Oh, Christmas Tree!

shopping in yerevan for our christmas tree

Here's a peek of our trip to the store to get our Christmas tree this year! It's like a big wholesale store with lots of little stores in it.




Gotta get the candy at the end of the shopping so we can enjoy a treat on the way home! Choices, choices! :)

kindergarten readiness!

I had a friend ask me about how we know if our child is ready for kindergarten... so I went back and found some of my information. This is mostly from my friend, and mentor! ;), Mrs Schimke who's taught Kindergarten for years and Riverside! Love you, Julie!

I'll attach it instead of type it all... Hopefully you can read it! :)

Love those little ones!

Lost in Yerevan with Nadela

So. If you take taxis in Yerevan, you may not know your own way home! Ha.

Our girls needed to get some pictures taken for their certificates for dance class. After we had our language lesson this week, Nadela said that she'd go with us to get that done. I drove us down to the photo place, took pics of the girls (struggled with Ruth to sit on the stool and smile), and looked at some Christmas trees as we walked back to the car. Then I asked if I could take her home. Since her marshooka (little bus type thing) wasn't there, she said sure and we were off. After we drove for a while wondering which turn was the right one, we found it, or so we thought...

Pretty soon we were in a totally dirty factory area. On top of the smoky factories, it was foggy and rainy! Then we got into a traffic jam. There was a crane blocking the road as they worked on pipes that ran over it! We finally made our way up to the crane and followed the other cars over to the side of the crane to go up and around it, sideways, through mud and bushes. Nadela said, "Jill jan, can you do this?!" I looked at the construction guy out my window and he nodded... so off we went! :) We were laughing and praising the Lord when we finally made it through! But we still didn't know where we were.

So we drove on... past sheep and fields! Found a gas station and Nadela asked which way to go. He gave her a weird look and pointed right... which we found out was the only way to go unless we wanted to drive off toward Iran! Ha! We were way out on the south side of the city! When we realized we were headed in the right direction, we breathed a sigh of relief. Then looked up to see that we were about to drive through a big building that was under construction! We both thought we shouldn't go THERE! Only to realize that the road turned just before the building so we would actually be going around it... not through it! Another good laugh for us.

Now we're in Yerevan... but still not in her neighborhood! So were both looking and hoping that we don't miss another turn... when we see the circle just down the street from her apartment! Whoo-hoo! We knew where we were again and we're close to her home! Yea!

When I dropped her off she said that she didn't know whether to say sorry or good bye! :) All this time, the girls were in the back seat snacking on crackers and listening to Christmas music! Ruth calls out the window, "Be sure to tell Iren about our ride!" (Iren is Nadela's girl and our girl's friend!)

Nadela and I did tell our families about our adventure and laughed some more about it. She got a call the next morning from someone saying that he needed a guide to take him around Yerevan would she be interested... It was her little brother-in-law and when she figured out it was him she said sure! :)

Maybe next time we'll take a taxi... but then we'd miss out on our own adventures!

Kids Blogs

Well, today our oldest two kiddos got signed up for their very own blogs! :)

http://benjamin-crawford.blogspot.com/

http://hannie-crawford.blogspot.com/

Check 'em out!

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Hannie celebrated her 9th birthday on October 30th! Nine years old. She says she wishes she wasn't an odd number now! Heh! But she told me the other day that now she's lost nine teeth, she's nine years old, and it's 2009... maybe it's not so bad?! :)
We had a couple celebrations for our party girl! On her birthday we had pumpkin bars from the can of pumpkin that Uncle Scotte brought! We went out for pizza and opened a couple gifts. Daddy gave here flowers and balloons! Then on the weekend we went to a pool park that had slides and everything. She invited four little friends so the kids would each have someone to play with. (Iren, who's Ruth's age was out of town... but Ruth still had a blast!) Then the next week we invited some of her grown up friends over. She planned out the party and made the cake with me. We played coconut bowling and guessed how many chocolate nush (almonds) were in the jar (with a three way tie!) We opened the coconut and had cake. The after some presents we had some Armenian dance time! At the end of the night Hannie said to me, "Don't make me smile... my face hurts!" (from smiling too much!!) She also told me she wished birthdays never ended... So glad she had a good celebration. She plans for her birthday months in advance!!
Our baby girl. Hannah Banana. Hannie girl. Anna jan. She loves Armenia and learning Armenian. She and Ruth have been enjoying dance class this year. She loves her puppy and even dreamed, before he was our dog, that he'd be ours for her birthday! Hannah loves art and teaching. She'd like to be a teacher when she grows up. I told her when I open my own preschool that she can be my assistant while she gets her degree! :) So we have a plan... Heh. We are in love with our graceful, kind, smart little girl! Thank you, Lord, for Hannah Christine.

