From the Black Hole

In case you wondered, we have been swallowed up in a black hole. This transmission is reaching you with the greatest effort!

To catch up: In May, we traveled separately back to Colorado. The kids and I flew early, and every thing went as good as could be expected... for traveling alone with three kids... and the international flight being canceled! Seriously, I just had to focus on not getting anxious, since everything looked terrible, but worked out just fine. We arrived in Colorado one hour later (and the flight time was two hours shorter!) than planned. We went through the usual jet-lag stage, which is never fun. But my parents really helped and I got a two-hour nap each day! Eric arrived 10 days later, and experienced no jet lag at all. We spent wonderful time with both of our sets of parents, my sister and her family, and friends. After about 5 weeks of new-week-new-home living, we were very ready to settle into Dani and Daves' home. They are graciously letting us stay for a month, and it felt good to unpack! Although we also are experiencing the burden and stress of how much space our family of five takes up. But we are so thankful that God has provided a comfortable place to live through them, and also a wonderful car.

Now, we are in a pretty busy rhythm. Hence, the black hole of email communication! We are spending time in swimming lessons, doctors and dentist appointments, spending time with dear friends and family, keeping up with our responsibilities with the Russian campus ministry, and, oh, trying to raise support!

It is a challenge to trust God to provide for our needs, but we know that He will enable us to do that, to which He has called us. And, we are also learning how we can live on less like so many people in this economic downturn.

We have only the month of June in the Boulder area, as July will see a trip to Texas, Colorado Springs, and then two weeks of conferences. We leave for Russia on August 5th in time to go to our conferences there! How can two months be so short?

Overall, we are learning to be grateful for what we have. (I've had to apply this phrase to myself after repeating it hundreds of times to my kids!) And that applies to time, as well. We look forward to spending as much time as possible with our friends and family here, and be grateful that God has given us so many communities around the world which are dear to our hearts.

I eat dog

When leaving our friends' house last night, a teenage boy told our kids a joke:

"I saw a skunk that was dead on the road. I won it. ... You say, "I two it."
Danya replied, "I two it.'
"I three it."
"I four it."
"I five it."
"I six it."
"I seven it."
"I eight it."
"You ate the skunk!"
Our kids thought it was hilarious. And all the way home, they attempted to recreate the joke. But, not content to just repeat it, they tried to make up new endings. So we had all kinds of dog 'jokes' with punch lines like, "I elves it."

Then Ella spoke up, "My turn."
And she told her first joke. "I eat dog."