Happy Thanksgiving!!

Wow! we had such an incredible day... first of all it's not easy finding turkey for sale here - we found some at a fancy supermarket near the American Embassy and a nice Honeysuckle turkey was going for $9.00 a pound (hmm we certainly have taught them the meaning of capitalism :).. anyway, we finally found a small package of *turkey fillets* for sale but I wasn't sure how to cook them?? So James decided to fire up our little grill and grill them outside. The kids all thought this was a total blast.. the best part of the day - playing outside and FIRE! We came in and sang songs and talked about all our blessings.. and then ate way more than one human being should eat in a given day. God has blessed us so so much.. four healthy children and His presence in our lives. Sending our love and Thanksgiving Day sugar to all our loved ones!! We're so thankful for YOU!!

Sweetest little Pilgrim around...

The kids loved making pilgrim hats... and Johanna enjoyed her very first Thanksgiving!

prayer request

Wanted to ask you to pray for James as he has a really important decision to make in the next few days. Last week our neighbor rang our doorbell and told us she was selling her house and if we knew anyone who was interested to please let her know. James went over to look at the house and said it would be *perfect* for a youth center. So he decided to stop at a realtor and just see how much we could sell the youth center apartment for.. the very next day the realtor brought over a buyer who wanted to buy our apartment on the spot! Wow! We told the buyer we needed to think things over... the house would have a larger room to meet in, plus a large bedroom (for Andrei to live in) a kitchen, bathroom and large entryway. It has city septic and water, gas heat and a phone. All this for only $2000 more than we would sell the apartment for.. So we really need God's wisdom. We feel like He is leading, it would be very nice not to have the police bothering us and the neighbors complaining about all the youth hanging out in the entryway. Any thoughts/advice anyone has would be appreciated! Ohh, and it's a great location - five minute walk from our apartment.

catching up...

Well it's been ages since I had time to write.. to explain, we moved into the house which has no phone so in order to get on the internet I have to go over to the youth center apartment and use the computer there. Anyway, Johanna is growing like a weed! Weighs 10 lbs and has a great double chin going for her. She's wonderful and smiley AS LONG AS she is being held... the perfect lap baby is there ever was one. Fortunately Rachel and David love to hold her so I usually have a free lap. Rachel loves to walk around singing to her - today I heard in her beautiful voice 'I love you Johanna, I will always take care of you when you are old, don't worry we will never give you away. mia loobimiya..' This was all sung to the tune of Edelweis from the sound of music.

We are really hoping it will snow soon - snow is much more interesting to play in.. Rachel & David continue to go every Tues & Thurs. to the art school (only 1 1/2 hours). They love it and our fridge is covered with paintings. They had a special fall program last week. Just got a phone call that a certain sweet baby is awake and in need of food - how is that possible when she just ate?? Oh well... till next time