Independence Day and Grade 1

Today our school celebrated Indonesia's Independence Day. The holiday is actually on August 17, but we celebrated today with lots of fun! Our wonderful national teachers planned a fun day for us and my kiddos had a blast!

Meet my 23 adorable, hyper, sweet, Grade 1's :) And my wonderful  partner teacher, Ibu Putri. I do not know what I would do without her

In the gym, ready for the games to start!

Tug of war ... We didn't win, but the effort was definitely there :)

Ping-pong ball cup relay. Good teamwork!

One of my cuties ready for the sack race. She was so fast!

Balloon relay. Love these girls :)

The final event of the games was called macan krupuk. Which basically means eat crackers. I think you can get the idea from the pictures. It was adorable and hilarious. 

As you can see, I have an adorable class. I have officially been a Grade 1 teacher for 8 days and I am LOVING it. I definitely miss some things about Kindy, but I feel very comfortable with 1st grade. I am so thankful for my other Grade 1 teachers and I am loving working as a team. I am also very excited about the content in Grade 1 - I am ready to move on from the ABC's ;) I am excited that I have kids who can do fun assignments like this ...

In Science we have been talking about living & non-living things and we worked in groups to make posters. We presented them in front of the class :)

In Bible, we did an introduction to the Bible and God/Jesus. We asked them who God was and we came up with some words together. These were two examples that I loved!

I am sure this year will bring challenges, but I am so thankful and blessed to be teaching Grade 1 and I am SO excited about what the rest of this year will hold.

Please be praying for Erik and I as we continue to get settled into this year. It takes awhile to get back in the swing of things. Thanks so much for your prayers - they are always appreciated. Love you all!

Bye now now <3

Maria's Big House of Hope

It's hard to even know where to start. Maria's is such a hard place to describe to someone. I will start by saying, it was nothing like I expected. I don't actually really know what I was expecting, but when I walked into Maria's I realized I wasn't expecting to see what I saw and feel what I felt. Maria's is a special care unit for special needs children. Even though I knew this I was still a little shocked at first to see so many children in need. Through the sadness and the hurt there, there is also much hope. After the first day at Maria's I didn't think I could do 4 more days there. I thought I would be too sad. But, I was amazed at how God worked. I truly did see joy and hope in that place. All week, there was this one room that I didn't like going in because of a really sick/sad child. On the last day as we were saying our goodbye's we went into that room. I was dreading it but God did something wonderful. As we were sitting on the floor playing with some other kids, I looked over at the sick child and to my delight she was smiling. Her nanny was over there tickling her and she was actually smiling and laughing. In that moment God whispered into my heart his promise that He is at Maria's and He is watching over all those kiddos. The sad truth is that not all the children at Maria's have a happy ending in the eyes of the world. Even though that thought is extremely overwhelming to me, God really showed me {again} that He is so good. Seeing God's goodness even in extreme sadness is hard to explain. But that is what I experienced at Maria's .. I experienced God's goodness, even in the midst of extreme sadness. 

I was so  blessed by the opportunity we had to visit Maria's and see the amazing work that goes on there. The staff there are true heroes. They are some of the most selfless, humble, and genuinely loving people I have ever met. The sacrifice they are making is inspiring to say the least. Erik and I were both challenged to ask ourselves if we live that way. I am still processing exactly what God wants me to "take away" from this whole experience. Erik has actually asked to write a little bit more about this {about  his experience and the "take away"}. I know he will do a great job of explaining how we both feel about what God is teaching us through our experience at Maria's ... 

This is my very first blog appearance (I'm feeling a bit nervous...haha). 

I agree with Amanda. It is very difficult to find words  to describe an experience like being at Maria's. I will start by saying God moved. He moved us to tears. He moved us to laughter. He moved us past numbness into pain and then into His comfort. He moved me to love without holding back.  I will not say that I have learned all that He will have me learn from this trip. I feel like I'll still be processing a few years (or decades) from now. But one thing I do know is that God is working. He's working through the staff to show hope to the beautiful boys and girls that call Maria's home. He's working through Dr. Steve and the four nurses who are in a constant state of self-sacrifice so that these kiddos can have life. He's working through the children to teach people like me to trust, to love, to rest in His goodness. He's working through the nannies there (though they may not know it) to provide the kids with the special care that they need.

