For those of you wondering how my transition is going, I must say very well indeed. Yesterday was a holiday here, so the kids have a four day weekend. Below is a picture of the family at lunch yesterday.
From left to right, Gunnar, the father, Love (8 yrs), Elvira (5), Lotta, the mother, Ofelia (7), Denise (17) and Frank from Ireland, his shoulder in the right bottom corner. They own 40 hectares of land, half wooded and half fields. They have been developing the land they live on for 10 years and have many aspirations. Lotta is so lovely with a big heart and the same goes for Gunnar. It's so nice to be in a family invironment. There are also two other children missing from the picture, Oliver who is 15 and went off somewhere yesterday and Felicia, 18 with her daughter is in Iran visiting her childs father who is a refuge and was sent back to his country. Gunnar has 5 other children who are all grown, between the ages of 20 and 30. The first night I spent sitting at the kitchen table with Gunnar and Frank for a long time, about the farm here, the lifestyle they live and he described themselfs as not typical swedes. Being from vermont, the lifestyle they live seems totally normal to me, and I'm really loving it. We also talked about Steiner and Waldorf schools. He has had his children in the Waldorf school since 1989 and whole hearted trust in it.
Since it was a holiday yesterday, the kids had the day off from school, aswell as today. Gunnar got some ice cream in the afternoon. Here's the children having their way with it.
Ofelia and I made some Dandelion Crowns, in swedish it would be Maskros (translates to worm roast, but is the word for dandelion) Krans (crowns).
Frank and I spent most of the day yesterday finishing planting hedges and mulching, meanwhile the children played with the hose.
Frank and Love, cutting some grass.
One of the Dogs
Rasmus, a big playful pup.
Parts of they day was also spent getting the sheep back in the yard because they keep finding ways to get out. That was pretty entertaining. So we'll spend a lot of the day tomorrow fixing fence. I'm really enjoying myself here and really love the family.
Love and Gunnar went off today to the family's summer house to get the water turned on and cut the grass and things like that. We went into Uppsala, Lotta, the three girls Frank and I. Lotta hada meeting about a teenage boy from Africa that she is hoping to foster, but unfortunatly the system makes it very difficult for Lotta to do so. She has such a big heart and really wants to give this boy a loving home, and he really would like to come live with them aswell, but unfortunatly there are many hoops Lotta must jump through. Right now she is feeling that the people in power are saying no just to prove their power and for her and the boy it's very frustrating. While she was in her meeting the rest of us walked around town and got some pizza. Then Lotta took us to Linnaeus Garden. It was very lovely, and it was fun to run around looking at the flowers with the girls. There was also a wedding going on the same time we were touring around the gardens.
I feel so fortunate to have fallen into this family. I've been talking to Lotta about coming back in August as well. But I'm trying my best to take things one day at a time, and so far it's been working in my favor. I'm going to head out and take a walk through the woods with Rasmus. Hope you all are warm and enjoying some sunshine where ever you are!!
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