Fruit of the Spirit

We've been studying the Fruit of the Spirit "hookoo padooh" at the Fire Bible office for devotions. Each of us took a fruit for each week to study more in depth. I won't share it all on here but I thought I'd share one word or idea about each. Here goes:

Love-first
Joy-we can have joy even in trials
Peace-usually comes with/after/during war or fighting
Patience-shows mercy
Kindness-is sweet
Goodness-does
Faithfulness-is solid, trustworthy, loyal, always
Gentleness-is powerful
Self Control-is a compass for them all

We kinda skipped over Goodness... but alot of the verses we read about "good" have to do with doing: Turn from evil and do good. Don't grow weary in doing good. He who began a good work in you will carry it out unto completion... We were made to do good. Not just for the work we do and the people we do good to, but when we do good it's good for us, too! As we help others, we grow and become who He created us to be. Of course, God IS good. All the time. And all the time... if you've been in church lately, you probably finished that with ...God is good. Believe it! And do good!

My Dad

My Dad. When I think of my Dad, I think of his gentle eyes and strong hands. My Dad is forever patient. We marvel over the fact that we've never heard him yell or be angry. He is Mr. Patient. When my brother and I were growing up, he talked to us and taught us and redirected us. He even spanked us. But he never was angry. It's completely crazy. Who in the world never gets clicking angry at least once in a while? Well, my Dad. I adore him. He's a friend to everyone. He can wait forever. He'll listen to anything anyone tells him. He's interested in what others are doing, even if he knows all about it or nothing about it. He takes me for motorcycle rides, even now that I'm all grown up! He would ride me around the yard on the riding lawn mower as a kid. He never told me to get off his lap. Almost every night he'd cut us an apple or peal us an orange for a snack. He prayed with us every night and ended it with, "and do these things for Jesus sake. Amen." When I was a kid, I believed my Dad could do ANYTHING. My Dad is a good man.

Just before we moved to Yerevan, Armenia, we lived a few blocks away from my Mom and Dad, and my Grandma who we've always called Bestamor. While we were there, Dad had surgery to remove skin cancer on his cheek. It all looks good. Then about a month after we moved here, he found out he had prostate cancer. I was far away... He had surgery and the doctor is optimistic that he got it all and the bones all looked good. This summer, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease! I am far away... He is taking some medication and is still doing well. I am still far away...

Totally, the hardest thing about being overseas is being away from family. Not that we don't have McDonald's or Taco Bell. Not that the driving is crazy here! Not even that we have to learn a difficult language. Our family and our friends are so far away-that's the hardest. We love our friends here! We love Armenia. We will miss them when we head back to the US. But now... we are so far away...

If you think to, pray for missionaries who miss their families. And for my sweet Dad... I'd like to go sit on his lap! ;)

Zaccheus was a...

Elijah loves the song about Zaccheus. So when we studied it in our Bible Facts book during our Bible time, he was pretty excited. We sang the song a few times and did the actions... all that good stuff. Then we read about Zaccheus. After we read, the thought came to my mind.. Here's this cheat who no one likes that Jesus loved. His life was changed. Who knows what else he did after Jesus left (besides pay everyone back more then double what he'd cheated). We can guess that he was a kind, good man who walked in the way of the Lord. And now, 2000 years later, we have this goofy kid's song that everyone knows him by. I wonder if he ever dreamed that he would be known as that "wee little man" to millions of people!

So I threw out the question to the kids... What do you suppose people will sing about us in the future? We laughed about basic things like having red hair and blue eyes (because he's described as little...). Then we came up with our very own Zaccheus song for our family... it's too cute so let me type it up to share with you!


The Crawfords were a family
A missions family
They packed and moved to Yerevan
The Lord they wanted to please
And as they read the Word of God
The Bible told them this:
-God said:
Crawfords: You trust Me
For I'll always be with you...
I'll always be with you.


What will we be known for to those who follow us 2000 years from now!? :)

Rock-Tober

It has been a crazy, busy month for us!! First of all, we packed up and moved around the block when our manager told us that the apt we were in was temporary... Our new place is up a little higher and we can see more of the city from here. We are renting from a couple who lives above us but who spend half the year in Canada. Downstairs is a garage and a room for our washer (and soon to be dryer...). That room has also been used for a band practice room... cool!

