For over 7 years I have been a part of an incredible group of ladies.  Hannah's Prayer (HP), is an online Christian ministry for those struggling through infertility and loss.  Just over 5 years ago I was asked to join as a moderator and later asked to join the Board of Directors where I have served for 4 years, most of that time as the director over the BOD.

It has been a pleasure, joy and downright fun being a part of this board.  It is a wonderful group of ladies!!  Each having a servant's heart to see HP grow as a community.  We've seen heart-ache, joy and had to make some tough decisions.  God was faithful, giving us likemindedness.  We didn't always agree, but we always came to each other with a Godly and humble spirit making those decisions easier as we worked through and saw each other's perspective.

My time on the BOD has come to a close as my term ended yesterday.  I feel I have a little hole left in my heart.  Even though I know it's time to move on.

The timing is quite interesting as other aspect of our life are coming to a close.  In just 2 months we will be leaving Vienna.  Jerry will be starting a new position.  We'll be saying goodbye to long time team members.

I wanted to share some of the beautiful faces of ladies I have had the joy and privilege of meeting through this incredible online ministry!!





















There are SO many pictures missing that I may have lost along the way, but these are quite a few!

I have had the pleasure of praying, supporting, crying and laughing hysterically with these ladies!!

I don't plan on leaving the ministry completely.  I plan to stick around a bit, but I may fade a little as I now have kids who are getting older and I don't feel like I quite fit anymore.  That doesn't mean that I no longer see myself as infertile.  Sure, I have 3 kids, but I will always see myself as an infertile girl.

As a member once put it...... infertility may no longer be a gaping wound.  There is no heavy pain or sting of infertility.  It's more like a scar.  The wound is there, always a reminder of that time in our lives.  It might twinge from time to time, but that time in my life is more and more in my past.

I will always be drawn to ladies with infertility.  It's part of who I am.  Hoping I might be an encouragement and support in the journey.

Now, God is calling me in a different direction.  I'm not fully sure what that is yet.  I'd like to build on my blogging, but we'll see what the Lord has in store!!

It's time.

Our original plan to head to the States for stateside assignment (known as furlough to some) was going to be Summer 2013.

By about November it was becoming apparent that it was needed before that.  I think it's a mixture of many things.  Some things I've spoken about, like the stresses of applying for a visa.

Maybe 3 countries in 3 years, 4 countries in 4 years if you count our last time we were in the US has taken it's toll.

So it's time.  On about August 8th, we'll be making our trek back to the US and planting ourselves in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for 6 months.  We're still working on housing and a vehicle so we're not sure of our exact location.

The other exciting news that goes along with that is we have been asked to speak at the Alaska Baptist Convention that will take place at the end of September in Anchorage.

Can you say "GIDDY!"  I am ecstatic!!  My last visit to Alaska? 1996!  Far too long!!

We're going to try and take the whole family.  I would love to show my kids where I grew up!!  We'll see how that goes with finances.

I look forward to seeing this place again.  This the homestead near Montana Creek, AK that my parents and brothers lived in before I was born.  I knew it to be my grandparent's home by the time I came along.
It will only be in the form of a drive by as our family doesn't own it anymore.  I wonder if it even looks like this anymore.

I can't wait to see beauties like Mount McKinley, Sleeping Lady, Portage Glacier, maybe even the Homer Spit.  And I can't forget the many wonderful people I knew growing up!  Let the countdown begin!!

My cousin posted this photo on facebook recently.  I was so proud of my icicle (that I'm holding)!

In December my kids were studying about the North Pole at school. I told the teachers I was from Alaska and had a few things I could send with them to class.  The talk of the class....The Eskimo yoyo!  I was asked if I could come and demonstrate to the kids how it works.  Luckily I know how!  Not all Alaskans know how to do the Eskimo yoyo (I learned in school when we would have Eskimo week and the local Eskimos would come and show us different things about their culture)!!
I had to do a little practicing as it has been awhile since I'd gotten the yoyos out.  Want to see how the yoyo works?


I purchased Sarah Palin's Alaska on ITunes a few weeks ago and have loved watching every bit of it!  I've gotten teary eyed several times watching.  Seeing the highways I knew so well, going fishing every summer in Homer.  I went to junior high as well as attended church in Wasilla (where she lives).  We went to church with the family that owns Chimo Guns (where Sarah bought a new gun to go camping with Kate + 8), I don't know Sarah's parents, but her family was next door neighbors to my grandparents when her family first moved to Skagway, Alaska.  It's been such a joy (and a bit sad) to see home again and reminisce about that time in my life.

