Christmas eve. We always open one gift. These are from Gran!
Elaina snacking on paper. Fiber is always good! lol
Christmas morning!
Our beautiful gifts!
Us!
The kids sledding in the new snow gear from Grandma and Peepaw!Well it seems like the past month has flew by at times and has went slow at times. The holidays especially Christmas is a difficult time for me to be away from our extended family. We have been very blessed this year though and I am very grateful for the wonderful family God has allowed me to have.
In mid December we had a minor automobile accident. It was our first wreck in a foreign country. It was our fault as well. They have these big circles here instead of stop signs and they have two lanes we were in the outside lane of the circle. In order to continue to go around the circle you have to be in the inside lane but we didn't know that. The inside lane can also go straight. So as we were going around the circle the lady in the inside lane went straight and bumped us on our side. It really only scratched the car. We did not know what the process here was for a wreck so Justin got out of the car and went to talk to the lady. I would usually be frustrated int his situation and be asking God "why me?", but instead I was overwhelmingly grateful that no one was hurt and was praising God for everything even what was going on outside which I had no idea of till later. You see Justin was talking to the lady outside and she was smiling and very kind. We ended up being there for about one and a half hours, the whole time Justin was out talking with the lady. You see we had got out that day because Justin felt that we needed to explore this area of town that he felt God may be leading us to work. He wanted to do a survey but we didn't know how or how it would be perceived. So we went out to a mall in this area and left without doing the survey. Then this accident happened within minutes of leaving the mall. While getting everything taken care of for the wreck Justin was able to speak to this lady and do the survey. She is not a believer but comes from a Lutheran background. She is interested and seeking God. She also would be interested in coming to a bible study if there were one in her area. As we were leaving she told Justin she was sad that this had happened but she was glad it did otherwise we may have never met. Wow what a way for God to speak to you!
Also in December we thought it would be nice to make cookies for the neighborhood and make cards with a verse about Jesus' birth on it and give them out before Christmas. So me and the kids made sugar cookies with m&m's in them and Justin and I made cards in English, Russian and Estonian saying Merry Christmas and with Luke 2:10-11 on them. We have 25 houses in our neighborhood so we passed them out as a family by hand. If the neighbors were not home we left them on there mailbox. We did not know how this would be perceived by them but we felt what could hurt. To our surprise many of them were very grateful and even gave us a gift in return! It was much more than we had hoped for because we had been told that things such as that could be perceived as rude here. More and more we see that God is trying to show us that the people here are more relational than we have thought.
The day after we passed out the cookies we were heading into town for groceries and had another accident. This time it was more serious and the roads were icy and another car swerved into our lane and as to avoid being hit we moved and when we did we began to spin and ended up flipping our car over in the ditch. Thank God no one was hurt. We were all shaken up though. The kids were scared and hanging by there seat belts. Poor Elaina didn't know what was going on. Some kind people stopped to help us out of the back of the car. The other vehicle did not stop. A lady who lived across the street from the accident let me and the kids come into her house while everything was sorted out. They were so kind to us. Then the news was out there as we were needing to leave so embarrassing we made our Estonian news premiere. After everything was said and done Justin and I couldn't help but think that that accident was a direct result from what we had done passing out cookies and part of the Gospel to our neighborhood the day before. Our thinking is that the devil is very unhappy that God is using us here in Estonia.
Well after having two wrecks in two weeks I would be lying if I said we were not just a little discouraged. We have to keep things in perspective though and know that God knows all things and with Him anything is possible. We have a great church family here who took wonderful care of us the week after the second wreck. We are very grateful for them.
We are still praying for God to reveal to us where He needs us here in Estonia and what He would like to do through us here. It is difficult at times to not know what you are to do or where to do it but God is using this time to build us and bring us closer to Him. Please pray with us. Pray for God's will to be done here in Estonia, pray for our safety here, pray for us to continue to have the strength to seek and follow through with God's will. Pray for God to provide us with a team to work with us here. To God be the glory!
We thank you for all of the prayers and support. Without it we would not be here.
We had a very good Christmas. The kids had a good time. We took them sledding on Christmas. We have about three feet of snow right now. I have never seen so much snow in my life. Elaina is toddling around now and has taken four steps on her own. Man she is growing fast. She has eight teeth now and Kayla has lost eight teeth now. And Braeden well he is still Braeden!
We are looking forward to a new year here in Estonia. Hoping each of you has a blessed new year as well. We love and miss you all.
Elaina's first steps