We also adopted a puppy the end of Sept... our neighbors moved and left him behind. He's about 3 months old and we named him Rocky. He's got a little house on our back deck and seems to like it there!

We also got a new vehicle! We've been borrowing Nick's and Olivia's cars while they were in the states to have their baby girl. Now they're back and we have a new car! It is actually the Armenia Team vehicle and we get to use it while we're here!

Team Armenia also has a new member, a single guy named Chad. And another girl, Carissa, will be here in January!

Nick and Olivia have had conferences since they got back and we've had a ton of band practices in our washer/dryer room! The Rama band has played in church three Sundays now. They've done well and are still working on getting better! We're honored to be a part of their group.

Tomorrow is also.... Hannah's birthday!! 9 years old. Our little honey bunny.

I'd write more, but w're running out the door now to show Scott around Armenia!! That's right, Kev's brother made the trip over and will be here for 5 days. We're so glad to see him!

Off I go... Catch you again sooner then last time, hopefully!!

--oh yeah, we also drove up to Georgia to cross the boarder and renew our visas!! I'll have to spend time on here to upload pics of that trip!! pretty, but twisty roads... our little guy lost his lunch twice!!

*updated: here's a pic of us by a monastery in northern Armenia. We drove up to the Georgia boarder but just walked across it... so we didn't get to see too much of Georgia! Ha... next time, maybe?! We need to go back in January. The kids were hoping to get to Tbilisi because there's a McDonald's there!! But our new vehicle didn't have some stamp or cover over the paperwork or something that was required to leave the country... sooooo...

Robin Hood

For our family night last week, we watched Robin Hood. It was so interesting to watch the boys watch the fighting and chasing parts and the girls watch the relationship parts... Boys and girls. Now the girls are playing school and the boys are outside playing bow and arrow! :) The girls latest play has been orphanage... little polly pockets taking care of each other!

Just heard a speaker talk about how she went to a princess party and everyone was dressed up as a prince or princess. She said the kids didn't even act like they were dressed up... that was what they were made to do. The boys had swords and were strong and the girls wore dresses and tiaras and they were lovely. She said we were born to be royal. That is our destinay. Somewhere along the way we think we better grow up... when really that's what lies ahead for us. Lovely. Strong. In Christ.

jealous

God is a jealous God. I know that makes some people uncomfortable. I even heard (or read?) that was what made Oprah turn away from her faith. That made me think. Is it a big deal? Just want does He mean? How can we understand that better... Really, it's not as weird as it sounds...

One of the definitions in the dictionary: "-vigilant in maintaining or guarding something... ex, the Americian people are jealous of their freedom." Another definition says "Bible. intolorant of unfaithfulness or rivalry. ex, The Lord is a jealous God."

The Hebrew for jealous (used in the Bible) is "qanna" which is the same as"qinah" which mean "zeal or jealous."

Phil Joel has a song called Jealous and I heard he wrote it after he read through Hosea. Hosea is the story of a man who marries a prostitute and she leaves him... he goes looking for her and has to buy her back. What a story of love that keeps seeking and loving even when it's not deserved... such a parallel to Israel (and believers) being saught after/pursued by God who is the ultimate Lover of our souls. We are His. He loves us and wants us to be truly/only His.

Kevin is my husband. If he was out with other women, I would be jealous. And it would be appropriate for me to be. He is my love. He should be with me. We are God's... and we should be with Him. His love is complete. Pure. Even more then a man and a wife. Maybe a closer example would be if someone took my child or he/she ran away... I would be out of my mind!

We are the apple of God's eye. (Psalm 17:8, Zech He created us and loves us.

Seek Him first.
Come to Me...

No one can love us like He loves us. He wants what's best for us - and that's Him! He has such blessings waiting for us!
Really, what an honor for Him to love us like that!

God is a jealous God.


Phil Joel - Jealous
(the first half of the song...)

