Sittin' Pretty

By this time next week, we will officially have a toddler in the house!  Wednesday, February 6 Isaiah turns 2.  Lord willing, I hope to post something each day of this birthday week about something new that God has enabled him to do over the past year.  And for the first installment...

This might not seem like a big deal, I mean most of us just sit on the floor without a second thought, but for Isaiah, this is tremendous progress!  His sitting time has increased dramatically since we've been in St. P.  Before, he could hardly ever sit on his own for even 10 seconds, and now he can sit for a few minutes, in fact when I took this picture, he had been sitting on his own for about 10 minutes and reaching for things and playing with both hands some!  Praise God for the progress that He has granted.  Isaiah has even learned little tricks to help him keep his balance better.  I'm so proud of my Little Man!  He is so determined and persistent.

See Ya Later

I think that one of my favorite things about our trip to Germany was watching Isaiah interact with his grandparents.  He had so much fun playing with them.  They had so much fun seeing in person all the new things that he can do.  I think that he definitely remembered them from when we left the States.  I look forward to watching Isaiah's relationships with all his grandparents develop in the years to come.

Here are some of the pictures from when we said goodbye at the Berlin airport.  I hope you're not bored with all my Berlin pics; these were just too sweet to not post.  Thanks for humoring me. :)

St. Petersburg Got a Little Smaller

Living in a big city has been an adjustment for me.  I grew up in a town of oh, 8,000 or so.  Then during seminary our community was rather small, even though Jackson was a much bigger town that I was used to.  Yazoo City was anything but a big town.  Even if you didn't know every single person in town, you had some connection to everyone you saw.  I really like and miss living in a small town.

St. Petersburg is definitely not what you would call a small town!  I think it's possible to walk on the same street at the same time every day and see different people every day.  Getting to know people in a big city is sometimes difficult, too; although it might be easier if you actually speak the same language fluently.  But the other day when we were shopping in the fruit and vegetable market, St. Petersburg got a little smaller.  One of the ladies that works at a certain stand actually remembered me from several weeks ago!  She asked me if I wanted Granny Smith apples again this time.  I was so impressed!  I felt significant to my surroundings.  Realizing that someone who doesn't have to remember me for any particular reason really did remember me was fun.  She also gave Isaiah a mandarin (for free!) and played with him a little bit and said that he was a good boy, so she must have good judgment.

Apartment Update

Many of you have been praying with us about finding an apartment for the remainder of our year here.  After doing much praying and searching, we have decided to stay where we are.  We made this decision for several reasons:  We could not find an apartment with the number of rooms that we need for less than what we are paying now; we have absolutely wonderful landlords; and God has increased our support through several people who have specifically stated that they wanted to help us with our housing situation.  We are very thankful for the prayer and financial support that God is providing through our many family and friends.  

When we return to St. P this summer in August we are hoping to use an apartment rented by another missionary family that is a little bit less than what we are paying now.  Please keep this a matter of prayer.  We need to know what to do with our stuff during our 6-week home assignment, and we need to know if we should pursue this opportunity or look for something else.

Project Big 3-0 Declared Success!

So, as you've seen, our time in Germany was great!  We got to spend time with my parents, watch Isaiah enjoy them, eat some good food (some food was better than others), see some historical sites, rest a little bit and celebrate my 30th birthday.

Yep, that's right, I'm 30.  It hasn't seemed to effect me really, turning 30 that is.  I guess the old saying "age is a state of mind" might be somewhat true.  My mind is so confused these days that I can't remember how old I am.

When I was 5 my mother turned 30, and her birthday happened to be on a Sunday that year.  Apparently I was really excited about this because I told EVERYONE that I saw that my mom was "The Big 3-0".  For some reason she didn't seem to appreciate that very much.  Well, this year was finally her year of payback.  She and my sweet father wanted to make sure that as many people as possible knew that this birthday was "The Big 3-0" for me, which actually had some pretty pleasant results.