I doubt I will ever live in Alaska again, but I hope that one day when my kids are older we can go for a visit and I can show them my Alaska!

I've decided to start doing a little serious called Flashback Friday.  Maybe it will be every week, maybe not.  We'll see.  At the beginning of this year I wrote 2 posts about the last 10 years of living in Europe, here and here.  There was no way to share every one of our experiences during those 10 years in 2 posts, so I had the idea to go through the tons of digital pictures (when digital cameras were big and bulky and only took about 14 pictures at a time! Ha) that we have taken and use it to share about our life experiences.
I wish blogging had been around 11 years ago!  I'm not one to keep a journal, but there is something different and refreshing about blogging that I love.  So, it will be fun for me (maybe you too?) to go back and do some reminiscing.
The big sign on the side of the building says "Мы строим коммунизм." In English "We are building communism."  And to the left of the picture, the widely known McDonalds sign!! 
I think they were cleaning the side of the building to put a new advertisement up over the communist sign, but it was funny all the same.
We frequented this McDonalds quite a bit in those days!  It was one of the few places where you could get American food.  Russia had a TGIFridays at that time, but we went there less frequently due to the cost.  We were amazed at the Russian craze over McDonalds.  Hoards of people stand in a big mass!  There are no lines.  It's a free for all to get to the front to order!!  Crazy with a capital "C!"  I always let Jerry do the ordering while I went on a hunt for a table.  It worked for us.  Or maybe it worked more for me because he knew how much I hated ordering in those UN-lines!

Those first days in Russia seem like a life time ago!!  We just passed our 11 year mark at the end of October.  Where has the time gone?!  

Thanks for joining me and I hope you enjoy my time of reminiscing!
 

 I've always considered myself a city girl.  Even growing up in Alaska I would refer to myself as a city girl in Alaska.  I guess I liked the hum of a city and all that it has to offer.
I then moved to Texas.  I started out in a small college town, but I loved visiting the Big D!!  The Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex!  When I moved to the metroplex I lived in the "burb" of Euless.  I couldn't live in the city (too expensive), but I worked in the Big D and enjoyed all the local restaurants.
We then moved to Fort Worth to attend seminary and found ourselves living in the city.  We loved to go to the movie theatre in downtown Fort Worth!  We'd go early, have coffee at Starbucks and wander through Barnes & Nobles before the movie started.  Sometimes we'd take in all that Fort Worth's dowtown had to offer and I loved it.
What then?
We moved to Moscow, Russia.  The most populous city in Europe (over 10 million).
Moscow was a tad big for me, where there is no regard for personal space.  I remember being so jam packed on a tram that when the driver slammed on his breaks we went as a wave of people falling forward and back upright.  Or my friend lifting her foot for a moment to scratch an itch and not having a place to put her foot back down.  I still enjoyed what the city had to offer (well, not all of it but that's another story).
We had a brief stay in a small city, called Bryansk, Russia.  Now that was like moving to the sticks.  We're talking about a town that didn't even have a supermarket with carts to pile up your groceries.  Nope!  You walked in, viewed the products behind a glass counter,  jotted down how much it costs, go to a window to pay, receive a receipt and take it back to the counter to pick up the item you just purchased. Not really my kind of shopping.

After that, a move to Prague.  Now Prague isn't a large city.  Only about 1.2 million people, but it was a good size.  It is where the east meets the west, where the old meets the new.  Due to it's location in Central Europe there are many foreigners living in Prague and there is much available.  It's also one of the cheapest cities in Europe still!
We loved Prague!!  We had so many life experiences here.  Namely our struggle with infertility and then going on to adopt and deliver twins.
As our kids came along though, the hum of the city was not so much of an appeal to me.  We did not have a car (and really, you don't want to in Prague) so getting around was always a challenge.  Lifting a double stroller and a toddler on to a tram was something we preferred to avoid as much as possible.  We stayed home....a lot!!  I did have a babysitter, so I would take advantage of going out on the town whenever possible.  Sometimes I'd go sit on the edge of the water of the Vltava River or just take a walk and get lost only to discover some of the most beautiful areas unseen to most tourists.   And sometimes I'd sit sipping a coffee in a local coffee shop (way before Starbucks entered the country)!  Ah, I loved that city and still do!!  But, it came to a point that Prague was not conducive for our family in many ways.  And the Lord knew that and brought us to Spain.
Even though we're in Spain doing the same job as before, Communications, we are still here and available to work along side the teams in Madrid and the ministries they are involved in.
So we sought the advice of the local team leader as to an area he would like us to live and that would be close to the airport as Jerry does a bit of traveling throughout the year.  There were 2 he suggested.  One was more a part of Madrid and the other was more of a suburb.  And God brought us to the suburb.
Our first 2 weeks in Madrid we stayed in a rental apartment in the heart of the city.  Let's just say that I got my fill and was so happy when we got to move.  My love for the hum of the city has just about dissipated.  I have become a suburbian mom...only I'm living it in Europe!
The suburbs are where the families are.  Our apartment complex is packed with kids.  And we love it!

