Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Rainy day
It's been raining 5 out of the 8 days we've been here. Isaac is absolutely loving it. A couple days ago I bought rain clothes for the whole family so now we can all be out when the weather is bad. There's a Swedish saying that goes "there's no bad weather, just bad clothes".
This morning when we woke up it was pouring outside again. After a while we got the kids ready and let them run outside in the rain. Miles looked hesitantly at me, since I always tell him to stay out of puddles...and now I was telling him to jump into it! He had such a blast and it made me very happy to see him play.
We had yummy Swedish pizza for dinner! It is so delicious! We eat it with "pizza salad" made of cabbage and vinegar. I didn't realize how much I've missed the food here. We'll be walking in the grocery store and I see all the tasty things I want to eat. So I've been eating a lot. A LOT. Been waiting to get hungry again so I can eat some more :)
Tomorrow it's midsummers eve here. So we'll be eating potatoes and a bunch of raw fish in different formats. Hopefully the weather will be decent, even good, so we can go dance around the midsummer pole and sing about frogs. (no joke) :) I'm sure I'll be putting some pictures up from that.
Until then, au revoir!
This morning when we woke up it was pouring outside again. After a while we got the kids ready and let them run outside in the rain. Miles looked hesitantly at me, since I always tell him to stay out of puddles...and now I was telling him to jump into it! He had such a blast and it made me very happy to see him play.
"cheeeeeese"
We had yummy Swedish pizza for dinner! It is so delicious! We eat it with "pizza salad" made of cabbage and vinegar. I didn't realize how much I've missed the food here. We'll be walking in the grocery store and I see all the tasty things I want to eat. So I've been eating a lot. A LOT. Been waiting to get hungry again so I can eat some more :)
Tomorrow it's midsummers eve here. So we'll be eating potatoes and a bunch of raw fish in different formats. Hopefully the weather will be decent, even good, so we can go dance around the midsummer pole and sing about frogs. (no joke) :) I'm sure I'll be putting some pictures up from that.
Until then, au revoir!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Calvary Stockholm
On Monday night we went to have dinner with one of the guys that heads up Calvary Stockholm. They are a group of about 15 people with 11 different nationalities that meet at a cafe at Slussen in down town Stockholm. A married couple who lead worship for them were there too. They were great people, and it's wonderful getting some edifying friendships established here.
Today Isaac and I went down to central Vallentuna to have lunch with a girl that I've known since I worked at church seven years ago. It was lovely seeing her. After that I ran up to the employment office. As I was walking away from Isaac I see a man walking up to him. Right away I thought that it has to be a divine appointment, swedes just don't walk up to strangers like that. When I came down I asked Isaac what happened. This man looked at E-man as Isaac introduced himself. And pretty quickly he blurted out that "I have a disease". He has alzheimers. So Isaac and him talked for a bit and told him about our friend that God miraculously healed a year ago and then he prayed for him. We're thinking God really wants to heal this man, so please intercede on "L's" behalf!
July 2nd we'll be moving into some friends town house for a month or two. Praise God for that! We all need some sleep, especially my sister and her family so I think it'll be very good.
Prayer requests:
- Pray for the man Isaac spoke to!
- God's provision with work/income
Love you all!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
First swim of the year!
We've been trying to get rid of the jet lag by forcing ourselves to get into the circadian rhythm...which makes the awake times preeeeetty sleepy. But it's getting better every day thankfully. It's funny with kids though, there's no way to explain to them to not be awake in the middle of the night, that they should "try" to sleep. It's so confusing waking up at night and it being bright outside, I'll be so sure it's 6am but it's only 2.30am. By the time I get used to it it'll be darker again.
Yesterday my aunt had put together a "grill-party" out by the school she works at. It was next to a lake, very beautiful scenery! One of the things I've missed most being away is the lakes and plenty of very green space outdoors to be in.
