A New Little One

My sweet husband has been kind enough to keep up the blogging while I have been struggling through my first trimester of pregnancy, but I thought you might want to hear a little from me now that I'm feeling better!

I will be 13 weeks along tomorrow and am finally feeling a little bit of the second trimester relief that so many women talk about! Ben and I found out that I was pregnant on May 10th. I had been suffering from terrible allergies for a month or so and decided it was time to get an allergy test to discover exactly to what I am allergic. The doctor had some students sit in on the skin test and they were not disappointed as I got STRONGLY positive test results to cats, feathers, and dust mites. I was not surprised about the cats or feathers, but the dust mite allergy explained why I suffered year-round instead of seasonally. The doctor and I talked about medication options and how I had been taking Allegra for some time, but had recently run out and decided to wait until after the appointment to get more. I also told her that my husband and I were trying for a baby, but I was only one day late. She decided to go ahead and do a pregnancy test, since I cannot take oral antihistamines if I am pregnant. Sure enough, I got another positive test result and the lab tech gave me her congratulations!

Where was Ben in all this? Our area director had recently had surgery and Ben and I had decided to make him and his family a meal to help ease the stress for his wife during his recovery. So while I was at my doctor's appointment, Ben was in the middle of schlepping a full meal out to the suburbs for the mom to pick up whenever she got her kids from school.

I was then faced with the dilemma of how to tell Ben. I never doubted that he would be thrilled, but didn't know how to share this big news. I ended up taking the long (air-conditioned) way home to buy some time to think up a plan. I woke from my thoughts at a stop I knew had several baby clothing stores. I hopped off the tram and bought a onesie that said "I love dad." When I got back on the tram, I busied myself with rolling a stuffing the onesie in one of the boxes for the allergy spray my doctor had prescribed.

Ben was surprised that he beat me home, but I made an excuse, "The appointment took longer than I thought and I had to pick up some prescriptions." He wanted to hear all about my appointment and we sat down at the kitchen table as I pulled out my prescriptions. I showed him one and asked him to help me open another. His first thoughts as he pulled out the onesie ranged from "Is this a breathing mask?" to "Did they give her socks?" Until it finally dawned on him what it was and what it said. He looked at me and said, "Are you pregnant?" I nodded and we were both lost in the midst of disbelieving excitement!

A week later we got to go to Brusssels, Belgium for a surprise trip I had planned for Ben's birthday. We had a great time, but while we were there I started to feel the beginnings of nausea. It just got worse when we got home and there were a few days of vomiting. The nausea increased to the point that I could hardly do anything. Getting up and moving around, smells, and even bad color combinations had my stomach pitching like a ship in a storm! The worst of it, oddly enough, occurred when it was morning in the States. Regardless of never having been there, apparently this baby is a Texan!

I tried to do as much as I could, but the only thing that could keep the nausea at bay was to take up position on the couch and do very little. Food sounded disgusting, but I tried to eat what I could, because an empty stomach is the worst thing for morning sickness. When I was 11 weeks, I was looking forward to the nearing end of the 1st trimester and hoped-for relief. What struck instead, was the worst dizziness I have ever had in my life. Dizziness that just intensified my nausea and vomiting. I could not even move my head without the world spinning. It did not matter if I was standing, sitting, or lying down. One small movement and things were no longer stationary!

I decided to wait almost a week until my next OB appointment and tell him the symptoms. He thought it might be low blood pressure and over two days I came in for 2 liters of fluid intravenously. When that did not help, I went to see a GP who diagnosed me with Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV). It turns out that there are crystals in your inner ear that can occasionally get out of place. When this happens, moving or tilting the head causes them to move and abnormally displace the fluid in you inner ear, thus causing the dizzy sensation. The doctor did some maneuvers to try and replace the crystals. I felt no better that day, but the day after was noticeably better, and the day after that I felt almost normal. I still have issues when I lie on my right side, but other than that I feel better than I have in over a month. I am working now on building back up my stamina, since I have basically been on bed-rest for 6 weeks. In the month between my appointments I had gained no weight, so I am working to make sure I am eating well and drinking a lot of fluids. I still have REALLY low blood pressure (inherited from my mom) and am trying to do what I can to raise it a little so I don't have so much light-headedness. I don't regret any of this. I am excited for the little miracle that God is growing and want his or her health more than anything! Even if that means more nausea for me.

Wow! Probably WAY more than you wanted to read and I applaud you if you made it this far! In all of this, Ben has been so amazing and supportive that I cannot thank him enough. Many of you have said you are praying for me and the baby, but please pray for him too. He has had such a great attitude, but I know it has been difficult to be suddenly saddled with a caregiver role as I have been ill. Pray for his arthritis. The Enbrel seems to have lost some of its effectiveness and he is experiencing more pain. Also, he has been denied another year by the Encourage Foundation. This means we cannot get his Enbrel for free and we cannot afford the amount it costs normally. He has a few more weeks worth of shots, but is meeting with a rheumatologist tomorrow to see if there are any other, cheaper options for him to pursue. Maybe this is God's way of helping us pursue a medication we otherwise would not have known about?

