We enjoyed being in Moscow for a few days with the Courson Family, minus Kris and Kristen :( We just love them to pieces. We hadn't seen Rose the last couple of times we came through so that was a special treat. They always treat us like family, and our family like family :) just 2 years ago, they hosted our whole clan that came to serve in the Pastor's camp, thats cause we are family. We love getting to sleep on their couch (that was our couch) hahaha. I will never forget the first time we met Kris, before they came as missionaries...he came to Moscow and sat in our home and asked us about serving in Moscow with our kids etc...I guess we did a good job of showing him that if we could do it, they could, or God just had His way despite our failure to convey that they could do it and their kids would be just fine. AND THAT THEY ARE...SO GLAD WE DIDN'T RUN THEM OFF !!
While traveling on a bus one day, Frances and I saw the cutest little old man and snuck this picture of him for Grace (she and I share an infatuation and admiration for little old men)
...And we got to see the Pulliams too, our family twice removed haha...it had been a loooong time since we had seen them (about a month hee hee) Well, it had been a long time since we had seen them in Moscow at least. It was so fun to be in there home again, like old times, minus 5 of our children. CRAZINESS... Now two of our kids are married (to each other) and we share a grandbaby. The first time we met the Pulliams was in Moscow. The whole family took our whole family shopping at a vietnamese renok for indoor shoes for the boys at Hinkson ( who ever heard of needing indoor shoes anyway) what a sight we must have been trapsing through that renok looking for shoes. I remember asking Karla a hundred times how to say 33 (thritst thri) Reagan's size...I remember how astonished I was at how great they had adjusted and with 5 young children, and Stephen was just a baby. My heroes. I was like wow, they speak so well and ... later realized they had only been there a few months before us. Then I was really impressed. It is always fun to be the "veteran" missionary, even if it just a few months. haha. We were surprised that they had a banya in their new apartment, so we girls had to try it out :)
We are so blessed to have such good friends on the mission field. We will never take it for granted. They are forever friends whether they come or go. 12 years on the field have seen many dear friends come and go,for as many reasons as one could imagine, mostly because God calls them to serve in different places, and some even come back again. We have had the privilege in the past few years of coming through the capital of staying with The Tarletons, The Stameys, The Coursons...and invites from others...
what a blessing to have family wherever we are. We never forget and we always miss those who are no longer with us, or no longer in Moscow. We made a decision to return to Siberia by train before we left MS. The decision was for 4 reasons: We could bring in extra bags and only pay extra in Jackson, we could spend time together with just Caleb, we could get used to the time change and weather, gradually, and we have always wanted to travel extensivily on the train.We needed to stay a couple of days so that we could apply for new passports. Ours will expire in 2 years, and because we need new visas, we need them to be attached to the new passports. We couldnt get our tickets until we got that taken care of. Our plan was to purchase an entire Kupet (a cabin with four beds-two on top and two on bottom)so that we would not have any "guests" and we could also use the extra space for luggage. GREAT PLAN, RIGHT ?? THUS BEGINS OUR JOURNEY :) I DO HOPE YOU ENJOY.
No comments:
Post a Comment