It was wonderful to see my extended family again, it was good for my heart. It sunk in a little bit more that we're here seeing their faces.
Mister M was playing around with some of the kids. At times very close to the water but we were keeping an eye on him. At one point he was on a cliff-like thing (not very high) and all of a sudden I hear someone say he's sitting in the water. So I start making my way over, and as I am he starts panicking and sliding further down the wet cliff and the into the water. It was a scary feeling not knowing how deep it was and how frightened he was. So I jumped in, with all my clothes on. The water ended up being 3 ft. deep or so. He was pretty shaken up, but as soon as we had gotten his wet clothes off he wanted to run into the water and play. We figured it was good to lessen the trauma so off he ran, naked (only okay in Sweden ;) )
A little bit later we had a Swedish "song-time" when we sang some typical Swedish songs, Isaac did pretty good making sounds that resembled Swedish. They had Isaac play some too.
All in all a lovely evening with a little bit of suspense.
Yesterday my aunt had put together a "grill-party" out by the school she works at. It was next to a lake, very beautiful scenery! One of the things I've missed most being away is the lakes and plenty of very green space outdoors to be in.
It was wonderful to see my extended family again, it was good for my heart. It sunk in a little bit more that we're here seeing their faces.
Mister M was playing around with some of the kids. At times very close to the water but we were keeping an eye on him. At one point he was on a cliff-like thing (not very high) and all of a sudden I hear someone say he's sitting in the water. So I start making my way over, and as I am he starts panicking and sliding further down the wet cliff and the into the water. It was a scary feeling not knowing how deep it was and how frightened he was. So I jumped in, with all my clothes on. The water ended up being 3 ft. deep or so. He was pretty shaken up, but as soon as we had gotten his wet clothes off he wanted to run into the water and play. We figured it was good to lessen the trauma so off he ran, naked (only okay in Sweden ;) )
A little bit later we had a Swedish "song-time" when we sang some typical Swedish songs, Isaac did pretty good making sounds that resembled Swedish. They had Isaac play some too.
All in all a lovely evening with a little bit of suspense.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Landed!
Wowsa.
We finally got here after about 14 hours of traveling. God blessed us so much when we went to the airport. Brittish Airways were so nice and accommodating. We went to check-in and the lady was so helpful. They had said on the phone that we wouldn't be able to sit together if we wanted to have a cot for E-man to sleep in. So we picked seats together somewhere else. But this lady made sure we could sit together by the cot's so we had somewhere to put E-man to sleep. We had so much space in front of us by the bulk head seats.
After we were done checking in she asked how many where in the family. I thought she was just making conversation, but she proceeded to give Isaac's parents, brothers and sister-in-law passes so they could come through security with us all the way to the gate. We felt so blessed by the Lord. That never happens. I didn't even know that was possible. We arrived at the gate about 5 mins before boarding and were the first group to be called on board. The good-bye's were short and very sad. I'm glad for the short part...it would've been to hard to stay any longer.
Mister M slept a good 5 hours on the plane, he would have kept going but we had to wake him up for landing. E-man was having a harder time settling down, but finally fell asleep for 3 hours.
Our flight connected in London. The airport was very busy and we didn't have much time between flights. The line to security was packed and it was very warm. After standing in line for 15 minutes a man who was almost at the front asks us if we wanted to go ahead of him. I almost said that it's okay we don't need to, but the kids were tired and a bit fussy so I figured why not. Little did I know that had we not done that we would've missed our flight. Right after he had let us cut in, a group of people with special needs were let in front of this kind man and he got stuck waiting for a very long time. We made it just on time for the final call for boarding. God made sure our travels were so smooth! We felt very taken care of.
It's such a surreal feeling being back home. It's so familiar but still not since I haven't lived here for over five years. The magnitude of what we've done is slowly hitting us. And I'm glad it didn't before we left since I'm sure would've been harder to take the step.