Every time I went into my parents room in Berlin, I found cards on their bed addressed to me!  Yes, every single time!  I think I received over 50 birthday cards--that's got to be some kind of record!  I even got a card from the Jr. Girls and an entire 3rd grade class at my old school!  And on my actual birthday Mama pulls out presents!  I felt overwhelmed all week with the knowledge that so many people were thinking about me and wanted me to know that they were thinking of me.  I always knew that my church family and other NC family is incredibly special and thoughtful and caring.  I've been the recipient of that wonderful care in the past.  But this time knowing that so many people cared about making my birthday special even when I was so far away...well, I feel humbled and thankful and amazed!  I love the body of Christ!  I love that distance and time cannot prevent us from showing love to each other because we have received such great love from Him!

I am inadequate to properly thank everyone who sent me cards and greetings and well-wishes on my birthday.  I wish that I could give every single person a great big hug, but well, a few thousand miles kind of makes that impossible.  I am incredibly grateful, though for the love that has been given to me, and I plan on giving as many of those hugs this summer that I can!  You are in my prayers as we serve our great God in the places that He has called us to be!

Pictures From our Last Day

Our last day in Berlin was a wonderful ending to a wonderful week.  It was also our only day without rain!  We enjoyed walking around without umbrellas and taking tons of more pictures.  It was also my birthday.  Being able to spend my birthday with my parents was extra special.  There were also tons of surprises, which deserve their own post.

Here are most of the pictures from our last day.  There are actually still a few on my camera because for some reason I can't find the card reader!  Hopefully soon I can share the sweet pictures of Isaiah saying goodbye to his grandparents.

Pictures from Day Five--LegoLand!

This was the morning that I got to spend just with my mom and Isaiah.  After a relaxing morning we joined the boys for lunch and then LegoLand!  We all had a fabulous time playing and watching everyone else play--tons and tons of fun!  There were so many pictures from this event alone, that I didn't take the time to put them in any particular order.  I think, though that you get the idea of the fun that we had.

Paperwork Update

The reason we had to leave for a little while to go to Germany was in order to get our registration renewed in Russia.  We have visas that are good through mid-July, but our registration in the city of St. Petersburg was only for 6 months.  For those of you who have followed our family blog, might remember that a new law concerning visas in Russia was passed last fall.  The law, in a nutshell, is that people with business visas (which is what we currently have) can only be in the country for 90 days at a time.  After 90 days a person with a business visa must leave for at least 90 days before returning to Russia.  Along with that visa change came a registration change.  Rather than issuing 6 month visas, the Russian government is only issuing 3 month registrations. So when we returned to St. P, we were hoping that somehow we would be able to get 6 month registration again, but we did get only 3 month registration.  Our visas are still good, though, praise the Lord!  

We also think that we have a viable option for coming back in August (yes, we get to be in the States for about 6 weeks this summer!).  Thomas has contacted a language center that can facilitate our visas and registration.  We would be under student visas, which also get 1-year registration.

So, clear as mud, right?  Thank you for those of you who have been praying for us about these very confusing things.  We are thankful that God is continuing to make things clear for us in these strange situations!

Pictures from Day Four

As you might have read we really enjoyed our day in Wittenburg!  Here are the pictures from our time in that beautiful little city.  Who knows, maybe we'll get to go back sometime on October 31 for one of the anniversaries of Luther's nailing the 95 Theses to the doors of Castle Church!

Pictures from Day Three

Thomas and I had a wonderful date while Grandma and Grandpa had fun with Isaiah!  We had some Dunkin' Donuts and toured the Berliner Dom and just enjoyed walking around before we found a little restaurant for authentic German food!

I think that Grandma and Grandpa and Isaiah had just as much fun as we did!

Berlin Day Two Slide Show

Here are all the pictures from Day Two when we took the bus tour and went up in the TV Tower, one of the tallest structures in Europe.

Isaiah was quite a trooper the whole trip. The last picture of him crying was really unusual. He was so tired and wanted my camera (like his daddy, he loves all things electronic). Overall, he did an amazing job without any regular naps for a week! I was very proud of him.

Thomas' Thoughts

We are now a 3-blog family.  Thomas asked me to post a notice on my blog about his new personal blog The Heretic Mug Collection.  For anyone who doesn't read our family blog, I invite you to check out Thomas' blog from here.  He's using this new blog to help him with accountability in several areas, but I'm sure that he will be interesting to read.