A quick thought

So the Supreme Court just upheld the Health Care Insurance Law and a lot of people think that this is hugely damaging.  My two cents that I also shared on facebook:


As 'bad' as it might get if that law sticks around, the USA is still a LONG way away from taxes being as bad as we understand it to be over here. Also, why get so worked up over what a government does? Is God off His throne now? Is He no longer in control? Is He going to stop taking care of you and your family? This is not our home, friends.

Ska as worship

The genre of ska music will always have a special place in my (Ben's, though did you really need me to clarify that? :D) heart, it's the soundtrack for my high school days.  My favorite ska band was a Christian group called 'Five Iron Frenzy' and they wrote what would be #1 on my list of top ten songs (even beats out Scuttle Buttin' by Steve Ray Vaughan!)  I heard it this afternoon and just had to share the lyrics.  I love the last part especially, a link to the song on youtube will be included at the bottom if you want to listen to it.
Hope you enjoy it!

"When I was young, the smallest trick of light could catch my eye.  
Then life was new and every new day I thought that I could fly.
I believed in what I hoped for and I hoped for things unseen,
I had wings and dreams could soar, I just don't feel like flying anymore.
When the stars threw down their spears, watered Heaven with their tears,
Before words were spoken, Before eternity.

Dear Father, I need you,
Your strength my heart to mend.
I want to fly higher,
Every new day again.

When I was small, the furthest I could reach was not so high,
Then I thought the world was so much smaller, feeling that I could fly.
Through distant deeps and skies, behind infinity,
Below the face of Heaven He stoops to create me.

Dear Father, I need you,
Your strength my heart to mend.
I want to fly higher,
Every new day again.

Man versus himself.
Man versus machine.
Man versus the world.
Mankind versus me.
The struggles go on,
The wisdom I lack,
The burdens keep pilling
Up on my back.
So hard to breathe,
To take the next step.
The mountain is high,
I wait in the depths.
Yearning for grace,
And hoping for peace.
Dear God...
Increase.

Healing hands of God have mercy on our unclean souls once again.
Jesus Christ, light of the world burning bright within our hearts forever.
Freedom means love without condition, without a beginning or an end.
Here's my heart, let it be forever Yours,
Only You can make every new day seem so new!"

"Every New Day" - Five Iron Frenzy (on youtube.com)

Hospitality

Thursday through Saturday of last week, Megan and I went to Brussels, Belgium for a little belated birthday trip for me.  She put it all together and we really enjoyed our time there (not to mention all the foods you can think of that start with 'Belgian').  We'll tell you more about that trip and show some pictures in another post.  I wanted to share a story that actually started at the END of our trip that culminated last night.

We were at the Brussels South Charleroi Airport in line to go through security when we heard American-accented English from the group behind us.  Megan, being the instigator that she is, turned around and asked where the three were from.  'Washington D.C.', they said, though one had been studying in southern France this spring.  Turned out they were headed to Budapest on the same flight as us and had been given some faulty information about how to get into the city and to their hotel.  We told them to just follow us once we got off the plane and we'd help them get there.  We hung out by our gate and were able to recommend a few activities for them to pursue.

When it was time to line up at our gate to board the plane, we overheard another group of three speaking American-accented (well, at least 'non-British-accented') English.  They asked US where we were from, and they were just as surprised as the first group that Megan and I actually live in the city they were going to visit also.  We got to talking with them and told THEM to just follow us once we got off the plane and we'd also help them to get into the city and on the way to their hotel.  We arrived, they found the ATM and we tried to get them their 72-hour public transportation passes.  The kiosk was down.  Bummer.  So, we decided to just grab an airport shuttle to a part of town where all three groups would easily be able to hop on another form of transportation to reach their various destinations.

On the ride from the airport, Megan and I had a quick conference and decided to invite them all over for supper last night (they all fly out today).  Two of the girls started crying a little at that because, "It's been so long since we've had a home-cooked meal.  Actually, it's been a long time since we've been in a HOME!"  They were all excited about the idea so we passed around enough e-mail addresses and phone numbers to coordinate getting them over.

10 minutes before the first group arrived, I finished putting together our new dining room table and chairs (been saving up 6 months to finish buying furniture for our flat!) and they helped us 'break it in'.  The enchiladas were the best we've yet made (becoming pros at them), we played the 'Holly Nelson' game and 'Apples to Apples' and all had a really good time.

It's amazing to us how many opportunities we have to host people in our flat, cook for them, entertain them, and share the love of Jesus with them.  Conversation turned to spiritual topics several times and we did our best to model a Godly marriage to them.  We LOVE doing things like this, and now we finally have a table that can seat up to 10 people.  It will be well used.  THANK YOU so much to those who support us in prayer and financially so that we get to love on people, we wouldn't be here without our team.  (that's you!)

Black Flags

Megan said it's been a while since I blogged and some of you might want to hear my thoughts for once.  So, Mom, here you go!

We do a lot of walking to get around, which probably doesn't surprise you because most Americans have heard that about Europe.  More often than not, we walk along the same stretch of buildings near our flat as we come and go.  One day as we were returning from the grocery store, I noticed that one of those buildings had placed a black flag in their flag holder (most all residence buildings have them near the entrance).  I inquired of a friend of ours as to why they had done that.

