Dear friends near and far,

For those of you who don´t follow our Dutch-language blog here is a New Year´s newsletter!

We have had a very turbulent 2009. The highlight of it being of course the birth of sweet little Julie on March 14, the most patient, obliging and easy child I have ever seen or heard of. One that sleeps her nights since two weeks old (my lack of sleep with Louisa and Amélie lasted five years all together, so I was really out on some good rest), one that always smiles, can play on her own for a long time and loves being around people. It is a pleasure every day to get up and lift her from her bed to be awarded her mischievous little grin.

Her sweet disposition was a great luck for us as well in the hard times we had after her birth. I had a quite difficult time the first weeks after the birthgiving with fever and pain and a lack of mother milk. When around her six weeks things seemed to begin to settle we made our first little trip as a family to a park, roller-blading, and I was hit by a biker and ended up with a broken spine in the hospital. What followed was a painstaking three month long confinement in bed out of which I could only get up bound in a corset and not for long. I had to give up the care for the baby and leave it to whoever was willing to volunteer, such as my friends, sister, my and Luc´s mother, my aunt… Although gradually I could stand up, I was not allowed to sit down nor to hold anything heavy, so I couldn´t really take her in my arms until her 5 months of age and I found that very difficult to endure, not to mention the fact that I had to observe how other people run my household and take over the care for the other kids as well. It seemed endlessly long, now that it´s over I wonder sometime that I did not go mad.

I wish I could say „ All´s well that end´s well“, although that would not be completely true either. In the fall I got some flu and was coughing so hard that I broke a rib. That was a second strange fracture in one year, while I had never suffered from fractures of any sort before that. An examination revealed that I suffer from osteoporosis, which is very early in my age, and therefore strange. I am being treated for it and have given up risky sports such as roller-blading and skiing (I am still hesitant about giving up biking because I love it so much). Apparently it is a long-term run with improvements to be expected within years. But if I can stay in one piece until then that would be just fine. So far so good. Now the streets are covered with immense amounts of snow, a winter like we have not had in decades. It is lovely up to the point where I walk around like an old grandma cautious not to fall, you know the sort, clinging to each railing and being agitated when surpassed by abruptly appearing and disappering passers-by…

When I finally got rid of my corset half way through the summer we took a few weeks off. I could not see the sight of this house and its walls any longer, and yearned for some fresh air. We spent two weeks in the mountains and a week in Moravia where I was trying to get a grip on myself. It was a low-pitch vacation compared to our earlier escapades, but it was a good one.

We got back to Prague just in time for Louisa to go to the „big“ school, the 1st grade. The first weeks were a harsh blow. First, it was the first time ever I was actually alone with the three kids securing the logisticss of the different locations, clubs, groceries, naps, my rehab sessions, Amélie´s rehab sessions (she had pain in the neck area and we had to do exercises regularly), not to mention both older girls´speech therapy sessions and Julie´s eczema treatments. By the time I started to orient myself in the new situation I got this terrible flu which cost me a rib, and was knocked out for many weeks again. Luckily by Christmas I regained my old condition and we finally spent a quiet and lovely Christmas break in Prague.

The first months in the 1st grade were hard both for me and for Louisa. I had never noticed until then how little concentrated she can stay on task, so that doing homework turned out a nightmare every day and ended up in agitation on both sides. Our introvert and shy child (words of her kindergarden teacher) also displayed a whole range of characteristics we had no idea of that she might actually possess them. She was trying hard, but the wrong way, to find her place in the new group of pupils of whom she knew none. My doubts started increasing whether by putting Louisa to a really nice school further away instead of a shabby one without a good reputation in our immediate neighbourhood was finally a good idea. Her old kindergarden mates went to the other school and she was all by herself, walking a distance of about 25 minutes on foot each way to get to school. Add to it that all of a sudden she turned out to be extremely slow in everything, our morning rituals ended in burst-outs of frustration most mornings. But with the months passing things seem to be improving. She has found herself friends in her class and her seventh birthday party with them in the middle of January was a lot of fun. So fingers crossed that she may find her place in her new life stage.

My idea about staying at home with a third child was originally one of a compromise between work and child-care. Freelancing from home worked fine as long as I was bed-tied, but later on with the logistics of three children around me I have never really found time and energy to even think about resuming my work. Also, they seem to be growing so fast, time passes not in days, but in whole weeks, and I actually really feel like spending my time with the kids instead of searching for ways how to get rid of them. It might not be very productive for my later career possibilities, but it makes sense to me for the moment. I am grateful for each peaceful moment spent with Julie as there are so few and I have missed so much of her in the first months. I wonder how working mom´s cope with afternoon activities, I guess if I returned to work our children would not be able to follow Dutch classesf, each one afternoon, to learn how to read and write in their second language, Louisa could not go to an art´s school and further deploy her talent she obviously got from her dad, nor swimming, and Amélie would probably be relieved that she wouldn´t have to practice for her piano lessons. Or we would need a full-time au-pair.

As for Luc, in the four years he has made a great progress with his job. A few promotions have catapulted him to the leadership over some thirty subordinates and more flexible and enjoyable working hours. Even in times of crises the data center of DHL in Prague is apparently doing good business, it is probably the only company near and far that still has job openings. The released job pressure made it possible for him to take on extra duties. Since last year he is acting as president of the governing board of the Dutch Education Foundation in Prague that is providing ministry-certified education to children of Dutch-speakers living in the Czech republic in order to facilitate their return to the Dutch or Belgian education system whenever needed. We don´t belong to the category of people who are most making use of these services – mostly expats who spend here only a few years. Nevertheless we want our kids to be fluent in their father´s tongue both in reading and writing and have affinity with this language culture. So far it seems we are doing ok.

Luc has finally found some time to tackle our kid´s first language as well, the language that surrounds him but that he so masterfully knew to get around without. He sees a private tutor twice a week since January and I have great hopes that finally we will be able to join Czech company without everybody having to talk in English, which they all do in the beginning, but revert to Czech inevitably after the first few attempts to make a joke in a foreign language. It has not seemed to bother Luc so far too much, we take the kids to children theaters or to Czech movies and he gladly joins, but it is not enough to get really integrated. So fingers crossed for his advance to come!

I am closing off here with a good resolution for the new year: to be more in touch, and less late.

Wishing you a very healthy and productive 2010,

Radka and Luc