Big Decisions to make

I sent an email to K regarding whether or not to take the kids with us to UK. 

On the one hand, there's the childcare problem.  Neither set of grandparents seem ready to take on two (more) kids for as long as a month.  I am afraid the fun of it would wear out long before the time was up for any of them.  Aunts and Uncles have jobs to interfere.  Most friends will have their own kids in school while we are gone and I am not about to sign mine up for school just to address a daycare issue.

I have considered a couple of homeschool families as possibilities.  I will leave these ideas on the back burner in case our primary plan to take them falls through.

On the other hand, the opportunities for learning and first hand experience in UK jump out at me as good reasons to try our best to take them with us.  I think that the opportunity to see first hand how different and, yes, difficult life can be for other people can only help them see how much God has blessed them.  I think it would be good to see why some families struggle to feed and clothe their children and that Alex's parents didn't necessarily give him up because they didn't love him.  And then there will be the lesson of the beauty that can be found anywhere on earth, even in a poorer country than ours.

I can imagine also that enabling Alex to connect to the kids on "his turf"  would be so much easier than him having us all to himself until we get home and "oh, by the way, now we have to give some attention to our other two who have missed us desperately for the past month."

I know it will be more work for us if we take the kids.  I am doing my best to get a feel for what that means.  I don't want to make trouble for our translators.  I have asked K for his input and have also put out some requests for help from the boards.  So far I have not received much help but I will keep trying.  I also have to figure out what the additional expenses will be.