The English Update

We are nearing our one-month mark in Puebla, Mexico!

Each day we find ourselves feeling more settled into our new home and more comfortable with our daily routines. We still sometimes find ourselves in disbelief that we are here, but honestly these feelings come way less often than when we first arrived. 

We have found a few grocery stores to frequent, made a few friends at school, church, and around the neighborhood, and started to get into a routine that is familiar for us and the girls. We joked that we hadn’t planned or cooked dinners since before we moved out of our house in Mechanicsville at the beginning of June, so it took us a few weeks to get the hang of cooking and planning meals again! We don’t have it down just yet, but are happy to be cooking dinners most evenings.

Our Spanish school is pretty great, and we have enjoyed our first three weeks so much! The school is broken up into three-week cycles, so every three weeks we get a new teacher, a new classroom, and potentially new classmates. I’m looking forward to the variety of teaching styles that we will experience over the next year. Tomorrow marks our second “first day” of school! Pray for us as we once again meet our new teachers and begin to learn even more in our second cycle. 

Tyler with his Level One class.

Rachel with her Level One class.

We have also really enjoyed our church! Everyone is so friendly and welcoming, and we love the conversations we have before and after the service. We spend our time trying to follow along with the message and noting words that we don’t know yet, which are a lot!

The girls are doing well! They enjoy going to school but are quick to say they miss being with mom and dad while we are away. We have found a nanny to help with the girls on two afternoons a week to allow us some kid-free time to be in the community practicing language. She knows Spanish and English and loves Jesus too! She has taken them to our neighborhood playground, colored and painted with them, and of course, given them all the snacks they could ask for!

With Love,
Tyler & Rachel

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Below, we have posted some miscellaneous photos from the last few weeks. Enjoy!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Wrenley! Her sweet teachers made her this crown to wear!

Some days school is exhausting and you fall asleep on mom during the ride home!

We are loving our weekly pizza and movie nights! We have watched Coco twice now to be able to talk to the girls about Día de Muertos. This particular night was The Jungle Book! Makes my heart happy being able to keep up this weekly tradition!

We have so enjoyed exploring the malls near where we live! The girls shopped the whole mall and picked out these craft items. That water color paint is gone now! They painted their little hearts out!

Had to end the trip to the mall with some ice cream!

We got to enjoy the famous Cemitas, a delicious sandwich found here in Puebla.

This is one of Rachel’s last classes at Starbucks (down the street from school). We played UNO and then quizzed each other on our numbers in Spanish!

Below are pictures from several of the Día de Muertos decorations around the city. We went out exploring one night this week to learn more about this holiday celebrated in Mexico.

And then yesterday (Saturday) we took the small drive to Atlixco. Here we saw more decorations for Día de Muertos and hiked a mountain with a glass overlook and a beautiful yellow church at the top.

The morning started with the clearest blue sky! You can see the view from the main street in our neighborhood! The sun was so bright! That is a mountain behind the girls, with snow on the top! To the left is the volcano but you can’t see it in this photo.

Brunch in the center of the Zócalo (plaza in the center of town).

Obviously, the kids were a little tired at this point and didn’t want to pose for the incredible picture. That’s okay!

Asher was eating it up!

Graycen preferred the shade!

And Wren got so happy when strapped to mom!

Just Dad and Asher continued the hike to the tippy top!

And here the girls are on their way to church this morning! This is our “touch the wall and wait for the Uber” spot! These kids are so great!