"Oh, one of the residents must have passed away".

Over the next couple weeks, we actually saw 3 or 4 buildings on that stretch with black flags out front.  We were a little shocked too, wondering at so many deaths in such a small amount of time.  There's nothing nefarious about this story, no killing spree or anything like that.  In fact, we still don't know what happened, but that's not the objective of this blog.  I was struck by the tradition of the black flags themselves.

I want to prepare the soil a little before I go on.  We've only been in Hungary for 4 months now and any attempt at interpreting anything we've observed is most likely rooted in ignorance.  However, there are a couple general impressions that have been made on us by interacting with Hungarians.  One of them is that in comparison to Americans (I should really say, 'Texans'), the people in Budapest are MUCH quieter and more reserved while in public.  In fact, the people in our building really keep to themselves too.  There's not much of a sense of community that we've noticed, and that's a little ironic.

When our team leader first visited our flat, he was really intrigued by the layout of the building.  There are only 5 flats to a floor and they all share a common space that gives us access to the stairs, the lift and a set of windows that overlooks the amazing courtyard we share with about 20 other buildings.  Our building was designed to facilitate community among the tenants.  Communism, however, apparently destroyed that sense of community (hence the irony).  The years after WWII under a communist government taught people to look out for themselves because everybody else was out to take advantage of them.  Not just other nations, but anybody outside your family or those select few you called 'friends'.  It's been almost 23 years since Hungary switched from communism, but the sense of community is nowhere near what it is in Texas.

Bring in the black flags.  In my mind, they're a way for the building to band together in a way they don't normally and to proclaim to the neighborhood that the people inside are hurting.

Good times and bad times bring us together like nothing else.  I can't help but feel that these flags are proof that somewhere, deep down, people here want to be a part of a group.  They want people that love them and will help take care of them and want to return that love and care.  I believe strongly that the church is what they're searching for.  We're not meant to live alone, it's the first thing God said was NOT good about creation and the reason He made Eve for Adam.

The flags give me hope that the people we meet and get to know are open to what we want to share with them.  Pray for us that we invest the time necessary to learn their language so that we can actually communicate, and for courage to go out into this city to meet them.

And now for something completely different, here are some pictures of the performance hall inside Duna Palota (Danube Palace) where we attended a chamber concert a couple of weeks ago

If you look closely at this last one, you'll see Megan patting her 'do.  Sadly, she's sitting down so you can't see how absolutely GORGEOUS she looked that evening!

Recovery

Thank you all so much for your prayers about my back. It is feeling much better! I took the medicine the doctor gave me, got a massage, and Ben and I made our first trip to the baths. We also went on some long walks to enjoy the beautiful weather and city at night. Some pictures from our walks:

I have to say how much we thoroughly enjoyed the baths. It is very much a part of Hungarian culture to go to baths and wellness hotels. We went to the Szechenyi Baths in the north part of Budapest. They are almost 100 years old and absolutely gorgeous. I don't have any pictures to post this time. We didn't know how things were set up and didn't want to run the risk of the camera getting wet or stolen!

So how do the baths work? First, you pay for your ticket which includes a locker rental and a little wristband that gets you in, opens and closes your locker, and gets you out. Then you go to the locker room and shower with soap and water before putting on your swimsuit. After that you can go outside and enjoy the pools and sauna. There are three different types of pools. One is a regular swimming pool/ lap pool where you are required to wear a swimming cap. The second is like a heated swimming pool and is around 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The last is heated to the temperature of a hot tub. Our favorite was the sauna. I will describe it for you and you will think we are insane, but just trust me! You go into a room that is hotter than midday in a Texas summer. You shower off before going in just to give your sweat glands a head start. There is some sort of peppermint or eucalyptus scent in the air that causes your nose to burn when you inhale. We could only stay in for about two minutes and our faces looked like tomatoes! Once we left, we went into the next room and dove head first into a small pool. I had to dive in or I would not have made it all the way in. Ice water is not something I typically like to ease into. Yes, you go from Death Valley to Antarctica in mere seconds! And it is the best feeling in the world! It was the first time in days I had no back pain. I felt wonderfully relaxed and kind of melty. Ben says he could easily get addicted to that feeling. There is also a machine that spits ice into a concrete basin. You can use the ice to rub on your skin after the ice water or take it into the sauna to help cool you.

All of this is included in the price of your ticket. Ben and I spent a couple of hours enjoying the pools and sauna, before we had to go and get ready for some other meetings we had later in the afternoon.

It takes a bit of an adventurous spirit to go and try it for the first time and the ability to avert your eyes from lots of old men in speedos, but Ben and I found it to be well worth it and I think regular trips will be a part of my new stress relief regimen.

Thank you all so much for all your stress relief ideas! It really helps to get lots of different perspectives, because what de-stresses one person might stress another person out. The baths being one example and hang-gliding being another ;)

Stress

Most of you know that just over a year ago I was diagnosed with shingles. I was surprised to learn that I had developed a stress-related illness. Me, stress? Never!

