Small Victories

Life is full of changes when you move to a foreign country.  One big one is that you find victory in

Alex and I at our victory lunch

things that are much smaller than when in your homeland.  I am learning to appreciate these small victories and to celebrate them grandly. 

We only have one car and and we live in a pueblo that has VERY limited train service, so we do a lot of driving to the next town to take the train.  There is a bus from our pueblo, but I have never been able to figure it out (normally there are signs on the bus stops that tell you which buses come there, which direction they are going, and the schedules - but here in our pueblo, just white little buildings).   However, for the next 2 1/2 weeks I am taking a class in another city and we are having to be creative with transportation, thus it was time to learn the buses.

I spent 30 minutes with my neighbor and google street view to understand the system.  Then yesterday Alex and I attacked the problem.  We won!  We made it to Madrid and celebrated with lunch out then managed to return, all without problems.  I was giddy with excitement that I had the language to ask the bus driver if we were on the right bus and had the knowledge of how things work to attack this problem without fear.  For many of you, it seems silly to be celebrating this - but for those of you who live in a foreign land you will understand. 

Small victories are precious gifts that I have missed before but am learning to stop and celebrate them.  I am thankful for the way God is teaching me to look for these small achievements and to celebrate them.  There are so many more little ones than big ones and that means we get to celebrate more often!