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!

Amarikatsi em

Ամերիկացի

Amarikatsi em... I am American. These words have new meaning for us. Here in Armenia, it means - we don't know what we're doing! Heh.

When my taxi dropped me off and I had to switch to another one (see the post further down), when I got in to the next taxi and wasn't sure what was going on, the man asked me, "Amarikatsie ek?" And answered, "Aio, Yes Amarikooi em." which is the way to say I'm an American if you're a girl. Anyway... he smiled big and nodded. (But that's about where the conversation stopped...!) :) Most Armenians like to hear us try to talk in Armenian. A friend said that they don't hear a lot of forigners speak in Armenian so when they do hear it they enjoy that...

Anyway... People think that Americans, in general, are smart and have a lot going for them, which is true. But here, we realize that as an American, we only know one language and we don't know street rules or cultural norms... We watch other people float in and out of three or four languages and explain cultures and history...

We are humbled.
Whenever we do something goofy or are confused or don't understand... Kev and I look at each other and say, "Yes Amarikatsi em!" with a smile and shrug.

Breath of God.

Աստվածաշունչ
Asdvatsashoonch

This is the word Bible in Armenian... the actual translation is God's Breath... way cool.


--We're reading Narnia books right now and they've talked about the power of Aslan's breath... who represents Jesus.

Thoughts on our drive through town

I always think of things to share with you that are different or interesting here while we're driving around town, which is when, of course, I don't have my computer or internet... :) So I took some notes! Heh!

Gas.
Ha. Here when we fill up with gas, we just drive up (to a gas station called "Flesh"), tell the man we'd like Premium and fill it up... we pay him and tip him a little bit and off we go!

Balconies
There are apartments all over the place here. 15 floor buildings. And they usually have their clothes hanging out to dry. And most of them have balconies, but at least half of them have been made into extra rooms. So there will be one apt with an open balcony and the one next door has walls around theirs for another room in the home. (It's typical for a little apartment to have a whole family of like 10 people in there...)

Marriage
Marriage is what brings us together, today... (a little Princess Bride for my bro Scotte!) In Armenian it's Amoosnanal and Amoosing is husband... anywho. After a couple gets married here, they still typically move in with the husband's family. So a new bride packs up and heads on over to his family's house. Just interesting for us Amerikatsies to think of...

Honk/Flash
A lot of talking is done via your car while you're out driving. People honk the second that the light changes, whether or not your at the front of the line and can move at all! Just letting you know! And a lot of times they'll just flash their lights if they're trying to tell you something. I'm still figuring out the difference, or if there is one!? Go, hello, stop...

Flowers
Flower shops are all over along the sides of the roads. I like this. Guess with is on my table quite often now... fresh flowers! It's the thing to do when you go visit some body, or if your husband is sweet... ;)

Poppies
Wild red poppies grow all over Yerevan. I love it.

Stare
Maybe I already told you this, but in Armenian there is no word for stare. Even though there's no word for it... they still do it! Ha. Kevin's red hair draws some attention from people since there's mostly black hair around us. But it's also kinda interesting to us to watch men stare at the pretty ladies that walk by! Heh... so pretty...

Military
When boys graduate from high school here, they go into the military. I think it's for two years. So if you're a boy you will be in the military. Our friend was telling us this with his little 6-7 year old boy playing with Elijah next to us. Later we were told that some boys go to the university first and then to the military. They will be given some "better" jobs then... So our friends who have a 17 year old boy is going to try to go to the university first. Interesting anyway. Shushan, our friend who's brother is 17, said that if they didn't require it, no one would go...

Tight pants-high heels
So many girls here wear tight, and we're saying t-i-g-h-t, pants and high, again h-i-g-h, heels... The other day a gal walked in front of our car at a stop light and her white pants were so tight that Kevin said he could count the hairs on her butt! Ha! :) It's interesting to watch the gals walk with their high heels on the broken up sidewalks and streets, too... that would be so hard to do!! Olivia told us that when they came like 6 years ago there were no flats! ooooh... glad we came 6 years later! ;) Now there are more flats along with the high heels. Whew.




Statues
There are statues everywhere! We don't know who they all are or exactly what they all mean but we see them all over! This is one in our neighborhood. Kev says I shouldn't be so smiley by it but he was being goofy so....

Andre Aggasi
WE see a big sign of Andre Aggasi right down town advertising a watch or something... I think it's interesting to think of that for Armenians. He is from Iran, I think, and has Armenian blood... so I'm sure that's super cool for Armenians!? I'll go buy his watch... heh... (they do like tennis here...)

Marshookas

Did we tell you about riding the marshooka? They're like mini busses. A mini van type thing that picks people up and has a route and you off along the way... Well, we rode one once. And Kevin figured that was quite enough! Ha. He has some claustrophobia issues or something anyway... but seriously there were 17 or 18 people packed into the marshooka the size of the minivan! Of course, I, who have motion sickness issues, sat in the only seat open that was facing backwards... Ha. (I was okay, though.) And when we thought it was totally full, it'd pull over and more people would pile in! But the time we got out at the metro station... we were both glad for the cool breeze down in the tunnel and the wider open spaces in the metro! :)

Taxi
We take taxis sometimes. They are a little more expensive. But obviously take you where you want to go without smooshing you in there! :) (I do tend to have a little motion sickness in a taxi, too, since the roads are tough and crazy and the driving tends to be swervey and jerky...) If you can't speak the language... who wouldn't be able to speak the language... it could be a challenge to be sure that they know where you're telling them to go! We've learned some of the important words like straight, right, left, Vanahovid (our neighborhood), kilometers... (Although I did say "brain" once while riding with a friend instead of "straight" because they sound similar!!) Kevin carried a map for the first month or two... that's easier...

