Packing for Slovakia

Just two mornings from tomorrow, Jonathan, Carrie, little Hannah and I will be heading to the airport for Slovakia! We go via JFK Airport in NY, and then Brussels, Belgium. Then I think a short layover in Germany and arriving in Budapest,  Hungary, where the Durhams will pick us up.

Dan and Kandi Boardman are joining us there as well as part of the Mission Helps team. 

We are to spend Sunday there in Budapest, attending the Hungarian church where Ed Durham is to speak Sunday. 

We have piles and piles of clothing for the children at the orphanage, or the girls at the girls' home.

I was thrilled to find most of these vitamins and homeopathic herbal remedies on clearance recently for a fraction of what the original cost was.

In the middle of the muddle, I try to keep the children up with their school work, keep the lessons checked, and meals made.

Yesterday Jonathan and the four children who won't be going to Slovakia took a bunch of the Union Bible College choir up Pikes Peak.

At home, I made elk liver and onions for supper for us all, along with yeah, leftovers.

Saturday night the girls made some of the yummiest pizza we ever ate.

Rose said it was to celebrate her finishing ninth grade. Now she is plunging into tenth grade right away. Today she was laboring over biology.

Also yesterday Carrie passed her driving test and got her driver's license!

So while some of the family was up on the top of the mountain far away with young people,

some of whom were whoozy with the altitude,

 I was riding through the brown prairie with Carrie at the wheel, helping Hannah with a cross-stitch project.

(Hannah is also learning to knit, thanks to the patience and kindness of her sister, Rose.)

I was tempted to feel grumpy when I called Jonathan and he announced that he was on top of Pikes Peak, but after hearing about the months of pain our dear friend and former fill-in pastor Bro. Goodwin has been experiencing, I have nothing to complain about even if I do have to miss Sunday morning choir service due to two sick children, and miss a trip up Pikes Peak due to having to take Carrie for her test. 

Here is the fruit plate we made for the choir's dinner Sunday. 

God was so sweet--the choir is coming back to town tomorrow and I get to go hear them tomorrow!

And next week, I get to be in the mountains of Slovakia!

That is what I told myself when my heart was feeling heavy out in the middle of the dead, brown prairie grass.

I told myself to enjoy the ranches we passed, with the cattle and new calves, and the cottonwood trees along the streambed (probably dried up). 

And wasn't God good, too, that last week I found a cart full of fresh produce on clearance so I could stock up for the children while we are gone, apples, oranges, lemons, grapefruit!

I'll probably post a little more before we leave, as that is how I unwind when I have too much to do!