Come to Me
Come to Me
I have been waiting
The sun will be rising
Come to Me
Come to Me
I have a ring for your finger
Don't let the past come between us
Don't you run to the arms of another
They won't love you like I can love you
Don't you know I am a jealous God
I am a jealous God
So, come to Me
Come to Me
When you're not sure how you feel
When the idols start calling
And to their arms you're falling
Don't you run to the arms of another
I will hold you
I am able
To lead you beside the still and living waters
I've set a feast upon the table
Oh, I am a jealous lover
NO one can love you like I love you
So come to me
Where are you
My beloved?
My beloved, where are you?

under your nose

Do you ever have one of those moments when, say, you're teaching your kids and then you realize that the Lord probably prompted them to ask you that so that you'd hear your own words and, thus, teach yourself?! :)

Benjamin overheard me tell someone that it was "under her nose" the other day. "What's that mean?!" Well... I explained... "When someone's looking and looking for something and then they find it in an obvious place we say it was right under their nose. Obvious. In front of them." Sometimes we look so hard for an answer and it's right in front of us! Hummm, Lord...

One other time this week, I was helping one of my kids with a sore on the top of their hand. I was right in front of them and while I was busy trying to turn their hand down toward me to apply ointment, they were busy trying to pull it up so that they could see what I was doing (and if I was doing it right...) I told them in a motherly way... "Stop doing that! You don't need to see... I do! I'm taking care of you. Trust me." Hummmm, Lord.....

Keep your ears open! Next time you're teaching someone... the lesson might just be intended for you! :)

books/music

We love books and music. If you come to our house, someone will be doing one or both of those things. The kids read at night until it's too dark to see your hand in front of you (and by then it's time to be sleeping anyway!). Hannie is already telling me that she's read every one of the books we brought over! Benjamin has, too, I think, but he is a little more content to read and re-read! He also has his own little Walkman thingy - like an IPod. So he's got headphones on and a smile on his face half of the day! Right now some of our favorite artists are TobyMac and Phil Joel (and the Newsboys). The kids have liked PureNRG, a teen band. You know we have to listen to some Veggies and Boz, too! And of course, we're listening to our favorite Armenian band - the Rama band from our church! Kev's helped them record 4 or 5 songs and we love it. We're hoping to learn all the words to all those songs...

As far as books go, I've been reading some of the Mitford Series and some of Janatte Oke's series, Love Comes Softly. I read the Oke books forever ago and when we watched the first few movies, a friend of mine said that they weren't totally the same as the books... so now I'm re-reading the first few books to compare! My mom lent me some books from one of her favorite authors, Susan Meissner. We've also read some books from YWAM about the early missionaries. Good stuff. Benjamin loves the Civil War! He and Kevin, the history men! Hannie's been reading the Cul de sac kids books and Janette Oke has some cute kids books called Animal Friends. We're also reading the Life of Faith series about Elsie right now together at night. Just finished all the Narnia books a month or so ago. Ruth and Elijah love any book with pictures and will come if I start reading! We had a good discussion the other day about if you'd rather have a Noothbrush on your toothbrush or a Bofa on the sofa... all those different goofy guys from Dr Seuss.

There you have it! Stop on by and sit to hear a book or dance to TobyMac with us! We might even make you a tea or coffee to be a hospitable Armenian! :)

(okay, so Elijah really didn't fall aleep reading this book... but it was too cute to pass up. He took a nap on Daddy's side of the bed one day! Sweet.)

Typical MIssionary

There is no typical missionary. At least that's my opinion! Since we've been thrown into the M mix, we've seen so many different people working out here. And not just focused on different ministries or in different areas. Different kinds of people are here. If you've ever said, "I couldn't do that because..." I'm guessing that someone on the field has your same reason - but is here anyway.

We've met missionaries who are single, who are married with many kids. Older people, young people. People who have some medical problems or physical handicaps. One guy who's done missions for many years told us that he's a terrible traveler! As a missionary... you travel! Lots. And he does... it's just not fun. He even has to ride in front seat of the car to not get car sick! Some missionaries like fine things and live in nice homes, some try to get by on just a little bit and wear the same clothes for like 10-20 years. Some missionaries love to be outside camping and some love to do inside things like teaching or computer work. Some love classical music, some love rock... you get the idea!? :)

All missionaries do have one thing in common... they've left family and loved ones behind when they came overseas. I think everyone has someone back home with a health issue... aging parents, alcoholic relative, dying friend, birth of a friend's/family's baby... Missionaries miss their kids who are in college, nieces and nephews growing up, family/friends weddings...

While there are tons of different people out there... they're all missing someone back home! I think it's pretty safe to say that most missionaries are totally loving lots of people where they live now, too... there will always be someone to miss after you've lived overseas!