Enjoy!

More pictures from our first day in Berlin

There are so many pictures that I'd like to share (hundreds, actually!) that I thought I'd do it a few days at a time so as not to spend too much time on the computer and not to overload you my wonderful friends.

A New Part of our Ministry

In all the activity and excitement of getting ready to go to Berlin, I forgot to post about something very important!  Part of what we hope to do in Russia is develop a ministry to people with disabilities, specifically at first children with disabilities.  As our language skills have developed we have been able to begin to look into this area of ministry more.  One of the first things that we (particularly Thomas) has started is a new website about the work that we hope to do.  

We have named the ministry Isaiah International in honor of our sweet Little Man and because of the passage in Isaiah 35:6 that prophesies about the lame walking and being healed.  We would love for you to check out the site at www.isaiahinternational.org.  There will also be a permanent link on my sidebar whenever you would like to visit it again.

Please join with us in praying for direction for this new ministry and for the people to whom we hope to minister.

Berlin-Day Five

We were ready for some "Girl Time"! Monday morning, Mama and I set off with Isaiah for our own time of wandering around, shopping, eating and just having good ol' girl time. We navigated our way on the U-bohn all by ourselves, found a great little coffee shop then hit the stores! We're not big shoppers really, but just being able to look around a store WITH MY MOM and say what things we thought were cute or not so cute and what was too expensive, and all that good girly stuff was so much fun!

We did meet up with the guys for lunch, which was also fun, of course; but I really am thankful for that special time just with Mama. There's nothing quite like having your mama all to yourself after 6 months, well, with Isaiah, too, of course.

After lunch we all headed for LegoLand. There are not sufficient words to describe how much fun we all had at LegoLand. Isaiah got to see his first movie in a theater setting, which he loved! He laughed through the whole thing. Actually he pretty much laughed through the whole afternoon. We spent about 3 hours playing and playing and playing with legos. They had these wonderful great big legos that were just right for Isaiah. They were in these great big pits, almost like a ball pit, and he just crawled around in among the legos and played and played. All of us built things, so I'm not really sure who had the most fun! If you're ever going to go to Berlin, then LegoLand is a must see!

Isaiah enjoying the great big Legos, and us enjoying watching him

Wondering where Isaiah gets his look of concentration?

Berlin-Day Four

Our day in Wittenburg was definitely a wonderful experience.  To realize that we were in the place where the Reformation began was almost overwhelming!  We were able to sit in on part of a service in the church that Luther pastored in Wittenburg.  (Sadly, I don't think Luther would be very pleased with the state of things currently, but at one time the gospel was clearly proclaimed from that pulpit.)

This is the church where Luther was pastor and first questioning some of the Catholic church practices

Here are Isaiah and Thomas by the pulpit in Luther's church

We saw the spot where the original doors hung on which Luther nailed his now famous 95 theses.  The original doors burned down several hundred years ago, and they were replaced with bronze doors on which are carved the 95 theses.

How thankful we are to God for opening Luther's heart and mind and protecting him with faithful German princes so that the gospel could spread rapidly over Germany and then Europe and then to our own home country.  And to think that now we are a part of spreading that gospel even further around the world! 

I think you could say that Isaiah enjoyed his day in Wittenburg and all the time with his grandparents 

Berlin-Day Three

This morning greeted us with downpours, but we didn't let that rain on our parade!  Before our trip, I had asked Mom if she and Dad would mind watching Isaiah for a few hours, so Thomas and I could have a date.   I really had to twist her arm, but she agreed! (a little sarcasm, perhaps?)

Thomas and I enjoyed most of the day together, just the two of us.  We rode the U-bohn, Berlin's metro system, and we discovered that it is possible for a metro to go quickly and smoothly and quietly all at the same time while also not smelling terrible--who'd have thought?  We were really impressed with the Berliner Dom (pictured above left), a Protestant Evangelical Lutheran cathedral constructed for Wilhelm II (I think those facts are accurate).  One ironic thing about this cathedral that Thomas pointed out to me was the fact that there are statues of Zwingli and Calvin and a few other reformers, all of whom were vehemently opposed to any icons or pictures in churches!

