We Made It!

We made it! We have been "home" for a little over a week now. Our flights were uneventful and we made it to Indianapolis without any trouble...we even got all of our bags! Praise the Lord! Thanks for your prayers! Adalynn did a great job during the flights. She even got a chance to play with a little Russian girl who shared her toys with Adalynn. As you can see Adalynn was catching up on her Russian reading while on the plane!

Oh, did I mention we got our Starbucks fix a few days ago?!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and baby Gwen

Saying Goodbye

(Adalynn is ready to go...she was walking around the apartment with her hat and my purse saying bye bye)

Today we said our final goodbyes as we prepare to fly out tomorrow morning. We spent the morning with our field directors debriefing from our first phase here in Russia. We enjoyed lunch with them afterward! We are going to miss them!!!!! Adalynn will miss her friend Sophia! Philip went over to the old apartment/Ministry center to help Brian move some things and also to move the rest of our stuff into storage. Tonight we plan on doing the last minute rearranging of bags and hopefully getting to bed early!
We we fly into Washington DC tomorrow (our late Wednesday night) we have to get our bags, go through passport control, recheck our bags, and then go through security again. We don't have a ton of time between flights, so pray for things to go smoothly for us!

We are excited to see many of you this coming weekend! Thank you so much for your prayers and investment in our lives as we transition back "home" for a period of time!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and baby Gwen

Russian on Hold

Today was our last Russian lesson...for now. We met with our Russian tutor twice this week. We had mixed feelings about it being our last lesson for awhile...well, our last lesson here in Russia for awhile. We are sad to have to stop the learning process here, but are kind of glad to not have the pressure in these last few days. We are praying and hoping for a language tutor once we are in the States. We are still waiting to make some contact with some people. If you know of anyone in the Terre Haute area (seriously, not just some Russian you know) please let us know! Here is a picture of our tutor with Philip at the end of my lesson today.

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and baby Gwen

Russian Blini

Two nights ago, I tackled making Russian Blini for the first time...by myself. We had this yummy dish at the Whitney's for the first time when we first arrived. Now Geyla is a pretty good cook--and she is Russian, so I wasn't expecting my blini to compare to hers in any way! Geyla had given me her recipe, so I had something to go by.

(Swirling the batter so it is thin and covers the pan)

The blini is like a crepe that you make on the blini pan. After making all the crepes, I took the meat (ground beef browned with onion and seasoning) and put about a tablespoon in each crepe. Then I folded the blini up and browned it in a pan until it was nice and brown and little crispy...yum! It was delicious!

It wasn't too bad for the first go around! I hope some of you are ready to taste it when we return!


Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and baby Gwen

Class

(Team meeting on Friday with lunch afterward with Blair!)

Over the last week, we have had the privilege of taking a church planting course at the Bible School. Blair is a pastor of a Wesleyan church in Texas. He flew here last Saturday, (when Philip went into Moscow with Brian) and the classes began on Monday evening. Philip had one church planting class during seminary, but I have never taken a class about church planting. The classes ran from 6pm-9pm each night. Philip and I took turns going to class while the other person put Adalynn down for bed. Philip went Monday evening and then got sick, so I went Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evening. (Philip finished out the class by going on Friday and Saturday) I had a great time learning more about vision and the workings of what goes on during a church plant. I also began to feel more of a sense of how important church planting is...everywhere...both here in Russia and in the United States. I learned a lot and really felt the excitement of being on a team that is starting a new church here.
Blair flies home on Monday morning. He is going to be meeting with our new church plant team on Sunday evening. This Sunday is our first Sunday as a "new church". We haven't launched the church yet. We are still in the strategic planning stages, creating a vision for the church as well as bathing the community in prayer.

Thanks for your continual interest in our lives. We have just a little over a week until we are flying back to Indiana for the birth of baby #2! We are packing our things in the midst of classes, meetings, and language tutoring. Funny how your things seem to "grow" once they get out of your suitcase...things never fit back in your suitcase the same way! (don't worry, Mom and Dad G. we aren't bringing back as many suitcases as we brought:)!)

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and baby Gwen

Baby Gwen

Are you wondering what this is? I'll give you 3 guesses...have you made your guesses? Well, I am sure you guessed wrong! This picture is of an instrument used to hear a baby's heartbeat. Wow. Let me give you some background to this picture. This morning I went to the "doctor's" for a simple check up to make sure Gwen is good to fly home in a few weeks. I went with an interpreter because I obviously needed someone along to interpret for me!
Many things are about connections around here and about who you know. We connected with someone in our church and she made a call to a doctor friend of hers. So off we went this morning (it was just Tanya and me). We took the bus to where this woman's clinic was located. We (Tanya) asked a few women along the way if we were headed in the right direction. We arrived, checked our coats, got some plastic (they look like shower caps) to put over our shoes, and then sat and waited. We were able to "cut" in line since the doctor was expecting us. The room was her office and then off of the office was the "examining" room. I walked in and I felt like I was at COSI (a science museum for kids in Columbus, OH) looking at a display of doctor's things from years ago! The doctor listened to the heartbeat and felt the baby. She said the baby was little, but everything was good. She also took my blood pressure. That was about it! We were done. It makes me thankful for the resources and doctors we have in the States. I don't think I'll complain about waiting in the waiting room at the doctor's office anymore:)!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and a small baby Gwen

Philip's Trip to Moscow

Saturday morning Philip and Brian left Vladimir at 5:15am for Moscow. They were headed to pick up Blair Ritchey from the airport. He is teaching a church planting class at the Bible school this week. Before picking up Blair, Philip and Brian headed to a supermarket and Starbucks! (Philip did bring me home a bag of Starbuck's Decaf coffee!!! Yum!) After picking up Blair at the airport and eating a quick lunch, they headed to an open market place where they could buy souvenirs. They arrived home around 7pm that evening.
Adalynn and I spent the day helping out at the Yarmarka. Well, helping as much as we could! The sale went well and we got rid of a lot of things. There is still a handful of stuff to find homes for in the next 2 weeks.

Here is an ice skating rink inside the mall!

Philip got some yummy treats at Awah (Ashon). We are enjoying peanut butter, flour tortillas, popcorn, Tabasco sauce, and taco seasoning!

A Russian dish called shashlic.

A look from the mall window of part of the market place

The entrance to the market place.

Shopping

A happy wife and daughter--double cheese burger, fries, and chicken nuggets! I know, I know who gets excited about McDonalds?---someone who hasn't had something like that for awhile!

See you all in 2 weeks!
Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and baby Gwen