.

 Our family struggling to pull it together for a picture

The sun was beautiful but very bright. I am sad that I over exposed these pictures.  But seriously you gotta check out Brayden's cute little grin on every picture!!!!

This is a picture of the small car that I mentioned earlier. It's perfect for Shannon and JoElla and their 3 kids. However, just a bit on the small side for 4 adults and 9 children.

This is just a small sampling of our time together.  Much more living happened than what was captured on my camera.

We really did enjoy the ordinary moments of reconnecting with our far away family just as much as the wild adventures of exploring new and exciting places in a foreign country.

More on those wild adventures to come later....