Coming out of the closet

While this blog has been predominantly aimed at documenting our adventures while living overseas, there has been an occasion to share more intimate stories. One of the stories I feel compelled to share is that of our family's experience with religion while here. I feel confident that my parents will not be too happy with this post, but look at it this way, Mom and Dad: you raised an independent thinker!

I was raised in the Baptist and Methodist churches until I left home to go to university. From that point on, I had little to no religion in my life. I was surrounded by very religious people even after I left home however (I was in Texas after all!). I never understood Christianity. I never understood the believing in it. All I saw were the reasons and science to not just question it, but to understand that what I had been raised to believe in simply couldn't possibly be. I felt very much like this was my secret and (for lack of a better pun) my cross to silently bear.

After I met Scott, I felt better that I wasn't alone. He was/is one of the nicest, most honest, most caring people I have ever known. And all that without religion. Don't get me wrong here, some of my friends and even a very select few of my family had given up on this biblical religion. Even then, it wasn't something we really talked about. We kept up and continue to keep up the good front: Scott and I were married by a Methodist preacher out at the ranch (in possibly the most fun wedding ever!). A prayer was said at the wedding. When we go to funerals and weddings, we of course do the "Our Father who art in Heaven" chant. We participate as sincerely and genuinely as anyone else in the room.

In Texas, Caden attends a Catholic all boys school. It is perhaps one of the best schools in the world. It is a fantastic place for him to learn and to be exposed, yes, to religion. We want our kids to have the option of religion. Part of me wants this so that they have commonality with the many people they will be surrounded with. Part of me wants it so they can experience the good and the bad of those who are "religious" and those who aren't religious. But mostly, I want them to make their own choice.

The thing that living abroad has afforded me is the understanding that this non-belief isn't a bad thing. In fact, living away from the USA, I now understand that the religious movement where we lived in the USA is extreme. I don't mean extreme, as in extremists killing, etc. I mean, extreme in the sense of it being pervasive in everything. If I open Facebook, at least half of the posts will be scripture or variations of scripture. That simply isn't the case here in the UK or in Holland. Most of the people here are open and will tell you without hesitation that they are atheist. (I showed one of my coworkers my FB page one morning on a field visit. He was shocked and said, "If a friend of mine posted anything like that on FB, he would be either joking, or asking for being mocked by everyone else. Either way, he would never do it again!") There certainly isn't a feeling of exclusion because of atheism.

Living here, I have been exposed to more people "like me", come to learn a great deal about Hinduism from my coworkers, and seen the acceptance of people of all religions, as well as no religions. No one looks twice here at a man with a turban on, or a woman with a burqu on. I have come to appreciate this. And, well, I do have a sense of dread going back to a place where you aren't equal if you aren't Christian.

The recent election coverage has made this religious movement even more pervasive than it previously was, to me at least. Now I find that people are actually going to make their decision on a candidate who appears more Christian than another. In fact, one side accuses the other side of being Muslim to further ostricize him from the very religious voters (all the while knowing that he is in fact a Christian... not that it should matter). I find postings daily on FB that they will vote for a candidate because he has "God in his corner" or that we need a "more Godly" man as President. This is so disturbing to me. It suggests that if they aren't religious enough, they aren't good enough. Ridiculous.

What I have found in this journey is that many people who don't believe are often more caring, honest, and generally moral than many of those who consider themselves very religious. (I would say that religion belongs on its own spectrum from morality. They are simply not related. At least not in practice.) Religion doesn't make you a better person. In fact, religion seems to be a crutch for many (not all) to fall back on as they go on to knowingly do things that are clearly not right to do. (The recent speech by the newest VP candidate was a great example of this where he literally presented lies (not twisting the truth, but blatantly lying) about events that had been proven false time and time again in order to get his crowd fired up. How does religion approve of that? How do the truly religious approve of this? I am confused by it because the very religious are the ones supporting this.)

So, I guess the whole point of this post is for me to come out of the closet on religion. I expect I will have some "defriend" me on FB, some may even offer prayers for me, some will politely smile at me next time we meet yet think of me differently. All that's fine. It's fine by me if you choose to believe in God or the Bible. If you are Mormon, Hindu, Catholic, or even a Scientologist, that's great. Believe. Have faith. But don't expect others to just because you do. Don't consider yourself better or more moral. You're not. Religion doesn't make you a good person. Morals do. A person can be moral without being religious.

And as a last note on here, a special thanks to my cousin EJ who shared a Thomas Jefferson quote with me this morning:
"Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."

A busy week at Center Parks

While we have been quite busy exploring this year, we haven't taken off more than a day or two at a time of holiday since February (I took off four days to go to Lanzarote with the fam). So we went all out and took off another four days and strategically scheduled a week away around a bank holiday weekend.

The kids had been dying to go to Center Parcs. Center Parks (or as the Brits would say: Centre Parcs) is a giant park where there are more activities to choose from than anyone would ever possibly have time to do. When you arrive, you park your vehicle at the front and the remainder of the time to move around the camp, you must walk, bike or take the land train. Let me summarize by saying we had a blast, even though it rained for four of the five days we were there.



We lost a half day due to a eye issue with Caden where we had to take him to the doctor, but aside from that, we were extremely busy having fun. Activities including: swimming in the sub-tropical swimming paradise (paradise is an understatement), cross-bow practice for the kids, rock wall climbing, playing in the woods, biking, fishing, playing on the sandy beach, chef school for the kids, and (possibly the favorite amongst the little people) wizard and fairy university. And just for clarification, the fishing really should've been called catching. The kids caught more fish by running the net through the water than using the fishing pole and bait! The squeals of delight made it extremely fun...



