Estonia

Coming back to the blog-world, after what feels like a very long absence, is pretty overwhelming! Where do I start? So much happens in a month's time, I don't think I can even remember it all. Before I begin catching up, I want to give a big thank you to all of you that were praying for our family during our move. The Lord surely listened to those prayers; everything went very smoothly.

We arrived in Estonia on January 10th, and the locals tell us that we brought the warm weather with us. The day before we arrived there was snow on the ground, but the night we arrived it was already gone. The weather stayed pretty "warm" (around 35 degrees maybe) for a week or so before it started snowing again. If you look at my new header picture you will see what it currently looks like. This is the view I get standing at my front door... beautiful isn't it? I think it's even more gorgeous in the evenings when the lamppost comes on. I tried to get a picture of it, but I couldn't get it to come out right since it was dark. While there is lots of snow everywhere (and more to come next week), it's not a harsh environment.... at least I don't think so. As long as you're bundled up there's no problem being out in it. And being new to snow, we are all enjoying it!

I hope you will recall how I mentioned that we have very good friends that are missionaries here. I'll wait before I give any names until I ask their permission; so for now, they will just be "my friends". They have been irreplaceable!! From the moment we stepped off the plane they were there, waiting to help us and make us feel at home. They have taken us shopping, shown us around, "bussed" us to their church, and opened their home to us... not to mention their friendship, which has been wonderful. They also have a little boy and he and my son have become instant friends. I must say though that I feel rather guilty at the moment. I was hoping that we would be coming here to be of some help to them, but for now it's completely one-sided. I hope that once we get settled in we can begin ministering to them as well.

From what we've seen of the city of Tallinn so far, we know we're going to love it here. We feel such a difference between here and Jerusalem. People are friendly, the city is clean, and the shopping is much better. There is a chain of stores here called Prisma that are very similar to..... WAL-MART Supercenter!!!! I would be happy if that were our only store, but of course there are many, many more as well. I haven't seen very much of the city yet, but I'm sure there are better things to see. There is a section of the city called the "Old Town" that is still pretty much as it was in medieval times. I'm sure that will be interesting, and of course I'll bring my camera when we go.

Your U.S. tax dollars have secured us a very lovely home to live in while we're here. We're in a quiet little neighborhood that is in short walking distance to the grocery store, large park, and bus stops (which will be our main mode of transportation while we're here). The house itself is amazing... I feel very guilty living here when I know there are so many others who could use it more than us. I'll try to get pictures of the house for my next post.

Some of you were wondering about our vacation also. We were in the U.S. for almost 2 weeks and spent about 10 days in Missouri visiting our family. No major happenings to speak of, unfortunately. We spent the largest portion of our time at Wal-Mart. We made sure to stock up on all the things we would need while we were here. You get some funny looks when you buy items like deodorant and maxi pads in quantities to last 18 months! It's a good little chunk of money up front to buy all of that and send it here, but it will definitely be worth it in the long run. Things are pretty reasonably priced here, but it was still much cheaper to buy them from Wally World. After our time in Missouri we took my Dad with us to Disney World for three days. We planned our stay well going in the off season, so the overall price wasn't too staggering. We all had a good time and I'm glad we took my Dad with us. It was nice to have some extra time with him.

I'm sure there are many more things to mention, but I can't think of them now. If anything else comes to mind, I'll be sure to post about it. Okay, so I think that catches me up. Next time I hope to have some kind of pictures for you!