Ok, maybe that's not exactly true. I recognize that I stress myself out way more than necessary. I am a woman and a perfectionist. Not a great combination. As a woman I tend to worry about things emotionally and the perfectionist in me stresses about all the things I'm trying to accomplish.

I recognize the problem I have and I really try to calm myself down. My wonderful husband is a huge help in this area, but just when I think I'm doing well, I end up at the doctor's office with a stress-induced condition.

Last night I felt some tension behind my left shoulder blade, but I thought it was nothing a good night's sleep wouldn't cure. I woke up at 6 in excruciating pain and could not get comfortable to sleep. I was in so much pain when Ben woke up that I told him I needed to go to the doctor. I try not to be a wimp when it comes to pain. Unfortunately, back pain is not uncommon for me, so it has to get pretty bad for me to think about taking medicine or going to the doctor. I think part of why I decided to go today was due to a small fear that I was about to erupt in shingles blisters at any moment and I wanted someone to tell me that was not the case.

I have been blessed with some great doctors whenever I come in to be checked out and today was no exception. When she was feeling my shoulders, she motioned for Ben to come over and feel them too. When he touched them he said, "oh my gosh, your shoulders are hard as boards!" I couldn't argue as I'm pretty sure every person dreams of having abs as hard as my shoulders currently are. Buns of Steel, Abs of Iron, and Shoulders of Diamond. The prescription when I had shingles was laughter and chocolate. Today, the doctor told me to go to the spa and for Ben to give me a massage. Maybe this is why I have so many stress problems! It's hard not to enjoy prescriptions like these.

So I was laid up the rest of the day with muscle relaxers and took a hot bath this evening. All of this seems to help loosen things up a little bit. I may see about going to one of the many baths in Budapest and getting some hydrotherapy.

What do you guys do to relieve stress? Especially those ladies and perfectionists out there! I try lots of things, but always seem to end up in the same place. The worst is when I actually don't feel stressed and then my body freaks out any tells me otherwise. What works for you?

Goodnight guys! I'm off to see if my sweet husband will fill the other part of the doctor's orders!

March 15th

Today was March 15th. To those people who have read Julius Caesar or are familiar with the Roman calendar, you may call it the Ides of March. To Hungarians, however, it is a HUGE national holiday on par with our July 4th. The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 began on March 15th. From the steps of the Hungarian National Museum, Sándor Petőfi recited his poem "Nemzeti Dal" or "National Song" and called his fellow Hungarians to rise up for freedom against the Austrians.

Every year on this day, the event is reenacted all over the city and there are traditional foods, dances, and celebrations everywhere. Everyone sports a tri-colored ribbon with the colors of the Hungarian flag. Booths are set up to demonstrate traditional handicrafts. Musicians and dancers perform in the streets and many of the museums are open free to the public. Services shut down for the day, but the cafes overflow!

Ben and I went up to Castle Hill for the day. I tried some of the dried fruit for sale (I got dried strawberries- they were like gummy candies!) and was tempted to purchase a mustache from an enterprising and inventive young man. I settled for a picture! The names under the mustaches are those of national heroes, so I can only assume they are stylized to resemble those after whom they are named.

You can see a woman working on hand-made lace as well as some of the breathtaking traditional embroidery. We visited the dance theatre and were treated to some modern dance in the style of Martha Graham. If you are familiar with the movie White Christmas, this is the style of dance that the number "Choreography" is based on. My personal favorite were the folk dancers in the street. We ended the day with a late lunch in a cafe. We had seats by the window and I enjoyed watching fathers dancing with their children and an endless parade of dogs and children, and sometimes dogs WITH children. And by that I mean that the dogs seemed to be in more control than the children walking them ;)

People watching was by far my favorite event of the day. The whole atmosphere of the city changed! People smiled and relaxed. It was beautiful!

Just a Quick Update!

On Friday we finished up our second round of language intensive. And it was... INTENSE! We went to class from 9-12:15 every weekday. Three hours of many, many different concepts being thrown at us. Our teacher is wonderful and has been so patient with us, but we definitely need some time to process what we have learned. After class we would go home and take a nap! The evenings were spent doing homework, cooking, teaching English, and meeting with language helpers. Phew! Ben and I are looking forward to some rest this week, although there may not be much time for that!

We are making some wonderful friends: Hungarian, American, Scottish, Bulgarian, and Slovak! We have hosted several parties in our home and will be hosting another one on Saturday. Thursday is March 15th, which in Hungary is a HUGE national holiday and commemorates the 1848 Revolution. There are events all over the city and many museums are open free to the public. Ben and I are hoping to go out and experience the Hungarian culture. I intend to bring my camera and hope to capture some of the spirit of the day so you can share it with us!

Photo Dump

Today's post is a a photo dump. Basically, lots of photos that didn't have their own posts, but I still think you might enjoy them. I'll put short captions under them so you have some idea what they are!

Our living room! There are new pillows now, but it was so beautiful with the sun I had to take a photo.

The view from our little guest room/ office. There is a fold-out bed. You should come visit!

New Year's Eve from our bedroom balcony.

Snow! And a shot of the tram that runs out front.

Sunrise from our living room window.