The video highlights:



Honorable mention:

Me no zpeek Rushkan...

Scott and I decided to take a quick trip to St Petersburg Russia. It sounds like a long and involved trip, but in reality it is only about 3 hours from England. Involved, though, it is. We had to have Russian issued visas in order to go for the four day weekend. That in and of itself was "involved" and fairly expensive. We were eager to see if the trouble would be worth it.



We arrived on Friday afternoon. The Grand Hotel Europe was simply amazing. We were impressed with just the size of the place as well as the service. For 300 rooms, there were 500 employees which was a pretty amazing stat to me. We weren't sure what to expect from St Petersburg since we didn't have time to research it before going. We had a fun four days while there, but that was certainly all the time we needed to be there!

Pussy Riot was arrested during our trip for "hooliganism" (speaking out about Putin), so we made a point to have a beer in the local pub called O'Hooligans. St Petersburg is a beautiful city, with little to no crime. The fine arts are what one would go to see in this very European (versus Russian) city. The Hermitage is the large art museum (large doesn't really do it justice) that everyone knows. I realize some people could spend days in this building, but I was done in about 30 minutes. Admittedly, I am not very cultured!

It is expensive to eat and drink and the food... leaves a little to be desired. Borsch soup: looks better than it tastes.



The one thing I was hoping to see and we did was one of the "ice cream top" churches. The Church of the Savior of the Spilled Blood was a beautiful building. It was massive inside as well with the entire inside being decorated with only mosaics. Without question, it was one of the prettiest interiors, and most labor intensive, of all the churches I have seen. Each of the ice cream tops on the outside seemed to correlate with a small dome inside where a face had been mosaic'ed onto the ceiling.



The video highlights:

Another big day in the Hooper world...

Caden has mastered the art of "cycling" (as he calls it)! (How very British of him!) He was tenacious and determined this weekend and now our family is completely and totally mobile! We have already been out exploring the Thames River. We are proud of him and so excited for this very big step in the world of little-kid-dom.

And if you needed a video to see exactly how cute he is, then this is for you:

We went to the Olympics!

Scott and I went to the Olympics. While I will admit dreading the Olympics because of the expected crowds, traffic, and even possible danger it posed from terrorists, I must say it has proven so far to be an amazing experience.


Evidently London overpriced their hotel rooms to the degree that now the hotels are virtually empty in the city. Because of that, there are lots of special deals, so Scott reserved a cheap hotel a couple of blocks from the event we were going to see on Saturday morning. Then on Saturday, Scott and I went to see the beach volleyball. Aside from the roads closed and detours that were necessary to arrive to the venue, the event was good fun. To simply get into Horseguards Parade (our event was not in the Olympic village), we had to show our tickets several times. Once up close to the stadium, we had to clear security very much like airport security, only more difficult. Once we were into the arena area though, it was amazing! The mood was fantastic and the crowd was lively and happy.


The matches we watched were exciting but not very closely matched teams in terms of ability. The Chinese women smashed their Russian competitors and the Brazil men did the same to the Germans. The winners of those matches went on to play in the quarter finals. We had fun though watching the crowds. There were lots of activities throughout the events with cheerleaders and games for the audience.

We would both like to attend the Paralympics which are in a couple of weeks here in London, but the tickets are really difficult to get ahold of. If we are able to go, we hope the kids will appreciate what they are watching when they see those determined athletes overcome disabilities to compete in a world competition. Stay tuned!

The beginning of the Olympics

The Olympics has now officially kicked off in London. There were several fun events leading up to it.

First the torch traveled across England and we were fortunate enough to live about a 3 minute walk from relay. We walked down the street one morning to see it. Lots of festivities around and excitement was in the air. There was a small parade leading the torch. It was exciting to see this and I'm happy we were able to go.



Yesterday morning, the bell ringers rang Big Ben 40 times over three minutes, while people across London rang their handbells alongside. Everyone here is so excited that it has become contagious. I admit to being the scrooge about the Olympics knowing it was going to make the traffic worse than it already is and the tube more stinky and crowded during rush hour (which is hard to believe!). But because of all the positive energy and enthusiasm, I will proudly admit, I am fully on board! I even stayed up until 1am to watch the full opening ceremonies.

Scott has secured tickets for us to an event and tomorrow I think we will probably go watch the Olympic bike race that goes very near to the house with the kids. I find myself pulling for both the USA and the UK (and admittedly cheered inside when the Dutch walked in the procession). I hope it is fun and safe for everyone. So far, it has certainly been inspiring.

Caden turns 7!

Caden finally had his seventh birthday this month. Because he was shortchanged a bit the last two years due to international moves during his birthday, we decided to make up a bit for it.



His first gift was having two of his dearest friends over for celebrations and cakes. Keali was all up in the mix as well. After pizza at his favorite pizza store, back to the house for bubbles and cake. The cake was a huge hit since it made their mouths black! Thanks Chantelle for making an awesome cake!



The next day, we went to Borough Market in London. It was similar to the big market in Barcelona, but more people with the onset of the Olympics. We had fun but the crowds sent us packing before we were quite done shopping. We will be back there soon!

Then on Sunday, the four of us packed up and headed to LegoLand for two days. The highlight of the trip for the kids was the LegoLand hotel, complete with a treasure hunt, legos for building throughout the hotel, and the water park inside the hotel. The highlights for Scott and I were the Q-Bots which allowed us to skip the line and the ice cold beer the hotel sells! As tired as we all were after two sunny days filled with walking and standing, everyone had a great time.



The video highlights: