Christmas Carolers and?????

John has been at Elema all day and I am expecting him home around 11pm, but there was a ring at our door at about 9:30pm---you must know if you are in a foreign country, you need to know who it is to answer the door, especially at night!  So I said--in English--Who is it--thinking it was John and he was early, but NO!  We had carolers!  Our friends, who will remain nameless--but they know who they are---came to our door and sang us Christmas songs and then delivered a very unexpected gift to us!!  A vacuum!!! You see our vacuum that we had purchased in September broke about three weeks ago and we were having to sweep our carpets---doesn't really work.  ---it was used when we bought it so it was not totally a shock.  We priced them this week, but didn't get one. 

But, OH my!  The sweetness of these folks---amazes me!  Thank you for the vacuum and Thank God for His blessings that I didn't even expect!  What a gift!

Walk down memory lane....come with us!

Thought you would enjoy our trip down memory lane!

Our kids had a great laugh at how they used to look---Melissa wants to cut her hair so she looks like this and Mark still thinks he is the cutest person in the WORLD!

Yes It Is!

Being from the South, I am not used to cold weather but I am really not used to -4 F!  Wow!  That's cold.

My friends here in Russia!

These are some of my Russian, English friends here in St. Pete!  Many of the girls in the pics are from the family home---the group we worked with last year!  They keep me feeling young!

Brrrr!!!

Two weeks ago, it was in the upper thirties; last week it was dropping---near freezing; but this week---wooooow!!!  It was 3 degrees Farhenheit!  It's all the way up to 12 now, but it's really cold, especially when the wind is blowing!

I can't believe that Christmas is so close.  That means we have been back here for about 4 months since our stateside visit!  We continue to seek Him as to what He wants us doing.  Right now, we feel that we are to stay faithful and help Stoneworks(see sidebar for link) and to continue in our language studies, but for the most part---we are getting this---WAIT.  Ever been there?  I think most people have while following after the Lord.  If you haven't, I think you might have this to look forward to:).  The good news is that Isaiah 49: 23b says
"Then you will know that I am the LORD;
    those who wait for me shall not be put to shame."

This comic is old, but thought you would enjoy!!!

I WON!!!!

I WON a BOOK!!! I am so thrilled.  I have been reading interviews of authors for a month or two here and I won this book!!

I love Amish books!! I find that their lives are fascinating--hmmm....this is good, seeing that I have had some down to earth experiences here! 

So, mom, you can read this one first and then I can--b/c it's being shipped to you stateside!


I also got another special treat today--saw my friend Lucya--thanks Pam and Gary for sparing her!  We heard it's -35 C degrees in Siberia!!BRRRRRRR!!!

Thanksgiving!

When you can't be with family, you have to make the most of the holiday times to cover all your home-sickness!  This time we outdid ourselves!  Thanksgiving is both John and my favorite holidays!!!  So, we had friends over and ate and ate!!!  We miss our family very much during this time, but we got to call them after our Thanksgiving!
I cooked two 5 pound turkeys, Spinach Madeline(my mom's recipe), Stuffing(my mom's kind), Sweet Potato Crunch( John's mom's recipe), and Buttermilk Pie!

Our guests were our interim pastors and their friends who are pastors in Moscow, but from Pennsylvania!  We also had a couple students over that we have met through our church.

The lighting of the tree!

This is our beautiful tree with all the trimmings! 

John's plugging the tree in!!  Not that you can see the lights, but they are great!  Yes, we are rejoicing in the small things!









Even Matthew took part!!  Of course, we had a few ornaments to replace---as in one of the branches had 5 ornaments on one!  I think that was Mark's doing--why not, he like them soooo much, he put them on one branch!