We landed on wednesday early evening. Mister M and his cousin N have been playing ever since. They are only 12 days apart in age. We're enjoying spending time with my sister and her family very much.
Being back I still get shocked at how rude people can be. There are rude people in every country of course, but there seems to be a general attitude that it's completely okay to be rude here. Today we went to down town Stockholm to register the family in the country. One lady steps into the packed government branch. There's a 45 min wait, and she just didn't want to do it. So she starts yelling at an attendant to answer her question (which she couldn't do), and then the security guard. She ends up yelling "shut up, shut up, shut up" to the guards face like a three-year-old. This was your average middle age woman. I probably had my jaw hanging out somewhere by my toes.
Now what we need to do is wait for them to confirm that we are registered before Isaac or I can apply for any jobs. We know that the Lord had brought us here and that He has arranged things ahead for us. It'll be interesting to look back how it all worked out.
Some prayer requests:
- For the kids especially, but also for us to get rid of the jet lag swiftly.
- Work/income.
- For God to lead us to the right people he wants us to connect with.
- For the van to ship in not too long.
Psalm 3:5-6:
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."
We love and miss you all in de americas! <3
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Here we go!
Hey everybody!! I created this blog so that as we are moving from Colorado to Sweden we can keep people updated on everyday life there. So now I'm a blogger :D
It has been a whirlwind since 3 months ago when God gave us the "green light" to move. When I moved to Denver five years ago I did so knowing that I may never live in Sweden again. Isaac was still in the band, and it was looking like they'd be doing that for another 7-10 years at least. A couple years of me being here, the band decided to wrap it up. That's when God led Isaac to Calvary South Denver to as a worship leader...that turned into pastoring the young adults also. The years we had there have been a blessing in so many ways. We've learned so much and acquired such a wonderful family in Christ. So it hurts to move since it means we have to say goodbye to so many people that we love deeply. But we are also very excited since we can see God's hand leading us to move, so we know he has amazing this for us to take part in in Sweden!
This is how it all came about: When we went to Sweden to visit two years ago God began to burden our hearts for Sweden. We understood that we might be moving back, and maybe in not super long. So since then we'd been praying that God would show us if and when it was time. Last summer Isaac and I were talking about when we thought it may be, and if we should just decide on a time and start working towards it and see if God affirmed it. We knew that we needed an insane amount of money to make it happen, money that we definitely didn't have. We ran some rough numbers and figured out that we needed a minimum of 10,000 dollars to just get there, with nothing. And we decided to not tell anyone of what we needed so that if the money came through we wouldn't know that it was the Lord showing us that it was time. A la George Mueller.
And so the weeks began passing by. Then months. I had E toward the end of the year and we had still heard nothing from the Lord what he wanted us to do. At the end of December we had to decide whether we would renew our lease on the town home we were staying in. We decided to still work towards leaving though it seemed unlikely at that point, so we were going to ask if we could renew for 4 months. The management company has been very difficult to work with so we said it'll be a sign if they let us do that since they only do one year leases. Lo and behold after talking to the owner they let us. But we still hadn't gotten a clear sign from God if it was time to move.
We've absolutely loved our church and the ministry Isaac's been getting to be a part of there with Meno. One evening in march Isaac told me: "I think the Lord may have us stay for another year at the church" since we still had heard nothing. I had been quite stressed with a newborn and a toddler so the thought of staying was pretty relieving to be honest.
About one week later we had some friends over for dinner. When they left we found an envelope that they had left for us...containing a very large amount of money. Obviously we got pretty excited and planned to pay off much of our car with it...but neither of us still thought that it was time. The very next morning we found out what our tax refund would be... both amounts equaled $10,036 dollars! God definitely had our attention at that moment! So within 12 hours God dumped the sum of money we needed in our laps.
We prayed about it for two weeks before we took the first step. Isaac went and shared with Pastor Gino what God was leading us to. And the ball started rolling.
The Enemy's attacks on our family began the very same day. It was very intense and obvious.