Despite the rain we walked around a good bit to see the Brandenburg Gate and the memorial for the Holocaust victims, which is one of the most interesting memorials I've ever seen. (pictured below right)

  

Wanting to get some authentic German food, we hopped back on the U-bohn and rode a litt

le bit out of the downtown area before finding a nice quiet spot with really good schniztel!  Then it was back to the hotel just in time to hear all about Isaiah's time with Grandma and Grandpa before putting him to bed.  While the time with Thomas was wonderful, I have to admit that even during those few hours, I really missed the Little Man (and I think Thomas did, too!).  I'm thankful though that he could have such a great time with his grandparents.

Tomorrow we have a special treat:  A trip to Wittenburg where Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church!

Berlin-Day Two

For our second day in Berlin, we decided to get an overview by taking a "hop on-hop off" bus tour and by going to the top of the TV tower, one of the tallest structures in Europe.  See the difference in the European and Soviet architecture was interesting to Thomas and me.  The difference is quite striking!

We did a lot of riding, so there aren't tons of pictures from the day, which I'm sure will change today, but here are a few of my favorites:

Isaiah has been going full steam, and he finally surrendered while we were on the bus tour.

Isaiah, Grandma, Grandpa and me in front of a government building

The 3 of us on the observation area of the TV Tower getting a beautiful view of the city

3 generations (also in the TV Tower)

Berlin-Day One

After a mad dash to the airport in St. Petersburg traffic, a confusing security procedure in the St. P airport, an uneventful flight and waiting in a long line for passport control to enter Germany, we finally got to give and receive some long overdue hugs!  Isaiah traveled like a pro, entering his 4th country in less than 2 years.  My parents had arrived earlier in the day, which meant that they already knew the ropes and could guide us through the public transportation to get to our hotel.

I can't explain the feelings that I had when I first saw my mama and daddy!  Yes, I cried, but they were definitely tears of joy!  And Isaiah's recent shyness when around different people wasn't an issue at all!  He loved on Grandma and Grandpa right away.

We enjoyed our first day, taking it easy and visiting nearby Checkpoint Charlie.  Our first souvenirs were Checkpoint Charlie stamps in our passports from a guard with tons of personality, who spoke at least 6 languages.  We educated ourselves at the Checkpoint Charlie museum where we learned about the many brave people who risked their lives to escape and to help other people escape from East Germany.

To finish off my parent' first day of their first European experience, we ate dinner at a Mexican Italian restaurant!  I just find that quite amusing.

Our second day we hope to get an overview of the city on a bus tour, and then hopefully we'll know some other places we'd like to see more closely.

Mama has passed on tons of hugs and birthday surprises from friends back home, with more to come, she says.  We love and miss you all--if only you could fit in checked luggage!

Little Man traveling well!  (praise God for an uncrowded airplane!)

The guard who stamped our passports--quite a character!

Thomas "on both sides" (where the wall used to be)

Here we are at the remaining Berlin Wall

ZERO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Later this afternoon (Wednesday) we will be flying the friendly skies once again. As you might have read in my earlier post, we are heading for Germany for a week of rest and relaxation and recreation and loving on my parents!

We are pretty sure we will have internet access at our hotel, so I'll try to put up some pictures while we're there.

I've never been to Germany before, so if anyone has some pointers, feel free to share! We're staying in Berlin, but hoping to take a day trip to Wittenburg. I'm so excited, I hardly know what to say!

Here's Isaiah saying, "Woohoo, we're going to Germany and seeing some of my grandparents!"

Presenting......

Our future pianist, perhaps?



We might wait a little bit longer before starting lessons, but I think that they are definitely in his future!

ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Complete Concentration

Whenever Isaiah is playing really hard and completely focused on something, he makes this interesting expression on his face when he puckers up his lips like his ready to kiss or something.

Now if that's not concentration, I don't know what is!

TWO

Stealin' More Hearts

Saturday night we were invited to attend an evening function at a local Christian library. Thomas has become friends with the director of the library. We had met his family when we first moved to St. Petersburg. He has a lovely wife and 2 girls, Nastia (NAS-tia) and Liza (LEE-za).

