So tomorrow after school we will be parents :) Ha ha that just sounds funny to me :) We are having one of our freshman boys live with us for about 10 days while his parents are away on a missions conference that they are speaking at. It will be interesting to see what goes on in the life of a 9th grader especially as we will have him during the Jr. Formal, which is a very important night for all high school students. Who knows the fun I can cook up for that :) Anyways, for all you parents of teenagers out there send up a few prayers for us this week as we will be parents of a teenager. We will have to keep y'all posted on the events that unfold :D

Easter Markets

Well, we made it! We are finally on Spring Break, and this break could not have come soon enough! I have had the flu and then bronchitis for the past two weeks and Josh has been very busy with teaching and basketball. But God knows when we need a break and He has given us one this week. We are excited to get refreshed and back on our feet to finish up the school year strong. So to celebrate me not being so sick anymore and the beginning of Spring Break we headed out to an Easter Market. These are pretty much like the Christmas markets that are all over Vienna during Christmas but they only sell eggs :) And oh how beautiful all the eggs are. There are millions of eggs all over the place with beautiful pictures or designs on them. Josh kept asking me which one I wanted to buy and I could barely wrap my head around all the eggs. We had a great time looking through them and picking out a few to put on an Easter egg tree which are very common in Austria. So here are some pictures to give you an idea of what an Easter Market really is.
Have a blessed Easter with your family and thank the Lord for His son and dying on the cross to give us all such amazing lives in Him!

March Happenings

So once again we got way way way behind in this whole posting thing. Life just tends to fly by us and we loose track of the days and months. Which is sometimes a good thing because it keeps us from missing friends and family to much. So here are a couple of happenings of the month of March :)

Josh taught Primary or Kindergarten for the morning :) It was real cute...I love how this one students is mid-air while he is teaching.

Getting the students ready for reading time
Reading Time

They were so excited to Mr. P.E as their teacher :)

We have also been celebrating book month in the elementary department and we had a Book Character Costume dress up day. All the kids dressed up like their favorite character from a book and we had an assembly to show off all our costumes and then off to celebrate Eric Carle's birthday. He is the author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar :)

I dressed up as Amelia Bedelia :)


Robin Hood

Captain Hook

The 3rd Grade teacher and one of my good friends over here Amanda as The Cat and The Hat and me

All the teachers dressed up, it was a really fun day!

Eric Carle's birthday cake in the shape of a caterpillar, we have the best Librarian ever! She is so creative :)

Snow Day!!!

This past week of school we have had some great snow days. Now for us snow days are different. We will never get off of school due to snow because of the public transportation that runs no matter what, so a snow day to us just means having extra recess and enjoying it as a class. It's fun to watch kids run around yelling "SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!!!" and then find out that they have never seen a real snow fall. So below or some pictures of my kids enjoying their morning break on a very snowy day in Vienna.




Oh, and teachers even have some fun too :) This is our German teacher starting a snowball fight!

Sing with us HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD?!!!

WE WILL BE OPEN NEXT YEAR!!!!!! We just got word from the director that Vienna Christian School will stay open next year. God you are so AWESOME!!!! We cannot begin to describe to you the relief that the faculty and staff are feeling now! If you have already read our last blog you can see where my heart and head were during the last few weeks and God just did His thing and worked out what needed to be worked out.

On Monday we had a surprise visit from the guy in charge of all of this and he just wanted to see how VCS runs on an everyday basis. After his tour he had a meeting with all the administrators and important people and basically said that he does not have the power to shut us down. We are not completely out of the woods though...we still have to get all our paperwork in and be in compliance with the government, but it does not have to be in by June (which was the original deadline). He also said not to tell parents that we will not be open because we will!!!!

So sorry that this is just the skin and bones of what is going on but we are still hearing news at random times but we will let you know more details as they come out.