We'll see if my love of the city comes back as my kids get older and when I don't have to hold there hand constantly for fear of them straying away, but for now I am happy to live a life in the burbs!

Whew!  It took me awhile to get this all written out, but here it is!

These next, or last few years I talk about are mostly going to be kid talk since our lives changed quite a bit with going from 0-3 in 8 months!!

So, I left off that we found out we were having twins.  It was quite a joke with several colleagues who were praying us through this time that we would adopt & get pregnant with twins.  I kept thinking the same thing!  God sure does have a sense of humor!!  I remember so well, waiting on that first ultrasound!  My mom had come to help and met her newest granddaughter.  It was so nice to have her there in those early days of pregnancy and queezy tummy and trying to care for a baby.  She kept Karis for us while we went to our appointment.  To hear those words that it was twins!!  I had always dreamed of twins, but knowing the likelihood was slim, I just didn't think it would ever happen.
I remember the excitement of coming home and my mom being the first one we told of our additional news.

~ I had to go back and update my first post about our Russian home group becoming an established church.  It was so great to be a part it all!!  There were 3 of us at church that were due within a month of each other.  It was so fun talking through our pregnancies together!

~ My first tea party.  It seems kind of funny that I would mention this, but in the summer I had decided that I wanted to host an afternoon tea party.  I went all out with handmade invitations and sent them out about 2 months early.  All this happened before we got Karis or got pregnant.  Of course I still threw my party.  It was crazy trying to do it all with a baby and being pregnant, but we had such a great time.  I have since hosted 2 more tea parties.  I just love it!  So girly and fun!!  Ha!

~ Christmas 2005.  Our first Christmas as a family of 3.  Jerry's parents came to meet their first granddaughter and celebrate with us.
~ We had decided that we would do a Czech only adoption and then immigrate Karis to the US.  The law is that once the child has been in your custody for 2 years you can do this.  It is much cheaper than doing a US adoption, so we chose this route.

~ You would think that my ability to remember dates would continue, but it didn't!  Ha!  It's funny how I can remember specific dates for our earlier experiences, but as time went on I just can't remember.  Anyway, around 18 weeks it was finally time to find out the gender of these babies.  I had an incredible doctor!  She first told me she thought it was 2 girls.  Honestly, my heart sank just a tad.  I was happy to be carrying healthy babies, but I'd wished to have a son.  But within seconds she piped up "Oh wait! No, no!  That was is definitely a boy!!"  My heart soared.  Not only to dream of twins, but dream fulfilled of having boy/girl twins!!
 
~ April 18, 2006 we celebrate Karis' first birthday with pizza & cake with colleagues.  Fun times!!  And the girl hardly tasted the cake.  It was not her thing to dive in!!  Funny, because now that girl loves cake....and cookies.....and candy......and any type of junk food!!  Hee hee!!



~ Once Karis turned a year we were able to finalize the Czech adoption.  We completed the necessary paperwork and had a court date in May.  Everything went smoothly and the court appointed her as our daughter.  Yay!

~ I had an extremely easy pregnancy for carrying twins.  Of course I had the aches and pains that are associated with pregnancy, but I was fully expecting bed rest.  I have known a good percentage of twin moms that went on bed rest.  I automatically assumed I would be one of them.  But I didn't.  Just the norm with some insomnia thrown in there.
~ I don't want it to seem that ministry took a backseat.  Jerry did continue to grow his team.  We were small in the beginning with 3-4 people and we continued to work with the Russian church.  It's really incredible how God works out the details.  As Jerry's responsibilities grew in media, that left less time to work with the Russian church.  Around that same time is when a Russian speaking missionary came to be the pastor of the church.  For a time we hosted a Bible Study in our home and hosted a Russian movie night at the office, but that is all Jerry was able to offer.  But God knew the details and put the right people in the right place at the right time.  Praise God!!