The other day, on of my close friends, Marine, called the taxi service that she usually uses so that she could feel confident that they'd get me home without any trouble... (we were going separate ways from down town...) And after I said goodbye and got it, the drive picked up his CB and said "something, something, Vanahovid, something something..." and then he pulled over to the side of the road. I asked if he knew Vanahovid - getoom a Vanahovid?? He nodded yes but still asked something about Vanahovid on his CB. Then we just sat there by the side of the road. I was going to ask if I should wait or go when another taxi pulled over and he pointed to it and said "sorry". So I got out and into another one... kinda laughing about how Mar-jan was off feeling confident that I was home while I was switching taxis unsure just why. But I did get home and it was no big deal. Just a little adventure! :)

ruthie's armenian preschool - inchuig

Ruthie has been going with our tutor's daughter, Iren, to an Armenian preschool called Inchuig. Inchuig means "Little Why". Cute. It meets two days a week for two hours. There are 5 classes that last about 20 minutes each. Since it's a bit overwhelming for a little 6 year old to dive into school classes that she can't understand... guess who's been sitting in on them with her? Yup, me. (although today Kevin had the pleasure!) It's been interesting for me, though, since I love kids and especially that age. (and since my degree is in early childhood education...) For most classes the kids, about 15 of them, line up in little kid sized chairs along the walls and the teachers stand in front. They play a few little games and sing some songs.

Ruth and her Armenian friends study English, art and computer, Russian, music and dance, and math and letters. English is pretty easy for her... :) And Russian is haaard... they're teaching Russian in Armenian! Heh. We don't catch toooo much, but I tell her to just listen anyway. (She's usually sucking her thumb!) Music and dance is kinda fun and she's warming up to that. Coloring and computer times are interesting. She wants her coloring to be perfect and that can be stressful! And for the computer time, they each take turns and watch the others do their turn. The Math and Alphabet class is probably the most like a class in America, with a desk and papers to write on... so she likes that one. Plus, she's good at her math!

All the teachers are very kind to us! Some of them speak English. And I'm hoping to learn Armenian here... :) Most of the moms just wait there since it takes a while to get anywhere in a big city. You'd get there and have to come back. So I've visited a little bit with a couple moms. They like that I'm trying to learn Armenian and think it's a little strange that I came here. One gal said we all want to go to America and you came here! And another gal said that it's a great pleasure that I'm taking the time to learn their language.

In June, they'll put on a little program to show all they've learned. We went to Iren's last "party" and watched her sing and dance. I kinda doubt that Ruth will get up there to perform!? But it's still been an experience for her to be making friends and to be in that environment. When she's sad or shy, her little friends say "vochinch, vochinch" (It's okay, it's okay...) and when it's time to go to the next class Iren says "ari, ari" (come, come...)

I wish they had a little free time to play together. Ruth would be able to interact a little more with the friends that way... When they get outside they run up and down the sidewalk and giggle. It can be easier to make a friend when you're playing! :) But they've all be kind to her, too... In Russian class they were going over the Russian alphabet and when the got to the "R" sound a little boy said - Like Ruth! Sweet.

1 Corinthians 13

Here's our four kiddos in our backyard this week...
(This was actually our Feb verse... but with moving and all, it kinda became our March/April verse... :)

City of U Turns

Everywhere you go in Yerevan, you're looking for the next U Turn... To get to our neighborhood, we actually have to drive past it a little ways, make a U Turn an then come back to it. There isn't an opening to get across the road to turn directly onto our street. If you drive into town and want to turn left on to a street, a lot of times, you need to drive down the street a ways until the solid white line becomes dotted... that means it's okay to make a U Turn there. So cars will be lined up along the road, waiting to make U Turns to get back to the street they just passed! When Nick and Olivia give us directions, they tell us drive past the street that we want to turn left on until we find a place to make a U Turn then come back to it and turn right...

City of U Turns.

-Here we are going North (west) with our neighborhood on the left... and then again coming south (east), with our neighborhood on the right! Heh.

March Birthdays

Benjamin hit double digits on March 31st! So wild how fast the time goes! He's a fine young man, growing strong, and smart, and wise in the Lord. We're proud of him. We made a twinkie cake for him, had pizza, and watched Space Buddies. Sometime this month, Nick said he knew of an observatory that he could take him/us to. So he's looking forward to that. Happy Birthday to our Big Deluxe! :)

And little Ruthie turned six years old just the day after we got to Yerevan! We were so tired and "jet-laggin'" but we managed to hit a play place and have pizza, too. Olivia ordered a beautiful barbie dress cake. So she was very celebrated, even though we could barely keep our eyes open! :) Happy birthday to our firecracker!

catch up

Hey!

I just copied and pasted all the emails I'd send to our family and friends over the month of March... So now you're all caught up! :) We're here and settling in.

The picture is of the kids, just a few steps down the street from our front door! Mt Ararat at sunset! The one of Kev and me was taken at the Cascade, downtown Yerevan.

We went to a pretty walking park the other day with Olivia and Oliver and the kids... Ruth found a good place in the rocks and dirt to sit and play. This caused a little stir from the people around us... Olivia said it's culture shock for them. Little girls here don't sit down on the ground! Well, I think they'll see Ruthie on the ground more then once while we're here! Ha. Playing in the dirt is what she's meant to do! :)

We got some good numbers for our phones! Heh... we were told that numbers are important. Like 777 is good, or 1212... things like that. You'll notice "good" numbers on license plates around here... I guess people pay more to have good numbers!

There are a few tunnels throughout Yerevan. Ruth (and Oliver) is especially fond of going through the tunnels. There's one tunnel in Arkansas that we've been through twice and she's always remembered it and wanted to go through it again. Now we'll have opportunities every day to hit a tunnel, if we so desire! :)

Our tutor is coming five days a week now. We've learned the alphabet (all 39 letters!) and can write out words and make a few sentences. Nadale tells us that in English, we sing... in Armenian, we fight... Heh. They talk stronger and sharper here. We need to learn to "fight" when we talk! :) Fight, Jill!

One last quick two cents from me before I head to bed... I spoke at a women's conference in Hrazdan, a town North East of here. I gave my testamony and had another sweet friend translate for me. Afterwards I had the chance to pray for some women (again through an interperter) and when we were on our way to the pastor's home afterwards Kevin asked me what was on my cheek?? Lipstick. From all the women's kisses! Love it. :)

We're doing well and are getting into a groove. At the same time we think of all our friends and family at home, too! Love you guys!

March 16, 2009 email update from Armenia

March 16, 2009

Hey!

I've been trying to remember a few things to pass on to you guys... let's see here...

Ants
A week or two ago I was sweeping, which we have to do all day long, and I saw things moving in my dust pan! Ick. Tiny ants. They come in right by our door in the hallway! Ick. So we got some nasty ant poison that's bad for people, too... I don't know which is better or worse. But we were told that where there are ants, nasty spiders may show up, too! Uff da. So you can pray that we don't get any of those. I guess Nick and Olivia had a bunch in their basement last year and they're just down the block. But they were only in the basement and they didn't find any upstairs. So hopefully that's good news for us since we don't have a basement. They had people come and fumigate so we will, too! They're only out in the summer. Sigh.

Tourists
We spent a week, or at least a few day, just being tourists. Olivia and Oliver went to Holland where her parents are missionaries and she had a good ultrasound there – it's a healthy girl. But while they were away, we all packed into the SUV with Nick and saw the sights. The Cascade and and old monastery that I can't remember how to spell... Heh. If you're on facebook, you can check out a few pics... There's also lots of statues all around Yerevan. We also ate at Yum Yum Donuts, pizza places, and the Russian KFC... Heh. Pizza dough is soft and bready here and they like mayonnaise on it!! But we ask for it without mayo! :)

Churches
Last Sunday we went to an Armenian church in the morning and the international church in the evening. It got to be a long day. We heard that the Armenian pastor(s) goes longer, even! And there isn't much for children's programs during church. So two or three hours of Armenian speaking (and sitting for three hours...) gets kinda long for the kiddos. They liked that they spoke English at the other church, but they mostly just drew on paper with like 4 other kids there, too... We were hoping it'd be a big children's program for them. At least it was in English – they liked that! We liked both, I guess. It'll be nice to go to the Armenian one and understand. I really want to learn to sing the worship songs in Armenian! The preaching was actually by a Canadian missionary with a translator, so we did understand that part anyway! Preaching with a translator will be tricky... it was all choppy. Not a smooth sermon, you know.... anywho.

I have been asked to preach next Friday, with a translator! They're having a women's program at a smaller city about 45 minutes out of Yerevan! Only 15 minutes but that'll still be something, huh?! Last night I went with Nick and Olivia up there to be a part of some of the organizing.

Bathroom
After church, at the Armenian one, the assistant pastor Hiak and his wife Monny, went out to eat with us and Nick. They took us to the Russian KFC that was close by! It had a waterfall in the basement part with goldfish in the pond below. Fancy. While we were there, Ruth had to go to the bathroom... and she got herself locked in the stall!! And it was a little room, with no opening at the bottom of the door or whatever. Not the metal stalls we're used to. So I had to go get help because the door needed a KEY to open it. She was crying and the Armenians who worked there were busily trying to get her out! The manager had a million keys so it took a while. He found the key and got her out. She hung on tight to me and hid her face... Quite an adventure! All this while Kev was upstairs ordering. He didn't even know about it until afterwards... when the manager brought both Ruth and me ice cream cones! Ha. Leave it to our Ruthie... :)

Snow
This week we had some snow! The kids came running in to my room and opened the window! Snow, snow!! It was like Kansas City snow... melted later that day, I think. But it was still exciting. It's been around 50, I'm guessing, for the average temps here.