Finally we want to hug all of you and say Thank You, Thank You, Thank YOU!!!! Through your prayers you are the ones that have made this happen. Not only your prayers but your support to both Josh and I when we thought it would all be over in an instance. Your e-mails and words of encouragement really lifted us up and made us feel a part of the greater family of God.

My Thoughts on the Visa Situation

So I am going to be honest with you all and just say that I have been struggling greatly this break about the future of our school. I just hate not knowing where we stand on the issue and our information comes to us spotty and sometimes sugar coated at best. I by no means mean to diss our administrators because I know they are working very hard to come to a resolution on the matter but I wish sometime we knew more. I feel trapped sometimes because I get caught up in what will happen if we close down. Josh and I both feel called to the mission field and we thought this would be our home for the next four years but sometimes it looks like this could be the end and then other times we feel that God will work it all out. But then again we know He will work it all out but it just might not be the way we would see fit. God is really working on my heart in this area because I can get very antsy and God is telling me to "be still and know that HE is God!" It can be tricky for me at times but I continue to stay in prayer over the issue and know that where ever we are next year we will be right where God wants us :) So like I say we hear different things from different people and no one that I have talked to knows exactly what is going on. But the Lord knows and He will work it all out in His timing.
Thanks for reading how my crazy mind works, and now you can better know how to pray for us. Once again we will continue to update you as we find out news :)

Merry Christmas!

I know, I know this is a little late but our Internet has been down for the last week and after spending 2 hours in a line at the Internet store we have it back!!! We are so excited to be back in contact with the world! We hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and is looking forward to ringing in the New Year.
We have been off of school since December 19th and then we were off to the airport on Saturday to pick up my parents and Steve and Sarah!!!! We spent the week together touring the city and eating lots of great food. Sarah's brother and his wife, Mark and Kirsten also came from their ministry in the Middle East to spend Christmas with us! We had an amazing time together and were just so happy to have family here for the holidays. Everyone left on Monday so we are now working on getting back into our normal routine before school reopens on January 7th. Not to much planned for the rest of our vacation, just spending time with friends and eachother as well as a lot of rest. Having 6 visitors can be very busy but very worth it :)
Oh and I think one of my New Years resolutions should be to keep this blog better up to date, we'll see how that all works :) More to come!

Waiting for the U-ban on their first night here

Their first Sunday eating out after Church in the basement of a very old restaurant.

Mark, Kirsten, Josh, Me, Sarah and Steve outside the National LibraryOur Christmas tree!

Thanksgiving Thought

So I'm sitting here the day after Thanksgiving, still very full from all the eating that took place yesterday, and decided that I would share with ya'll some of my new thoughts on Thanksgiving. Being that this was our first year away from home for a holiday and being out of the country the whole meaning of Thanksgiving took on something new. I am very thankful, but when you are out of your comfort zone and with people who are not "family" God really starts to show you what being thankful is.
Well, it all started in the morning when we were woken up by the loud construction going on across the street from our apartment. I was a little confused when I first heard them because I could not figure out why they would be working on Thanksgiving...but then it hit me they are not celebrating today! So as we got our food ready to take over to a friend’s house I began to think about how thankful I am and what I am thankful for. Then that turned into, do I show my thankfulness daily, or do I forgot when life gets a little hard how much God does really care for me and how much He has shown up when I needed Him most.
So after spending an amazing day with four other GREAT couples from our school I sat back as I watched Josh enjoy some American football with the guys and heard sounds of laughter coming from the kitchen table full of girls gabbing about anything and everything and said a little prayer thanking the Lord for all the many blessings he has given us even in this country that does not know what Thanksgiving is.
We hope you and your family had an amazing day thinking about all that God has given you!

Fall Festival

We are back!! So sorry that we have not updated this in a while. I really need to get better at this but life is just crazy, as you all know :) We just started our fifth masters class through Liberty University and that keeps us very, very busy. But enough apologizing lets talk about life here. As I have said it has been very busy but very fun. On October 31st our school had their annual Fall Festival. It is a night that the school opens up their doors for families and friends of students. We play games, give out candy and then the musical choirs have a little performance. Since this years Fall Festival landed on Halloween the students were allowed to dress up and enjoy the activities. It was a lot of fun getting to interact with the students and their families throughout the evening. One of the fifth grade parents e-mail our fifth grade teacher and had this to say about the night...

