Lift a Prayer for Nastya!

Sunday evening we traveled back home to visit our family for a couple of days. Our friend Nastya was leaving yesterday to fly back to Belarus. Since she is 18, chances are she won't be able to return to the U.S. again with the ABRO program unless she comes as an interpreter.

We've tried to encourage her to come here for college on a student Visa, but she really doesn't want to leave her mother, which I completely understand. For now her plans are to go to school there at what we think will be like a community/trade college.

Every time I'm feeling a little down in the dumps and would like to remodel or add things on my "to do" list, I think of this child and her home and how little she has there. Her home is about the size of two small bedrooms put together. She and her mother have very little. Her mom makes less than $40 a month in a factory and most of the time they have no electricity and their bathroom is outside. I can't imagine having to get up and go outside during the middle of the night during their winters when it is below zero and snowing to go to the bathroom.

How many times do I get so caught up in my own stuff that I forget how richly blessed I am!

Please keep Nastya and her mother in your prayers as they face tough economic struggles daily.



Katie and Nastya after one last trip to Smithfield's Chicken and BBQ!







I ask today too that you keep my daddy in your prayers as he goes to the doctor for a check up. He has not been well lately...just not himself.
Mama, Katie and Daddy!





Katie and my sister, Jan. They look more alike than Katie and me!






Callie, my niece (Jan's daughter) and me! Eating made from scratch banana pudding and having a glass of sweet tea! This was the third banana pudding mama had made since Saturday and this picture was taken on Monday! There had been several deaths and illnesses in the community so she whipped up several to share. It takes me a while just to whip up one! There's something about mama and bananas! I'll share the recipe this weekend. This post is already long enough.





Below are just a few pictures Katie took just before we left to come home. There's probably over 100 geese on the farm this time of year. As pesky as they are, they really are beautiful. She also wanted to capture the old barns and the cows. Enjoy!








Ginger:)