{"id":29570,"date":"2026-03-16T12:41:42","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T18:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/?p=29570"},"modified":"2026-03-16T13:04:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T19:04:17","slug":"the-liddell-family-march-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/news\/the-liddell-family-march-update\/","title":{"rendered":"The Liddell Family | March Update"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>\u201cHe is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awe-inspiring works your eyes have seen.\u201d<\/em> Deuteronomy 10:21<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our eyes continue to see things that inspire awe, and someday I pray that we will look back on our years here and will see this verse as a fitting description.\u00a0 Since our last letter, I\u2019ve had some good news and some \u201cplease follow up at some point\u201d messages.\u00a0 My liver enlargement is due to an anatomical variant, though they found some things in the labs that need to be followed up with non-urgently.\u00a0 We plan to do that here.\u00a0 I had the procedure to break up my kidney stones and it went well.\u00a0 Overall good news.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Fred had a wonderful visit with his friends in Japan and at the family wedding in the Philippines.\u00a0 The kids took turns being sick while he was gone, which meant that I got a lot less done than I\u2019d hoped.\u00a0 But we did drive north from January 20-23.\u00a0 Our flights could not be scheduled when we had hoped, they were confirmed for February 6.\u00a0 So on January 25 we had our commissioning at Peninsula Evangelical Friends Church with our home congregation and several out of town family.\u00a0 It was a wonderful time of fellowship and a wonderful weekend of visiting.\u00a0 Then I got sick, which turned into asthma, and again we were slower getting things done than hoped.\u00a0 But God was faithful, and despite the delays we were able to visit with several dear friends, pack, and leave on time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>We moved a bunch of suitcases and bags, a guitar and baritone ukulele, two cats, two kids, and three adults (my sister, Jennifer, traveled with us), arriving in Split, Croatia on Saturday, February 7th.\u00a0 Minus half of our bags, which ended up being a blessing in that it let us move things in stages.\u00a0 They arrived two days later.\u00a0 God provided an apartment the week before we left that we were able to move straight into.\u00a0 The landlords are friendly and helpful, the neighborhood is bustling and quiet.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have a car, but using public transit and ride shares is going pretty well.\u00a0 We have been attending a Croatian church and are hopeful to be at home there.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Our first few weeks have been packed.\u00a0 Jen got sick our second night here and was out of commission for several days.\u00a0 My asthma got a lot worse the day we left the US, it is finally mostly better.\u00a0 After multiple visits to several government and business offices, we are registered with the police, have Croatian ID numbers, have internet and local phone numbers, and our apartment is coming together.\u00a0 Fred and I have finished three weeks of language school and are enjoying seeing pieces start connecting, even as it feels a bit like a fire hose.\u00a0 We were unable to find a preschool with openings for the kids, but God provided a nanny for school days and that seems to be going well.\u00a0 Jen was here for three weeks and the emotional stress of transition seems to have started after she left.\u00a0 The kids, especially Jael, had a pretty rough couple of week, but now we are seeing steady \u201csettling\u201d in all of us.\u00a0 There is still a ways to go, so please continue to pray for peaceful hearts and grace with each other.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Croatian Adjustments<\/strong><\/h2>\n

We have found some familiar foods, which has been helpful for the kids, but even those have slightly different flavors and textures which has been especially hard for Jael.\u00a0 A surprise for the rest of us was that our address is just our building, and then visitors call up or the post office puts our mail in the box with our name on it.\u00a0 We are still getting used to the rhythm of life here, especially that almost everything closes on Sunday.\u00a0 Many ingredients that we are used to are available, but figuring out the Croatian names was a bit of a challenge.\u00a0 Having said that, we are enjoying trying new foods and finding new favorites!<\/p>\n

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The Kids<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Alex and Jael are excited to be home, though they miss friends and family from the US.\u00a0 Having the cats has been helpful.\u00a0 Jael is often seen carrying one then the other around, frequently telling us: \u201cI need to hold the kitty!\u201d She has been singing the alphabet song \u201cH, I, P, T, H, I, P, T, \u2026\u201d and was thrilled to go to the beach.\u00a0 Alex sings \u201cthe Croatia song\u201d, that his grandma wrote, all the time; notably while we were walking around the old city of Dubrovnik, to his Sunday School class here, and on several walks around town.\u00a0 He will walk up to random strangers and start with \u201cHi!\u00a0 My name is Alex, I like dinosaurs!\u201d \u00a0He gained a new scar on his eyebrow when he split it open on the corner of the table less than a week after we arrived , then the next week got another on his side when he tripped on a sidewalk while running at full tilt.\u00a0 We\u2019ve had some tears about missing home, and also statements of \u201cI like it here\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m glad we live here!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Praise & Prayer Requests:<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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  • We\u2019re here!\u00a0 God answered so many prayers for specific things about the trip, the apartment, the kids\u2019 adjustment, in the last few weeks.\u00a0 We are thankful for all your prayers to that end.<\/li>\n
  • The body of believers here has already been encouraging.\u00a0 If you remember a few months ago, I wrote about Fred and I crying during the song \u201cHoly Forever\u201d at yearly meeting in Ohio.\u00a0 We longed to hear the Croatian church singing that song, sharing that prayer.\u00a0 Our first Sunday at the church here, that was one of the songs they sang.\u00a0 The next week they sang \u201cChristus Victor,\u201d which was another song that was something of a them the last few months.<\/li>\n
  • We\u2019ve been praying, as have many of you, about what the kids should do while we are in language school.\u00a0 None of the preschools that we\u2019ve talked to have any openings.\u00a0 But Jen\u2019s last Wednesday here the Lord gave me an urgency to post on a Facebook page for foreigners in Split, asking for recommendations for a Croatian nanny.\u00a0 Someone connected us to one and she started the next Monday.\u00a0 We are thanking God for His provision!<\/li>\n
  • The kids are still having sleep disturbances and emotional stress.\u00a0 Please pray for their hearts and minds, for wisdom as we take care of them, and that they will pick up Croatian easily from the nanny.<\/li>\n
  • Please pray also for our language studies, that we will learn quickly.\u00a0 We are also looking for a language helper to supplement our formal study, please pray for someone who can also become a friend.<\/li>\n
  • We are starting to connect some with people in our class, please continue to pray that God brings friendships with people who need Him and with people who already know Him.\u00a0 Pray that we will be a faithful witness, even in this transition period when stress levels are high.<\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cHe is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awe-inspiring works your eyes have seen.\u201d Deuteronomy 10:21 Our eyes continue to see things that inspire awe, and someday I pray that we will look back on our years here and will see this verse as a fitting […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"Full","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[482,443,448,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-29570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"tag-croatia","8":"tag-liddell","9":"tag-liddell-family","10":"tag-update","11":"entry","12":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29570"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29584,"href":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29570\/revisions\/29584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}