Being at Maria's really helped to put life into perspective. God does not create life without purpose. That would be outside His nature. Every child at Maria's has a purpose. My natural tendency is to question God. "Why would you create this child with this disease?" "How can you allow this baby to be in pain?" "What is the purpose of bringing this child into this world only to have him leave it in such a short time?" I think these questions are normal and commonly asked in the face of pain and suffering. But God is so good. He is perfect. He is just. And he has a purpose for every child at Maria's. He loves and cares for every child at Maria's infinitely more than I ever could. 

Even after writing this it's still hard to come up with specific "take aways". I am blessed to have had the opportunity to play with and hug these beautiful kids. I'm challenged to love deeply and without censor. I'm reminded that God is good all the time and that His plan is always better than my plan. I'm humbled to have met the people that truly make Maria's a Big House of Hope. 

Please pray for Amanda and I as we consider what God has for us in our future. We want to be open to His calling on our lives wherever that may take us. Pray for the kids at Maria's, that their conditions would be healed and that they would be matched with forever families. Pray for Dr. Steve and the nurses who are giving care to the kiddos.

Well... blogging's not so bad I suppose... perhaps I'll try it again sometime. :) E-Frizzle signing off...

I knew he would be a good blogger :) .. Thanks for taking the time to read about our time at Maria's. Thanks for the continued prayers and love. We love you all. 

Bye for now <3 

*If you would like to see a video I put together with pictures of the children at Maria's - please e-mail me {erikandamandafry@gmail.com}, Facebook me, or if you see me in real life, I will be glad to show it to you personally :). Thanks again to those of you who supported us financially and to those of you who supported us through prayer. We couldn't have had this experience without you!*  

Psalm 37:4

At this time last year I thought that this time this year would look a lot different. If everything would have gone the way I "planned" I would have a pregnant belly right now and Erik and I would be packing up our apartment and wrapping up our time here in Indonesia. But, God had another plan in mind for us. As many of you know, towards the beginning of this year, Erik and I had to decide whether we were going to sign our contract for another year here. It was a tough few weeks and months for me as I began to feel that God was leading us to stay for another year. I say it was tough because at that time I didn't want to. I wanted to start a family and be done teaching. I wanted to move back to the "comfort" of America. I wanted to be with my family. The more and more Erik and I talked and prayed, a strange thing began to happen.My feelings began to change. I began to get excited (I couldn't believe it) about staying. And slowly I even began to feel that I didn't even want to go back to the States yet. I wanted to stay in Indonesia. I wanted to continue to teach at SPH. And I began to get very excited about signing our contract to stay. God did an amazing work in my heart. Psalm 37:4 says "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of you heart ..." And that is exactly what he did. My desires slowly turned into his desires and I experienced a peace about our decision that I can't explain. Now, as I write this I am very emotional thinking about all of it. God is so faithful and good.

So, am I still feeling this way now as we close out this year and prepare to head home for the summer and then back for another school year? Absolutely. I am even more excited about next year than I was. Not to say that I don't believe next year will hold challenges - I know it will. Next year will bring some great changes that Erik and I are both really excited about. Erik will officially be the Athletic Coordinator at our school. While this will bring new responsibilities, Erik is so excited. He will organize all the sports and coaches (planning and organizing tournaments, games, and practices) and he will also oversee the PE program, meaning he will develop the PE curriculum and make sure it is being implemented. And I will be teaching Grade 1!! Yep, I am moving up from Kindy! I am SO excited and a little nervous for the change. I will get to teach with Katie (woo hoo) and also a new teacher coming to our school whose name is Peter (who I actually know and worked with at Corban). We are going to be an awesome Grade 1 team! :) The sad thing is that I no longer get to work with my wonderful Mia, but I do get to work with another teacher who I know and will be wonderful! Another change that is a little sad is that some teachers I am close to will be leaving Indonesia. My good friend Lindsey and others will be dearly missed, but I have hope we will cross paths again in the future. With people leaving that means new people are coming! Some good friends of ours are moving here and we are SO excited :). A change that we will not have this year that we are really excited about is that we will not be moving! Erik and I haven't lived in the same apartment for more than 1 year since we have been married so I am very excited that I am not packing up an apartment and that we will come back to the same place in July. I love our apartment and I am loving being able to make it more and more homey.

As we finish up this year in the next 3 weeks I am hoping they go by quickly, but I also don't want to wish away this precious time I have with friends and my sweet kiddos. In my classroom we still have some fun things to look forward to like friends visiting from another school, and of course an end of the year party. We will also be busy wrapping up the year with grades and other end of the year matters. Erik and I have been blessed this year beyond measure and I can honestly say that I am so looking forward to returning next year. For those of you wondering, we don't know what the year after next will look like. I am working on not making my own "plans" and really leaving it up to God. I will keep you all updated as we near our next time of decision making :).

