The Summer That No One Expected

We’re five months in.  In many ways, it’s hard to believe that it’s been 5 months since the world seemed to shut its doors and our ways of life changed. Today we went to church—the second time our church has met in person in these past five months—wearing face masks, sitting in chairs grouped by families, outdoors, avoiding handshakes, hugs, and other physical conduct.  But we were together!

Titus is the only one of our kids who actually asks to wear a mask!

Still smiling behind her mask.

Our first mail from the US in five months! And, it contained birthday money!

    Life in community has come to mean screens, choosing that community carefully and then trying not to step out of that community.  In many ways, community has shrunk, narrowed, been reduced to those within our households; in our case—three little struggling humans and two struggling big humans who have spent a LOT of time together. Now that our community has grown again with many families returning to our neighborhood, it leaves me missing even more what we had before; the ease of dropping by, having kids over for playdates, being in each others’ lives not just over texts and whatsapp, but in person. 

    Yet looking back, God has been so good.  Many of the fears and unknowns that we faced at the beginning of this journey have not been realized.  The unrest we feared in Indonesia has not come about.  Food has been readily available, we didn’t have to evacuate at any time, and our community has been protected from sickness. 

            Our summer did not look the way we expected, but it wasn’t all bad.  It was filled with lots of time riding bikes around our neighborhood, putting up the kiddy pool in our backyard, playing on the school playground, swimming on the weekends, and of course, skype and facetime calls with friends and family back home.  The summer season includes four out of five members of our family’s birthdays.  While birthdays are usually fun, it was extra nice to have something to celebrate and a reason to rejoice in the midst of a season that often felt mundane.

Happy 4th birthday to Elias!

Happy birthday to Daddy!

Online church.

Lots of time at the school playground.

A Manadonese birthday cake from some of my former students and friends.  A sweet surprise!

Happy 6th birthday to Lydia!

Drive by Kindergarten graduation for Lydia.

We spent lots of time at the school pool and eating pizza.

An unexpected highlight was having our good friend Gosia, adopted family member and auntie to our kids, come and visit with us for a few days.  Because of her socially distanced living situation, we felt very comfortable having her in our home.  She is the only person we’ve had in our home (besides the occasional repair man) over the past five months! We ate a lot of western food that typically we’d eat during our American summer sojourn—pizza, hamburgers, cinnamon rolls, bacon—and we played in the house and at the SPH playground and pool, of course.  It was so great to have another person who knew us so well and loves our kids so much spend time with us.  I especially enjoyed having another adult around while Jeff was working.

            Another special treat was a week spent at the beach in Sukabumi, which is on the south coast of Java.  It is a 176 km, four hour plus drive away from where we live.  Thanks to most of Jakarta still being on lockdown, we were able to speed through downtown Jakarta and get to the end of the toll-road in only about an hour and a half.  But the last 76 km made up most of the trip, and if that tells you anything, it should be that those roads were horrific. 

Our fearless driver!

This picture doesn't do justice to the roads.

    In planning for the trip I had not accounted for motion sickness.  About an hour into the twisty, bumpy, up and down roads weaving through the mountains, we had our first call from the back seat of our car—Lydia feeling sick to her stomach.  We moved her up to the front, turned the AC on full blast and told her to look straight out the window.  Another hour in and Elias was also looking pale faced and complaining of a tummy ache.  I had to be careful to keep my eyes glued on the road so I wouldn’t succumb to the jerking of the car myself.  We had just bought a new (to us) car and discovered that while the space was great, it didn’t have the best “oomph” for getting up the hills.  So Jeff would lay on the gas to try to propel us up a hill as best he could, and then speed down the other side, twisting and turning as he went to try to keep the momentum for the next upward climb.  Meanwhile, the roads were lined with stores, homes, and pedestrians. As Jeff said, it was like a real-life version of Mario Cart, that almost would’ve been fun if it hadn’t involved real live people—both inside and outside the car. 

Thankfully there were no roads on the edge of steep drop-offs and no rain, so we felt safe.  At one point, the road in front of us seemed to plunge directly downward.  You came to the edge of the hill and couldn’t see the road, but it was there if you drove on by faith! Thankfully, in all of this, we were caravanning with our friends who were leading the way, so we plunged on over the roads that they had to navigate beforehand, following their lead on avoiding potholes and slowing for curves or straggling villagers.