Freedom Bridge

I love this man VERY much!

Ben playing percussion at the New Year's Eve service at a church

Me and Krystal when she came to visit last week.

An amazing surprise when I opened the bag of frozen creamed spinach! All the chunks were heart-shaped!

Teaching a chocolate chip cookie making class to two ladies from our language class.

We made 3 batches and they were delicious!

Tabea is a student from Germany and had to go back as soon as class ended :(

Oana is Romanian and married to a Hungarian. I'm looking forward to getting to know her more!

I hope that satisfies any photo cravings you might be having!

Green Chiles and Corn Tortillas

Anyone who has known Ben for 5 seconds, knows what is his favorite food.

Take a second.

Think about it.

You know you know.

Where was the boy born?

Yes, his favorite food is Tex-Mex.

I enjoy Tex-Mex, but I don't LOVE it the way Ben does. However, I must confess I do miss it here. There are a couple of Freebirds-type Mexican restaurants in the area, but it's not quite the same.

We are hosting a Tex-Mex party for our fellow team-members in a week and I am determined to be as authentic as possible. To make food so good that Ben does not miss Avila's in Dallas.

I am white. VERY white. I have no natural rhythm to speak of and my forays into ethnic cooking have, at times, gone awry. I refuse to try making curry ever again (a fact which I have not told Ben for fear of crushing him because he loves Indian food too), because my last 2 attempts have resulted in inedible yellowish mush.

However, I'm hoping that 10 years in Texas will have rubbed off at least a little bit. My hope stems purely from the fact that I once had a student tell me, "Miss, you're not white, you're Mexican!" I'm really not sure where that comment came from, but strengthens me to attempt:

Enchiladas!

In Texas, you go to the store, buy corn tortillas and enchilada sauce, and it is a relatively easy recipe to throw together. In Budapest, there is no enchilada sauce, cheddar cheese is outrageously expensive, you can find corn tortillas at only one store, and there are NO green chiles. After writing this post, I have a faint hope that one of our teammates will read this and say, "Oh! They have green chiles EVERYWHERE! You just have to ask for, 'such and such.'"

My enchilada making journey begins here: corn tortillas.

Corn tortillas essentially consist of masa harina, salt, and water. Easy, right? The recipe, yes. The equipment, no. It was cheaper to buy a tortilla maker from Amazon Germany than to buy a cast iron skillet. So we did.

It arrived in the mail today and I excitedly got to work. First thing I realized, the instructions are in German! So, Ben sat down and used Google to help translate while I mixed up the dough. In the end, trial-and-error worked better than trying to translate the German directions. The first few tortillas looked like they exploded, the next was only half exploded, and the last 2 turned out perfectly! However, I forgot to cover them with a towel, so we ended up with some very tasty tortilla CHIPS!

I am encouraged and intend to make many more of my own tortillas! The next thing to try will be the enchilada sauce.

After almost 2 months here, I am feeling a lot braver than I ever have in my entire life. It is necessary. We finished a 3-week intensive language course yesterday and had our class over for a party. I wanted to make some Texan food and one of my favorites is country style ribs.

Getting unique cuts of meat is different here than in the States. Some things like chicken breasts and ground meat are in a reach in cooler that you can get for yourself. Ribs are not. You have to ask for those. So I armed myself with some basic animal anatomy and went to the old covered market on the Pest side of the city. I proceeded to wander until I found a booth that looked to have what I wanted and a butcher with a good disposition. It went like this (in Hungarian):

Me: Good day! I speak very little Hungarian.
Butcher: You don't speak Hungarian. What do you speak?
Me: English.
Butcher: Oh, no I don't speak English.
Me: (In my head) Crap.

What followed involved my limited Hungarian, a lot of pantomiming, and showing the guy pictures on my cell phone of the part of the animal I wanted (the ribs were not difficult to describe, but the chuck roast was challenging). There was also a lot of laughing and him incredulously asking why on earth I wanted 6 kilos (13 lbs) of ribs!

A few minutes later, I had what I wanted and began the trek home carrying 8 kilos of meat. It felt really good to have been able to do that.

The party last night was amazing! We had a wonderful group of people and the diversity of language was phenomenal. German, English, Korean, and Hungarian were all spoken last night. Everyone had a great time, ate a lot, and laughed even more. By the end of the evening, my heart was full of joy and singing the praises of the the One that sent us here.

I'm hoping to post pictures a little later, but I had to write something because I feel I have shortchanged you all in failing to write for a month.

My best friend arrives today! This is our first trip out to the airport on our own!

Getting Settled!

We have almost hit the 2 week mark in our flat and thought we might reward the curious with some photos! These are just some "before" photos that were on the ad from the real estate agent. I'm waiting to post "after" photos until I feel a little more settled in. We have most of our large pieces of furniture in place except for a dining room table and chairs. We may wait to buy them and see if we can find a deal at the annual garage sale hosted by the International Christian School of Budapest out in Diosd. There is nothing yet hung on the walls, but there is a rug in the living room! I am taking full advantage of Pinterest to come up with frugal ways to creatively decorate the walls.

