Kendra's 9th birthday and other stories!

We celebrated Kendra's 9th birthday on Friday. She took cupcakes to school for snack time. Supplied with cake mix and canned frosting from the US by our friend Claudia, I always reserve these products for birthday celebrations. And every year the kids come home with teachers asking for the recipe! She invited her friends over and we translated into Slovene an old youth group favorite game, Life size Clue. Josh, Blake, Becca and I were stationed throughout the house. The kids were in teams and ran around to find out who buried the treasure, with what tool and in what room. It was loads of fun with Kapitan Gatnik (Captain Underpants) using his nohte(fingernails) to bury a treasure in the klet (basement).
On Saturday we headed over to the church picnic and worship service. On the way home we stopped at the new house to lock up since workers had been there in the morning. And as we drove by we saw all kinds of tents and a crowd of folks. We stopped to see what was going on. Donkey racing! We laughed so hard! And evidently folks came from Austria and Italy to be a part!
Plus Luka got to meet Martin Krpan a Slovene story character. Love the outfit!

International Children's Festival

A couple months ago we were at McDonalds. Youth group was meeting at our house and I took the kids to get some dinner. We ran into a lady we've known for years. She's from Macedonia but lives in Slovenia now with her husband and 2 daughters. She told us she was planning an international Children's Festival with kids singing from all around the former Yogoslav states. Her face lit up and she suddenly said, "Can Rebecca sing for us as well?!" She had heard Rebecca sing at church. We exchanged information and let it go at that. Later, I thought we'd missed the date for the performance. But she called this week to ask if we were still interested.

What really cracks me up is the way that Rebecca is so calm over her chances to sing. I would be sweating even with weeks of practice. But she embraces every chance with confidence and joy and I never get the feeling she's performing. It's just a natural part of herself that gets an opportunity to be seen! So last night she sang The Call by Regina Specktor. It's the song at the end of Prince Caspian. We couldn't find background music so Josh played his guitar. (Another person who doesn't work up a sweat over these things!) They were a HUGE hit! The presenter told Josh after the dress rehersal that after Rebecca sang she had goose bumps!

Blake's 13th birthday

Blake turned 13 this week! We can hardly believe it! As parents who also happen to be youth workers we love the fact that he gets to participate in the work we do as a student. As well as the conversations we get to have with him and the way he contributes to our family and this work. At the same time we can hardly wrap our brains arount the idea that he's not a little boy anymore!
To celebrate his birthday he invited his friends over. They played Rock Band and of course ate! Chili dogs, birthday cake and other junk food. This is Blake, Klemen and Nik. But I think the hit of the night was taking them over to the new house to do some work. Luke's room used to be a kitchen so they got to knock off tile. Josh said he had to keep things quick though because the attention span was short and the desire to demolish overwhelming!This is Nik and Filip hard at work.
Also, some yucky old furniture is left in our room that had been smoked in pretty heavily. We needed to get rid of it so we let the guys throw it off the balcony in the girls' bedroom! You can imagine the cheer that went up!

So where are things at with the house?

Well, I keep wanting to post something but it's still 2 steps forward then 2 back. But last week we signed for our loan after a considerable amount of work from some very amazing people. Then today the money came through in the form of a bank transfer to the account here and we were able to buy the Euros that Josh had locked in on at a very good rate some months back. So now that money is being transfered to our sellers account.

Josh has keys to the house! We are free to go over and start working away, although it's a bit awkward because the seller hasn't moved out yet. But that doesn't stop Josh! Today we had new windows put in Luke's room and the girl's room!

Meanwhile, I keep plugging away at this house. I have great hope of finding things that have been missing for years.... we'll see what pops up!

And while Josh has been working on the plan for our kitchen he realized that because of the exchange rate he could save a good amount by buying our kitchen from IKEA in Poland! So after our annual JV Conference in Czech the kids and I headed home while Josh went to Poland and laid out the plan in the languages he knows while the IKEA guys used the languages they know! I think in the end he got what we'll need to get cooking! ha ha!

So now I'll start keeping up the house blog with the work progress. And continue blogging here about our family life that we think we can live while we remodel. Time will tell!

My 39th Birthday

So it really was my 39th birthday this year. I'm not just saying that like, "I'm 39!" wink wink. I really am. Well this year I'm not just saying it but I will be next year. The picture is a bit yellow but I wanted to post it anyway because my nephew Tyler says that posts are always better if there's a pic with them.

Well, what I didn't mention in the earliers posts was the drama that has been going on with the house loan. We've been up. We've been down. We've been waiting. We've gotten loads of encouraging words and messages and we've also struggled not knowing if this was us pushing for what we've hoped for or God calling us to deeper faith. The Saturday before Easter Josh and I sat on the kitchen floor talking over the terms of the loan. He shared his concerns that after just a few years we might get in over our heads. He had a call into the banker to ask her to explain some things but he warned me that it didn't look like we could move forward.

It was discouraging and I spent some time crying over it.

On Monday, my birthday I was a bit tired from all the emotion. We had an easy family day and then Josh said we needed to visit our seller and let him know where things were at. I didn't want to but we did. He was nervous of course but we told him we should know more in the next few days.

It was evening for us but during the middle of the work day in the US when the banker called. Josh asked her to explain some things. As they talked she suggested some changes to the terms that might make things more affordable. When Josh got off the phone she had lowered our monthly payment enough to put it right into our budget! We talked to some folks and got advice and last week requested that the process go forward. We're on our way to getting that house after all!

I don't think it was an accident that it was my birthday. Thank you Lord!

Easter Sunday

Lots going on around here these days! Probably just like at your place; but I couldn't let Easter go by with out posting these shots! At our house the kids get an Easter basket, a hollow egg filled with candy and a plush toy type of carrot hidden for each of them. Josh lets them decide what level of difficulty they want. And then he does the hiding. If they want a clue they must pay one piece of candy. I wish you could have heard Blake's war cry, echoed by Luke, when he'd been looking for half an hour and I suggested he just ask for a clue,"NEVER!"
Then we headed to church for an outreach concert. During the concert was a drama that really impacted Luke. He kept telling Kendra that Jesus died. She wanted to soften the blow and said, "No he just went to sleep and then he woke up." But Luke was adamant. So later I told him that Jesus did die. But he did something else after that! He rose again! After a long interactive explanation he told Kendra that "Jesus did die. Mommy told me. But then Jesus come back and kick those bad guys." The two year old testosterone filled boy version!

Special Days

Just a few shots of some of the sweet moments that we are in the midst of these days! Glorija and Sebastian brought baby Patrik to his first team meeting this month! We took the opportunity to pray for him and bless him as friends, family and the generation going before him. We pray that he'll grow to be a strong man of God in this country.
A visit from our dear friend Becca McMartin! Here's the classic photo I have of the kids with her! Every visit she reads to the kids from the best books. And I don't know who laughs harder, the kids or her! This time the favorite was, "I will surprise my friend" by Mo Willems. It cracks me up that from Blake to Luke they are all laughing and enjoying Becca's reading! Becca returns to the US this summer and we are going to miss these times with her.

The mom of Blake's best friend works at the zoo here in Ljubljana. They invited us to for a free day to celebrate the 60th anniversary. Top favorites? Getting to read the map and call the shots of what to see next, and the petting zoo.