Jeff and I breathed a sigh of relief when we turned a corner and there, stretching out below us visible through the trees at the bottom of the mountain, was the coast.  We meandered down to the coastline and joined a bigger road that was full of traffic but at least it took us out of most of the mountains.  We kept looking at the google maps navigator, only to see the kilometers creeping by.  Finally, we made it to our destination: Ocean Queen Resort.

We had booked a bungalow on the ocean front next to our friends, and immediately we ran straight down to look at the ocean which you could see from the front porch of the bungalow.  I was disappointed that the beach was still pretty trashy.  I’d hoped that since we’d come so far it would be a little cleaner than the notorious beaches near Jakarta.  But by the end of the week, for better or worse, I hardly noticed the trash anymore.  The ocean crashed almost right on the beach, so it was too rough for our kids to get in very far.  Immediately when Elias raced up to the ocean he was knocked down, and we were told to watch out for dangerous undertow and currents, especially on the last few days of our trip. 

One of the highlights was the fresh seafood that one of the resort staff barbecued for us on the grill in front of our bungalow four of the six nights we were there.  I’ve never had such tasty fish, prawn, chicken, and crab.

We spent our days in our swimsuits, either at the pool, playing in the sand, or exploring the beach.  We trekked to two other beaches where the shore was wider and the waves crashed farther out, so we were all able to get into the ocean. 

Lydia loved the ocean and wanted to be in it all the time.  Elias was mildly terrified, at least until the last day when Jeff was able to take him out at one of the calmer beaches and he gradually got used to it. He mostly stuck to the sand.  Titus also loved the ocean and just wanted to plunge in and let go of our hands, heedless of the fact that he would get knocked over and a spray of ocean water in his face. 

Even though we live so close to the ocean, we hadn’t been to the ocean in three years, so none of our kids remembered it.  The trip was a great introduction to them, and we wouldn’t have gotten to go if we’d gone to America.

Lydia was thrilled to celebrate her birthday at the beach with friends.  We’d brought ingredients for s’mores, so the night of her birthday we all made smores together at the grill in front of our bungalow.  The friends we were with went out of their way to help her feel special by giving her little gifts.

The highlight for me was waking up every morning to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach, going out on the porch of our bungalow with Titus in the cool gray light of the morning before the sun rose, and seeing the ocean, sky, and mountains surrounding us.  It was wonderful to have cool mornings and evenings where I even wanted a sweatshirt, and to eat our meals looking at the ocean and hearing its power.  Jeff and I both got to do some reading and have downtime during Titus’ naps.  It was our first vacation without any extended family, but it was surprisingly smooth and restful, even with three little kids.

Fresh grilled seafood for dinner!

It was a beautiful area, even if the beach was a bit trashy.

S'mores for Lydia's birthday!

Birthday breakfast on our front porch.

A good place to eat snacks right in front of our bungalow.

Breakfasts and more snacks on the front porch.

We wrapped up the week and headed back home, ready to sleep in our own beds but not ready to leave the beauty of the beach behind us.

We ended the summer with another small trip to visit our friend Gosia for a couple of days at her new home.  Then, it was back to Karawaci, back into our bubble, where we’ll probably remain for a while, especially now that school has started again. 

A visit with Gosia in Cikarang.

The bubble isn’t bad.  We usually feel like we’re in a bit of a bubble here, it’s just that the bubble has gotten a little smaller and the edges are a little firmer.  We’re working on finding new routines and new outlets now that school has started online for Lydia, and will start online for Elias this coming week. But again, God has provided a very wonderful bubble for us during a time that is uncertain to say the least.  We rejoice in his provision over these past five months, and we look forward in faith, knowing that in the midst of many changes, he is teaching us flexibility, faithfulness, contentment (that’s a hard one), and trust.  The five struggling humans in our home are also growing in the midst of the struggle, and we hope to grow deeper as some of us grow taller (and some of us continue to grow rounder) over the months and year ahead.