Working on Wilson's Room

this might be a little bright for a little guy

Can't believe it is only 3 months and Wilson will be here.  Time is just flying by so this week we spent some time getting Wilson's "room" ready.  He will be sharing the room with Jen and I so actually he gets a nook.  (this may seem strange to some of you but Kyleigh actually got a walk in closet for her room).  We bought a rug, a crib (which I had to carry home on my head African style).  We got our room painted if you remember, it was this color:
We were able to hire some great guys who are believers and needed work.  They painted our new office as well as our bedroom and it was a blessing in this busy week to not have to do that (you know I love home improvement as well as painting).  In addition to the painting our teriffic landlords were able to get to the house this week and fix a few things as well as put some things in storage giving us more space for Wilson.  The week culminated with a family crib building session.  Here are some pictures of the whole family getting ready for Wilson.

Miki was pretty excited about Wison's Crib

Kyleigh was holding it up and Miki - was screwing it together

Tightening the screws

Almost Done!

The girls lost interest in helping pretty quick

Here we are with a completed Crib!

Wilson's Nook : The girls found some friends for him

His crib and "Moses" basket leant to us from some great friends

Fair Day

Tickets for our rides!

In honor of the great State Fair of Texas opening today we took the girls to Belgrade's version of the Midway.  This is a small park area near the fortress, Kalemegdan.  Michaela was very excited because she got to leave school and go to language school with us since the park is near our school.  This was probably the best day we have had in Belgrade in a long time.  It was fun and cheap, (we rode the rides, had ice cream and pop corn, dinner at Mcdonalds all for under $35).  My favorite part was right before we got on the bumper cars the carney popped open a cold one and I don't mean Diet Dr. Pepper.  I'm gonna let the pictures do the talking!

Notice the firepower on the vehicle

The girls loved the bumper cars!!!!!

How many stairs do I have to climb?

Up and down on the roller coaster

Wicked awesome safety features

Disapointment of the day - Ferris Wheel was not working.

My Beautiful Girls (and Wilson)

The Saturday of Rock

This was a big Saturday at Stevenski Grad!  This was the Saturday that Disney Europe premiered their new shows, Jonas L.A., Hannah Montana Forever, and Camp Rock 2.  The girls had been waiting all summer for this morning.  To add to the wait we no longer watch English speaking t.v. at home during the week so this means less Hannah during the week.  Also the McDonalds down the street started offering breakfast this week so we told the girls we would have McD's breakfast on Saturday.  The last few days have been like pre-Christmas here as I heard a hundred times, "Dad it's almost Saturday, I can't wait".  We all had a great morning, eating Mcmuffins, and rocking with our favorite teen stars (unknown to us Sonny With a Chance was a new episode also).  The Stevens family had a great time,  every time a song played (remember Camp Rock is a musical with about 20 numbers) Miki just could not contain herself, she had to get up and dance!!  Jen and I are finishing off the evening watching the greatest Love Songs on VH1 and trying to remember where we were when a particular song was popular - Good Times!

One year later

September 16, 2009 - Jennifer and I were officially hired by our company in Jacksonville, Florida.  This was the conclusion of a two year process and the beginning of a new life.  Jennifer and I had known for some time that God was leading us in a different direction and we spent the better part of two years  searching for what the direction in our lives was going to be.  In early 2008 we were approved to start the process with our current company which culminated in a great week in Florida in September 2009.  We were able to spend the week with great friends, to learn, to get trained and begin the preparation for our new life, and oh how life is new.  In the past year we have sold much of what we owned (cars and two massive garage sales).  We lived in Virginia for two months training, we spent a final Christmas with family (and the LPC Christmas eve service followed by IHOP).  My girls took their first of many transatlantic flights.  We arrived in a new country on New Years Eve (and these people love to celebrate).  Our kids go to schools that speak a foreign language.  Jen and I are trying to learn a foreign language. Although a year later I am not nearly as lost in language as I used to be.  We have significantly downsized, we live in about 700 square feet now.  We use public transportation everyday.  We walk alot, which makes us healthier right? We buy groceries nearly every day.  Jen cooks 99% of our meals from scratch (the other 1% is McDonald's).
I think we love more, granted we have had some tough days but overall I know we are much closer as a family.  Our friendships are deeper.  My personal walk with the Lord is way better and way more meaningful now.  We have met some great people.  We have been loved on by Serbs in a way that has exceeded our wildest dreams.  Those friends from a year ago who are now all over the world, super close to those guys.  We are bonded in a very different way.  Someone asked me in an email recently if I would do it again and I honestly say Yes I Would!.  It is hard here sometimes, and I know a cold bleak winter is around the corner.  But this past year has been amazing for me and my family and I know God has plans to blow my mind in ways I can not imagine in the coming year.

National Pride, Freedom, Liberty - What does that all look like?