~ My parents were coming to be with us for 6 weeks when the babies would be born and to help take care of Karis while we were all in the hospital.  They were due to arrive on June 6, 2006 to have a week to acclimated and familiar with Karis' schedule and figure out what she eats.  I had the house mostly ready for their arrival.  I woke up that morning bleeding.  I came out to Jerry sobbing and told him what was happening.  He's always my calm!  We called the dr and although she was concerned, she was very calm about it as well and told me to come to the hospital asap.  We really didn't know what all of this meant.  Because my parents were arriving that day we had to figure out what to do with Karis, and fast.  Jerry started calling colleagues and through the course of the day they passed her around.  I'm so thankful to all of them!!
Jerry thinks I was so crazy because I was adamant about getting a shower & doing my makeup.  Again, I really did not know until later what kind of danger we were all in.  We got Karis taken care of and were on our way in a taxi. I really had much peace about it all, especially that I could feel the babies moving.  It was discovered that I had placenta previa and the babies needed to come out fast.  From the time I discovered that I was bleeding (about 8 am) and the time the babies was born was 2 and 1/2 hours (10:25 am and 10:26 am).
Due to the urgency I needed to be put to sleep.  I was told it would be much quicker and add less stress to do it that way.  I just wanted what was safest for all of us.  Jerry could interject his own story here of once I was put to sleep.  He was able to stand at the doorway while they did a c-section.  Good thing he has a strong stomach!!  We'll spare you the details!!  Ha!
It was late afternoon before I woke up and I was in much pain.  My doctor came to see me soon after and gave me some pain meds.  And sometime later I was able to meet Brennan & Reegan for the first time!  Of course they were beautiful!! =)
Because I was in ICU and out sleeping, Jerry was able to go get my parents at the airport.  I was released from ICU the next day and into a regular room for the next 7!!  Yes 7 and it got long!
Reegan was 2.220 kilos (4.9 pounds) and should have gone to NICU based on size.  Because she was a sturdy little thing and breathing well, they sent her to the nursery and near me.  Brennan came in at 2.960  kilos (6.5 pounds).  It wasn't until this next day that we learned how serious my condition was.

~ Not even 12 hours after coming home from the hospital we had to return Reegan.  During the night while feeding we noticed she had some swelling on her jaw line.  I was still recovering from my c-section, so Jerry called a taxi and had to take her back to the hospital.  Talk about an emotional night!  Not being able to be with my baby girl.  Honestly though, I hadn't better than I could ever imagine.  I knew she was in good hands at the hospital.  It turns out she had a salivary gland infection.  They hoped to cure it with antibiotics, but if that didn't work they would have to do surgery to remove it.  Luckily it never came to that.  The antibiotics were working.  She came home after a week.  I got to visit her once during that time, which was so hard on me!  But I was overdoing it and my c-section incision was becoming infected.  My doctored ordered me to stay home.  With the Lord's strength we made it through that time.

~ We felt blessed to have 3 solid months of help.  My parents were with us for 6 weeks and then Jerry's parents were with us for another 6.  That helped us tremendously.  By the time they all left, Brennan & Reegan were sleeping through the night!

~ Soon after we found our first babysitter, Zuzana.  She was a big help to me.  We had her come for about 8 hours a week.  It allowed me the chance to get out and get needed errand done.  It was almost impossible to get out with 2 babies and a toddler without a vehicle! 

~ We were living in a 2 bedroom apartment.  It was cramped!!  Earlier that year our organization had purchased a newly remodeled space that they were making into an apartment.  We were asked to move to this new location.  It took a little longer to get the paperwork squared away, so it was December before we moved.  Some how we packed and unpacked with 3 little ones!  I have no idea how we did that!  Ha!

~ That whole next year of 2007 almost seems like a blur with settling into our new place, celebrating Karis' 2nd birthday, then Brennan and Reegan's 1st birthday, taking a trip to Greece for another annual meeting, preparing for our stateside assignment as well as paperwork to get Karis into the US.

~ Finally, after 4 years and 7 months since our last stateside assignment and a couple of times of delaying our trip back, we made it to the US in early December.  Jerry's mom had traveled to Prague to help us pack up and make the long flight back.  Having that extra set of hands was much needed!

