Almost done...

I wrote this on Monday, but blogger was down for some reason:

 Well, we made it through last week and all the responsibilities thereof. Last week we met with our regional office of W. Europe all week and enjoyed a more intimate setting than usual (usually we are in a group of 250). One of our assignments for the week was to research our country and people group and do a presentation to our supervisor and colleagues. It was interesting to learn so much about Icelandic history and the history of Christianization there.

I was also surprised to learn how Iceland got it's name. I had heard (and naively repeated) that the first settlers of Iceland deceivingly named it that so that no one would go there. The reality of the matter is (according to Wikipedia), the first Scandinavian settler, Hrafna-Floki, named the country after spending his first cold winter there and seeing a fair amount of drift ice in the fjords.  

This weekend, I was reminded of how much I have parroted that statement as we were driving together through downtown Richmond.

Haley Jane- "Mommy, Miss Kathy has been showing my class a lot of pictures of Iceland."

"Wow, honey...that's great..."

"But...there are a lot of people there."

"Sure..."

"But...I thought you named it Iceland so that no one would go there."

 I formally apologize to anyone that I have led astray by my ignorance.

This one is my favorite

It's nice to have an internet connection

The Wall

We only have 1 1/2 weeks left of FPO. Some serious fatigue has been setting in here. We went through "stress-innoculation" training, which was....(what else) stressful. The worst part about it was that it went through the weekend, and we didn't get much of a rest. Back at it Monday with more sessions. I have been feeling like I can't absorb ANY MORE INFORMATION. My brain literally hurts at the end of the day. Learning Icelandic on top of everything else is just a lot. To top it off, the immunization of the week this week was Tetanus and I was up from 1:00am to 6:00am in a tormenting pain last night. I hate shot days.

Okay, I'm starting to sound really negative, so let me focus on some highlights:
1. The Pelts came down to visit us last week and it was encouraging to see familiar faces.
2. The girls on our Europe team offered to give us a date night, and we took them up on it. Nothing like a little downtown Richmond at twilight to ease the mind.
3. The whole FPO went on buses to DC on Thursday for a cultural experience. We met Dave and Nancy at a French bistro in Dupont Circle and got into some good conversations with some internationals later in the afternoon.
4. We are now in North Carolina getting ready to make an Iceland presentation tomorrow at Josh Dickinson's church. One of our jobs as IMB personnel is to mobilize Southern Baptist Churches to pray for our family and the work in Iceland.

Please pray that we can make it through this next week. There are many presentations and books that are due this week. I feel like I'm in college again...only finals week is MUCH WORSE when you have the responsibilities of being a parent, too!

On more thing to pray for: VISAS are not looking good. We are praying that we can get into the country by early November because Language school starts November 10th.

Looking forward to being in stafford in two weeks!

family photo shoot

It is taking a really long to upload these from our dorm room...more to come later.

I-kings

Last night, an hour after I put the girls to bed, Haley came into my room looking perplexed.
"Mommy, I'm very scared about something."
"What are you scared about, honey?"
"I'm very concerned about the Vikings."
Oh my word...Did her preschool-teacher have to be so thorough in her explanation of Icelandic history?
"Haley Jane...don't worry...the Vikings are not there any more."
"Are they in jail?"
"No...but they lived many, many years ago and they have all passed away by now."
"Are you sure about this?"
"Yes, I'm sure."

By this time, Darcy had waddled in behind her sister repeating, "I scair-ewed I-kings."

The girls are doing a really good job with the transition, but there have been many nights that Haley has been very concerned about something. She takes the Bible stories we read to her very seriously and was very scared last week about the "bad soldiers" who killed Jesus. She wanted to know where they were and if her life was in danger, too. It has been amazing some of the spiritual conversations we have gotten into with her. Pray for continued guidance and wisdom to shepherd their little hearts!