Saturday, December 24, 2005

Christmas Greetings and What's Been Going On

We are settled now, and have all of our Christmas decorations up. Our home is wonderful, and all we had to do was show up and move in! What a blessing! We're in a great location, with just about everything we could need close by, and now that we've got our internet up and running, we're feeling more connected. :)

We're enjoying the encouragement and support of being part of a church, and the kids love it as well. We're all making friends quickly. We've been able to visit in several homes already (of both believers and unbelievers), and have SCORES of invitations for Christmas. No one wants us to feel lonely! :) We want to make the most of the visiting opportunities, so we're actually planning to celebrate Christmas as a family on the 23rd. The kids and I are making a birthday cake for Baby Jesus, and Caleb offered to blow out the candles this year, "...since Jesus doesn't usually like to show up and just LET people SEE Him." :)

We're enjoying language study and readjusting to the culture of Poland, doing as much practicing and wandering around as possible. We're also leading a Bible study/English Club once a week. This group has been meeting with the team for quite a while, and the team was glad to hand it over instead of telling the whole group, "See you in six months!" They've welcomed us with open arms, and we enjoy not only the hour English lesson, but especially the thoughtful and insightful time of Bible study following each lesson. Please pray with us that there will be a deeper understanding of the meaning of the celebration of Christ's birth among our group members this holiday season.

We've also found a great obstetrician, with whom Bethany feels completely comfortable! Praise the Lord for THAT! He said that everything looks wonderful, and Bethany was even able to see our little one's face clearly during the ultrasound last week. We're all getting SO excited! She'll be visiting the hospital this week to learn her way around a little bit.

Again, thank you all for praying for us, and for your patience as we were out of the communication loop for a while there. We love you all, and are praying rich blessings and enriching times of reflection this holiday season! Celebrate Christ with us!