Toilet paper may be involved ;)

Anyway, you will have to wait until there is a little more color and it feels more homey to see pictures. I have to say, I am really loving the way things are turning out. Our landlord has been wonderfully helpful and understanding.

The floorplan. If you want to know what things are, I recommend Google Translate ;)

Our private front porch.

Standing in the Dining Room looking through the front hall and out to the private front porch.
The bathroom door is on the left.

Standing in the living room looking at the dining room and through to the front hall
Bedroom doors are on the left side.

Standing in the dining room looking into the living room.

Our bedroom

Our kitchen

Thank you so much to everyone that sent me birthday wishes! It was so encouraging to read all your thoughts and prayers for us. My birthday was so wonderful and all of you played such a huge part in that. Ben served me blueberry pancakes in bed (we didn't have any syrup, but they were so good they didn't need it!) and then we took the tram to one of the Christmas markets.

The tram we took to the market.
We love the trams!!!

Ben bought me a necklace and earrings for my birthday. We also bought 4 earthenware mugs. They are so beautiful and colorful it makes me happy just to drink out of them! My last gift was a beautiful copper-colored journal for me to chronicle my thoughts and feelings about this 2-year adventure.

One of the stalls at the Christmas market.

It was fun to run into not one, but two sets of friends while out and about! I find my head quickly snapping around when I hear someone speaking English here. I'm always eager to see if we know them and that day we knew them both! The first were fellow team-members who teach at ICSB and the other was our team-leader and his family. I received warm birthday wishes from all of them!

The afternoon was spent on Skype or on the phone with various family members. The evening was spent at a wonderful dinner with my sweet husband.

A week and a half ago we got the pleasure of attending the last meeting of one of the Alpha Courses in Budapest. Ben was able to play cajon and egg-shakers while our team-mate John Wilson played guitar and led worship. While there we met a number of Hungarians including one photographer! In our making conversation we mentioned that we did not have much with which to decorate our tree. I had brought some antique snowflakes that were made by my great-grandmother and some Christmas lights. One couple there that night heard that and God laid it on their hearts to give us some new ornaments they had bought for their tree this year. Ben and I were incredibly moved by the gesture and are pleased to have them adorning our tree. It's times like that when we cannot help but feel the love of God personified in the Body. This young couple simultaneously welcomed us and cheered our hearts!

One of our beautiful new ornaments from our friends.

A snowflake made by my great-grandmother.

 Christmas Day itself was spent at our team-leader's (Steve) house. We partook of a 35- pound turkey that LITERALLY took up the ENTIRE oven! I don't know how poor Martha (Steve's wife) got the turkey into the oven, but she did say she was terrified she was going to drop it on the oven door and break the oven. Ovens in Europe are smaller than the US and the turkey sat on the bottom of the oven with a piece of tinfoil on the top to protect it from the heating element. It turned out tasty though!

The 35-pound Tom

I made the Naylor family Christmas tea-ring the day before and we enjoyed that as an afternoon snack before the big dinner. Ben was incredibly patient and didn't even sneak a piece (even though I know he really wanted to ;).

Tea Ring is basically a ring of cinnamon rolls.

Thank you all for following our blog and keeping us in your prayers. I love to share our adventures with you and hope you enjoy them!

Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year!

Our First Day

We have arrived!

Our plane landed a little early last night, just after 5PM GMT+1 (that means 10AM CST), we breezed through customs and got ALL 9 bags we checked just fine.  One of them had been opened and inspected but we're pretty sure nothing was taken.  Megan had typed up an inventory of everything that went into each bag and we have a hard copy of that.  It's really nice since they're currently sitting in a big pile here at our team leader's house and if we want something, we just have to consult the list and we know exactly which suitcase or footlocker to crack in to!  Last night we were troopers and stayed up until 10:30 even though we really hadn't slept since Thursday night.  This morning we forced ourselves out of bed at 8 to go to church with our team leader and his family.

This morning was the second week of advent which is a traditional ceremony that a lot of churches perform to celebrate the Christmas holiday season.  My favorite part of advent is getting to sing the Christmas hymns!  I love hymns in general for two reasons: the words are incredibly rich and I like to sing the bass harmony.  One thing about the hymns we usually wait 11 months to sing is that in my opinion, they are by far the most worshipful.  Thinking about the miracle that is every child inspires us, but that a little over 2,000 years ago God Himself was one of those babies is just incomprehensible.  Faith is what bridges the gap.  29 nations are represented at International Baptist Church of Budapest and I saw many of them with eyes closed, singing those hymns and worshiping the same God.

The sun went down at 3:53 this afternoon.  Yeah, I know.  Budapest makes up for it, though, because at night the entire city is a work of art.  After a team welcome/farewell party out in Érd (suburb of Budapest) we rode along to drop off some team members back in the city.  The bridges, the buildings, the statues on the hills, the castle, ALL of them are lit and combine to make Budapest absolutely gorgeous.  Back to explain that party (if my sentence left you confused) Megan and I and another girl who arrived back in August were officially welcomed by the UWM team here in Hungary.  Our good friends from A&M who have been here the last two years are heading back to Texas on Saturday, so it was a farewell party for them too.