The whole evening was quite enjoyable and excellent Russian practice. I even talked with the lady beside me the whole time during dinner. She was very patient and kind. I can't wait to tell my language teacher! Thomas played his guitar and sang, much to the delight of everyone present, of course. He also described in Russian the songs that he sang in English. I am so proud of his progress in the language. He works so hard and has really become quite good at communicating!


But part of the fun was also watching Nastia and Liza enjoy Isaiah! They are quite taken with him. When we first arrived Isaiah didn't want to go to anyone, preferring mama's arms. (This is a relatively new phenomenon, some burst of shyness or something.) But the longer we were there, he realized that the 2 little girls trying so desperately to hold him were lots of fun, and off they went to play. I think they probably took about 100 pictures of him while we were there. I love watching him interact with other children, and hope to be able to do so more and more as my Russian increases.

THREE

His Father's Son

Isaiah often surprises us with his ability to learn new abilities. The other day we noticed that whenever music comes on, no matter what the source, he will stop whatever he is doing and immediately try to find the music. Not only does he find the music, but we soon realized that he can dance to the beat! With a sweet smile he sways back and forth in perfect time. What do you think? Did he inherit the music gene from his daddy?


FOUR

Thank You, Aunt Luda

The Lord has provided some wonderful friends for us in St. Petersburg. One friend has become particularly special to us. You might recall that Isaiah was in a Russian hospital less than a month after our arrival in St. P. Our friend Luda stayed with me in the hospital for four nights. She was with Isaiah and me for the first 48 hours straight! Anyway, to make a long story short, Luda has become a part of our family and dubbed "Aunt" on behalf of Isaiah. She really is a dear friend and very kind to help us with Russian. She absolutely adores Isaiah, which of course endears her even more to me. Here they are playing catch, which Isaiah loves. (and when he's sitting on the floor, he does a little bit better job of getting to the person, most of the time that is)



On New Year's Eve Luda came over to give us some gifts, as is the custom in Russia with New Year's being like our Christmas in the States. Here's Isaiah enjoying his gift from Aunt Luda, a toy cell phone.


FIVE

My Little Adventure

A little over six months. That's how long it had been since my last hair cut, which was in the States. With our big trip to Germany coming up, I wanted to have a slightly nicer look for my hair. Lately its just been pulled back with a pony-tail holder at random times during the day.

Why did you wait so long?, you might ask. Good question. Since most of you, my dear friends, have never been to Russia it might be hard for you to imagine the condition of the hair of most of the population of St. Petersburg. Let's just say the mullet is still alive and well and living here, even with women. So, with my language skills not fully developed and seeing the rather strange hair styles around me, I felt a little nervous about going to a Russian salon to get a little trim.

Finally the need outweighed the fear. There's a little salon about a minute's walk from our apartment that I pass nearly every day. I bundled up in my nice warm coat and made the trek to the salon. I thought that I was going to try to simply make an appointment, but the next thing I knew, I was getting the finishing touches on a new do. I think that the hairdresser was a bit of a perfectionist. She washed, cut, cut some more, cut even more, blow dryed, cut some more...I was in the process of trying to figure out how to tell her that I thought my hair was definitely short enough now, when she finally was satisfied with her work. I was getting a little concerned.

I came home to better examine her handiwork. I look more Russian now, but thankfully I don't have a mullet. No, seriously, she did a good job. It's a little shorter than I would have chosen, but I have a good haircut, and I got to practice my Russian. All in all, it was a good experience.

Before, even before Christmas actually, so add some growth to the hair

After

SIX

Plans, Anyone?

In Russia it's very rare for someone to make plans for more than the next day. Things are pretty random and spontaneous over here. I'm such a planner that I thought that this cultural difference would be difficult for me, but actually it's not too bad.

