Houston-Dallas-Lubbock

Our trip so far has been fast! We had an awesome experience flying on Singapore Air, which I am sure most of you have read about on Dougle's blog. The day after we arrived, the first thing we did was drop off our passports and visa applications at the consulate in Houston. It is supposed to take 7-10 working days to process, but we just received confirmation that they have been processed. We will pick them up as soon as we arrive back in Houston. We are still praying for a year long visa with no restrictions.

We spent our first few days with Guy, Nancy and Aspen Stover. They are close friends of ours who graciously took care of us while we went through some jet lag. We all woke up at 4am the first morning. Of course, by 7pm that night, we were wondering just how late we really needed to stay up!! We did pretty good about not taking a nap, except for day two- which was by far the worst as far as jet lag was concerned. But we had a good time hanging out with the Stover family and look forward to spending more conscious time with them on our way out of the country!

The next stop was Dallas. Because of our trip dates, we were able to attend a missions dinner and mini seminar with Missions Resource Network (MRN). Our team was able to be together, with Livia and David coming in from Lubbock, as well as Rob and Denyce and their boys from Phoenix. On Sunday, we attended Prestoncrest church of Christ. They have given our team some one time support and are looking into the possibilities of supporting David and Olivia. We had a great day there, and were even able to meet a Russian couple who had come into the States to speak at a lectureship. Who knew that we'd have an opportunity to learn our newfound Russian language (faltering as it is) in the United States?!

On Sunday evening we flew into Lubbock. Canaan recognized familiar sites when we arrived at my parent's house. He loved being able to play in a familiar environment and around familiar people. My mom calls these familiar people his "fan club," because we all just sit around, watching him play, applauding his good behavior and smart antics, etc. He is enjoying it immensely! However, just before leaving Dallas, Canaan fell sick with a nasty little bug. He had three runny diapers in three hours. The next day, it was coming from both ends. Unlike most toddlers, he graciously shared; therefore, my mom, Dougle, David, and now Beth have all been sick with the same thing. Our last few days have been filled with laundry and disinfectant! Thankfully, it seems like everyone is on the up-swing (except Beth, who just contracted this) and we hope to have the house sick-free in a few days. Keep our health in your prayers.

Overall, our trip so far has gone fast and furious, as expected. We were unexpectedly out a few days with the sickness, but hope to get caught up on seeing those people and doing those things we want to get done before heading back to Moscow. We head to Houston on Monday evening, and back to Russia on Thursday, May 1st. We hope to see those of you we can at some point, but hope the rest of you are doing well. We love you all!