Now, while there are lots of different people ministering abroad... let me share one more thought about our journey! Most of the people we've meet have come to serve some specific people group or do some specific project. Kevin and I have found that we more just kinda followed the Lord's leading - and here we are! We kept taking baby steps and going through open doors. Totally cool... now you can pray that we keep close enough to Him to continue to follow that leading! We're trying to find our "thing" to focus on here. We've always loved orphans and hope to work with them some. Kev's doing some worship team training and we've both enjoyed that. Homeschooling starts in the next week or two and that will be a big ministry of mine! We are seeing doors open and are moving forward... just hoping to see really clearly.

My devotions today were focused on our family verse:

Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to Him who is able
to do above and beyond
all we can ask or imagine
according to His power
that is at work within us
To Him be the glory
in the church
and in Christ Jesus
and from generation to generation.

We're excited to see what He will do that's above what we can even think as He works in us!

some of what we're up to here...

I just realized that you haven't really got to see a lot of what we're up to as far as ministries here! Of course we're just making friends and finding connections... Learning how to get around and shop... But we've done a few other things, too! (I try to stay on top of Facebook, if you wanna find me there: jilljohnsoncrawford -to see some daily updates!)

The thing we do almost everyday: language! We have a tutor come over four mornings a week now. It was five, but we switched to four in the hopes that we could have her come an extra month or so... We have three months of tutoring planned into our budget as Missionary Associates. So Nadela comes four times a week to teach us, along with Marine who comes to watch/teach the kiddos! Love those two friends!

Then, Kevin is helping a church here get a live worship band going. They sing live on Sundays now but just by a synthesized keyboard that has all the tracks on it. So now they're learning to have individual instruments and how to play as a team. About 8-10 people meet at our house every Tuesday and we love them! The kids look forward to their weekly practices, too! They band hopes to start leading on Sundays sometime this fall, maybe September. They're such a great bunch and are learning a lot. Kevin is enjoying his time working with them! One guy came for an extra bass practice this week, too. Another church is hoping to have Kev come help their worship team, too, so hopefully that will work out in the future.

The Fire Bible offices has devotions together every Monday morning and Kevin and I have had the opportunity to be a part of that since Nick and Olivia are back in the states with their brand new baby girl, Ava! The girls working up there are some really good friends and love the Lord. Usually the kids come along and watch a movie while we talk, but after that they usually get some snack or get to draw on their white board... good stuff! :)

When we first got here we went to a special needs orphanage and we are trying to get back up there. We'd heard it can be tough to get in to orphanages but since we've already been up there and been asked to come back, we thought it'd be pretty easy! Now the hard part for us has been to track down the address and phone number! Arg. We'll continue to see how we can serve orphans as the doors open...

Both Kev and I have been involved in outreaches, too. I spoke at a womens retreat in Hrazdon, a town north of here, and Kev sang a couple songs at an outreach in the city of Ararat, a town south of here!

We're trying to help Nick and Olivia as they prepare some conferences scheduled for this October. One for women, and one for church planters. Our friend, Marine, is really the one here doing tons of work for it... but we try to help her with whatever we can!

So. We have a few things that we've been up to! Some days we feel like we should be doing more, and some days we're just exhausted with what we are doing! They say that just living overseas can be exhausting... I guess you have to get out there and do it to know what they mean... Just driving and not being sure you're doing the right thing (Kev's been pulled over 6 times, and I got a parking ticket once!), trying to shop when you can't understand/can't speak, having simple things like a pipe fixed or a light replaced... all these little things can be a lot more stressful then in the states where we can at least speak and understand! Driving over pot holes all day alone could be stressful! Ha. With wild drivers whipping past! :)

We have learned more of the language which we're happy about... but still have a lot more to learn! It's easier to understand then to speak. Which is logical, I guess! We're glad we know the alphabet now and can read some. The kids are enjoying learning and seem to be doing well here. So that's huge! Our new year of homeschooling material should be on its way... whoo!

So here we are! This is what we're doing. We've been here 5 months already! You can pray for wide open doors for us and wisdom in what we should be involved in! Mostly, we need prayer just for keeping our eyes focused on Jesus, the whole reason we do anything!

-Oh, we also have family night on Fridays... and Kevin has successfully learned how to call and order pizza in Armenian now! He's become Kevin jan to the pizza guy, even! (Jan, pronounced like john, is a sweet term like "friend" or "dear"... something like that-there's no exact translation!) You know you're settling in when you're friends with the pizza guy, right?!

Auntie Jill and Uncle Kevin!!!