Homeschool
We're back to homeschooling. Trying to juggle that and language learning! Whew. The kids will already be schooling into June so we need to be off and running.

Meals and Mt Dew...
We're trying to figure out good meals with what they have here and with our oven that has no numbers on it for temps! Goofy. Looks like we'll be eating a lot of chicken. We did find hot dogs! Heh. And they have lavash, which is flat bread, and we like that rolled with cheese or peanut butter. The kids wanted to try it with sugar since it looks like lefsa! :)

Power
Twice, so far, our power has gone out. Once it went out about a half an hour before Nick and Kevin came home with tons of stuff from the grocery store! They said it'd be out for 7 hours but it came back on before that! I guess that doesn't happen too often!?

Teeth
Sharon, for you I thought I'd tell you about the teeth. Lots of people have golden teeth! The kids asked Tom, one of Nick's friends (and now ours too) why he had gold teeth... he said he didn't obey his mama and didn't brush well enough. One of the kids thought it was cool and wished they had gold teeth, too! :)

Smell
I'd wondered what it would smell like here because I'd heard that's something people really notice when they go overseas. It's not that different, I don't think. Some individual things smell different, but it'd not a huge difference overall... just fyi! Ha!

Marine
The kids have a babysitter when we tutor. Her name is Marine. She's great. They love her. She's babysat Oliver since he was 8 weeks old and is very involved in ministry stuff with the Puccinis so we trust here and are so thankful for that answered prayer! She has long black hair, which Hannie says is long purple hair! Heh. It has a tint of red or something so it looks purple to Hannie! She spent some time braiding it yesterday! :)

Nadala
Pronounced Na DAY la. Nadala (sp?) is our tutor. She is a believer, too! Yea. And we think she's good although we've never had a tutor before! :) She challenges us, which doesn't take much! Heh. But she's also encouraging. Nick said their first tutor called them lazy and stuff for not learning the whole alphabet in a day! Like 39 funky letters! Nadala says, “Shat Lav, shat lav” -Very good, very good. We're learning a few things anyway! She speaks in Armenian most of the time but uses English words to help us understand sometimes. She comes right to our home. Which is another blessing, too!

Jilljon
Two days ago, I asked Kevin when he thought we'd become Jilljon and Kevinjon. That's like dear or something like that that friends put at the end of names. The very next morning, Marine and Nadala came over (the come together in a taxi) and Marine said “Barev Jilljon!” And I hugged her! Ha. I'm Jilljon to a friend in Armenia! :) Whoo. Nadala said I was Jilljon to her, too! Heh. Sweet.

I love you
Tom, Nick's friend, has been helping him do yard work lately. So we've visited with him some. He's Armenian and speaks English well. We stopped and shared a few of our new Armenian words with him while we were going for a family walk around the block and when we were saying goodbye and walking away the kids were saying goodbye and see you soon and he said “I love you!” to them. They skipped down the street with a smile! :) He has a motorcycle with a side car. The other day when he was out by it, I said, “That smells like my dad and his garage!” :) He said it smells like Russian oil! Heh.

When I was out of town the other day getting ready for the women's conference, I got to eat with an Armenian pastor and his wife and 6 of their 7 grown children! The youngest is 16 and will be coming to Yerevan for college in the fall... They were a great family. Two of the girls work at the office translating the Fire Bible so I'd met one of them earlier. Tamar and Shushan. The pastor/dad's eyes reminded me of my dad, too... He was an older man with smile marks along the corners of his eyes. Must be thinking of you, Dad, huh?! :) While we were there, I was talking to the mom, with the help of Tamar who speaks English, and in the end she said, “Yes kez sirum!” (sp) “I love you.” :) I told her that I love her, too!

Internet!!

March 11, 2009 email update from Armenia

March 11, 2009

The past couple days have been kinda slower, just getting things settled. Kevin and Nick got the cell phones! Yea. But my battery in my new pink phone was old... so they went back and got a newer one. We charged the phone all night and in a couple hours it was dead. This one has worked all day so far. Now we have a way to get a hold of someone if we need to! And to get a hold of each other.

We've gone into the city (since we live just a little ways north west) several times. It's a huge city and we're still not totally sure where we are. But I think we'll get a map here soon and that will help. If we were online we could look. Crazy all the things you do online! I think these next couple days we'll be tourists and see some of the sites up close. We've driven past lots of things already...

Speaking of all the things you do online that you notice when you can't be online... the same is true with water, we found out! Yesterday, our neighbor down the street drove by and asked if I'd saved water... it was supposed to be out for 36 hours. Hum. We had plenty of drinking water so I thought we'd be fine, but then I looked down to see both Ruth and Elijah playing in the dirt/mud! Hum. Then we had to go to the bathroom... hum. Shower, mop, dishes... hum. :) We ended up going out to eat with Nick and Olivia and Marina at a Mexican restaurant and the water ended up coming on earlier then expected.

Another thing to watch out for is the power surges. The lights will flicker and stuff. No biggie. But we were told that it can blow out your TV or light bulbs! So we plugged the TV into a box that will take the surge (instead of the TV taking it...).