We did however make plans about 3 months ago for something really, Really, REALLY exciting! We have to leave the country every 6 months for registration (I'd explain this, but to western thinking, it really just doesn't make sense, so I'm not going to bother with it for right now). Thomas and I looked at all our options and finally decided on Germany. So next week at this time we will be in Berlin, having a little bit of a break from slavic culture. I think it will be nice to have some time away. We've heard that when you are actually out of the country for a while that the language will often sink in a little bit better, like letting your brain soak it all in. So, yes, the break will be nice. And we get to stay in a really nice place, which will be restful, too and we get to celebrate my birthday, and I think Thomas and I will get to have a date because MY PARENTS WILL BE THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When we started planning this about 3 months ago, I was looking forward to it. I don't think that I realized how much I was being influenced by Russian culture however, until I started to get really excited about a week ago. It was so far away that I would forget about our trip. But now, I can almost feel the hugs that I'm going to get squished in. I can't wait to hear what Mama and Daddy will say when they feel how heavy Isaiah has become and see first-hand what he can do. I wonder how he'll react to them at first, having only seen them on the internet (thank you, Skype!).

So now, in a more-Russian fashion than I ever would have imagined, I am counting down the days until I get to see these 2 wonderful people!

SEVEN

(now all we have to do is convince the rest of the family the trip isn't too bad, or maybe they'll believe more easily after my parents get back)

Read Any Good Books Lately?

If we are at home for any length of time, and Isaiah is playing in our front room, inevitably he will crawl over to the shelf where I keep his books and look from me to his books while sweetly smiling and pointing to his books. How cam I resist something so precious and productive! I love that Isaiah loves his books. He's even started reading on his own!

"Huh, what?"

"Um, don't bother me now, I'm reading!"

I'm Sensing a Theme

Lately I just haven't been feeling quite right. Nothing has happened to cause these "not right" feelings that I can identify, yet they are often evident in all their sinful glory! If I had to chose one word to describe me lately, I think it would have to be "unstable". I have felt unstable in my emotions and judgments, my reactions and thoughts. Today I read Psalm 51 and James 1, and wouldn't you know it, but both those passages mention being unstable, James quite bluntly:

but he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

This verse is in the context of someone who is in trials counting them all joy and knowing the good results that those trials can produce in his life. He can also ask wisdom from God, but he must ask in faith (for a more eloquent and helpful summary of the context, I can recommend several wonderful commentaries, if you would like).

Psalm 51 rather implies David's instability in one of the often-quoted verses:

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

This verse (written in the context of David's confession to God of his sin with Bathsheba) seems to imply that David felt the need for steadfastness, in other words that he felt unstable. (This thought is not original to me, just so you know. I believe the source of the note in the margin of my Bible was from Sinclair Ferguson in his book, Deserted by God? a really good book that I highly recommend!)

This post isn't necessarily to make any great conclusions about why I am feeling unstable lately. I am not qualified to write such a theological treatise, but I do want God to search my heart! I don't know of any particular sin that is causing unstableness (such as in David's case), but I do know that I have been struggling with trusting God lately to provide for the different needs that I think our family might have though we might not be experiencing any great trials lately (perhaps similarly to the James passage). This post is just to make some observations and sort of flush out in "written" form some of my thoughts. I don't know exactly why I feel unstable, but I do know that I am a sinner and cannot achieve stability on my own. I do know that only in God, My Rock, can there be true stability. I do know that I must look only to Him for stability, and also that only He can help me to look to Him. I do know that somehow humility and submission and trust are involved, and I pray that God will enable me to trust Him as He is worthy of being trusted (Jer. 17). I do know that I want to be stable in God and that I want that stability to be evident in my relationships with God and with other people so that I might better obey the 2 greatest commandments!

He's Growing Up

Today Isaiah begins his last month of his second year-a fancy way of saying that he's 23 months old today. For a while I have been really excited about Isaiah turning 2, but for some reason today I started to get emotional about my Little Man not being so little any more. He has accomplished so much in the past 23 months! I can't wait to see what God has store for his future.

Big News from the Little Man

Isaiah has been working really hard lately and getting stronger and stronger. We've noticed that when he's on a rougher type of surface (as opposed to a smooth wooden floor) that he can use the resistance provided by his clothes and the material beneath him to do something new! We're really excited about anything new Isaiah does, and we hope to see more like this!

I know it's hard to tell, but if you look carefully you'll notice that there is space between Isaiah's stomach and the floor, which means that he has lifted up at his hips and has pressure on his knees! Praise the Lord!