And, what's a blog without pictures? So, here are just a couple of things that have been happening in the life of Erik and Amanda over the last few weeks:

Me and 7 other girls went to Bali for a weekend getaway to celebrate 2 of our friends who are getting married. It was a great weekend with wonderful friends! A great way to end out the year.

While I was in Bali, Erik, Chris, and Glenn headed off to hike an active volcano. They had a great time :) 

Last weekend was spent watching a softball tournament. Even though it doesn't feel exactly the same as a ball field in America and even though the results weren't what the guys were hoping for, we still had a great time!

Well, that about does it for now I think. I still can't believe that I am writing our "wrap up" of the year blog. This year flew by. I am counting down the days until I get to wrap my arms around my family and we are both so excited about a break from teaching for awhile. AND we can't wait for the opportunity we have to visit an orphanage in China at the end of the summer {to know more about that please see my blog titled "We're Going to China" that I wrote back in January}. Please keep us in your prayers as we wrap up this year and get ready to head home for the summer. We love you all. 

Bye for now <3 

Kindy Assembly

Today was our Kindy assembly. Every month, the junior school has an assembly put on by a different class.The goal is to show the rest of the junior school what we have learned in our class. In K2 (my 4 year olds) our focus was on the letters of the alphabet and the sounds the letters make. Each of my kiddos dressed up as a word that started with a specific letter and we sang an alphabet song. We also sang a Fruit of Spirit song to show what we have been learning in Bible. In K1 (my 3 year olds) our focus was on nursery rhymes. Throughout the year we learned many different ones, but we stuck with the classic "Humpty Dumpty" and did a skit about it. They were adorable if I do say so myself ;). It was a lot of work and practice leading up to it, but my kiddos sure did a great job - it was worth it and I was so proud! 

K1 and K2 before the assembly

They were so excited about their costumes that it was real hard to get a good picture. Haha

All the Kindys (including K3, not mine) ready to start our assembly by singing some songs

My sweet K2s kiddos singing the ABC song

Humpty Dumpty!

Leading everyone in our last song of the assembly

Meet Humpty Dumpty. Love her :)

He was not Humpty Dumpty, but I just couldn't help but share this pic ... how cute! 

Phew! Well, like I said, it was a long week that I honestly am glad to see come to an end - but my kiddos did such a great job. I am glad they are so stinking cute so I don't have to do too much work for the audience to love them ;). Now that this is over, I really do feel we are beginning to wind down. This weekend Erik has a softball tournament and then the next few weeks will be full of wrapping up units, testing, grading, and parties. I can't believe we have less than 1 month left of this school year! It's been a great year and there is much to look forward to :) God is good all the time! 

Bye for now <3 

Feeling Blessed and Loved

Having a birthday in a different country is awesome because it lasts for longer. Mine basically started on Saturday night here when Erik took me out to dinner at this cool place he found out about in downtown Jakarta. It was on the 56th floor so it had a great view of the city. And it was good food and the most wonderful company :) {And actually ... my birthday kind of started when my parents were here because my mom took me out for a cream bath.} So anyway, that was Saturday night, and then Sunday was a relaxing day at home and by the pool and then we had some dinner with some friends {not for my birthday, but still lots of fun}. Then on my actual birthday {in Indo} I was blessed by my sweet friends and co-workers and of course by my wonderful kiddos. They listened to me when I told them what I wanted for my birthday was for them to listen and be nice - and they were :) When I walked into my classroom in the morning, Erik had a cup full of a couple of my favorite things, my class parents brought me flowers and a yummy cake. Later, my sweet hubby brought me lunch from one of my favorite Mexican places here and I even got a Dr. Pepper from my friend Laura during the day. It was a day full of sweet e-mails, texts, Facebook wishes, and hugs. When I got home from school I heard some music playing from our apartment and I thought that was really weird because Erik was at basketball practice and when I walked in I couldn't figure out where it was coming from, but then I saw my iPod was playing the music from my new iPod dock! Woo hoo :) Thanks hubby! Then, Monday night was filled with sweet time with my girlfriends. They made a wonderful dinner full of my favorite things - cheeseburgers with all the fixings, fries, fruit, and for dessert a homemade key lime pie! My friends know me so well :). I ended the night with a wonderful Skype date with my sweet Mama. Words can't express how thankful and blessed I am by all the wonderful friends God has put in my life- and I was definitely reminded how blessed I am today. And it's still not over ... because it's still my birthday in America I am still getting notifications, etc. and I am loving it! :) And we {Erik's bday was earlier in April} even get some more birthday presents and fun when we are home for the summer. So if you want your birthday to last for months, move to another country ;).

