What Day is It?!

The days have been down hill since we have arrived! The girls seemed to be doing good until the next morning when Adalynn threw up (hopefully from just extreme fatigue), Gwen threw up, and I started feeling ill. All the while my awesome husband was able to run to the grocery store, get our internet set up, wash the dishes, and take care of his ailing girls. Yesterday, I started to feel better and we thought we were doing ok...until night hit. Gwen woke up numerous amounts of times. She would not be consoled. I had a hard time trying to decide if it was still jet lag, teething, upset stomach, or hunger. I tried many things. She finally fell asleep on her own at about 1am, but minutes after she was quiet little Adalynn decided to wake up. She was crying, so then we had to figure out what to do with her. I held her for awhile, prayed with her, sang a few songs, and back down she went. She talked for a little while in her bed...and then Gwen woke back up...wailing. Let's just say it was a LONG, or maybe short, night for us all.

This is Adalynn this morning as I was finishing unpacking...

I have decided that though it has been nice to see family and be in the States numerous amounts of time during our term, it has been quite hard on all of us. The going back and forth from country to country, from time zone to time zone, saying goodbyes over and over, truly wares on a family. Again, we are fervently praying that our residency is accepted within our 90 day visas so we don't have to return yet again to the States in 90 days. Thank you for praying with us!

Gwen is back to bathing in the big red tub!

We have felt your prayers throughout the last few days of haze. I was reminded last night as I laid in bed of a song that I had heard. "I love you, and so I will trust You." Yes, I love the Lord with all of my heart, and so I will trust Him and His plan for our lives even when sometimes I wonder what in the world I am doing.

Here is a smile to brighten all of our days!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, a tired Adalynn, and a grumpy Gwen

And We're Back!

After 2 diaper blow outs, 3 outfits changes, 2 episodes of throwing up by a 7 month old, and 1 throw up from a 2 year old, we have arrived back in Vladimir! Behavior wise, the girls did an excellent job on the 10 hour flight from DC to Moscow! They slept most of the way, which was nice. Our flights were all on time and we arrived back to our apartment at about quarter till 5pm Vladimir time. Once we all brushed our teeth, each of the girls got a bath, and Philip and I showered, we started to feel like human beings again!
The night went alright. The girls slept well. Gwen woke up a few times and only had one time where she didn't want to go back to bed. Adalynn wanted to play from about 10:30pm-2am, but then went back to sleep.
Thanks for your prayers for us over the last 24 hours. We know the Lord has been watching over us!
On Saturday is Christmas here in Vladimir! We hope to get out tomorrow and view all the decorations! Hopefully we can get some pictures to show you! And yes...there is snow ALL OVER the ground here! Welcome home, right?!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Life in Indiana

Have you been wondering how we are doing? What have we been up to since being back in the States? Well, I can tell you that we have made numerous trips to Starbucks, a few trips to Target, a trip to Ohio, a day in our pajamas, and lots of game playing! Oh, you think we are just having fun and no work?! Well, that is probably the the basic jest of life right now, but I can tell you that we did crack open our Russian books the other night. Yes, we came back to the States bearing Russian homework! We also had a chance to speak at our home church, Faith Wesleyan in Terre Haute, IN about the last 3 months of ministry in Russia. It was a great evening of sharing stories, ministry experiences, and eating some Russian sandwiches and candy! See, we are hard at work.

We have also been preparing our paperwork for our visas. Just this past Thursday we received a scanned copy of our letters of invitation from the Russian government. I quick filled out the rest of our paperwork that morning, and off it went overnight to Washington DC. Now, we just pray and pray that there won't be complications and that we can return to Russia on January 4th. Please be in praying THIS WEEK as we wait to find out! Pray that our paperwork would find favor in the eyes of people at the Russian consulate.
We are thoroughly enjoying seeing and being with our families. I am afraid that it will be harder this time around to leave in January. Our time is going quickly. The more and more I think about leaving in January, the more sad I get to leave family. Of course I am anxious to get back to Russia and our home, life, and ministry there. But of course there is a part of my heart that is sad to say yet another good-bye to our families.
We hope you are enjoying this busy time of year! The girls are enjoying being outside in "warmer" weather!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Where Are You?

