Wind's in the west

"I'll stay till the wind changes," she said shortly, and she blew out her candle and got into bed." --Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers

And now I'm home.


Thank you to everyone who visited this blog and said hello, for your prayers and thoughts. It's good to be back.

Go west, young (wo)man

I've immensely enjoyed my last weeks in Europe. Unwinding, reading, cool, crisp weather, coffee, chocolate, slow, steady days and late night movies, sleeping in, a brand new baby and Sunday afternoon drives. I went ice skating with the daughter of a team mate, and got my hair chopped off. Now I'm ready to go home. Think of me Wednesday night--it will be Thursday here, and I'll be climbing onto a plane. See you soon!

Here she is ... Lydia Grace

...and the kids and I survived 72 hours in the apartment.

(Isn't technology wonderful... we couldn't visit the hospital, but the kids got to skype the next morning.)

Tea Party, etc.

The heat wave is over! It went from 95 to 65 in two days. Now I'm wearing socks and drinking hot tea. Perfection!

Baby might come today... Carrie is having contractions. Please pray--if she doesn't go into labor by Monday, the doctor will perform a c-section. Very undesirable scenario, especially since she had laser eye surgery done this summer specifically so that Ukrainian doctors would allow her to give birth naturally. They have strange medical beliefs around here...


On a completely unrelated note, but something that has been rolling around in my head, as I prepare for descent into normal, everyday, non-spectacular life:

[Jesus lived] in a family, and, as Betsy Rucucci points out, that’s all he had done at the time the Father proclaimed, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17). What had Jesus done to receive such praise? Nothing but live in his own home, honoring his parents and serving his father’s carpentry business. Apparently that was enough to please God.”

from Sacred Marriage, by Gary Thomas

No baby yet, although there was a false alarm last night. The past week has been slow and steady, full and simple, very refreshing to my mind and spirit. The kids are great, and I have plenty of time for reading... this morning, we lay on the big bed in front of the air-conditioner, listening to Beatrix Potter audio books. A tiny stuffed animal dog ran all over my head and arms. Then we sat at the kitchen table and I drew homemade Rosie Flo pages for the kids to color.

We mostly stay inside the apartment--the weather is hot! (Did I mention that before?) But we did play on the playground one day, and go to church on Sunday, returning home sticky messes. We also spent an afternoon at an air-conditioned mall, window shopping and sighing contentedly as we stood beside an indoor ice rink.

Pray that the baby comes soon--my return ticket is purchased for 2 September. Less than three weeks and I'll leave Europe for the first time in five months. Surreal.

In Kiev!

I arrived safely in Kiev, Ukraine on Thursday--great flights, except for a baggage misunderstanding which meant last-minute scrambling to stuff the contents of my second suitcase into my carry on. Mostly.

It's WARM here, around 98 degrees, and there's not much air conditioning in the apartment. However, I do have a fan at night, which makes it bearable.

We ate at TGI Fridays yesterday, and I had a real, enormous, juicy burger for the first time in four months. It was delicious!

Then we came home and ate watermelon and cirrok, a yummy chocolate cream-cheesy dessert.

Today is Michaela's birthday. She is ten years old. The cake was delicious (she is helping me write this post).