Rain

After days of beautiful, warm, and sunny weather, the rain clouds decided to appear and welcome us back to Vladimir. It started raining on Thursday and has ever since. There have been brief moments of sunshine and no rain during each day, which has been nice. I think Philip and I forgot that it rained so much during the fall because we did not bring our umbrellas. Nope, not one of them. Bummer. I ventured out to the market yesterday in hopes of buying a few. I was a little nervous as I walked to the open market. I suppose I was a little nervous that it would all the sudden pour down rain on me and I would have no umbrella, but I was even more nervous to talk to someone about buying an umbrella. You see, this is not Walmart where I can go and pick out an umbrella, and then I can go to self check out and leave without talking to a soul. No, I had to use my broken Russian and actually communicate with people.
I walked to the first open market area and saw lots of meats, cheeses, breads, and clothes for sale. I just walked up and down the aisle at first. I finally spotted someone selling umbrellas, so I walked up and started looking. The lady came over and asked me something and I held up an umbrella and asked if it was a big or small one. She took it from me and opened it. We looked at a few more and then I decided on a plain black one for 350 Rubles (maybe about $12). I wasn't sure if that was a great price or not, but I was glad to just have one. I walked out and went into another area with lots of individual stores. I found some shoe stores, children's clothing stores, homegoods stores, and a place that sold umbrellas. I looked and bought another umbrella and then even bought some rain boots! I talked to the lady and told her I could speak a little Russian and only understood a little Russian. She laughed and said she understood. I didn't think it was that hot in the store, but by the time I left I was sweating...I think it was nerves.

We also got our water filter put in last night at about 7pm. We had been drinking bottled water for about a week. Philip practiced his Russian and had small talk with the man who installed the water filter. I was giving the girls a bath, so I didn't meet him, but it was nice to hear some Russian conversation going on in the kitchen.


This morning we went back to Assumption Cathedral to see it without snow. It was even more beautiful! The girls enjoyed being outside, playing on the playground near by, and eating some pizza at the mall!

Adalynn stood there and pointed to the statue and kept saying, "Wow! Wow!"

A pretty view

Adalynn checking out the scenery


Thanks for your prayers!
Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

If You were Here

A view from our balcony

During the day and often in the evening we love to spend time out on our balcony. The weather is perfect here right now. The last few days, minus today, have been sunny and warm (70s). The evenings have been cool with a nice breeze. Today it rained, but it cooled things off even more. Tonight is a perfect night to sit out on the balcony, watch the neighbors, watch the kids on the playground below, and of course enjoy a cup of coffee...or tea. We wish you were here to join us. Of course, what also makes this night great is that we have the internet back! YES! We hope you are as excited as we are! Hopefully more and more pictures and posts will appear! I don't have the apartment all decorated yet, but a few rooms are getting there, so I thought I would share some pictures with you. We ordered a couch that will come in the next 2 weeks. Philip also gets to go to Moscow on Tuesday with Brian to pick up some people from the airport. Do you know what this means? IKEA trip! We hope to get some rugs, lamps, and curtains! Can't wait!

Adalynn and Gwen's room

Gwen is currently sleeping in our room until she gets her sleeping all figured out...then she can move in with her sister! Can't wait for that either!

I made this flag banner for the girls' room. I love it and it looks so fun and cute in their room!

This is our room. Of course the curtains are very Russian...maybe I'll change them eventually.

Today was the first day of school for the kids here in Russia. It is a holiday called, "The Day of Knowledge." The children dress up and the schools have an opening ceremony outside. It rained this morning, so I am not sure what they did. Our language "school" is going to begin here in a few weeks. We are searching for a language tutor and plan to meet 3-4 times a week. Wheww...bring on the homework!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

More

Welcome to our mess...

It is starting to look like home around here. Starting...not quite. We are almost unpacked. Today I got to go to Globus with Kerry. Globus is the big grocery store. I was able to pick up some trash cans, door mats, food, meat, and of course some Russian candy. It was a good morning. Philip went this afternoon and got our water filter (with the help of Kerry of course) and something to fix our shower head. Tomorrow we are going to go look for a couch. Philip is going with a Russian friend, Natasha. We are excited to finally have somewhere to sit! We have a busy week a head of us as Dr. HC Wilson (director of Global Partners) and our Area Director will be here briefly starting the 6th of September.
The girls are hanging in there. Adalynn's room is not very dark so she has had a hard time taking naps, but today was better. Gwen is another story. That girl. Please be praying for her and us. She has been not sleeping well at all from between 7:30pm-12am. This happened in Terre Haute as well, so I am not blaming the jet lag. That little girl is persistent! Please, please pray that she learns to sleep during this time. It is trying on Philip and I each night as we pray and hope she goes to bed. Last night was a bit rough and there were some tears and homesickness because we were just so frustrated with how Gwen's sleeping has been going. I am not sure what the problem is, so please just pray for that sweet girl and for us. On the upside of things she started laughing today! Adalynn was doing something funny and Gwen just laughed and laughed. Of course Adalynn kept doing it, and Gwen kept laughing. It was funny!
Ok, we get the internet at our house on September 1st, so more to come then!

Philip and Adalynn waiting for the elevator! Yes, we have an elevator! This is GREAT!

Here is a picture of our apartment complex.

Adalynn LOVES the bus! She started doing the motions to the song, "The Wheels on the Bus" as we rode on the bus to the Burke's house one evening!

Thank you for your prayers! The Lord is good!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

We Arrived!

We arrived!! First of all, let me say that we have a GREAT and FAITHFUL God. He was surely with us the entire way! The girls did great! We only had a one episode to remember. Gwen fell asleep before we left the Indianapolis airport...she woke up for the last 15 minutes of the flight. Praise the Lord! Adalynn was super...she kept saying, "Adalynn on an airplane!".

