Brave

This weekend we headed over to Manly beach where Brian tried his hand at surfing for the first time. For better or worse the waves were quite small - actually probably a good thing for learning. He even managed to stand up on a few runs - and I got it on record. We're both quite proud of ourselves.

The girls ran right out to give him high fives.

Here Emily and Tess show off their version of surfer poses.

We talk a lot about bravery these days. Brian tried surfing and I rode on a sea plane. Brian came across this fun song and video (Sara Bareilles's Brave) to inspire the girls and spark some conversation. We asked them if they could think of times they had been brave lately. Tess mentioned going in the cave in New Zealand. Emily said she was brave going to school on Monday. I forget sometimes that at six even just entering first grade after a weekend away can feel like a big move.

Our girls did a brave thing coming to Australia with us. They didn't have a choice but along the way they put up with a lot of new situations and a lot of change and lack of familiarity. As excited as we will be to get home leaving is going to be hard on all of us. Tess is our little canary in the coal mine. She feels things so strongly that she's the first one to show the signs of stress. She woke up crying in the night probably ten different times on Sunday night. I thought she was getting sick so I kept her home from school but in the end I think it was anxiety. When we left the US she had to leave school ten minutes early on her last day because she just couldn't face another goodbye. She had me carry her out while she buried her head in my chest. I think she's starting to feel that way now. Sometimes she'll cry and say, "I just want to be with Monty, in the snow, in America." It's not that she doesn't like it here. Quite the opposite. We love it here so much that it hurts to say good bye and sometimes you wish you could fast forward through the good byes and just be back.

We got a hold of Tess's class list for the fall. She is thrilled to be in class with her friend Ashley from preschool. She was distraught, however, not to get the same teacher that Emily had last year. Brian saved the day by finding Ms. Hiltz's blog and discovering that she actually spent a semester in Sydney when she was in college. Tess now thinks Ms. Hiltz will be the perfect teacher for her. "I can talk to her about capsicums!" In her blog, Ms. Hiltz explained that getting on a plane alone to Australia was one of the bravest things she ever did. So she and Tess have that in common.

And my brave activity of the day? I had lunch with my friend Sarah and her daughter Cate. We met each other in our first weeks in Sydney. We both moved here from another country (she's from Canada) with our two little girls (hers are two and four). We met because a college friend of mine had lunch with her sister-in-law in Toronto and managed to realize they both knew someone who had just moved to Australia. We met up in January before the girls started school and hit it off right away. We have enjoyed lunch together almost every Wednesday since April. We have shared the good and bad aspects of living abroad. I'm going to miss her a ton when we leave. Knowing we are leaving makes all these little day to day activities feel like acts of bravery. It's hard. It's all worth it but it's hard.