Let me share some Armenian things that we've noticed. For one thing, it's so rocky. Olivia said it's the land of rocks. Volcanic rocks. The buildings are made out of it and all along the roads and out in the fields there's – rocks. It's also kinda dusty. One day was really windy and we noticed black dust all around the living room by our front door. We'll seal it up a little better... :) And all our floors are tile so they sweep easily. (Funny since our last place in Williston was all carpet!)

The roads here are all bumpy and some don't have clear markings of who should be where. There's some good potholes out there. People are crazy drivers and whip around each other to squeeze past. They have buses and taxies and marshookas. (Somewhere in between a bus and a taxi! Heh.) People who are walking walk out in front of the crazy drivers to get across the streets. And even run to the middle of the road to stand and wait to run the rest of the way across. So they're standing there in the middle of crazy traffic coming and going on both sides.

The businessmen are serious. Kevin has observed this more then me. They kinda try to get you. And don't smile too much in the process. Heh.

Most everyone loves kids. Especially our younger two get lots of rubs on the head and touches on the cheeks. Which make Elijah burst out, “Barev!” which is Hello! He looks for people walking past to say Barev to. He even rolled down the window last night and said Barev to the police officers next to us. They smiled and waved and rolled down their window. Then they turned on their lights to show us. Funny what a little guy can get someone to do!

The kids are all good at saying hello and thank you in Armenian. People love to hear them try to speak to them! :)

People want to see kids bundled up. Our kids think it's crazy warm here so they've been out without coats. When we went to church on Sunday, the building the service was in was colder then outside! So in there, the kids were cold. People around us gave them coats and scarves to help keep them warm. We learned that they look out for cold kids... and that we should always bring a coat or sweater along!

There's a lot of smokers here and the smell of cigarettes is usually in the air. It's not overwhelming but usually there.

A lot of people wear BLACK! Kevin likes that. Heh. They usually are dressed up more then us with nice shoes and the tall, high heel boots. There are other colors, too. But a lot of black. The kids usually have bright coats and clothing.

We feel pretty safe. We were told that there's not much theft. And Nick told Kevin the other day that there's even a security guy for our neighborhood who stays at the entrance of our road. He watches for suspicious cars and stuff. Kevin liked that, I think.

Yerevan has had earthquakes. Olivia said she's felt one. We're glad we're not living in the 20 story, old apartment buildings in the city! Heh. She told us the biggest threat is the Nuclear power plant outside the city! Yikes. They're trying to get it shut down but would like to have another energy supply in place first. Kevin did no like that so much. Heh. But Olivia said that the US Embassy is still here so it must be fairly safe?!

There's no big Walmart or store like that. But there's a lot of the same little stores scattered throughout the city. We were in a fairly “normal” sized grocery store today. But most stores, even restaurants, are littler.

We'll drive by crumbling houses and turn to see nicer big places right close by. Interesting. There's also half finish building scattered around the city. Some of them were soviet buildings that were just never finished, I guess. And some, the people were paid or bribed to build somewhere else in the middle of building.

There's lots of street dogs. We haven't ran int too many up close but a couple nipping at the car as we drive by. They think dogs are stinky. But some people keep outside dogs and more are accepting certain types of pure bred dogs in their homes.

So there you have it. Nick and Kevin are out today trying to pick up a few more things we need. We got lamps today for our rooms. (Which took like an hour, running to the warehouse to get the three little lamps we'd picked, etc...) We also need a little desk or two for homeschooling and maybe a bookshelf and coatrack. We'll see what they find. Nick said it might be cheaper to have someone make us that instead of just buying it at the store.

Oh! Our internet guy might come in the next week. They ordered some part or something that should be in in the next couple days!? That'll be sweet! :) We'll be in better touch once that all comes together!

Now, I better run. It's almost supper time and Elijah's on the toilet. I hope he gets potty trained SOON!! sigh. I think we'll start some schooling tomorrow. Kevin slept a little better last night but still is not completely settled. We love that you're praying for us! We love you. And we're praying for you, too!!

Oh... Kevin has been up to the office downtown where they're working on translating the Fire Bible. He's fixing their computers! Heh. And another missionary asked if he'd be interested in doing some computer stuff with him sometime. Olivia said I'd been asked to speak at a ladies thing at the end of the month, maybe. I'd have a translator. I think by this Friday we should know something about our tutoring. Nick and Olivia's babysiter/friend/assistant might be available to watch our kids for the two hours we spend tutoring. The kids are already comfortable with Marina so they think we should start tutoring already! Heh. It'll be good to get in to a routine, I think. Get involved some, too! We're thinking we'll check out the international church sometime. Get the kids involved in a couple things...

Okay! Gotta run. Superman needs me!
Love you guys!

--If you've replied to me, I still haven't had a chance to check email. Kevin has just copied and pasted what I've written to you and sent it off. He said some of you have replied. Just that makes me smile. I love you friends. Can't wait to lock myself in my room when the net is hooked up and read your love! :) Love you! I'll try to reply to everything you wrote, too!!