This week I became and Auntie for the first time. Auntie Jill. I've dreamed of being called that... and now the time has come! :) Blake and Crystal gave birth to their first little baby girl this last week. July 8th, 2009. 07-08-09. Emma Joy. She is a beautiful little baby girl with a head of dark hair. The blessed us by video skyping us just a couple hours after her birth. We are so thrilled! And soooo far away! Agh. We knew when we came that she would be born with us overseas. And we knew that it'd be hard to be far away... but we're reeeally far away!! Really far.


Blake and Crystal are also some of our very best friends, on top of being our family. So what a blessing. And here we are... too far away to celebrate and too far away to be of help. That's totally the hardest thing about missions work... being far away. And now I've realized that even when we go back to the states... we'll be far away from our friends who have become like family here! We will always be far away from someone we love from now on. Uff.

But we will be thankful for all these people that we love no matter where they are - or we are!!

For now, our desktop is Emma and her family! :) Our skype is open in case we catch them online. Our hearts and prayers are in North Dakota!

You can pray for my sister-in-law, too. She had a loooong labor ending in a C-section. She's slowly healing and has high blood pressure to boot. Not how she wanted to spend her first few weeks with her new little love. On top of that, Ricky and Lisa are also some of her best friends along with us. (She, Lisa, and I, along with another dear friend, Anne, have done Bible studies together for like 7 years and continue to study together over Skype...) Their little one died the day after Emma was born. (See previous post.) So now she's got her little love to hold while she knows Lisa's arms are empty. They would have ("should have") had their two little girls grow up along side each other... Such joy and heartache right now.

And we're sooo far away... (You can tell how we feel this week...)

We all stand determined to bless the name of the Lord. But are so sad. And so happy. It's been an emotional week.

After the kids "met" their new - only - cousin on Skype, Hannie said, "Now I really feel far away." I totally understand. We want to be over there hugging - everyone!


Emma Joy is here. We're looking forward to the day we get to snuggle that sweet little girl. For now, her mama and daddy will have to do that extra for us! (Along with everyone else living in GF... we've told them all to give her love for us and to say our name a lot so she knows us when we come!!!) I'm an Auntie. Kevin has claimed her as ours... our little niece. She has our heart. She is a Joy. We're in love.

Sophia Lynn

Last month some of our best friends from North Dakota, Rick and Lisa, gave birth to their third baby and their first little girl. We knew we'd miss being around to celebrate her birth day. But we were so glad to hear she was born and all was well. Two weeks later, we heard that she was flown to the Fargo hospital and not doing well. She had a serious infection and the MRI's were showing blood clots and brain damage. After days in the hospital, our friends were told she was having seizures and that there was more brain damage. They had to decide to turn off her breathing support and she passed away right away. Their healthy baby girl, born three weeks earlier.


We are so broken for them. And feeling soooo far away from home. We spent the morning crying for their loss. Eleven years ago, our two month old baby boy passed away and we had to plan a funeral and pick a place to bury him. Not the thing a new mama and daddy should have to do.

We know that God will carry them and be their strength through this. But going through the valley can seem to take a long time. God is close to the brokenhearted. He is the God of Comfort and the Prince of Peace. They know Him as their Rock and will know Him better after all of this.

We can grieve with hope. Heaven is a little more of a reality when part of you is already there...

This week... our hearts are in North Dakota.

Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July... in Armenia!

We ate hot dogs, watched baseball, made red white and blue stars, had a red white and blue fruit salad, had potato chips, made chocolate chip/M&M cookies, sang patriotic songs... tried to really be American! :)

(Kevin missed the fireworks... especially now that the kids are a little older... last year they kinda enjoyed all the lighting of fireworks for the first time. I missed the parades and riding motorcycle with my Dad! Still, we celebrated and had a good day!)

We love the USA!

mother's day/father's day

Just wanted to post some pics for you to see our mother's day treasure and our father's day treasures... :) We love these kiddos who have made us a mom and dad! For mother's day we went to and Italian place here in Yerevan... yum. And for Father's Day we ate brownies! We had just gotten some in a package from the Blake and Crystal! Of course the best thing we did to celebrate, was to hang out with our sweet little loves!

A year of Homeschooling!

