The very idea of trying to drag a family of 5 through an international airport including customs seemed daunting to us to say the least.  But, praise God, it went amazingly well!  All of the things that we were concerned about were non-issues.  At the last minute we found out that we would only be allowed the standard 10 suitcases but this was for the best since we would not have been able to get the original 15 suitcases into the van that couriered us from the airport.  And, after taking the 10 suitcases up 5 flights of stairs I can't imagine 15,  UHHG!  I caught the flu just before leaving for Chicago, which was pretty unpleasant, but I was glad to get it over with.  The airport we landed at was pretty snowed in so we stayed the night with some friends there in Kiev.   The Airline was great (Lufthansa) and everyone was very accommodating.  The boys slept all but 2 hours of the flights, which made it a piece of cake also.  I even got a chance to try out my Russian right away by haggling with the luggage delivery people.   All and in all it was a great trip! Thank you all so much for all of your prayers.  It was very evident to us throughout the trip that God had gone ahead of us all the way, and that we had tons of people praying!!!  Slova Bogoo!

OK, so my title is a little misleading. This article is not about the Ukrainian Mob, but in the past year I've really grasped the understanding of what it means to be in the Family of Christ.  Whether it be a small Anglican Church in Florida, a Lutheran Church in Iowa, a Baptist Church in Eldridge, a Baptist Church in Ukraine, or a Christian Church in Indiana, not to mention our own church homes in Bettendorf and Mount Pulaski; we have found the body of Christ is so much bigger and more caring than we ever knew.  I have been truly astounded by how these communities have instantly accepted our rag-tag family as one of their own, and truly treated us as their biological brothers and sisters (perhaps even better). So many of you have sent us emails and encouragement that has meant so much to us, and helped us to continue pressing on.  As one of our partners wrote to us, we have truly felt like, "Although we are far away, we are never far from home".   Thank you so much, and take it from us you can rely on "The Family."

As we mentioned above we are so thankful for so many of you.  We wanted to give a special thank you to our church families who have done so much for us, from lending us cars to baby sitting.  We also wanted to thank the Russian Language Institute for the excellent training they gave us; life has been so much easier because of what they taught us.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers.  For those of you who are prayer partners for a particular day please find the prayer calendar online by clicking here. http://www.five4one.org/calendar.html