March 8th, 2009 email update from Armenia

March 8, 2009

Today is Women's Day. Nick told us that they congratulate you on being a woman. Heh. Flowers are huge and it's expected of the men of the family to spend a lot of money to make their women feel special.

We got to go to a special needs orphanage this morning. There were four families that went so that was kind a crazy since there were about 10-15 kids there anyway. We probably doubled that with ours! But the kids were pretty sweet. There were a few with downs syndrome and some in wheel chairs. It was Mother Teresa Orphanage so there were several indian nuns running it. They were sweet, too, and gave me kisses on each cheek. The kids were probably newborn to age 6ish. We saw a few little ones upstairs who were blind and pretty sick. Downstairs was where we played the most. Those kids were full of hugs and smiles and were busy throwing around a beach ball and chasing balloons that we brought. It was kinda busy and crowded. Heh. But there were a couple little ones that wanted to play with us and read books with us. We got a couple pictures, too. And one little guy Ignas (sp?) took several pictures with my camera, too. He was 6 and in a wheel chair and spoke like three languages. Crazy. When we left he said “Come back?” I think Kevin, and Nick, too, were special treats for them! Men.

In a little bit, I think we're going with Nick and Olivia to a church planting outreach for Women's Day.

The kids have each had a couple issues feeling sad or nervous. But for the most part, we're doing well. The nights have been a little stressful for Kevy. But we are learning to go to the grocery store and things like that. They almost got the cell phone today but it hadn't come in yet. So they'll try some other place tomorrow if they havent' gotten them in yet.

Things go slower here. The internet guy is coming by sometime. To check out our place. And will come back some other time to do whatever he needs to do... slow going? :)

When things are running, we'll be in better touch!! We love you, even when we're not online!! :)

March 7th, 2009 update from Armenia

Myellow! :) March 7th

Just thought I'd add a little more of our update today. I'm typing in the email just on a text doc on our computer so that when we get internet or when we get over to borrow Nick and Olivia's, we can just copy and paste and send instead of sitting there for a long time in front of the computer instead of hanging out.

Anywho. Today Oliver had his fourth birthday party in a little community room in our neighborhood. So we got to go celebrate him and have a pirate party. Eye patches and earings! And we also got to meet a few more people. So that's cool. We met three other missionaries today. One family from Canada, another independent family whose wife is Armenian, and another family that's Baptist who have two kids that are 9. Benjamin and Hannie hooked up with Micah and Kyra right away so that was cool. They're adopted from Russia. Ruth hung out with the girls and Elijah made an Armenian girl friend, Deana, I think. He just said he liked her, I'm not sure what she thought! Ha. He also played with Oliver and a few other kids. He learned to say, “Come, come!” in Armenian. Heh. So, I guess I was excited to share that with you guys since I know you're praying with us that everyone would find good friends.

We also have met a couple Armenians that we're trying to learn to speak with! Heh. One guy, Vahram, came to help pick us up from the airport. He is married and has two little ones. He knows a little bit of English so we tried to visit some. He's a part of the ministries here and a really nice guy. He told me his wife was expensive... but meant to say precious! :) That will be our life! Heh. Picking the wrong word and laughing about it. And we hung out with Marina (Mar een a) again. She speaks English well. And we also met Christina who is an English translator. I don't thin her husband speaks English, though. So anyway... it was an interesting morning and we met a few more people. Yea.

Tomorrow we might go to a special needs orphanage with Olivia and her friend. They're bringing a couple gifts up there and invited us along. And we'll go to church in the evening. I'm not sure if that's always when they do church or what but maybe... We heard that they usually get a slower start here then we're used to. Get to work at 9 or 10. Stay up later at night...

Benjamin thinks Mt Ararat is the coolest. Hannie would like to stay in this house for 56 years. (But today her friend told her it was small, so maybe she'll change her mind!?) :) Lijah's just running around like usual. Ruth is making friends and loves Uncle Nick. She gets along well with grown ups. And she is her usual self. All or nothing!

We slept better last night. Jet lag is rough. The first morning I explained it to the kids and later Ruth said, “I'm jet laggin!!” The kids slept through the night, mostly. Hannie said she was awake but just rested anyway. Ruth was up once to go to the bathroom at 1AM but went back to bed. Kev and I were awake but stayed in bed around 4. We'll be glad when we get adjusted!

I suppose we should start homeschooling soon. We're behind! But we better get adjusted first. And I think we'll try to get another little desk or two. There is one in our room...

Olivia leaves for the Netherlands on Wed for a baby check up and a visit with her folks. But it sounds like Nick will be here.

There's hamburger on our gas stove and our laundry's going yesterday Hannie and I washed dishes by hand in the sink... Some normal in the middle of all the new! Kev and Vahram are going to go try to get us some cell phones again today. Nick thought the guy selling them the other day was trying to take advantage of the Amerikasi. :) So Vahram will go with this time! It'll be nice to have a phone and internet. Some conections.

Hope you guys are doing well! We think of you and pray for you. Pray for us especially at night! That's always a good time for worry to creep in!

Last night I read about Moses and the burning bush. God called him to go and he said, “What if...” and God said, “I am with you!”. Good encouragement for us. We heard about being steadfast and trusting yesterday, too. God is working on us here! :) His peace surrounds those who trust in Him!