We have countless stories of how God has kept opening the doors in miraculous ways. How he's kept on providing all that we need. And even so many of our wants, though He in no way had to. But he is a good God. And he's faithful. I want to keep sharing what God is doing through this blog. So that everyone can see that there is a Living God, who is intensely interested in us. And that when we step out in faith - he's right there ready to reveal Himself to us!
Please keep us in your prayers as we make the transition. We are in the sad-phase of saying goodbye to all the people we love so much here. Also that God would provide a job for Isaac and me if needed. Our heart is to keep our kids out of daycare so we can actively raise them ourselves.
So here we go! :)
It has been a whirlwind since 3 months ago when God gave us the "green light" to move. When I moved to Denver five years ago I did so knowing that I may never live in Sweden again. Isaac was still in the band, and it was looking like they'd be doing that for another 7-10 years at least. A couple years of me being here, the band decided to wrap it up. That's when God led Isaac to Calvary South Denver to as a worship leader...that turned into pastoring the young adults also. The years we had there have been a blessing in so many ways. We've learned so much and acquired such a wonderful family in Christ. So it hurts to move since it means we have to say goodbye to so many people that we love deeply. But we are also very excited since we can see God's hand leading us to move, so we know he has amazing this for us to take part in in Sweden!
This is how it all came about: When we went to Sweden to visit two years ago God began to burden our hearts for Sweden. We understood that we might be moving back, and maybe in not super long. So since then we'd been praying that God would show us if and when it was time. Last summer Isaac and I were talking about when we thought it may be, and if we should just decide on a time and start working towards it and see if God affirmed it. We knew that we needed an insane amount of money to make it happen, money that we definitely didn't have. We ran some rough numbers and figured out that we needed a minimum of 10,000 dollars to just get there, with nothing. And we decided to not tell anyone of what we needed so that if the money came through we wouldn't know that it was the Lord showing us that it was time. A la George Mueller.
And so the weeks began passing by. Then months. I had E toward the end of the year and we had still heard nothing from the Lord what he wanted us to do. At the end of December we had to decide whether we would renew our lease on the town home we were staying in. We decided to still work towards leaving though it seemed unlikely at that point, so we were going to ask if we could renew for 4 months. The management company has been very difficult to work with so we said it'll be a sign if they let us do that since they only do one year leases. Lo and behold after talking to the owner they let us. But we still hadn't gotten a clear sign from God if it was time to move.
We've absolutely loved our church and the ministry Isaac's been getting to be a part of there with Meno. One evening in march Isaac told me: "I think the Lord may have us stay for another year at the church" since we still had heard nothing. I had been quite stressed with a newborn and a toddler so the thought of staying was pretty relieving to be honest.
About one week later we had some friends over for dinner. When they left we found an envelope that they had left for us...containing a very large amount of money. Obviously we got pretty excited and planned to pay off much of our car with it...but neither of us still thought that it was time. The very next morning we found out what our tax refund would be... both amounts equaled $10,036 dollars! God definitely had our attention at that moment! So within 12 hours God dumped the sum of money we needed in our laps.
We prayed about it for two weeks before we took the first step. Isaac went and shared with Pastor Gino what God was leading us to. And the ball started rolling.
The Enemy's attacks on our family began the very same day. It was very intense and obvious.
We have countless stories of how God has kept opening the doors in miraculous ways. How he's kept on providing all that we need. And even so many of our wants, though He in no way had to. But he is a good God. And he's faithful. I want to keep sharing what God is doing through this blog. So that everyone can see that there is a Living God, who is intensely interested in us. And that when we step out in faith - he's right there ready to reveal Himself to us!
Please keep us in your prayers as we make the transition. We are in the sad-phase of saying goodbye to all the people we love so much here. Also that God would provide a job for Isaac and me if needed. Our heart is to keep our kids out of daycare so we can actively raise them ourselves.
So here we go! :)
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