Here's to a year of homeschooling! :)

Ruth officially finished her last day of Kindergarten on Saturday! Whoo! She is now on her way to 1st grade! Wow. She's learned to read and write (in cursive!) and add and subtract! We're still working on tying shoes... but overall she's all set! It's been hardest for her to be homeschooled, I think... she's so active and tactile and relational... Hannah would like friends to do school games with and Benjamin would love to play some sports with his buddies. But we can tell that Ruth enjoys learning more with people and while doing things! She has done well, though, even as the only kindergartner here! She also went to an Armenian preschool (Inchuig) two days a week with our tutor's daughter. She got to graduate from Inchuig last week with some of her Armenian friends. She did great there but it was overwhelming, too! She made some friends but with the language barrier, she was pretty shy! We're proud of her for being out there doing her best!
--This is our 100 Days of Homeschooling Party that we had back in March! Whoo! 100! Cake and candies and paints and balloons! Par-tee!


Hannah has gotten so responsible! She is enjoying writing; she is creative and artistic. This year she told me she loves Math, too! Go, girl! (That isn't my strongest subject...) She has always loved the singing and Bible part of school and will watch those parts over again while she does her seatwork. After school she loves to play school with Ruth and Elijah (and Benjamin when he'll do it!). She says she wants to be a teacher! Hopefully next year we'll be able to hook up with another missionary family that has a boy and girl in between Benjamin and Hannie. Then they'll have some friend time and Hannah will like that! Daddy has also begun to teach Hannah some piano lessons! She's excited about that.

Benjamin loves to learn. Even when he's not doing school, he's reading a book or watching a documentary about the states or the presidents. He loves knowledge! I wouldn't have to do anything to help him in school but say - Go! Learn! and he would! Math is the one subject that has been harder for him. We're doing the whole Abeka curriculum and at the school they were at before they used some Abeka, but not their math. So he switched curriculums for that subject and this has been a little harder for him.... Again, not my strong suit so Daddy and Benjamin have spent some time together with Math. For science and history he got to study some of his favorite things this year: the ocean, space, the Civil War... I think that before he did the class he knew more then what they taught him! He's read and studied all those things a lot already! Heh. Right now we're doing the Iowa Basic Tests! Go Benjamin!

Next year Elijah will be old enough for Preschool - four years old! We're still trying to figure out just what we'll do for him. I have done some numbers and letters with him but nothing serious. He's learned a lot just living with four older siblings! And now he's learning some Armenian, as well! Pretty cool for a little guy.

We've enjoyed homeschooling and are preparing to order next years curriculum any day now! What an accomplishment for the Crawford family! A year of Homeschooling under our belt! :)

allergic to cleaning

I have had a few allergies or skin problems in the past few months!

First, I had some foot infection between my pinky toe (and the one next to it... does that toe have a name??). I went to the doctor a couple times during the month of May and had different medicines to apply and creams and then some oral pills... It seems to be better now. So I'm hoping that it stays away. In the end the skin doctor said something about athletes foot but I'm still not totally convinced! Maybe that and something else... I had some trouble with my foot back when I was pregnant with Elijah, so 5 years ago, and it's always been a little bit funky since then! But they say skin things are hard to figure out so since it hasn't bothered me, until May when it got infected and swollen, I've just let it be. But now I've had the chance to visit the hospital here and check all that out in case we ever need to go there again in the future! Heh. My sweet jan (my friend), Marine, came along with me to all the dr. visits and to get the medicines and stuff... Only a good friend can go with you and see your infected foot, right!? :)

--The pic is just to show you my foot's okay now! :)

I've also had the typical sneezey allergies. One day I rode the taxi into town with Marine and Nadela after they were here to tutor/babysit and as we rode I think I sneezed like 40 times! I don't know if it was just spring pollen or dust in the taxi or maybe cigarette smoke (LOTS of smokers here!)... I dunno but I about blew my head off during that 20 minute ride into town! Heh.

Then just before we left for Turkey, I got some big rash type thing all over! Can you believe it? We had friends over the day before and I swept all over the house and moped and cleaned... and it was hot so I was sweaty... I did change my clothes but didn't take a whole shower. Then that night after our friends left, I noticed some white, itchy bumps on my neck. I've gotten one or two small mosquito type white bumps ever since I was little and we've thought it was an allergy to cats... But these small bumps got bigger and bigger. Of course, our electricity went out that night so there was no hot water for me to take a good shower! I rinsed off the best I could and did shower when the hot water came back! But the next day... I was all itchy and the white bumps were getting bigger and all over me! I put our aloe vera on and laid in bed (the day before we left for Turkey when we had tons of packing to do...)! That night I got some Allegra from Nick's and Olivia's place and that seemed to help. But when we left the next morning for Turkey, I still had a few fading bumps... By the time we got to Turkey it all seemed to be gone and they haven't come back since then.

