Tag Archives: big plan

A Lovely Swiss House for Us

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I’ve been remiss in relating the details of our next year’s adventure that are coming together. But we have now officially signed a rental lease and sent it back to our Swiss landlord, and I can share the news and photo. Zeus’ brother (we’ll call him Poseidon – ha!) did some house hunting for us, and after visiting a few duds found this lovely abode in the natal village. It’s about 5 minutes walk from Zeus and Poseidon’s parents’ home, 5 minutes from the village school, 10 minutes from the train station, and 5 minutes walk from the border with France. P2280222 More importantly, it is in our price range and it will fit all of us nicely with some room to tuck in some guests as well.  Even more wonderfully, it comes with a large garden and orchard and looks out on more countryside. We shall go have picnics in the orchard, and if we can’t afford any food, we shall live on apples and plums and raspberries. Here is a wintry view looking back through the raspberry canes to the shed and orchard. How the cockles of my heart were warmed when I heard about the raspberries! Derrière la maison We should probably give the house a name, but I’m not sure what yet. Or perhaps it already has one – Swiss people often give names to their houses names which makes me quite happy. This one is on a road called Les Pommerats – which translates roughly to Apple Alley. It is quite near to Chemin des Queue-du-Loup – Wolf’s Tail Road. Isn’t that delightful? If you look at a map of Switzerland, (outlined in yellow)Boncourt is quite at the edge of it, in landscape that’s more rolling French countryside than alpine slope out of Heidi. And actually geographically, it is turned much more toward France, as there is a lower mountain range – the Jura – between it and the rest of Switzerland.

Map picture

But if you look at a map of Western Europe, you will find that our village is almost smack dab in the middle. How the travel possibilities abound! Here it is:

Map picture

Wanting to Stay Put

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This week I don’t feel like moving anywhere. It’s cool in the morning, but the sun is out and in the afternoon it’s t-shirt warm and possibility is in the air. And the possibility I feel right now is centered on my garden and what I planted last year and what I would plant this year if I would be here in late summer to harvest it. And that all feels like a metaphor for the rest of life. Relationships that we’ve built this year, friendships that the children and I have made over various learning activities all feel like good seedlings that we’ve watched grow over this year, and I don’t want leave them. This week instead of feeling like taking an adventurous year and moving to the other side of the world, I’ve felt more like finding the house where I’ll live the next thirty years, planting fruit trees to harvest in five years, thinking about rooms that will welcome my children’s friends through the high school years. Yesterday two of our cousins came to play for the afternoon. It was a busy but sunny time and the boys practiced skateboarding on the new driveway (it’s got a perfect beginner gentle slope – thanks, Fred!) Made me a little sad that those relationships will need to be put on hold, too. I know it’s for a limited time, and long-distance relationships are not really “on hold” – friends reading this and commenting from afar are testimony to the fact that friendships can continue with technology and effort. Goodness, if it weren’t true, Zeus and I never would have stayed together and gotten married. I think that it is the joy this year of finally finding some likeminded homeschooling friends to do life with. Nothing special – I’m doing my everyday stuff, you’re doing your everyday stuff – let’s just do it together. So I’m talking to God about it all – and to you – and trusting that He knows what He is doing and what He has called us to. And yes, it’s all exciting and the prospects of being with relatives Over There and living all that together as a family are wonderful. But still this week, before I get back into the mode of excitement and preparation, I need to be honest with myself that that’s how I feel. Today I want to be settled, to have a plan, to put my roots down further. I wonder if Abraham – or more accurately, Sarah – ever felt like that. At the park with cousins Andy and JulianaIMG_8290Lovin’ the February SunshineIMG_8202 Cousin Juliana enjoying the rope swing at our houseIMG_8247SistersIMG_8278

The Big Plan

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For years Zeus and I have prayed and dreamed about taking our family to live in Switzerland for awhile, for our children to know their other culture and language, and to live near his family and be involved in their lives. After all, when we moved back to the Northwest it wasn’t necessarily for keeps. We’d lived in Europe since soon after we were married, but in 1997 we were at a crossroads, with one baby girl, an homesick mama and an uncertain career path. We investigated the possibilities of living back in the States, but when God moved us back here there were things about that move that made us absolutely certain that He was doing the leading. This is where we’ve been supposed to be, and we’ve seen how much we’ve grown in Him in the intervening years. But slowly a desire has grown in us to go back, at least for awhile.

So the Big Plan is this: at the end of June, we’ll pack up our essentials in our suitcases, store some stuff and sell the rest, rent out the house, find loving homes for the chickens, teach Bella the Wonder Dog to come, sit, and stay in French (viens! asseyes-toi! restes-la!) and leave on a jet plane for foreign parts.

Crazy, isn’t it? It seems like life as homeschoolers has just finally started settling into a nice routine. We are finding ways to connect and serve in our church. We have wonderful friends with whom we know we can live life with for the long haul. It is hard to think of leaving and disrupting that, even if just for a year. But we can’t escape the sense that Yes, this is what God is leading us to do. And we know that He will put the brakes on if this is not the right way to go.

Of course there are tons of questions – lots that we ask ourselves. Where will we live? Rent a house somewhere in the region Zeus’ family lives, hopefully with lots of room for friends to visit. Do you have jobs lined up? No, not yet, this is a big faith thing. In the meantime we’re tucking away funds to tide us over for a little while. Will we homeschool over there? No, the kids will attend the local schools in order to immerse them in French language. Are they freaked out about that? No, not quite. They are mostly excited with a little freaking out around the edges. How much chocolate will you eat? Way too much, I can say with almost no doubt. Everything that is said about Swiss chocolate is TRUE!

There are more questions that we’re finding out as we go along, and I’m sure that this will be a place to answer some of them. Whatever happens, even if we come back home after a month, it will be a Grand Adventure, in both a physical and a spiritual sense, one we are excited to share with each other, with our children and with you.