We just wanted to say thank you.  Being here after preparing this last year is a dream come true.  I'm doing my best here to tell you how WONDERFUL it is to have finally arrived.  Our heads are still spinning, we're still a little jet-lagged and it hasn't really sunk in yet that we're here for 24 months.  If you're supporting us in any way, thank you for sending us here.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Here's a couple prayer requests if you're interested.  If not, thanks for reading and have a great day :D

-  Megan's sick and dealing with back pain, this morning an eye infection was added to the list.
-  We're staying with our team leader and his family and will transition to a place called Eden House soon for a couple weeks.  During that time, we'll be searching for a flat once we've figured out what part of town we want to live in.  We're ready to have a home that we can truly make our own.
-  Keeping our mouths shut.  Kind of a weird thing to ask for, but it's really important.  There's so much going on and so much that we just don't understand it would be really easy to speak in ignorance.  I've already caught myself a couple times and have been able to silence my opinions, but there have also been a couple times that I've made a comment I regretted.  I do that a lot.  At least, more times than I'd like to.

Okay, I'll stop rambling.  Go Broncos, Go Packers

Saying Goodbye

This has to be my least favorite part of leaving. I actually enjoy packing and organizing. I can look ahead to the exciting adventure and new experiences, but it is so hard to get past the good byes. My mom never says  "goodbye." After being a missionary kid and then following my dad all over the country, she refuses to say it anymore. She instead says "see you later."

There is a sorrow in goodbye that cannot be expressed in words. Knowing that, while you may come back to this place, you are leaving this part of your life permanently. I will never again get to hold my nieces as I currently know them. Thinking, as they put their sweet, little hands on mine, that the next time they do the difference in size will not be so great. I suppose this is a lesson that every person must learn. Children do not stay the same and every moment must be cherished, because in the next their foreheads will no longer be their "two-heads" and they will no longer ask God to bless the food to the "nursery" of our bodies.

As hard as this is for us, we know that it is equally hard for our families. To ease the transition for our nieces, we bought 2 identical sets of a Mickey & Minnie. The first set we sprayed with our colognes and gave to the girls. The second set we are taking to Hungary. We told them, if they ever wanted to give us a hug, to hug Mickey or Minnie and they would send the other Mickey & Minnie the hug for us. We can also hold them while we are Skyping. I think this helps us as much as them. I've definitely stolen some hugs from Minnie.

Megan, her grandma, and her dad

Megan, Ben, the girls, and the Mickeys & Minnies

L reading to Minnie

Friday is coming very quickly and I continue to thank God that He delayed us a little bit longer and we are not leaving Wednesday as we originally hoped to do.

Do you want to know why else I am thanking God that he is not having us fly into Heathrow on Wednesday?

On November 30th more than 2 million British workers are planning a strike to advocate pension reforms. Public officials say that this could jam up airports and cause as much as 12 hour flight delays in Heathrow. They are even looking at bringing in the army to help move passengers through customs and fill in for some of the unionized workers!

This was the exact day Ben and I had hoped to leave DFW and fly to Heathrow! At the time we were booking our tickets, it was actually more expensive to fly on Wednesday than on Friday. How often does that happen? I actually toyed with the idea of paying more to get there earlier, but we finally decided that it would be best just to wait. What an amazing God! Events we could have never dreamed of take place and he STILL has us taken care of! I am so grateful that HE is in control and not ME!

Cold Water

Man, oh MAN a lot's happened in the last week!

To sum it up, we had a going-away party, we were commissioned by our church and we SOLD OUR CAR :D

That last thing is an answer to prayer, it was one of the big things that we felt was anchoring us to this place.  We originally hadn't planned on selling it but decided that it was best in the long run.  Cars don't exactly appreciate in value so we thought it was wise to go ahead and cash in that asset, saving the money to help get us a car when we return in a couple years.

Side note, Megan is refilling her travel bottles right now and apparently it's not going very smoothly.  Her little squeals are pretty cute as the various creams and liquids make messes :D

Mesquite Bible Church has been home to us for almost 3 years now.  We have been tremendously blessed by the people there and are so grateful for our time with them.  Yesterday morning, our Pastor and the Elders laid hands on us and prayed for us, sending us out from our church family to Hungary.  It may sound kinda weird to some of you reading this, but I gotta tell you, having so many loving people standing with you and supporting you is both humbling and incredibly encouraging!  As we walked back to our seats, one of our friends shouted out, "GO GET 'EM!"

Our going-away party was SO fun.  It was difficult in a way because so many people who came, that was our last time to see them before we leave.  The transitions as a missionary can be very difficult and to be honest, as soon as you finish one you start another.  C'est la vie.  Despite that, we really enjoyed our time with family who traveled from Austin, Amarillo, Hurst, Arlington and Oklahoma City to see us as well as friends from the metroplex and one goofy guy from College Station.

Several people who came by gave us some very encouraging cards, but one thing really stood out to me from all of them.  In one of the cards was written this verse which I'll leave you with.  I won't comment on it because I don't think I could say anything that wouldn't distract, just let it hydrate you.

"Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." - Proverbs 25:25 (ESV)  thanks to KD

Is 'Untitled' really a title in disguise?

