November has definitely been a roller-coaster month.  It's been emotionally high and low.  Trent and I both seemed to crash shortly after his birthday but before Thanksgiving.  It wasn't pretty.  Trent told me I was yelling "HELP" in my sleep two nights in a row.  Yikes.. I haven't had nightmares in years. Plus, I would be embarrassed to say how much I cried that week.  The root of it all: feeling useless.  My job is all about communication, and for some reason I felt like I had made zero progress in my French (despite the 14-18 hours per week of class).

My staff team was quite supportive.  One of them said "Oh you're early!  Most people have the no-progress feeling after about 5 or 6 months."  The joke actually cheered me up, as I realize that I am not alone in this and I am certainly making progress.  Maybe it's not as dramatic as Trent's progress, but lo and behold, he was feeling the same way.  We both felt like people just weren't understanding our French.

A funny example:  I was at a womens' event recently, and the woman to my left always had me repeat what I was saying.  We really struggled to talk, and I didn't always understand her either.  But, the woman on my right continually told me that my French is near perfect, and we never seemed to miss a beat.  How does that happen?  Am I just on the threshold of normal French??  Why is it that I can hear what I want to say in my head, and it's perfect, but when it comes out, it's like I have cotton in my mouth?!  :-)

Anyway, so Trent and I took a day off from work to just rest, and God met us in a mighty way.  Once I got all my frustrations and tears out, things got progressively better.  We're still not pros at being French, and we're still missing family and friends a TON, and we might have a difficult Christmas since it's the first one away from home, BUT, overall we're feeling good about being here.  We're seeing progress.  And I'm definitely glad to be "that American girl" because occasionally it draws people toward me and toward the Good News.