Unpacking, Settling, Reading Cece the Same Book Over and Over

We don't have internet at our house, yet. I have been so busy trying to unpack, clean, and "get settled" that I haven't left the house to get internet access, until this afternoon. I don't have a lot of time, so I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves, mostly.

Here is what it was looking like:

Here is what it looks like, as of today:

Notice the missing oven and dishwasher? They didn't work, so we're going to get some new ones, soon!

Does anyone speak German? We are learning, so we can do our laundry!

Notice the book in all these pictures? This is the book Cece asks me to read to her over and over and over and over . . . .

There's still more work to be done! We are sure missing all of you!

Feeling a Little Bit Like This . . .

I'm feeling a little bit like this today:

By no means if life terrible, but the chaos of transition is real. We are truly excited about the house we are renting; however, it's just taking some time to be able to move in. The landlord is remodeling the bathroom, which is really great. On a minor side note, he asked me what I wanted in the bathroom before they started, which was so kind of him. I said, "white, modern, neutral". Well, somehow that got translated/carried out to be tiles with brown, orange, and yellow flowers:)!

Back to the chaos. We were living in the Patty's apartment until they ran out of gas to heat their home (they have a great wood stove in their house, but it doesn't send heat to the apartment), so we packed up our stuff and moved in with the Ellenwood's over a week ago. We are so loving their family, but we were thinking any day we'd be unpacking our boxes, but . . . remodeling takes time, so we wait.

Hopefully, we'll be moving in late this week. Just to give you a little glimpse into my heart, here is my prayer today:

Lord God,

Please help me to be encouraged today. Help us to get settled quickly. Give us the strength and grace we need in the chaos of being unsettled, being disconnected by dear friends and family by several time-zones, learning a new language (we had our first language lesson last night:)), connecting and developing new friendships, living with and depending on others, working and learning new jobs (especially Brian), continuing to be a good wife and mom, trying to stay motivated to work-out, spend time studying your word, pray, send updates, schedule our weeks, plan our summer, think of ways those we love can serve short-term, and do laundry. God help me!

Please Lord Jesus give us strength, the right heart, encouragement, love for each other and others and peace! I am glad I'm here, though! Amen.

Brian's Birthday: March 14th

Saturday was Brian's birthday (I'm not saying which one because we're both getting to the age where we're just having birthdays, but we're going to stay the same age). We are far away from home; however, we were able to spend Brian's birthday with the Carlson's, and that felt like home! So much thanks to them for making Brian's day so perfect!

We met them in Poland at an indoor water park. I have some great video that I will post later. Brian said his favorite part was taking Cece down the water slide. Kelsey, Jillian, Brian and Cece all went down and got up out of the pool at about the same time. Kelsey turned to her sister, Jillian, and said, "do you want to go again?" Cece said, "yeah!"

After the water park, they took us to a great restaurant with really tasty pizza. Then, we went to their house for cake. They made a cake with coconut frosting, which is one of Brian's favorites.

Then, the cherry on top was that the next night the Patty's took Brian to a restaurant in a near by city, Ostrava, for his FAVORITE dessert: creme brulee.

I'm so thankful for Brian. These pictures show how amazing it is to be here and how well we are being taken care of. But, there are certainly some hard things too. I will surely have posts from time-to-time that will share some of the hard. However, right now, I just want to say that sharing life with Brian makes life better than I ever dreamed it would be. I am honored to share this adventure with him. He is such a great man, and I am beyond proud of him for stepping out in extreme faith and saying yes to something that is going to have such a huge impact on Cece and I (not to mention the Kingdom of God). I love you, Brian!

Postcard from Czech

It's not supposed to stay "Starring Postcard from Czech" at the beginning. I changed it to say "Postcard from Czech", but as amazing as iMovie is, sometimes the program doesn't listen to me! I'm too impatient to uploaded again! Hope you enjoy despite the minor error!

Postcard from Czech from Aleisha Stephens on Vimeo.