It's been a wild year

2010 started with the Stevens Family waking up in a new country, starting a new adventure.  This time 1 year ago we were sitting in a new apartment, in a new city, in a new country (we had been here about 4 hours) and I was thinking wow, what have we just done.  What we had done, turned out to be the best year of our lives.  For us it's simple when your obedient to God, things work out.  Obedience does not mean things are easy but they are worth it.  So in no particular order here are some highlights and insights from 2010:
- learning a new language, easily hardest thing I have ever done
- kids are amazing, they have learned language, made new friends, and adapted with ease and grace  
- I finally made it to London and saw Westminster Abbey: AMAZING
- It takes less time to drive through three countries here then it does to drive across Texas
- urban life is good, we love the close proximity of bakeries, cafes, and markets
- I could do without having to use public transit, but it is the way things are done here
- as little fun as public transport is, parking in the city is crazy hard
- vacation was on the Black sea, not a bad vacation spot
- we have met countless wonderful people who have taken care of us as we learned to live here
- I started a non government organization/small business in a foreign country, definently did not see that coming
 - Skype and the Magic Jack are amazing, keeping up with family and friends all over the world with the click of a mouse is pretty cool
- my European geography is greatly improved
- fireworks mean different things in different countries, in America they mean pretty sparkly things in the sky, here they mean extremley loud bomb like noises or small arms fire
- driving in Europe requires you be offensive, defensive drivers get run over
2010 was a great year for us.  God taught us a ton, most importantly I learned this in living color: Philippians 4:19  And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Seeing how God has provided for us, and seeing how that provision has glorified him, has been both inspiring and humbling.  We know 2011 will bring many changes and new adventures (namely a little dude names Wilson!) and we look forward to seeing how God is glorified in 2011. 

Letter FROM Santa

I know most of the time the kids write the letter to  Santa but this year Santa left a letter for the girls.  He made some special deliveries to the girls and wanted to give credit to some super friends of ours. Following is what Santa had to say:

Dear Kyleigh and Michaela,
I knew you both wanted an American Girl Doll for Christmas so that is what I was going to give you girls.  Now as I was going through my list of gifts, my computer let me know that American Girl Dolls had already been bought for both of you.  I was shocked! How did your mom and dad buy American Girl Dolls in Serbia?  I sent Buddy my investigative elf out to solve this mystery.  While investigating he found out that your parents did not get the dolls.  The dolls were bought by the Fields and Murphy Life groups at Lakepointe Church.  Buddy contacted Shay Fields to ask if their was anything Santa could do to help with the gifts for the Stevens' girls.  Shay was so excited, of course Santa could help! He could deliver the dolls to Serbia.  Shay also gave Buddy some clothes for the dolls that were a gift from the Clements family.  I am so excited I got to deliver your dolls for Christmas.

Merry Christmas

Santa Claus

We want to say a big thank you to The Fields and Murphy Lifegroups, as well as the Clements Family for all their help in making Christmas special for our girls this year.  There is no way we could have been able to gift them the way all of you did.  It was a great sacrafice on your part to provide for us and again we thank you.   Shay we would really love to hear all about meeting Buddy the investigative Elf.  I figured he was kind of Gil Grishamish from CSI, glasses, a little beard, big black equipment case.  We love all of you guys and you are amazing in how you have blessed us this past year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

New Place and Traditions

Living in Dallas the Stevens family had three Christmas Eve traditions.  We attended the Lakepointe Church candle light service. After church we had dinner at IHOP.  The girls also open one Christmas present (usually new Christmas PJ's).  Living in Serbia we knew these would have to change but we wanted to try to do all we could to continue them.  Thanks to my wife's amazing creativity and a little technological help we were able to modify and enjoy some "new" traditions.  Jennifer created the Stevens International House of Pancakes (SIHOP) and we all enjoyed our favorite breakfast meals for dinner.  After dinner the girls opened their PJ's, the ones Grandmother brought from America.  We then hooked the computer up to the TV and were able to watch the live stream, of LPC Candle Light service.  We all sang carols with the congregation and enjoyed hearing a live message from Pastor Steve.  It was different but it was great and really filled our hearts and helped make Christmas for this family.

Menu

Our Lovely waitress

Rooty tooty fresh and fruity

the "grandmother flew around the world" special

Christmas PJ's

Singing with Danny and the people of LPC

Giving and Sharing on Christmas Eve

The card with the story of Jesus inside

Miki, Jelena, Goca, and Nedja

Kyleigh passing Christmas cookies out to her friends

Kyleigh, Teacher Ljiljiana, and Grandmother

Kyleigh and her classmates with their cards and CD's

Miki adding the star to her class Christmas Tree

Miki and her class with their gifts

This Christmas Eve the girls decided to play Santa and deliver gifts and cards to all their friends at school.  Miki gave each kid at her school a stuffed animal a homemade card and a CD with her favorite Christmas music.  Inside the card we had copied the story of Jesus' birth in Serbian and placed it in each card.  Kyleigh gave the girls in her class a stuffed animal and everyone got a card and CD.  Jen also baked a ton of cookies to take to each class.  It was a great time for the girls to share some of our Christmas traditions as well as a great opportunity to talk about Jesus.  Both girls were so excited to give to their friends. 