Adalynn playing with the ipod, which she NEVER gets to do!

Once we got into Washington DC we found our gate and then decided to get one last burger before we left the States. We found a quite place to enjoy Five Guys Burgers. Gwen fell asleep in the stroller and we all enjoyed a peaceful lunch.

Finally 4pm came around and we boarded our flight. We were all comfortable, Adalynn finally fell asleep and Gwen fell asleep. We were ready for take off. Well apparently the plane was not. There was some light on that had to be cleared by maitenence before we could take off. It took an hour and then after an hour they decided we needed to switch planes. So we all got off the plane, both girls were both awake by now, and went to another gate and waited.
Finally we boarded another plane. Adalynn was hungry and Gwen was tired. Gwen fell asleep and then we sat and waited for another 30 minutes until the flight actually took off. Gwen was awake by now but did pretty good. The story gets better...They started to pass out our dinner...we had three meals, each on a tray, Gwen was crying...hard, and Adalynn was starving. Philip took Gwen into the bathroom where no one could hear her cry and I proceeded to feed Adalynn. Adalynn ate some bites and then all the sudden threw up...everywhere. I kept pushing my stewardess button, but it was broken so I took Adalynn's clothes off (pjs) and took her to the bathroom to wipe her down. Poor girl. She doesn't have a good track record for throwing up on her trips to Russia. Needless to say we had to throw away her cute little cat pjs. That is the end of our eventful trip. We made it safe and sound to Moscow where Kerry picked us up and we made the 3 1/2 hour trip back to Vladimir...it was a LONG ride:)

We don't have the internet at our house until the beginning of September so I will update more then! Thanks again for your prayers, love, and support!

Blessings,

Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Let the Packing Begin..or End

Well, here is a pile...the packing has begun! Actually my great and wonderful husband has been packing hard for the last couple of days. We have only 1 more bag to pack! I am sure it will be filled with all my last minute things! We are leaving on Wednesday morning and feel like we still have a lot to get organized. We are so thankful that our visas came last week! Now we are just waiting for our FBI criminal background checks. Praise the Lord for helping our visas come in time!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Does it look like Philip is tired of packing? Adalynn too?

The New Place

(the playground!)

I am so sorry we have not been blogging. I suppose you can understand why...a week from today Philip, Adalynn, Gwen, and I will all be walking around the airport in Washington DC, waiting for our 4pm flight.
We want to take a minute and give the Lord praise for his faithfulness and goodness to us. I know many of you have been praying for an apartment for us. Our field director, Cara, had been looking and looking. We kept praying though...and God indeed did answer our prayers...even above and beyond what we asked for. How is it that God exceeds our expectations over and over again, and yet the next time we ask God for something, we can quickly forget how he answered our previous prayer? I want to remember to always thank God and always expect him to do great things through answered prayer! Here is our answered prayer: an amazing apartment! Just a few weeks ago, Cara came upon a wonderful apartment for a great price. She she said when she heard the asking price, she almost didn't want to go look at it because the last place she had looked at this price had not been nice at all. But she went any way. She said from the moment she stepped in the apartment she knew it was a gift from the Lord! How excited are we to know that this particular apartment is a gift from the Lord! How is He going to use us through this apartment? This location?
What makes this apartment so great you ask?

Here is a few reasons:
1. Remodeled--not all the apartments in the area are remodeled. A lot of apartments have problems because they are so old, so we are fortunate to have a remodeled apartment
2. It is a good size Russian apartments! Most apartments are small with only a few rooms. We have two bedrooms (1 for us and 1 for the girls to share), a living room, bathroom, and kitchen!
3. It is in a great location! There is a great playground just behind our building for the girls to enjoy!
4. Great rent price and the landlord seems nice and professional.
5. There is a supermarket right across the street and just blocks away from the open market
6. We are close to our team's office space (Global Partner's office space)

We are so excited and already dreaming about making it our home in just a week! Thank you for your prayers. Don't you agree that our God is pretty amazing? He always knows just what we need.

Living Room

Kitchen--we just got a new fridge go in that corner

One of the bedrooms

Our balcony

Yikes

So, things are starting to get crazy...well maybe more in my mind, but it is going to start getting crazy messy around the house (sorry Mom and Dad!). We leave 2 weeks from tomorrow. 2 weeks. YIKES. Ask me if we have started packing yet? Nope. No. Nada.
Today we got a call from the people who are working on our visas. Troubles. A few things went wrong. There is too much to write, so I'll just cut to the chase. They are overnighting us some things to fix and then I will overnight them back tomorrow. Please pray with us that things get ironed out.
Next thing on the agenda...Gwen. She has not been doing so great the last couple of days. She has had a really hard time going to bed at night and calming down. Nothing calms her down. She desperately wants to suck on something, but refuses to take a pacifier or suck on her thumb (she is a little young to get the thumb under control and in her mouth). I am trying not to worry about a plane ride in just 2 weeks or a 5 hour layover in the airport with no bed for the girl to nap in. Pray that she does ok and learns to suck on her thumb.
You know, I as I sit here and write and begin to think of all the things I can start to worry about I am reminded of something: My God is GREATER than all these worries. I am amazed as I ask people to pray for us, that people all over are actually lifting us up to the Lord...and in it gets better... our Lord hears and ANSWERS those prayers.
So, if you are praying for us or just said a pray for this mother who has so much on her plate, I want to thank you. A serious heart-felt thank you. I want you to know that those prayers that you have lifted up on our behalf in the past...well they have been answered. Soooo many of them.
Our God is so good. Can I get an Amen?

Blessings,
Kara, Philip, Adalynn, and Gwen

p.s. Did you know we got an apartment?! It is beyond what we even dreamed we could have! God did it again...knocked our socks off with His goodness.