Mehlspeisen...

Tonight the interns had the opportunity to make some Austrian baked goods with my friend Gritt. She taught us how to make a Sachertorte, Buchteln, and a Bisquitroulade.

All absolutely delicious!

4+2 more...

Hooray! The girls have arrived safe and sound...let the fun begin :)

Juggling...

I feel like we are juggling quite a bit right now...the balls being family, team life, interns and school.

I know those of you who read this blog, also pray for us...so below are my requests.

*As I write this, Brad is studying for a final that he has tomorrow. It is in German, which is an added challenge at the graduate level. Please pray for him.

*Abby has picked up yet another virus and has been vomiting all day. Please pray for her.

*Our interns have hit the ground running... exploring the city, beginning their German
lessons, meeting with Jodie and I for discipling and helping to paint our facility.

They are sweet girls, with hearts ready to serve. One important lesson they have already learned is to be flexible, as their schedule has already been changed and we will be receiving 2 more interns on Friday.

Yep- you read that right. A total of 6 girls will now be interning with us. I will share more about this once I know all of the details. We are however, excited that Grace and Nicole will be joining us! Please just pray for our team, that we would be able to love all of these young women well this summer.

So, there you have it...a description of some of the balls we have up in the air. We need your prayers and the mercy of our gracious God to get us through the days ahead.

Celebrating!

Throughout the week we have been celebrating a few things...


Ewan turned 6!


Abby got a 65/65 on her multiplication test at school! All her flashcard work paid off!


And last but certainly not least...We have been celebrating Father's Day for the last few days, as we knew things would get a little crazy once the interns arrived! Brad wanted a good burger, so we granted his wish on Friday and then yesterday, the kids made him breakfast in bed and gave him lots of homemade cards, hugs and kisses! We love you Daddy, and hope you feel celebrated everyday!

The Interns have arrived!

Erica, Bethany, Kelly and Abby all arrived safely from the States and will be joining us for most of the summer! We are so happy they are finally here!

This was their first team-building exercise...All of them fitting into our teeny, tiny elevator :)

A sure sign...

This morning when Abby came out of her room with her sandals AND socks on, I realized that little by little, she is becoming more European than American...

Levi spricht Deutsch

Rarely do I get to hear Levi speaking German with his little buddies, so it was a treat for me yesterday when our neighbors were over playing and I got to hear him! Here is a little sampling:

It's Monday...

It's Monday and we are all moving a bit slow today. It is strangely quiet, as Abby went back to school this morning for the first time in 2 weeks, after battling fevers and then pink eye and the team from Chapelgate is safely back in the States. Finally, all of us are on the mend and are thankful that it should be just a "normal" week. Whatever that means...

Brad is gearing up for a final next week and our interns arrive on Saturday. Lots to get ready and prepare for, so please pray for that.

And lastly, this is how I found Milka pooch this morning...looking longingly out the window after all the kids were out of the house.

Either she is wondering where everyone went, or she just sees a piece of kebab on the street and is trying to plan her escape...

Happy Monday!

Chapelgate Team...

We just had our first team from the States come and help us for a week!   We put them to work painting our new facility, promoting our English camp for this summer, doing an outreach to addicts at Karlsplatz, praying for the city, and they even babysat our kids, so we could go out on a date!  They all were really hard workers with servant hearts and we were very much encouraged by them!

Thanks for all of your help, supplies and gifts for our family! :)

Laughter is the best medicine...

Why is it that when I am at the Doctor's office I can never remember when my children were born, let alone how to write the dates in the European format...

Going to the doctor with all 3 kiddos in tow is never my idea of fun...but with the added dimension of living in a foreign country...it really stresses me out!  Lots of people say, "but don't they speak English" and the answer to that question is not always yes.

Fortunately, my eye doctor is a very nice man, and his English is very good...

In fact, good enough to tell me that ALL of us have PINK EYE! 

Luke, Abby, Levi and me.  AND that the kids wouldn't be able to go back to school the REST of the week, because it is highly contagious...

 (Duh! I had sort of figured that out by now, since we ALL had red eyes!)

Anyway, one thing that I have learned about these stressful appointments, is that it is important to keep my sense of humor...because if I don't laugh, I just might cry!

So as we are checking out from the eye doctor, the receptionist tells me the amount.  I gulp, and ask if I can use my "bankomat" card, which is the equivalent of the ATM.  She says that it is "not possible" and that I must go down to the grocery store and take out the cash.  

I am trying to still smile at this point as the kids, who have now waited over 2.5 hours just to see the doctor, are starting to whine and pick on each other.  I drag them all down to the grocery store and take out the money...then I drag them all back up to the eye doctor to pay.

Then we were off to the pharmacy.  

Each of us had a prescription for drops and ointment (see picture below) 

As she handed me all of the drugs, she sort of looked at me a little disgusted and asked in German if we had good handwashing skills...

I answered, "I guess not good enough", thinking she might laugh...

She didn't.

I, on the other hand did laugh and I am sure she thinks I am insane...

who knows, maybe I am.

NEW...

Tomorrow we will be making new friends, as a team of folks from Chapelgate PCA

come to help us paint our new facility, promote our english camp this summer and help with an outreach to addicts

New blog that my beautiful niece, Elisabeth has started

New orchid Luke bought with his own money... just because he loves being a green thumb :)

New brownie recipe I am going to try

Our family just got a new UNO Spin...loads of fun! (Thanks for the recommendation Shanna)

"Can you pray for me?"

As I put her to bed with a cool washcloth for her forehead and some Sprite, I checked her temp one more time.

103.5

The highest it has been all day. I went to get some children's Advil and continued to tuck her in.

Sincerely she asked, "Can you pray for me?" " That I would sleep good tonight mom."

When she asked for prayer tonight, I was reminded of our retreat in Hungary a few weeks ago.

Milka had somehow gotten out of our room and had wandered off outside. It was pretty scary

for all of us since she really doesn't fully grasp the "COME" command so good. When I told

Abby about the situation with Milka, she without hesitation said ,"Mom we need to pray!"

God was gracious and He heard our prayers, and fairly quickly we found Milka, just checking

things out around the grounds.
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I wish that I could say that when trials come, my initial thought is "I need to pray". Often it is not even the second or third thing I think about. Oh to have faith like a child! I am once again thankful for how God gently has been convicting me of depending on myself and not solely relying on Him.

A Creative Outlet...

I started this blog years ago, with the intent of basically just keeping our family and friends up to date with what we are doing...especially with moving overseas. Since moving to Vienna, I have discovered that I really like taking pictures! Hence the name of my new photo blog,

iliketotakepictures.wordpress.com

I don't plan on this new blog replacing this one, I just want to have a place where I can share a photo or two without having to explain any reasons why. Hope you find it a fun site to check out!

We have another blogger in the family...

check out Luke's blog HERE

please feel free to leave a comment for him...encourage the boy!

Yellow Belts...

Luke and Abby decided this year that they wanted to participate in Judo. As parents, we were thrilled that they wanted to go together and it was only ONE night a week. Both of the kids really enjoyed Judo and passed their test to get yellow belts. Way to go kiddos!