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Good News & Guests

Good News:

I know I wrote nearly 2 weeks ago that we had received confirmation from a friend that we had our visas, but today we received the official letter from the visa office. We've been very excited and felt the burden lifted for awhile now, but it was really nice to see the 'official' confirmation. So we need to bring updated pictures of the boys to the office and our normal fees and we are good to go. God is so good and we are blessed to see how He worked it all out. We are thankful!!!

More Good News:

Tomorrow a new missionary family will be arriving. The Brinlee's are actually going to be moving to Slovenia. Since they don't know anyone there and we're just under 2 hrs. away from where they will begin ministering, we invited them to fly into our city and get over jet lag here. We'll be helping them move there and get over the border. Pray for their safety as they are traveling today and will be saying those dreaded 'See you later' words and all the emotions that go with it. We're excited to be able to have guests and minister to them as well.

I'll try to keep writing but with another family staying with us, a family of 5 that is... I may be lost in the kitchen and laundry room for awhile ;) hahaha! Comment, email, or call to let us know how you are too. I know many of you read this because you've said you do, but feel free to comment on the blogs... they are emailed to us...it's nice to know that someone's "listening".

-Krista-

A lesson in German

Last night as we're getting the boys ready for bed I was going over some basic phrases with Nathan in German. Since he is in kindergarten I want to make sure that he is able to communicate with his friends and teachers. I asked him if he knew how to say good-night in German.

He had a somewhat puzzled look on his face, then he said, "No, I forgot it."

I questioned, "You forgot it?"

He replied, "Yeah, I forgot it at school. We need to go get it."

I guess he is so used to speaking English at home and German at school that he was confused as to why I would speak German with him. Krista and I got a good laugh out of it and I thought you might too. Have a great weekend!


Danny

Graz 99ers Game

I hope that you had a great weekend. We did! We recently met a guy who plays for the professional hockey team here, the Graz 99ers. He got us seats for a game over the weekend. It was actually the first live hockey game any of us have ever seen. We had a great time. Unfortunately, the 99ers lost in a shoot-out after playing a very good game. They, along with three other teams, are currently fighting for one of two Wild Card positions for the playoffs. Below are some pics of the action. Enjoy and have a great day!

Danny

Visas!!!!!!!!!!!

Great news!!!!

My friend, Angela called today to let us know that her father-in-law got the news that we are on the list & in about 10 days will receive the papers to go back to the office and get the official documents in hand. Yippee!!! Her father-in-law also wrote an e-mail as well & said he was given permission to tell us. We are so blessed to have friends in our lives that are being used by God and they don't even know it! We can't wait to see how this unfolds in God's timing.

Thanks so much for all your prayers. God's not finished with us yet.

-Krista 4 us-

Kindergarten time

Ta-dum! I am somehow managing to find a few minutes to upload a few photos. Here are a few pictures of his first day, the school, & getting ready for pick-up time today. He's done great! The only problems we've had is he doesn't make the bathroom in time for the emergency kind. Nathan's teacher said that he was in a group of kids yesterday & they were talking to him in German, he answered in English, but it was the correct answer! She speaks to him in German till he doesn't understand, then she'll say it in English & again in German. He says he really likes school & I'm so glad. God is good!

-Krista-

update soon

I'll be writing and posting pics soon of Nate's first day/week of preschool--haven't downloaded them yet and really we just have a lot going on in the next few of days. We have a couple coming over for coffee tonight. Tomorrow I have a mother/child group and on Thursday we're having brunch with another family that we've been getting to know and can't wait to see God work in that relationship!! Friday--well, I don't have my planner in front of me but I just have a feeling there's something on that day--oh wait! Seriously, I just remembered, how could I forget?!?! After a year of saving up and saving our love offerings (gifts from churches we were at this past summer/fall) we are picking up a "new-to-us" car! I'll write about that later too. Then the weekend is upon us with all the busy-ness that brings. I really am blessed and so happy to be serving God here!

Have a great day!

-Krista-

Just to clarify

Hi! We've had a great week and God has placed some incredible opportunities in our path. It's getting exciting and it's only the first week of 2008!

First, I know some of you have asked about our visa situation and I just wanted to re-cap for everyone. Last August '07 before we left for a 3 1/2 month furlough Danny visited our visa office 'agent' and got our forms that we needed to fill out and asked questions so that we'd be well informed when we return the end of November to officially renew our visas (on the day that is required of us to be in office). He was told that we needed to show proof of our monthly income and that bank statements from the last year or so (I'm a little rusty on exact wording since I wasn't in the meeting) would be good. It was to ensure that we wouldn't be a burden to the government. That is completely understandable. If you've never lived in another country some of this may be confusing or frustrating to you (not that it doesn't frustrate us, but well, this is not our call to make). Sounded good since that we had the proof and the amount that was required monthly we were making already.

Now it's November and we walk in, suffering a little from jet lag, but thrilled to be home. Danny turns in paperwork and we're told that he (the 'agent') misunderstood something. It's not a proof of income alone. It's the proof of income for the next 5 years! That opened up a whole can of worms. Our thoughts were, " What company, no matter how great an employee may be, gives anyone their salary for the next 5 yrs.?!?!" But that's the law.

Lots of praying, phone calling, letter writing, emailing goes on. We were on such a roller coaster ride. We had a few foundations that were willing/wanting to help, but for various reasons couldn't pull it off. So, we're back to praying, phone calling, letter writing, emailing, etc.. and the cycle continued.

One day over coffee with a friend I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to share 'parts' of our situation with her. Her hubby joined us and listened. He stopped me and said, "I'll call my father. He works in parliament and is friends with the person in charge of all this. I'll give him a call and surely we can fix this."

So we had a meeting with someone high up the ladder and to cut the last 2 weeks down to this paragraph-- we've turned in our paperwork and our home church has graciously taken a loan out on us and now we are waiting to hear back from the office. My friend called later on the same day we turned our stuff in and said she was going to see if her father-in-law could get a rush on knowing if we're in or not. She called today and there is still no word on how many visas they are providing this year, but that the lady we met and chatted with is --who will be in charge! Now how awesome is that?!?! That meeting a couple weeks ago seemed pointless in a way because we didn't walk away with new information necessarily or help. Now it would seem that it was a divine appointment just to meet and for this person to have our faces and names in mind when she looks at the application in front of her. God is in control and may have a whole other plan in mind, I'm just glad it's not my decision, but His.

Ok, this was long and I hope I've not bored some of you who are very aware of how this has been going. I just wanted to inform some of you who were wondering how this transpired and why we didn't try to raise funds while we were in the U.S. for furlough. Now you know... the info changed without our knowledge and it's not in the governments habit of calling people it mis-informed :)

So many of you have written/commented/called to let us know you're praying and it's been a great encouragement! Thank you so much!

Have a blessed weekend!

-Krista-

Happy 2008!!!!!

Well, here are pictures of our night. We are having a get together with friends tomorrow so tonight it was just us. It's quite weird actually, but very nice and relaxing. Since we've been married our family tradition has been to have people over or sometimes we go to someone else's house, but this year was just us. The boys had a great time shooting off fireworks and playing in the snow. Here are some pictures of our evening. We'll be excited about what God is going to put in our path this new year. It's so exciting to be a part of His plan!

Have a great week!

-Krista-