So I guess I'm officially allergic to cleaning! Poor me, huh?! ;)

Turkey

To retreat or not to retreat...


We were able to take our first Missionary Retreat in Turkey this year! We didn't know if we'd make it because of finances, which is what most missionaries say. But all of the leaders in missions encourage it because looking back they can see that those who do not retreat are typically the ones who leave the field or burn out or have to take some other time or medical time later down the road. So the leaders who look out for us say: Go to your retreat!

For us, it was a good chance to meet a few other "M's" working in our area. It's good to see what's going on around you and to know who is there. We were glad to make connections and especially glad for our kiddos to make some connections and to see that they're not alone in this overseas - MK life! Benjamin was one of the few (only) boys! But he did well, besides a few days of stomach trouble! Hannie made a good new friend from Moldova. Ruth made friends with everybody she laid eyes on! Ha. It's good for her to have some extended family to love on and be loved by. Although we had to watch her because others around the hotel thought she was pretty sweet, too, and we didn't know everyone! She had to be taught a little bit about strangers and who it was okay to be with... Elijah got to be included in the big kids class! He's Mr Four now and not a baby. He only had one accident in his pants... (arg... but he's soo much better now then before... lots of changes lately for a little man!) They had great teachers and are still talking about them like they're our new family!


We had mornings and evenings of meetings and open afternoons to go to the pool or beach or just to lay in our room! Ha. (We did some of that for Benjamin's sake... poor guy!) We meet together for meetings in the mornings and had a guest speaker encourage us in the evenings. It was nice to worship in English with Americans and hear sermons in English, too! We went into town one day with some friends and had Burger King ice creams! Lots of people went to Starbucks but since we're not huge coffee drinkers, we just got brownies to share! Yum. Fun to get to do those things that we haven't done for a few months!

I could share notes and things with you from our meetings... but I'm not sure that's what you're looking for on a blog?? :)

Ephesus
One extra treat for us is that we got to tour the ruins of Ephesus. Paul spent like 3 years there and you can read about it in Acts. Then he also wrote his letter to the Ephesians which you can read, too! :) It was totally cool to walk the streets that Paul had walked. To try to go back in time and imagine who walked there and what life was like back then. We had a friend stop along the tour and read from Ephesians about the different people finding unity there. It was an interesting experience for us. I took tons of pics if you wanna see them at our flickr site! While we walked through ruins on a 1oo degree afternoon, another friend of ours watched the kids and took them swimming at the pool!! Thanks, Mary!!! :) We all liked that arrangement. Although Benjamin was torn about whether to come with us or stay and swim... he's our history lover. In the end a cool pool with friends won out! Hannah told us to take pictures and they'd look at them! Heh.


Traveling to Turkey:
Since the boarder between Turkey and Armenia are closed... we had to fly up to Riga, Latvia and then back down to Istanbul, to Izmir, and then drive the hour to the hotel. Latvia is way up by Finland so that's a long way to go when we're down by Iran! Loooong flights to go and come back.


When we got off the plane in Izmir to find the guy who would take us to the hotel, the sign he held said Benjamin Crawford! Awesome. So Benjamin was the man of the family for a while! :)

Every night we had our doors open to catch the breeze (the hotel only ran the AC for like 3 hours at night...) and they did a concert down in the little amphitheater outside our window... so we learned their routine pretty well! Bedtime music... it started at like 10. (Supper started at 7:30!!)

On the way back it was over 24 hours to get home! When we got on the planes, Lijah would be asleep even before we got in the air! We got home and crashed... talk about jet lag just from visiting the country right next door to you!

Our flight from Riga to Yerevan left at 12:30 AM... and the sun was still setting when we boarded the plane! Kinda cool... it's up close to St Petersburg where they have the "White Nights".

Home
We were glad to get home and contemplated what makes home - home. ND will always be "home" but we were glad to feel like this was "home", too. I don't know if it's where your things are, where your routine is, where your friends are, where things are familiar... probably all of those things together?! We're here and together and home! One of our speakers said her and her husband decided where ever they were, they would make "home". Since they travel so much. Ruth does a good job of that! To her, we lived in Turkey for a week! :) The speaker also talked about making your home be home, letting God dwell in you and being at home with Him, and then our Home in heaven which we should always remember... Someday we'll really be home.

friends

Some of our friends here in Armenia!