Despite many holiday season trips, it took us until January to get to Disneyland with all of our kids, just before Joshua went back to England after his Christmas break.
We set out from Hungary at the end of last June, with just suitcases, our youngest kiddo and recent High School graduate Danny and our two dogs. We left our home in Budapest basically as-is, a friend who needed a place to stay was moving in and Norbert’s mom was using it some when she visited the city to see his sister’s family. We began in Colorado taking care of our home there and starting our adjustment to life back in the US for this season, plus getting to do daily life with our oldest son Josiah again. We shipped a mini U-haul storage container with all Joshua’s belongings still in CO and all the useful house items we still had there, and then at the very end of July we (Siah included now) drove out for our move to LA and into the guest house behind Rachel’s Grandma’s home. In many ways it feels much longer than just nine months ago that we left ‘home’ in Hungary – we’re living a world away in Los Angeles, and not just because of the sandals and shorts all year. It has been a busy, often hectic season of settling Danny into college, family visits, garden projects at Grandma’s house, driving in LA (always so much driving), new church family adjustments and attending new church groups not to mention the ongoing aspects of life as Norbert continues in his same job. Life here has needed and understandably taken the bulk of our focus and attention – but we have not forgotten the life we left behind, and we’re thrilled that the time is fast coming when we get to return to it a bit. We’ll be spending the months of April and May back in Europe, mostly in Hungary. We’ll leave one busy season and jump into another, we have much to get done and much that will be happening while we’re ‘back home’. We’d greatly appreciate any and all prayers over this coming time. Especially for the Pastor’s Retreat we’re excited to be able to host again, and for our Joshua as he graduates from Calvary Chapel Bible College in York, UK and then moves back to Budapest and starts the next chapter in his own life. We also have Hungarian bureaucracy to deal with in regards to now owning our home there and a replacement ID for Rachel, such paperwork is never simple in Hungary.
Below are some important dates coming up, both for us overseas and for our family here in California:
March 31st-April 1st – travel to HU, arriving on Easter and in the midst of a long Holiday weekend that includes all stores closed (in hindsight, not our best timing of a trip 
), thankful for Norbert’s sister who will head to our house in the days before and accept a Tesco grocery delivery for us – isn’t technology and home delivery amazing?!
April 2nd – Siah drives Danny back to college after her Easter break
April 14-22 – a solid week and two weekends in our beloved Hungarian Hometown of Szeged, some of the week will include helping Norbert’s mom with some projects around her home there, and several meetings with old friends plus some extended family.
April 19-21 – Pastor’s Retreat in Szeged, 9 pastors coming, mostly from Serbia
April 30-May 4th – Danny’s week of finals at Concordia University
May 3rd – Norbert is guest-teaching an IT class at a Hungarian High School that a friend teaches
May 5-6th weekend sometime – Danny packs up her dorm, big brother Siah helps her put some stuff in storage near the school, then helps her move ‘home’ to Grandma’s for the summer
May 12-20 – we travel to York, UK for Joshua’s graduation; he comes home to Budapest with us
June 1 – return flight to LA
June 16-24 – week in Colorado at our house there and visiting with grandbaby Aubrieanne
lakatosfamily 