Love you guys!!!!
Jill

Jill-jon or Hannie-jon, etc... is a way of saying something sweet. No exact translation but kinda like honey or sweetie... a way to call a friend something nice! Crystal-jon. :)

March 6th, 2009 email update from Armenia

Hey guys! March 6, 2009

Since our internet hasn't been hooked up yet, we have barely been online. But we've thought of you guys lots and taken pictures to share with you and have already missed you, too. Our place is very nice – three bedrooms and two bath, no tub and no dishwasher, washer and dryers but they're tiny and take quite a while to go. The kids really feel at home so that's great. The walls are even light yellow, which I like. :) We got here early in the morning on the 4nd so it was still dark outside. I think by the time we got here it was about 7ish... so when the sun cam up an hour or so later we were looking out the windows to see what we could see. The Mt Ararat ranges goes all around so we saw that and wondered if we'd see THE Mt... when we looked the other way – and there it was! Right out our window! Huge and beautiful! Covered with snow and tinted pink against the slight sunrise. So exciting. I'll send a pic when we can! We're also just down the street from the missionaries here so we can walk down there to see them and to play with their 4 year old. They're having fun with Oliver. And Nick and Olivia have been taking good care of us! They even ordered a beautiful cake for Ruth's 6th birthday birthday, March 5th. Again, pictures... :) It was a pink barbie dress type cake. And they've taken us out to eat Armenian food as well as to a Purper type play place on Ruth's birthday where we also had pizza! The kids love Uncle Nick and Auntie Olivia already...

So all that to say that we're doing well and the Lord has blessed us. Besides that, we've also felt quite out of place! Not speaking the language, especially, creates such a barrier. Kevin felt pretty overwhelmed our first night here. Culture shock, I suppose. Me, too, but as the man of the family, he really had a kind of fear grip him about taking care of everything here... and not being able to do that really well. So keep us in your prayers. We have moments where we're like – what are we doing? We already know that we basically know nothing. Crazy. But we have felt the Lord leading us here so we are still trusting. Fear can be so confusing. Sometimes we don't even know what we're fearing. Just a feeling of fear. So anyway... Pray we'd be strong and courageous. And that we'd really know God as our Shepherd and the Prince of peace. He is perfecting our faith.

When we got here the place was just nice and felt like someplace we could feel at home, but after I thought that, I thought – we should invite Blake and Crystal over. And we missed you. It will be great to have any and all of you come to visit us! :) Home is home when your loved ones come over!

Our plane rides were pretty good. Four different flights. Lots of different languages. Lots of hauling all our carseats and bags around. Lots of thumb sucking! Hard to sleep on a plane. Kev and I were wiped out! By the time we got to Vienna to our 13 hour layover and to the hotel, we were all pretty exhausted! We had to get two rooms with 6 of us so the boys took one and the girls, the other. And we all napped. Except Kevin, who had to spend time in the bathroom! Uff da! He did drink some tap water at the hotel and wondered if that was part of the problem. So on our last flight to Yerevan, he was really tired and a little nervous. Poor guy. He did fine and I'm so proud of him for getting us to all the places we need to get to and filling out everything that needed to be filled out. He's amazing. I mostly watched the kiddos! I, on the other hand, caught Ruth's and Elijah's cold in Mpls just before we did all our flying. So I had cold medicine as my friend! Ruth and Elijah seem to be over theirs for the most part. I'm still coughing. But it's not terrible. :)

Oh, our first landing was pretty bumpy... it was snowing in Chicago so I suppose that made the air different. Since I have a tendency to get carsick, I had to concentrate on relaxing! Heh... and while I was doing that, the little boy behind me – was sick. He cried and puked most of the way down. Nice. All our other landings were much smoother, although, one of them made Ruth queezy but she wasn't sick. And on that flight, Elijah was sitting by a Pediatrician! So he was kind to Ruth and told her to take deep breaths and stuff... On our long flight over the ocean, we sat in front of a nice couple from Albania (it borders on the adriatic). The man spoke English so well, we wouldn't have guessed it was his second language. They were also sweet with the kids and visited with Ruth and Benjamin a while (who were sitting closest to them...) On our last flight, the flight attendant gave each of the kids little books and toys so they thought they were pretty spoiled! Heh. People would rub the little one's heads and treat them all kindly. So all in all, flying went pretty well. All our flights were on time and we didn't have to run to hard to get to the next gate...

When we flew into Yerevan, it was night and we saw all the lights... Hannie said, “Am I dreaming?” We wondered that a little bit ourselves! Heh. But here we are!

Kev's off with Nick to get a cell phone and the kids are in their jammies crying over how much cereal they got and who got more... so it's typical life to some extent! :) I better go help Lijah get what he needs!

Pray that we get over the jet lag and get caught up on our sleep so that we can think clearly again! :) The kids were up at 3 AM the first night but only Ruth was last night and she went back to sleep around 4 something... They say it takes a week or two to get adjusted! Whew.