I live in a former communist country, a region still recovering from a decades long war, a region known as the tinder box for the last 200 years.  My country has seen many different forms of government, it has been occupied by countless foreign invaders (including the 20th century).  The capitol city (my home) has been destroyed and rebuilt to many times to count.  Despite all this there is a strong national pride amongst these people.  With 35 years of patriotism and American pride as my lens, I have to say I have seen nothing like the national pride here.  Everyone has it, it crosses all lines (granted there are a lot less lines here ethnic, religous, political).  The place where this is most evident is in sport.  These folks support their national teams in every sport all the time (not just during the Olympics).   When their team is playing they are all watching, soccer, basketball, volleyball, water polo - it does not matter.  Thursday I was running errands and noticed everyone at the cafe watching t.v. and thought "oh they must be watching USA vs. Russia in the FIBA games" (still a little American centric and probably always will be!), but no, they were watching their team in the European water polo championships!  Every time something happened the place exploded, it was insane - over water polo.  This got me thinking why do we (Americans) not support our teams like this?  Well lets just say in about 5 minutes I had about 100 reasons so I stopped thinking about it, but one thing that I kept coming back to is we have a different sense of freedom and liberty then the people here.  We have an expectation of freedom, it is all we know.  We don't have an experience like the people here.  Just being my age, if you grew up here you know communism and war.  I probably will never know either.  So I'm thinking about freedom and I realize as Americans we still don't know freedom as a country - we know a shadow or a type of freedom that we created but true freedom is for the individual and can be had anywhere - it's simple its called Christ!  2 Corinthians 3:17 says Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  Read that again, freedom is not in a country or a constitution or anything else we create, Freedom is where the spirit of the Lord is.  We can all have freedom, accepting Christ as Lord = FREEDOM (feel free to scream that like William Wallace).  This is something I knew, but it means so much more to me now, being here.  Think about this new view of Freedom, think how it can impact your life and search and determine do you have it? do you want it? 

Back to Language!!!

Well this week Jen and I are back in language class.  I was not really looking forward to it, to be honest language is my least favorite activity.  It is very hard and I am not very good (this is usually not a great combination for me when it comes to enjoyment of an activity).  This class is the intermediate level, which would be great if I felt at all comfortable at the basic level, but regardless is what we need to do so we are attacking full steam ahead. Luckily at this level everything is much faster with a ton less explination - just the way I like it!!!
The first day of class was insane, I forgot my bag and did not have money to pay, so Jen went ahead and came home got the money and almost made it on time.  After that adventure I never got right and the first day was hard. Honestly we are excited to be back in class.  It's a great way to get out and see people and we got Professor Ranko, whom we love.   We were excited to see our Sweedish friend, Mikaela, after the summer.  We had some new guys in class, one from Australia and one from Turkey.  Of course there is also the Russian ringer, Stanislav.  Russian and Serbian share some simple concepts so the Russians always make it look easy, and we seem to always have some in class.  Everyone seems nice and the second day was much better.  I have a decent study plan, the goal is to keep it up all year. 
Any way that's what we are up to and ask for your prayers as we continue to learn (it is perfectly acceptable to ask for the gift of Serbian tongues)

Summer in Review

Well come Monday (language starts :)) our first summer in Europe will come to an end.  I thought I would look back at the highlights. We loved the weather, there were some hot times but we had far more days in the  80's then in the 90's - coming from Texas it was glorious.  We had a chance to travel by car to Bulgaria, which really gave us time to take in the geography.  What a beautiful part of the world.  Driving through the Carpathian mountains you know there is a God and he created all.  We saw some beautiful cities, great old architecture.  It's amazing to see structures that reach back to early Roman times.   We had some American food (you may recognize the slogan in the picture). 
We got a great opportunity to explore our city, and see new parts.  It is huge and we will be exploring for years to come.
We grew relationships, and were able grow closer to brothers and sisters.  Much was learned about one another over coffee.  I was able to teach at a youth camp.  Probably the highlight of my summer, meeting kids, being immersed in culture and most importantly sharing the Truth.  Met a great young lady who accepted the Truth and is pursuing knowledge everyday now.
I stayed very busy getting the NGO registered and established.  That was a huge task and I look so forward to how He is going to use this.  As of the last day of August we have an office.  It's gonna take a ton of work to get ready but people are already interested in attending our classes.
K and Miki had a great summer, playing with friends and really playing with one another quite a bit.
Jen got a great Euro haircut, as always she is super cutting edge. 
The summer was very different then back home.  We swam some, but a lot less (water's pretty cold with highs in the 70's).  We missed holidays and gatherings with family and friends.  Kyleigh celebrated her 9th birthday and we sure missed doing that with the people we love.  However much love was shown to us from all over the U.S. through, gifts, calls, emails, packages from all of you back home and we are very thankful.
Well that was kind of random but that's summer here, just going with the flow.

First Day Of School

Today was the first day of school for all Serbian children, including Kyleigh and Michaela.  Miki's first day was pretty easy, her favorite teacher Goca was there this morning so the day started off right.  Her report when she got home "school was fun, we had a tasty potato lunch".  I tried to delve deeper into the day of a four year old but that's all I got.  Kyleigh was a little nervous but we reminded her this is not like American School - she has the same teachers, and same kids, same classroom.  That really reduces the stress level.  This week she had afternoon school so her 1st day started at 2:00,  and since the 1st day should not be to tough she finished at 3:30!  Now school for her is a little different then in America.  You buy your books here so today they got  all 10 and I drug them home.  She will take the ones she needs on a daily basis.  You also don't leave your supplies at school, so she has to carry that stuff home every day also.  She said all they did today was get books, and the kids talked about their summers  She was happy to see her friends and for us it's nice to get some sort of routine going.  All in all a good day for everyone.