STO LAT!

It's my hubby's 25th Birthday! :)




HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT! I LOVE YOU!

HOLY COW!

WOW....our summer team gets here in two days! What does that mean? It means that our time living alone here in Poland, doing our thing, enjoying life at a slow pace will cease to exist after Friday. It means that our two years here is quickly coming to an end. It means that my sister and brother-in-law will be here in 7 WEEKS. It means that we'll have to leave our friends and family here that we've grown so close to. It means that we'll have to say goodbye to this precious place, this city and culture that we love and have come to know as our "home." This is big...really, think about it....Scott and I have been married 29 months now. We've lived in Poland 20 of those 29 months. All of our "traditions" that we've started as a married couple...Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, BOTH Anniversaries...they've all started here. Our way of living, as a couple, has been established in this culture...the way we eat, the way we cook, the way we excercise, interact with people...all done here. Being honest, generally I do like living in Europe better than the US, life is slower, society here isn't as materialistic or as egocentric as American society (sad but true), we are healthier, the culture is incredibly rich with history, life, and diversity. However, we do miss our family and friends like you wouldn't believe...and of course we miss us some Arby's and Taco Bell somethin' awful. ;) I couldn't bare to be away from the people I love the most for another year.

So, needless to say - things here are INCREDIBLY hectic! We've got the girls coming in 2 days, we have 5 solid weeks of ministry with them (7 days a week), then we're off to the mountains somewhere to work a 10 day English camp, then two days later Kellie & Blake get here for two weeks and then we move home. JA CIE KRĘCA!

Life goes by quick...and it's going to go much quicker.

However, let me say we're pretty stoked that tomorrow we will take a break from our busy lives to see this! That's right...we get to see it before you do since we're 7 hours ahead. Muuuaahhhahaha!

Happy Days...

I'm always late...but better late than never right? And this blog is only a day late. I was thrown off because the fam had their Birthday/Mother's Day celebration a day early, but enough with excuses!

First to my Momma - Happy Mother's Day...she's pretty much the best mother in the world...hands down. I want to be just like her when I grow up. :) She is absolutely beautiful, she's insanely talented in a million ways, AND she's learning Spanish! I adore everything about her. You're "more precious than rubies" Mom. :) And she's a pretty funny gal. :)

And of course, to my amazing Mom-In-Law. I was blessed with a wonderful, loving, spunky Mother-in-law and I absolutely adore her. She's one of the strongest women I know. :) Happy Mother's Day Debbie! We love you!!

Last but certainly not least a "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" (said with a Brak voice) to my big brother Shea-Bird. There are no words to express how much I love this guy. Handsome, funny, witty, incredibly caring, and definitely the coolest and most talented guy I know. He's pretty wonderful and I want to hang out with him all the time. Happy Birthday again Shea! Enjoy your Choco-Softies! ;) I love you!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE THESE PEOPLE.

I know...I know...

I feel terrible! I can't believe it's been almost a MONTH since my last post. I apologize. :( Things here are great though...we can't believe that our summer team will be here in TWO weeks, holy cow. In no time it'll be time for us to pack up and head home!

Things with the youth group are going good, they have the money for tickets and they all have their visas so they'll be coming to visit in July. YAY! :)

I just wanted to say that I'm sorry (to you loyal readers) for the lack of postage (haha), I really want to write a new entry soon. The Lord's doing some neat stuff and I'd just like to share, but for tonight...we still have to balance our budget and I need to work out a meal plan for the week...and we're pretty exhausted already...so I'll leave you with some awesomeness.

My sister sent me this in an email and I couldn't resist but to share the wealth! :)

All from Ice Cream

As I've mentioned before, Scott and I sponsor a little boy living in Uganda through World Vision. Isaac is his name and he is precious precious precious! Scott and I have something we call an ice cream fund. Last year we heard the statistic that Americans spend enough money on ice cream in one year to eliminate world hunger. So how do we take that info and put it into practical use? Not eat ice cream? That wouldn't do anybody and good! Plus we love ice cream! But, it is a scary statistic...so we decided to set up an "Ice Cream Fund." We decided that YES INDEED we would eat ice cream, but we would keep track of each cone and every zloty spent on ice cream and put that same amount into a separate fund and we would decide how to spend it at the end of the year. Last year the two of us spent roughly 100 bucks on ice cream alone. We decided in December that we would see if we could somehow give that money to our sponsored child, Isaac and his family. At Christmas we sent the gift through World Vision. What a precious gift we received this month. We just got a letter in the mail this month from Isaac and his family. With our measely $100 he bought what you see in this picture. Here he is with his uncle (whom he lives with). With the money he bought a school uniform, a backpack, new shoes, a matress, extra food for the family (he has 5 siblings), and a "she goat" who they say is pregnant. :) Scott and I teared up while reading this letter from him. He and his family have been in our life for 2 years now. This is most precious gift we've ever received, to be able to help provide for this family and see how excited he is about his new uniform and just this excited look on his face...worth a million dollars if we had it. I'll say it again...if you aren't sponsoring a child through World Vision I can't promote it enough. :) Our precious Isaac and his family have enriched our lives and blessed us abundantly. One day, we will go to visit him. :)

On another fun note...today is my birthday! And a lovely one it's been! I woke up this morning to a beautiful card made by my wonderful husband. He gave me my birthday present (a new rainjacket YAY!) and made me some INCREDIBLY YUMMY vanilla/cinnamon pancakes for breakfast!

I got emails and phone calls from my family and friends from home. :) :) :) This evening friends came over and we had a great time! Today is also Elaine's birthday so we decided to throw a party and celebrate together. :)


A great day. :)

ADORABLE...

We spent last weekend in Opole, a city about an hour away from us. This summer, we'll be working in an elementary school there with our summer team so we went there last weekend to stay with a missionary family there to work up some plans for the summer and Scott was invited to preach at our church plant there on Sunday. (He did wonderfully, by the way!) Anyway, while we were there we just spent a lot of our time with the family...Gary, Ewa, and their children Tommy & Kalena. Gary is Austrailian and his wife Ewa is Polish. Their children are bi-lingual. This little girl is precious! And Scott is just adores her. I have to admit when she's speaking in English and throws in a random Polish word...it's pretty darn cute. She followed him around all weekend...he's going to make a pretty adorable dad one day. :)

Land of Jazz Bistros & Sushi Bars

A couple weekends ago we took a two-night retreat to Warsaw. :) Last year we had the chance to visit several places outside of Poland...this year we've stayed at home. But, we did get to take a mini-vacation just to get away for a couple nights. The Poles around our area don't seem to be too keen on Warsaw because it's big and modern...to them it doesn't really feel Polish. We noticed a couple things about Warsaw...

1. You have a big modern-skyscraper skyline on one side and old European architecture on the other....strange, but we thought it was pretty cool. :)

2. Warsaw is VERY international...we spoke English the whole time *she says sheepishly*

3. There's a jazz bistro and a sushi bar on every corner!

4. They have a Hard Rock Cafe!! And we totally ate there. The giant building in the background was a "gift" from Stalin (the Russians). The Poles hate it. The Russians meant for it to be a "gift" to them to remind them that their "big brother" was always watching. Now, it's a movie theater. (okay okay, not ONLY a movie theater but that's what you enter through the main enterance. Scott and I thought it was pretty cool.

5. The squirrels there have long ears! Crazy! They'll eat right out of your hand too.

So...it was a fun trip! You can see all of our pictures from Warsaw here...http://picasaweb.google.com/ScottandJackieNewman/Warsaw