Laughter is the Best Medicine

I was feeling kind of yucky today. Nothing in particular was wrong, but nothing really seemed right either. I was getting very easily irritated for no good reason, and since I realized that I was irritated for no good reason I felt more irritated with myself, and well, you get the idea, I suppose.

Before Christmas we had planned to go to someone's house for dinner tonight. As the day progressed I began to wonder what kind of company I would be, but thought that perhaps going would be the best thing for my spirits. And praise the Lord, that hope became reality, but not in the way that I expected.

Our hosts the Miner family have a little girl a few months younger than Isaiah. She's a really cute little girl, and Isaiah seemed quite taken with her. I have never seen him react to another "little person" like he did tonight. He wanted to hug her and follow her everywhere. They played together so well, sharing and helping each other with different toys. Isaiah blew her kisses all night! I only wish that I had had my camera so that I could show you how cute he was. Oh well, I think that we'll have some chances in the future because Danielle and I agreed that we must have play dates. I love my Little Man and how he loves other people!

Not in the City

We had a special treat on Wednesday, planned by my sweet husband. Since arriving in St. Petersburg, I haven't been able to leave the city, which for someone who's never lived in a big city before, can be slightly draining. Not far from town is Peterhof, the main palace of the tsars. Thomas's Russian has improved so much that he was able to figure out their website in Russian and plan a trip out there for us. We rode the metro to the train station, bought our tickets and rode the train for 40 minutes or so and then rode the bus to the palace. Since it is the week of New Year's not very many people were out and about, and most places-even the metro!-were fairly empty! When we arrive at Peterhof, we were a little discouraged to find a sign on one door that indicated the place was closed until the next day. Thankfully we decided to look around outside for a little longer before admitting defeat. We were rewarded with discovering that the main museum was not closed, thus providing us with a warm place to enter and look around.

We enjoyed our time immensely! Just being out of the city was wonderful. The air felt cleaner, and we felt like we were on a little vacation.

The Men of the Year

With the close of 2007 lots of magazines display their "Person of the Year". Well, I realize that this is not a magazine and not read by nearly as many people as choose to read such magazines, but I thought that I'd let you see my choices for the 2007 Persons of the Year--that's not a typo, I have 2. And here they are:

I thought it appropriate to show them in a grand setting like a throne room of a Russian palace with Peter the Great looking over their shoulders.

And here they are "taming the beasts".

These two guys give me so much joy and fun and love that I can't imagine being without them! Being in a foreign country so far from all our other family has helped us to grow closer than we already were. I love being together as a family. We laugh and we play and we are serious, sometimes. Isaiah adds so much to our lives with his playful spirit and ready smile and incredible hugs! Thomas leads our family so well in this new and sometimes strange place, giving comfort and reassurance and encouragement when I need it most.

So, these to men (little and not-so-little) get my vote for Persons of the Year, 2007!

New Year's Traditions

We've been learning about New Year's celebrations in Russia this year. At the beginning of the night we were wondering where all the noise was that we had been warned would keep us up all night and morning. Thomas and I commented several times that we were enjoying the quietest evening we had ever had in our apartment! "Where's all the noise?" we wondered.

We watched Putin deliver his speech to the nation, which Thomas understood fairly well and from which I could understand some of the words. It seemed like a nice speech. Then we heard the clock of the Kremlin toll 12 times and waited for massive explosions, which finally came about an hour later. Thankfully Isaiah slept through all the fireworks and shouting near our apartment. We seem to have survived our first Russian New Year's fairly well.

But New Year's just wouldn't be complete without college bowl games. Thomas and I had been talking about trying to get someone to record games on DVD somehow and send them to us, but how would we keep everyone from telling us the results of all the games? What could we do? How could we satisfy our longings for American football? My wonderful husband found a way! We have been enjoying watching some bowl games on ESPN GamePlan! Somehow being able to watch college football has been a great morale booster. We do have to watch the games delayed most of the time, so please don't tell us results of any of the games; but we have had so much fun! Isaiah even watches the games a little bit.

I hope that you all have enjoyed your New Year's celebrations and maybe some football, too. May your teams do well--enjoy the festivities!