Thanks to all of you who took time to wish me a Happy Birthday. You all made my day very special! And a special shout out to my husband, who treats me like a princess everyday, but he went above and beyond the last few days to make me feel special and loved :)

And a special birthday wish to by my little {or big} brother. I am thinking of him today! I can NOT believe he is 16 years old. Holy cow!! He is such a blessing to me and I am lucky to call him my brother. Happy Birthday Josh - I hope you have a great day and feel as special and loved as you are. 

Mom and Dad visit Jakarta!

As many of you know, Erik and I were blessed to welcome my parents into Jakarta last week. Dad taught all week during our first "Bible Emphasis Week". Words can't really describe how blessed we were to have them come. It was great to show them our life here and experience it with them. It will definitely be a week none of us will forget. 

I know many of you probably keep up with my mom on Facebook and have seen these pictures, but for those of you who aren't, or for those of you who might enjoy my thoughts/captions, I thought a blog might be a good idea. I also love the thought of looking back on my blogs and remembering this special week! ...

Mom and dad's first car ride in Jakarta. In the school car with our school driver on the way back to our apartment after picking them up at the airport. I don't think they knew what to think yet.

After I was done with work on Friday, I picked up mom and dad and gave them a little tour of the school. 

Taking mom to Hypermart (the grocery store below our apartment that I frequent)

On their first night in Jakarta, we took them to one of our favorite places - Amigos. A Mexican place we love. We also went with some of our favorite people - Chris and Katie :)

Saturday morning view from our apartment {mom and dad got to see some rare blue sky while they were here}

After a lazy Saturday morning and a sweet visit to my friend Lindsey, we headed off in the rain to show off Jakarta's malls

Hanging in the mall with two of my favorite guys :)

We couldn't pass up visiting the Magnum Cafe for some yummy ice-cream bars! 

Loving the ice-cream and the company! 

Sunday morning, we celebrated Erik's 25th birthday! Swedish pancakes and a Russell Wilson jersey! 

It was so special to have my parents here to celebrate Erik with us. 

After celebrating Erik, we went to church. We were so excited about showing mom and dad our church home here in Jakarta. It was such a blessing to worship with them right beside us! After church, we went out to one of Erik's favorite places for a birthday lunch! 

After the weekend, Erik and I were busy doing work things, and dad was very busy teaching, but we were still able to do many fun things throughout the week .. 

On Monday night, Erik had a softball game. So much fun cheering him and the other guys on with mom and dad there! 

On Tuesday, I was able to get off work early and spend the afternoon with my mama. We went out to lunch and then she treated me to a cream bath for my birthday coming up at the end of the month. It was such a special time :)

         

Walking to our cream bath place {Mil and Mat} a place I frequent for mani's and pedi's

       

Enjoying my first cream bath in Jakarta! They massage your head and upper back/shoulders. It was totally wonderful! 

On Wednesday, Mrs. Melodye got to visit Mrs. Amanda's class. My kiddos were so excited to meet her!

This is what dad was busy doing all week .. teaching and preaching. What he does best :) I heard so many great reports from students and teachers - I know he impacted many throughout the week!

Talking to the Grade 1's and 2's

Talking to the Kindy's :) 

Thursday night we went out to Dinner with a sweet family who works at SPH, and one of our principles. It was a fun night out with sweet fellowship and good food! :)

On Friday, mom visited my class again before we headed up the all school Easter Assembly (the wrap up for the whole week)

My hero :) 

On our last night, Ibu Daisy ordered us some Indonesian food that we were able to enjoy at home before heading out for a fun date night!

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to go to "The Premiere". A fun movie experience where you watch the movie in a recliner! And only for about $7 each! It was a great way to spend our last night together in Jakarta. It helped keep my mind from being too sad :)

Riding up the escalator to the top of the mall for the movie

Mom and Dad enjoying their comfy chairs :) 

We enjoyed every minute that we were able to spend with mom and dad here. We were definitely sad to see them go, but only 62 days left until we're boarding a plane home for the summer. I know the next 9 weeks will fly by. I am already looking forward to our time home this summer, but also excited about the next 9 weeks in Jakarta. Again, I am so thankful that mom and dad were able to come and visit. Thank you all for your prayers for their safe travel. And if any of you ever want to come visit us in Jakarta, let us know ;) 

Love you all! Bye for now! <3