Is it already Spring??

Hi -its 2009 and while we have been updating our cma site we have not been doing it here !!! Well Alan is on tour and we have survived an upstate New York winter. Actually it was much better sun wise than our winters in St Petersburg. Yesterday we celebrated my dad's 76th birthday. My brother Chris surprised us all by driving 7 hours to see us. Yippeee!

What have we been up to??


Rach and Manda had a great summer going to relatives in Ohio and New York
All of us girls went to see Michael W Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman
Trish just had bilateral inginual hernia repair (oh joy)

Week to week
piano lessons every week for Rach and Lauren
youth group two times a week for Manda and Rachel
Trish co-leads a pioneer club at our church once a week
zach goes to pre-school three times a week and loves it
Alan is in and out as he has been on tour in California, New York, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

We are alrady starting to gear up for our return to Russia. Time just flies when you are having fun. We are so blessed to be here with our family and friends!

Wow

4th of July


Picking up the girls at camp


Two months have flown by since our last post! We have been doing lots in our transition from Russia to the US. Here is a brief overview:

-hosted a fun 4th of July party at our apartment in Russia where about 30 people joined us.
-packed up and said our goodbyes in Russia on July 8th. We had a really long travel day on the 8th (30 hours)

-purchased a house in our home town of Fulton, New York. We are closing on it tomorrow!
-spent a week at Sodus Point (on Lake Ontario) with all of Alan's family

-Trish had an all day shopping trip with two of her friends

-celebrated Trisha's nephew Austin's graduation from high school (and had a mini Richards reunion that day)

-Trish took the 3 girls to a week of camp where they had a blast. On the way to camp they had a blow-out. We love the police in America who actually stopped and helped her get the rusted on spare out from underneath the van :)

-Saw our St Pete friends the O'Byrnes on this side of the ocean (see below)


-Alan and Trish took a one day trip to the Adirondacks with our church's senior citizen group and had a blast

-We ate out with our friends at Ichi Bon- thanks Candi and Brian! Zach was with us and loved the leaping fire!

What is up:
The girls will start school in early September. They will be going to public school so you can pray for them. We have met both Rachel's and Manda's guidance counselors. Please pray for their transitions.

We are preparing for tour. Alan will tour in the New York area for two months. Please pray that we can carve out time to put our last four years into words, pictures and convey what God has done in St. Pete.

Rach turned 15 last week and has had a great summer. She was privileged to attend a youth seminar that really impacted her life and allowed her to get to know the youth group here at Fulton.

Manda is getting a new retainer for her mouth as it looks like she will need braces like Rachel.

Zach is doing well but still asks how many days til he goes back to Petersburg Russia.

Blessings to you all!

WOW

Transition Time

<
Whew! We have not written for over a month. Lots has been happening. Alan's two sisters came for a visit at the end of May and we had a great time. Pam and Sharon were troopers as they had flight delays both coming and returning to the US. On their way home they had some company :) Rach and Manda traveled with them and went to Ohio with Pam to visit her family and Trish's brother Chris and his family. They have had some great times.

Here we are surrounded by boxes and more boxes. We have already "sold" our van to our neighbor and have alot of our stuff packed. We are still doing the English club and class each week.
Pray for our church as we have had some good news. Two of our leaders will be going to Bible college in the fall. The church will miss them but we are excited for them as they are following God's leading. Our pastor's daughter Margarita had a bad fall over a week ago. Serious enough that they put off their vacation for two weeks. Thank the Lord she only had a concussion and not something even more serious.

Our new teammates, The Masons, will be coming in just over a week. Pray for us as we wind down here. Blessings!

Spring has finally sprung

<



Hey-it has been awhile since we have blogged. In early April we enjoyed a nice time at the Black Sea at our yearly field forum. While the weather was not the greatest the fellowship and the greenness all around us was excellent. The kids had a great time and Zach attended his last year of being with the "ladies" ie nannies who take care of the smaller kids. One of these nannies was our Vika who took care of Lauren and the girls when we first moved to Russia.(top left in green shirt-Zach is on the far right in red)

Life has picked up speed. Rachel is playing volleyball two times a week with the junior highers and high schoolers. The kids just had their spring concert as well as the school's huge yearly garage sale. We got rid of a vanful of toys and clothes. Lots of kids are entering and leaving the school.
We celebrated Lauren's 9th birthday by having some of her friends over.
.

We have also done some special dates with our oldest two daughters. For Manda we went to a special tea room at a downtown restaurant. For Rachel she had a mom and dad date at a local cafe.


Two times a week Trish and Alan are teaching an English class and discussion group at Med Em.

Visitors and Spring

Girls greeting Tanya

<
Alan celebrated his 43rd birthday this past week!!!
We have had snow flurries again this week. Three days were really bad and then today the sun came out and the temps got above freezing. Our friends Tanya and Olya have been with us the last week. We took them to the Zoological Museum (with Zach) and then to the Hermitage.
This next week we head South to our field's forum where hopefully it will be warm and sunny.

Olya with Zach and Lauren

Flurries

Just about a week ago we had flurries of several different types. First the obvious, we actually had some snow flurries for several days. Secondly we have been in the midst of flurries of busyness. Our co-workers the Friesens left for home assignment just a week ago. Helping them pack and say our goodbyes was a reminder to us how time flies especially when you are concluding a term on the field. Yesterday the church celebrated Women's Day with a dessert time/games. The celebration was held at the girls' school building. Several non Christians were there and a good time was had by all.

Unfortunately there has also been a flurry of illness here. Pastor Dima's wife Valya who is pregnant has had a bad case of the flu. Please pray for their family and especially for Valya and baby. Zach at the moment has the sniffles and so does Amanda.


The kids did a short program at their school for Women's day on March 8th as well.


Excitement
In two weeks we will be having the girls' long time friend, Tanya, from Kropotkin, come for a week. She and our past nanny(Olya) will be coming for a visit. Tanya was the first of our Kropotkin neighbors to befriend our girls, and they have been good friends ever since. Also we we will be leaving to field forum the first week of April! It will hopefully be warm and sunny in Anapa.

Prayer Requests
Please pray for us and for some of our stateside friends. We have a dear friend who is struggling with alot of pain and a chronic illness.
Please pray for our kids as they start again the sometimes fun and yet painful process of transitioning. As Lauren noted, all of her friends, that she remembers are here and this is home for her.