We also met Nick and Olivia's assistant/friend/babysitter... Mariana (sp?) She came to Ruth's party with us and got her a barbie type doll... We also met another of their Armenian friends at the airport, Vaharam (sp?). He used his truck to drive us home. Sunday we'll go to church somewhere with them and meet a couple more people, I'm sure. That'll be good to have some connections, especially since Nick and Olivia will be leaving in April or May... They say there's a family down the road who speak some English (lived in CA for a while) who have three younger daughters. So we'll have to try to meet them, too! Olivia didn't know if the kids spoke English anymore but I suppose the parents do some...

Okay! Better go here, still... the kids must have worked something out out there!!? It's quiet again. I better go see.

All our boxes made it over (we had to check some of our carry-ons when we switched from United to Austrian airlines because of weight limits...) but we got them all. Not all of our ties held so a couple boxes were open and a couple things must have fallen out. Not too much, though. Two books, Benjamin's fleece ball blanket... Oh, my Mystic Chai Tea! Boo-hoo... :) But the bad thing is that they must have taken out Elijah's nebulizer. I suppose it could have seemed suspicious? So we have medicine for that but not the machine to work it. He hasn't needed it in a year or so so maybe he won't. But we'll have to try to see if they have something like that here or if we can get one sometime... something? Maybe there's other things that we don't realize but I really think the ties just didn't hold and things fell out. We had to check one of our laptops for the Austrian flight and were worried that it'd be broken or stolen... but we got it! Benjamin's been busy playing Backyard Baseball on it already! :)

So here we are. Settling in and thinking of you guys! Thanks for praying for us! We really are encouraged to know you are! We'll keep in touch.

Love you all!

--Oh Crystal, the liquid thing was 3 ounces, and all your bottles in one, one gallon bag! Heh. I figured it out in Mpls! :) Thought I'd tell you! At first I had each bottle in one big bag each! Heh.

Vets and Double Digits...

We've been in Armenia for a month now! And so far, we've had two birthday parties... Let me post the pics and I'll share more of our updates tomorrow after we have unlimited internet... :)

Happy Birthday to our two March Birthday red heads!!

March 2nd... off we go...

We got our tickets set for March 2nd, 2009! Whooo!! I'd love to sit and blog about it, but, honestly, we're toooooo busy! We're stuck in Grand Forks because of ice and snow. But we're making the most of it - good-bye parties, baby! :) Next week, we're home to PACK - everything in 14 boxes! Whoo! :) I'll do my best to keep up with a post or two at least every month!

We're so honored to serve and humbled to be called and excited to GO! And out of our mind getting ready / packing... ;)

In love with life.... with Him... and with you!



The pics... some girlfriends and me at Red Lobster... and then Kevy with his youth group up at the Attic! The last one is Blake, my brother, and Kev playing ping pong at the Attic...

Arkansas

Okay... life's been BUSY! So let me just share our Jan with you in the form of pictures!





This last one was in Dec, in Williston, with my side of the family... The rest were in Springfield, MO and Hot Springs, AR with Kev's side of the family! So as you can see, we've been spending time with family before we head overseas for two years!! It was hard to suffer through the 60 degrees in the south after the norm of 20 below in ND... ;)

We love our family! :)

Happy Birthday, Elijah!

Our little guy turned four years old in January! Whoo! Big guy now. We were in Arkansas visiting Kevin's side of our family so he got a southern party - at Chuck E Cheese. :) Kev's cousin has a little girl who was born like a week before Elijah so they doubled up and partied together in Springfield, MO. Pretty fun, but a little crazy. Hannie said later... I never even got to see Sidney open her gifts! The kids had a great time, though and spent the day running and playing.

When we lit Elijah's candle to sing to him, he started singing, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine..." Sooo sweet. Love it.

That was the week before his birthday, so he got another mini party the next Sunday on his birthday... Cake and two more presents. I think his favorite part was the Happy Birthday balloon!? :) We tied an extra long string to it since Grandma and Papa have high ceilings! It's gotta be a party if you have a balloon! Whoo!

Each time Elijah opened a gift he exclaimed, "Ah! It's just what I wanted!" Regardless of what it was, or if he'd ever even thought of having one before! Fun kid to give a gift to!

Here's our birthday boy! We're crazy about him!

What's the Problem?

If you ask Elijah what his name is, he'll probably say Superman! He has some jammies with the big S on them and decided that's who he was. Well, we figured we better show him a little bit of the movie if that's who he was going to be. We watched the clip online of Superman rescuing Lois in the helicopter, saving the cat from the tree, catching some bad guys... So now he knows Superman solves problems... Now we need to be ready to have a problem for Eli, er, Superman to solve because he loves to ask, "What's the problem?"

(If you wanna turn it spiritual... maybe you could hear Jesus asking us the same question...)

Psalm 139

Elijah Edward, almost four years old... I got him to say two verses of the Psalm that we learned this fall. (He probably knows it all but to get him to sit and say it...) You'll notice he's got a cold, too! :)

Psalm 139

Here's Benjamin saying the Psalm we learned this fall. (Our fourth grader!)

Psalm 139

We learned this Psalm this fall... Here's our Kindergartner, Ruth, saying it for you! :)

Psalm 139

The kids memorized this chapter this fall and we recorded it to share with everyone! :)

Here's our 2nd grader, Hannah: