The sun finally came out! We were thrilled and took a trip down to the river to get some sun on our faces. The last few weeks has been warmer (10-20 degrees above zero) so it's been cloudy. But now that it's back to 30 below we are getting less cloud coverage and more sun action.

Below: Beautiful Nae waiting in the car as Ruthie delivered one plate of goodies to some elders we visit regularly.
Below: A ptarmigan...they are pretty little birds. Although when Brad gets his small game license ptarmigans will provide delicious meat to cook and eat. :)
Before we went to the Christmas Eve service the girls wanted to paint with some craft supplies my friend Tomi bought us for Christmas. Tomi must have prayed before mailing us that box because we found two kid toothbrushes in it and we were getting dangerously low on toothbrushes! :)

Brad and I goofing around!
Me and the girls goofing around!
We wanted to get a family Christmas picture in front of the tree, but figured it would be more fun to get some action shots of our karate moves. Besides, have you seen our tree? :) Ruthie really got into the acting part and had some good moves. Nae seemed a little tired...when we got home after the service we realized why. She threw up right when we got home and was sick on Christmas day too. The flu is going around the village and I guess we didn't avoid it this year.
Below: Brad had some good moves but I'll get him later [please view last karate photo].



There you go! I finally got him back!
Due to the cold weather we have been washing our hair in the sink again.
Christmas this year was special because we were able to start our own family traditions. We've been blessed to spend every Christmas with both our parents in the past. We missed them a lot this year.
It was exciting to buy Bibles for our brothers and sisters in other countries. We also were able to worship before Sunday services on Christmas. My family were troopers...I can only play three hymns so we sang those over and over again.

Naomi and I stayed home during church but Brad and Ruthie were able to attend. Brad took offering and I guess Ruthie enjoyed being with him and helping out.

Below: We finally used our ice cream maker on Christmas day. Nae couldn't eat too much due to her stomach, but she still enjoyed making it with us. She must be viewing the percentage of fat found in whipping cream...

...and it must be to her liking in percentage!

While the ice cream was churning we watched a Dynamation from the "Kid's 4 Truth" website. Ben and Amber introduced us to this organization and we like it a lot. This dynamation was about the birth of Christ.

Papa and Grandma bought the girls talking babies. While Brad was taking the baby out of the box she was rambling on and on about wanting to be rocked to sleep and asking to be held, etc. Naomi immediately took over as a Mama and kept saying to her new daughter, "Come on out of there. You talking to me? You need to come out of that box. Are you talking to me?"

The girls liked their notebooks and pens Grandma Shilloy. Thanks!

The girls also liked their baby dolls Grandma Cheryl and Grandma Shilloy!

Sidenote: Is it taboo to send a thank you note via a blog? :)

Miss Julie and Mister Jake bought the girls cute outfits which they insisted on wearing immediately after opening...

...and they got cute outfits from Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky which they also put on after opening. I think they changed their outfits three times that day!

Mike must have bought these outfits from China while he was on leave. The girls really like them...Mike, I was kinda hoping for one in my size but you never sent me a package. Hmm...just a hint for the next time you are in China and want to buy me something. ;)

Brad was reading Luke 2 and Naomi randomly sang, "1 John 4:14, The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 1 John 4:14." We were encouraged to see how she connected that verse with Christ's birth in Luke. Praise the Lord!

Finally the ice cream was done...

...and it was amazing! Making our own ice cream saved us a lot of money rather than buying it at the store and it was more fun this way too.

December 21, 2011

SEND's pilot who is stationed here took Brad and Martin around to see some surrounding villages. Josh, the pilot, wanted to try out some of the runways. It's been pretty nice here (above zero) so it was a good time to take the plane out and explore.

Below: One of the runways in a small village.

Naomi woke up this morning, looked outside and said with joy, "It's dark again today!" I suppose if she can find joy in the darkness I should to. :)

A couple weeks ago the SEND plane was used to reach a neighboring village where Martin was able to preach and lead a Kid's Club meeting.

Brad enjoyed visiting each village. We are praying the Lord will make it clear to us what small village He may want to move us to after being adjusted to bush life.

Below: We as teammates had a "P&P" time...a "Prayer and Pizza" time. It was a very good time for us to simply pray and rely on the Lord for fruit. He is able!

I heard the girls playing upstairs with pretend keys...they were getting ready to take their babies to church. Instead of using their keys to start a car, instead they were hopping on their snow machines to church. Only in the bush! :)

Good friends of ours emailed us this quote:

"Alaskans are celebrating the extra eight seconds of daylight tomorrow. Small joys are precious after a long darkness." @johnpiper

{Lord, please grant us a light in the midst of dark times. Amen.}

Brad, the girls and I went Christmas caroling with Kid's Club on Friday.
Brad did the object lesson and shared the Gospel after caroling.
After snacks and a craft we all went to the elder center to sing to some of the elders in our village. Right before this Brad found out he was playing in the weekend basketball tourney...so right after the Kid's Club activity we head to the courts to watch some ball.
It was a bit of a long time for the kids...Nae and I needed a break from all the noise and chaos. We took our craft and sat by ourselves and had some mother/daughter time. I'm realizing Naomi's a lot like me in the fact she needs her "alone time" during the day. :)
While the girls were taking a bath I heard Naomi ask Ruthie how to be born again. It was encouraging to hear Ruthie share the Gospel with her best friend.
For the tournament, several guys snow-machined from the surrounding villages to play. Brad's team made it to the championship game but lost and ended up getting second place.
After one of his games we took a drive a little out of town...these pictures were taken about 3:30pm...it's dark around that time now.

The view of the road at 3:30pm.
We all enjoyed "getting out of town" and heading to the dump that afternoon.
I'm thankful our girls enjoy being read to so much.

Below: Family game night of UNO.
Of course our Nae girl won most of the games!
The other day Brad announced "the sun is out" and we all gathered our winter gear and jumped into the car. We needed to drive to the river to have it shine on us. Well, before heading out we started shoveling and the girls started playing in the snow...and before we knew it the sun was already behind the clouds. Oops!
Below: This is the view we got. It's beautiful even without the sun beaming down on us.

The girls and I were trying to figure out how to be creative with not much access to stensils, paint, etc. Below is what we finally did...the girls like it! :)
After attending this tourney we realized not many white people attend...most people there were native.
Brad = Mr. Defense

Sometimes it would be awkward for me because Naomi would keep referring to the guys that had tempers. Example: A guy grunted in a very irritated way at the ref, and Naomi turned to me and said, "Why he go Grrrrrr? Why he do that Mommy?" She didn't just whisper this but yelled it to me. At least the ladies near me laughed at it.
The girls had fun playing with the basketball before each game.
Naomi: Why Daddy want to steal the basketball game?

Sidenote: Nae kept referring to "basketball" as "basketball game." Apparently she thought you can't separate those two words.