~ We had agreed to be the MIR at Southwestern Seminary for the year.  We had a little 3 bedroom duplex on campus with a yard (that was a huge excitement for us after apartment living) and settled into life in the US.  Jerry worked 20 hours a week in the missions center as well as keeping up his team leader duties.

~ Throughout the course of the 2008 year we spoke at several churches in Texas, Louisiana, & California.  Jerry & I had the chance to attend a Couple's Getaway in Colorado for a long weekend in April.  It was awesome!!

~ In the Spring we had lasik eye surgery!  So all pictures from here on out while be glass-less!  Woohoo!!  Except for sunglasses, of course! Ha!

~ That summer we started learning that our organization was about to make some massive changes to the structure of what we do.  Jerry was asked to participate in the restructuring of the media side of our org.  Through time we discovered that his job would basically be the same, but how things were done would change.  Instead of working for our area of service (Central & Eastern Europe) we would now be led completely by those in media.  It made a lot of sense to do it this way.  Now those who had a media background would be leading the media with the help of each area.  Instead of Central & Eastern Europe & Western Europe as two regions we would now join to make the European Affinity Group.

~ During the summer as well, I was asked to become a part of the Board of Directors of Hannah's Prayer.  The infertility ministry that I've been a part of.  And a few months later was asked to become to director of the BOD.    I love this ministry so much!!

~ In time we discovered that the US embassy in Prague gave us the wrong visa to enter the US.  We were able to get Karis in, but the paperwork that we had to do after that took an additional 6 months more than the visa we were suppose receive.  Our plan was to return to Prague in January 2009, but due to the timeframe to receive her citizenship we were not able to return until April.  Were we ever glad to get that behind us and now have Karis as a US citizen!  We had gone to the immigration office for a ceremony only to arrive and find that they had told us the wrong day.  We had both grandparents and our good friends, the Vanns come to join in the celebration.  Oh well!  They still gave us the documentation and we had a celebratory lunch afterward.

~ The next few weeks were spent packing up our things in suitcases as well as preparing to send a crate to Prague.

~ April 7, 2009, 2 adults check in with 3 kids, 3 car seats and 15 suitcases.  We found out the DAY of leaving that car seats count as a suitcase.  We HAD to take them.  God gave us just the right guy to check us in.  We was gracious & merciful and no additional baggage fees were added.  That has NEVER happened to us before!!  What a blessing!!

~ One week later we celebrate Karis' 4th birthday.  We counted up and had FORTY people in our apartment.  It got crowded but it was fun to see so many we hadn't seen in awhile.

~ It was one crazy first month with my parents arrival a few days after our return, a trip back to the States for an HP board meeting & retreat we were hosting for our members, then Jerry went to the States for a meeting.  It was a whirlwind as well as getting acclimated and groceries stocked up!

~ June brought another annual meeting to Greece and a week later our crate came!  Yay, Christmas in July!!  Ha!

~ We knew when we came back that the Lord was leading us in a different direction as far as any ministry we would be a part of.  Our Russian language abilities weren't near what they had been and felt led in a different direction (more to come on that later).

~ July we took an early 15 year anniversary trip to Berlin, Germany to see U2 in concert while the kiddos stayed with some awesome colleague/friends in Prague.

~ By the summer Jerry was fulling working at home.  Due to all the changes, the media team lost office space.  The transition went well for all of us and continues so!

~ In October Jerry's parents came to spend some time with us.....I mean the grandkids! Ha!!  Jerry had a meeting in Madrid.  They let me tag along with him while they watched the kids.
~A new church planting team was assembled in Prague during the summer.  These colleagues had been working in another area of Czech Republic.  They have brought in some fresh ideas and soon after their arrival the media team joined with them to start a new community group called Bridge Community.  We have loved being a part of Bridge!!  We meet on Sunday nights for a church gathering at a local hotel.  We are loving it!!  Our services are mostly in English with some Czech songs and currently have 6 Czechs that attend on a regular basis and normally have others that attend during the month.  Our focus is to reach out to people around us through community service.  Each month we've been focusing on some kind of outreach like picking up trash, in October we went to a pumpkin patch and coming up next we'll be doing something similar to a yard sale, only we'll be doing it at a local grocery store.  I'm also going to be starting a cooking/baking class in February that I'm excited about.  My plan is for us to each take a turn with sharing a recipe.


That pretty much brings us up to today!  I'm sure I've left some things out, but I hit some of the highlights.  What an adventure it's been to see where God has taken us and where we'll go from here!!  Thanks for reading my ramblings!!