Greetings From Moscow!

Well, this is just a quick update about our trip. I wrote it at home and am pasting it on my blog. I encourage you to read Dougle's blog too for more info. The address to his blog is to the right of this! I will try to post some pictures as soon as I can!

Hello from Moscow!

We have finally made it out somewhere to connect up to the internet and write to you all! We arrived safely in Moscow on Wednesday evening around 4pm! Our flights (the 9 ½ hour one from Dallas to Frankfurt, as well as the 3 ½ hour one from Frankfurt to Moscow) all went smoothly. This was Canaan’s first time to fly and he was wonderful! I know there were many of you praying for us, for a safe and uneventful trip, and God heard your prayers! Once we got checked in at the airport, everything went super smoothly. There was a seat empty next to us on both our flights, which made it easier to spread out all our stuff (really all of Canaan’s stuff!). Canaan played well on our laps, ate well, ran up and down the aisles for a bit, even making a little friend on the first row (a little 9 month old girl), and slept well. He was up for most of the trip to Germany, sleeping the last 3 hours of that flight. He played in the airport for a bit when we were in Germany, then he and Mommy slept the whole flight from there to Moscow. It was wonderful. We even got through customs smoothly. Several times on our trip we were ushered to the front of the lines because we had a baby. And then we had to pay a guy to help us with our luggage once we were in Moscow; however this worked much to our benefit, as he haggled with the customs officer and we didn’t have to have any of our luggage checked or gone through. It was great! Tim Brinely, the missionary here in Moscow, picked us up. He had his car and a taxi waiting for us when we arrived. We loaded everything up and spent the next 3 hours in crazy traffic. Finally we arrived at our apartment around 7:30 that evening. Tim had graciously bought us a few groceries and a plant to welcome us to our new home, so we were able to cook dinner that night (and later breakfast the next morning) without having to venture out for groceries. This was especially nice since we were exhausted! We cooked dinner, found enough stuff to give Canaan his bath, and put him to bed around 10pm. Dougle and I followed at 11pm, but were soon up. Canaan thought it was just nap time and was awake from midnight until 4am. However, he finally got sleepy enough around 4am and we all slept until noon the next day. Tim again came and helped us find the office to register our visas and then showed us around our neighborhood and took us shopping for a few more groceries. He has been so excellent to us in helping us get settled in!

So, here we are on our second full day in Moscow and doing well. Canaan went to bed around midnight last night and slept for 12 hours! Dougle got up earlier and went to register our visas here in Moscow. We are trying to get everything unpacked in our apartment. It is a really nice apartment: it is small, but perfect for us right now as we are new to everything. The apartment came with most all the furniture we need, some dishes in the kitchen, and a TV. The bed seems pretty comfy, the bathroom has heated floors (though we aren’t sure how to turn them on), and everything is in super nice condition. Our landlord had remodeled the apartment for his mother to move into, but she didn’t end up moving from her home near the Urals. So, he is renting it out. The heaters work wonderfully- too well, actually. We have to leave a window open in the kitchen all day and all night, as well as open up a window in the living-room area for half the day. We got the radiator turned down in the bedroom so we didn’t sweat the whole second night. But, I would much rather have an apartment that is too warm than one that wasn’t warm enough! Besides, I like having the windows open a bit so we can have some fresh air. So, we feel very blessed to have such a great place!

The weather has been nice since we’ve been here. It was about -7 degrees Celsius yesterday, which was about 12 Degrees Farenheight- I think! Our coats all seem to work well and we fit in with the local population too! It has been a bit more chilly today because there is some wind. Overall, we are surviving well!

We hope to put up a short video of our trip, as well as one giving you a “tour” of our apartment. However, we have to get it all put in order first. So, that will be something you can look forward to! Thank you all for your prayers and your love! We hope to get internet in our apartment soon, so that we can keep up better communication with you all! We send you our love from Moscow!