13 Years Together a Journey

This week marked Jen and I's thirteenth anniversary.  We thought we would look at some of the changes we have had over the years through the numbers.
13 - years delivered this far on the promise to love till death do us part
12 - jobs we have had on the path to finding the one we are presently called to
11 - thousand kilometers separating us from our friends and family in the States
10 - higher education years that pale in comparison to life's lessons learned
 9 -  years of trial and error figuring out this enigma called parenthood
 8 -  hundred square feet of living space for soon to be five people, one-third of what we 
         lived in two years ago
 7 -  million, give or take a few thousand language mistakes since arriving in our new 
        country
 6 -  new ways of keeping in touch with people we love: Blog, Newsletter, Skype
         Magic Jack, Facebook and E-mail
 5 -  cities we have lived in as we have sought his perfect will for our lives
 4 -  grandparents whose love grows despite the distance between them and their 
         grandchildren 
 3 -  precious blessings named Kyleigh and Michaela, whom we have know for a while and 
         Wilson, whom we will meet soon
 2 -  people trusting desperately in ......
 1 - Lord making our love for one another possible because he first loved us 

     

Getting ready for Wilson - Girls in Training

I'm the big so this is old hat to me!

If Wilson is as easy as Bitty Baby....

I wonder if we can handle Wilson with this much love and affection

Two sisters waiting on Wilson

Family night this week was all about babies.  Jen made baby meatloaf (she cooked it in a muffin pan).  After dinner we had NAT (Nappy Application Training).  Nappies are what the Brits call diapers and what most people call them in English here so we are going with nappies.  It's dignified! In a house with two girls there were no shortage of babies that needed to be changed.  Jen had a very serious discussion about changing nappies and the things to look out for when changing boys (or the things we have been told since really we have no idea).  The girls loved changing nappies, Jen even gave them little newborn  Pampers for their babies.  After NAT we read from the children story bible.  We read from Isaiah where he tells of baby called Immanuel. Finally we painted the belly and let Wilson know we are ready to meet him!

Why did Jesus come as a child?

If God's plan was to save humanity from itself through Christ why did the Messiah come as a baby?  Now there have been books written on this by much smarter folks then me, but in keeping with my Christmas theme for the season "The birth was just the beginning", I wanted to look at this question.  God could have done a number of things in this redemptive process.  Christ could have just shown up with an army of angels and wiped out all the sinners, problem here is that would have been all the people.  Christ could have come down from heaven, climbed on the cross, proclaimed he was payment for all sin, but that lacks full commitment.  For Christ to be the full payment for the world's sin he had to be fully committed.  This means he had to be fully man and fully God and that starts with his birth as a child.  Through the Gospel's we see a full life.  We see a perfect life.  We see temptation over come, we see anger, we see weeping at the death of a friend.  We see love for children, love for the widows, love for the poor.  As John says in closing his Gospel there were so many things we don't know about because he could not write them all down.   We see the lessons we needed to learn lived out in the perfect human form.  We can believe these lessons because they were taught by Christ, fully man.  Most importantly we see that every spike nailed in his hands and feet, every lash of the whip, and every drop of blood was real.  Was spilled with all the pain and suffering that we too would have felt.  This was no easy plan for salvation, and this redemption was not cheap.  This was the death of a man, a man who was fully God.  For that to happen Christ had to come as a child.  The author of Hebrew's says it best in Hebrews 2:16-18.  16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.  I for one am greatful that God chose this way.  When I pray I pray to the one that has experienced it all.  I pray to the one walked among us.   

Where is the Music?

One of the really strange things this Christmas season is the missing music.  We are listening to  Christmas music at home but that's the only place to get Christmas Music.  It's not on in the car, it's not in stores, it just does not exist here.  I'm not even sure they have Serbian Christmas Music, I'll investigate that this week.  But even though there has been a lack of Christmas music outside of the house, we are listening at home.  While I was listening to Third Day: Christmas Offerings this week I noticed something new in the song "What Child Is this?"  Third day had added a new verse :

Nails and spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

That verse really caught my attention and got me thinking.  I love Christmas, I love celebrating the Birth of My Saviour.  I love the image of a little baby.  But after thinking about this verse I am just taken back because we have to remember that the little baby becomes a man who died for me and you.  And he did not die a peaceful, easy death it was nails, spears and unimaginable pain.  More then that his death was not a surprise to him or to God, his death was THE PLAN for me and you (and Mary and Joseph probably had a good idea how the Messiah's life looked in Isaiah, so you have to wonder when looking at that baby if they to thought of this verse: Isaiah 53:5
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.)  Any way one little Christmas song, one new verse, and I look at Christmas with even clearer eyes as I think about a baby in a manger.  Here is a video with the Third Day Version:

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Christmas Season in a New Place

December's arrival marks the beginning of the Christmas season for us in our new home.  I'm going to try to do a series of posts this month just detailing what Christmas is like for us this year.  The biggest difference is when Christmas happens here.  Serbia's calender is the Julian calender which results in Christmas being celebrated January 7th.  For an in depth explanation go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar.   The kids don't even get out of school for Christmas until Dec. 30th.  (On a side note, we can tease the kids about not getting to open presents until Serbian Christmas!)
Christmas is not as important here.  New years is a much bigger day (trees are not Christmas trees, they are new years trees).  We will still celebrate on the 25th (and maybe a little on the 7th).  I'll admit it has been a little more difficult to get in the Christmas spirit this year.  But this weekend I got a Christmas spirit booster shot.   This past weekend the girls stayed with friends in Novi Sad while we went to Budapest.  Things are much cheaper there so we knew we could save money.  When Jen and I woke up Friday morning it was to this:

Now I'm in the Christmas spirit!