It was my first time to attend such an occasion at Vienna Christian School. I very much admire the closeness and the family like atmosphere upon entering the building. Much to my galore the friendliness and the great costumes that Friday night added colors to the main event. The programs were great and very entertaining the pie throwing, WOW!

Here are some pictures of the night :)

Josh and the Student Activities Director Nick dressed up as refs.

The Arm Wrestling station

Two of my fourth graders sword fighting :)

The third through fifth grade choir, singing their little hearts out!

Josh being a good worker and manning his Penny Splash station all night :) Everyone loved him because he gave out candy whether or not they won :)

Saying Goodbye

I know many of you probably already know this by my Poppop passed way on September 27th. We are now in the process of packing up to head to Florida for a week to attend his funeral services and be with family. It is a very weird thing to be so far way one someone dies, but we are thankful for the amazing communication we have had with the family during this time. My parents and my Uncle Steve and Aunt Liz were able to be with him during his last days and my mom was able to hold his hand and sing with him as he passed and went into the arms of Jesus. His last few days were the most beautiful story I have ever heard. He spent time with loved ones, read scripture and sang hymns to Jesus. He told my mom while they were there that he had been praying a lot since he went into the hospital two weeks ago and my mom asked him what he had been praying about. He said he had prayed that Jesus would take him home. He was ready to be with his father and we are blessed to know that we will see him again.
Although all this is very comforting it has been a hard process dealing with this. I have been so blessed to have him in my life for so long that it is weird to think that he will not be at our next family gathering. He was such an amazing man and I hope he knew how much I loved him and looked up to him.
Thank you for all your prayers, words of encouragement and for those that are here at VCS your hugs. Although being away during this time has been hard, our new family here in Austria have surrounded us with more encouragement and love then we ever expected. I just can't wait to see my Poppop in heaven one day!

Staff Retreat

We are finally home and starting to get back into our routine. We spent the weekend at a soccer school complex about an hour outside of Vienna. All of the faculty and staff of VCS went for a time of seminars and just some good quality time together. The theme for the weekend was "Stick It" which was off of what the speaker was speaking on which was staying on the field long term. The best part of the weekend was getting a set of Post-It notes to use as encouragements throughout the weekend. We stuck notes on people’s doors, windows, Bibles, chairs, faces, anywhere and everywhere. It was so great to come back from a seminar and find a new sticky note on your door telling you that you are a treasure from heaven. I mean where else do you hear things like that. All in all it was truly a great weekend to deepen our relationships with the staff and for God to show us once again we are here because this is the exact place He wants us for this time. Now though we are back in the grind of teaching and working daily but the sticky notes live on and I am still getting them! We really have an amazing group of people over here that love the Lord and love these kids; I learn something new from them daily on how to live for the Lord. Thanks to all those who prayed for us while we were at retreat, everything went great! Love you all!!!!!

Some of the Sticky-Notes on our door!

We love our Sticky-Notes :)

Meal Time...also known as feeding time at the zoo :)

Our fearless director during the talent show being a Beatle!

Talent Show!!! :)

Worship Time...best times all weekend!

Worship Team

Our Flat!

We are finally done unpacking!!! A few more little things to pick up from IKEA before it is completely done but for the most part we are all done :) So here you go...photography done by Josh :)

Our kitchen

Our front door and foyer area

Our guestroom/study

Guestroom
Our bedroom
My dresser :)
Our huge closet that was given to us for free!

Dining room table all ready for our Taco night with the Stocketts

The foyer looking into the living room

The living room

Living room

Hallway to the bedrooms

Now that you have seen it I bet you are all booking tickets to come visit us :) Just kidding but now you know there is always room for you, we would love to have you visit!