Next Year

Written by Brittany
When we were first talking about if we wanted to go live and work overseas, it was a difficult question. We had both done international traveling, separately and together, and we both knew that we wanted to travel more. But a desire to travel is not enough to sustain you through a year of living and teaching in a foreign place. As we thought and prayed about it, we came to the decision that we should to do it, but only for one year.

Once we made that decision, we looked for organizations that had one year contracts, but the best part about our contract was that if we wanted to extend to a second year, we could. There were no commitments past the end of the school year, which made us feel safe, but if we did adjust well and enjoy our work, we could stay longer.

And that is what we have decided to do!
The Huddlestons will be in Prague for the 2015-2016 school year!

Yay!!!!!!!!

Again, this was not an easy decision. We have adjusted well, we love our school and our students, we are definitely enjoying the extra travel opportunities, but we also miss home. We miss people and places and even our things. During the week following Christmas break, I think we were the most homesick we have been so far. So as we were trying to make this decision, we tried to look at what we should do, not just what we were feeling. Because feelings change, and we didn't want to make a decision based on our homesickness of the moment.

Our thoughts were these:
*Professionally, we should stay. We're creating a curriculum from scratch, and it seems almost unfair to create something like this and only use it once. It's a lot of work for just one year!
*Relationally, we should stay. We are getting to know our students better & better, and really that's why we came here in the first place. To create relationships with students and our colleagues. And while we've begun those, we can do so much more with another year.
*Personally, we should stay. This has been a major growing time for us both individually and as a couple. We are learning a lot and thriving in a difficult situation where it is very often just the two of us, and this is something we know we'll be able to look back on during future difficulties and say, "we did Prague, we can do this."
*Spiritually, we should stay. God is working hard on us, and we in turn need to work hard for Him. While we know we can do this back home, we can also do this here. And so far, as we've been settling in here, we haven't done as much in this category as we should, so we're looking forward to expanding ourselves in this way.
*Travelly, we should stay. (I know travelly isn't a word, but I couldn't break the pattern.) There are still SO many places we want to go and see, and while this is clearly the most superficial aspect of our decision, it definitely still has weight.

So even though we are missing birthdays and vacations and parties. Even though we miss our people. Even though thinking about Olive Garden & Cracker Barrel make us want to get on a plane ASAP. Even though we can picture all our stuff in our storage unit and just want to unpack it. Even though homesickness can be a real bummer and a real challenge.
We are staying. And we're excited!

PLUS, we will be in the US this summer during the month of July into the beginning of August! So, please come see us! Please join us for breakfast at Cracker Barrel, lunch at Olive Garden, and dinner at your house ;)

We are so grateful for all the support we've had these first 6 months, and just ask for that continued support over the next year & a half.

Praises:
- Finally a decision for next year has been made, and we are excited about what it will all bring!
- The winter weather here has not been nearly as difficult as we were thinking it would be (knock on wood)
- It may seem silly, but we've been able to do a lot more reading while we've been here, and for people like us, that's a big happy deal :D

Prayer Requests:
- Drama Club will be a continued request until the middle of April. We are so looking forward to seeing how it comes together & are very excited to be working with our students on this project
- Continued good health
- That connections we've made here will continue to grow and that new connections will form

PS. Karina, I hope this was exciting enough for you ;)