Where have we been?!
Sorry to have left you all hanging, wondering where in the world we went. Our computer adapter cord went bad, so we were 2 weeks without a computer in Russia. We returned safely to US soil the night before Thanksgiving. The flights went well! We were glad to finally land in Indianapolis though! We were greeted by Philip's parents at the airport. Adalynn remembered them right away and went running to Grandma!
The adjustments have gone well. The girls struggled with jet lag for a few days...which in turn made Philip and I struggle through our jet lag...oh well!

I wanted to share a few pictures of some things when we were still in Russia! Enjoy!

Our dear Russian babysitters! We love them and so do the girls!

The English Class Philip helps out with on Thursday nights

Adalynn all dressed for Russian winter...yes it was snowing and cold when we left!

Philip is sealing all our windows. The draft was making our apartment pretty chilly with the wood and tile floors. Most Russians do this to their windows or have the newer windows which seal more tightly. Good thing I have such a handy husband!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

MIA

Sorry our computer is not working so no posts until after Thanksgiving! So sorry! I have so much to share with you! Stay tuned!!

More Language

Here we are with our language teacher, Olga! She is great! We meet with her twice a week. We actually meet right here in our kitchen. Usually either Philip or I will take the girls in the living room to play while the other is having lessons.
This is our last week of lessons, as we will be leaving for the States next Wednesday. We will pick back up when we return in January!

Sometimes I feel like I have made little to no progress with language, and then at other times I feel like, "yeah! I can understand what they just said!". It is a toss up. Just last week, Adalynn and I were on the bus back home, and we were sitting across from an older lady. She fixed Adalynn's hat because it wasn't over her ears all the way. Then she asked how old Adalynn was. I totally understood her and was able to answer in Russian. I suddenly had the urge to lose eye contact with her so I wouldn't have to talk to her in case I couldn't understand. But I decided to be brave and continue to talk with her. She asked where I was from, China (the usual), Korea, or Japan. I told her I was American, but that I was born in Korea (Thank you, Russian Language Institute in SC for making me memorize where I was from!). She asked if my parents where Korean, and I said no they were American. I couldn't remember how to say I was adopted, so I suppose she is totally confused. She is probably at home right now thinking about it! I was able to tell her that my family and I lived here in Vladimir, and that I had a husband and another daughter at home. That was the end because we came to our stop and I had to hull Adalynn, snowsuit and all, off the bus!
This was one of those days where I can say, "Yes! I have made some progress as far as language learning goes..." Obviously I am not having in depth conversations with people, but I can understand more and talk more than when we were here last January. Praise the Lord for His help! And Praise the Lord for a great language tutor here to help us!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen

Children

I have been doing the children's lessons for our large group meetings (for Grace of Christ church) on Sundays. We have tried to stay with the theme that the adults are studying. This past week we talked about Lazarus being raised from the dead. The kids did a great job listening to the story. Then we acted the story out---as best as we could with a 2 year old, 3 year old, and 2 kindergarten age girls! It was pretty funny!

Here Adalynn is Mary, Natasha is Martha, and Sophia is Lazarus!

This is the best "tomb" we could come up with! haha!

Of course we played some games, did a craft, ate snack, and played some more games! We even learned a new Bible verse! Tanya came and interrupted for me, which I was grateful for! She even got in on the game of "mummy"!


Adalynn had fun wrapping Sophia up...and I think Sophia had just as much fun!

Thanks for keeping Grace of Christ Church in your prayers. The children are just as important as anyone else in the church!

Blessings,
Philip, Kara, Adalynn, and Gwen