Hey there!

So Megan and I have committed to blogging more frequently, so I'm in charge of posting each week by Monday :D  We just want to increase our communication to y'all and be more like our friend Shannon who blogs a LOT (though we don't have a cute 2-year old to source our stories and pictures).  Yet.  NO, we're not preggers.

So today we are finally diving in to the massive to-do list we created for everything that needs to get done before we leave on Friday the 2nd.  It's big, but it really helps both of us to get all these thoughts buzzing around in our heads written down on paper.  The activity helps clear our minds, kind of like Dumbledore's Pensieve.  Part of our work today is sorting through all the stuff we want to bring with us to Hungary.  Basically we have two piles: things we have to take and things we would love to take if there's room/weight allowance.  All our stuff is going into 4 suitcases and probably 2 Rubbermaid totes/containers/things.  Maybe 3 and 3, have to figure that one out still.  The wonderful thing about flying British Airways is that as missionaries, we each get to check 3 bags free of charge.  That's in addition to the carry-on bag and personal item (laptop bags) we each get to bring.  That's also in addition to my Enbrel which I get to bring separately (it doesn't count towards my carry-on or personal item).  Pretty sweet!

On another topic, I have three words that should explain why we both feel a little sick today.  Church.  Thanksgiving. Potluck.  Combine them and you come up with sanctioned gluttony.  It was amazing, but we both overdid it.  And THEN I tackled my dessert plate (which included a couple things from Megan's)  On our drive home afterwards Megan said, "We're not eating tomorrow, are we?"  :D  First world problems...

Well as my Grandma would say, "That's about all I know!"  Hope you have a wonderful week before Thanksgiving and here's hoping that we see you at our going-away party this Saturday!  (Hopefully you've already received the evite.  If not, let us know!)

Thanks and Gig 'Em

P.S.  I don't really do pictures, so maybe I'll just include things that make me laugh whenever I post...  Here's yesterday's Dilbert (sorry it's small)

The Past Six Months

Many of you know that Ben and I had hoped to leave sometime at the beginning of June of this year. We were fully convinced that was God's plan and our support would pour in. Support did come in, but not when we thought and so one month slowly melted into the next until we arrived in November. We were at 87% and stalled out. We were discouraged and did not know who else to contact. We knew this was God's plan for us and that the support was there, so our prayer was just for him to reveal it. He did, but not in the way we were expecting. Ben and I sat down with our support schedule one night and crunched some numbers. We realized that if we chose not to raise support specifically for retirement than that 87% became 98%!!! (this doesn't mean that we won't be adding to our retirement during our 2 years in Hungary)

This was a heavy topic for discussion. We both were so anxious to go, but did not want to work outside of God's Will. We took some time to pray about it, talked to our support coach and our team leader and got the green light from the home office! On November the 3rd we got the green light to go to Hungary and yesterday, the 9th, we bought our tickets!

We will be flying out with British Air on Friday, December 2nd at 4:45pm.

Looking back on this summer, I can only praise God for the time we have spent here. We were able to go to our nieces' 7th and 5th birthday parties, the funerals of Ben's great-grandmother and my paternal grandfather, the 60th wedding anniversary of my maternal grandparents, and experience miscellaneous moments I will never forget! All of this would have been mourned and celebrated from a distance had we had our way and I am grateful that God knows infinitely better than I do.

Thank you all so much for your continued support and we will be continuing to share our experiences with you via this blog!

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with this precious picture of Ben and our youngest niece:

More Crafts and a Day at the Fair

Our middle niece came to visit for a long weekend. I decided now was a great time for me to try some of the repurposing projects I saw on Pinterest. First, T and I did "science" by using a bleach pen to decorate some T-shirts that my mom picked up from Hobby Lobby. Mine turned out really cool, but we didn't leave the bleach on T's long enough so the pattern is really faint. It still looks cool, though, but I forgot to take pictures.

My next project was to take some of my old clothes and turn them into clothes for T. Two old camisoles turned into two strappy dresses (no pictures). Another old camisole and a yard of teal knit fabric became a top with super-cute ruffle skirt!

Then I turned one of my old sweaters that I used to love into a sweater-dress:

Then my dad and mom took T, Ben, and me to the State Fair so she could model for me.

Ok, maybe they didn't go so she could model for me, but that might have been my prime motivation.

We had a great day despite the rain! We got to see the dog show and ride the ferris wheel. We also got to try a variety of fried things. Ben commented later that we didn't have a thing to eat at the fair that was not fried. I think that's the point of the state fair, though, don't you?

Fried food we ate:
Corn dog
Buffalo chicken on a flapjack
The Ultimate Fried Cheeseburger (with fried onions, fried cheese, fried pickles, & fried green tomatoes)
Fried salsa
Funnel cake
Fried bubblegum

Funnel cake is my favorite and I only ever get it when we go to a carnival, so that one my must-have. Ben wanted to try a whole bunch of things, but the only thing I would have again is the fried salsa. It was incredible!

We had an amazing day and pray that someday our arteries will recover :)

I wanted to end this post with what may be my new favorite picture. I just call it "Joy!"