European Birthday

As many of you already know that the laws here in Russia have changed making it even more difficult for us to stay in the country so we have been jumping through hoops. To save money from the year of expenses we have paid in bureaucratic red tape, we decided to drive out into Europe, versus a plane trip for 6 back to the states. We anticipated a rough trip but not on such a rough road! The pot hole filled freeway we had to drive on, through the Ukraine was almost more than I could endure! 30+ hours straight through on a bumpy country road! But as we crossed over to Hungary a numb feeling came over us...we felt like we were literally riding on butter it was so smooth! Thank God for Speed-the-Light! Our great blessing of a car got us through!

We spent a couple of nights in Hungary and 2 days exploring Budapest. Silas spent his birthday exploring a real castle and ice skating right next to it! Then we drove into Vienna, Austria where he got to go into a Toys R Us and pick out a toy! This will be a hard birthday to top!


Silas, we are so proud to be your parents. You have given us more joy and laughs, by just hearing you giggle! You have the best giggle! I loved that you wanted to buy all your siblings a "prize" for your birthday and the things you say like, " God is the king of you and dad and you are the boss over us and we have to obey you to obey God!" I am proud of your understanding and desire to understand new things everyday! You amaze me! We love you so much and pray for more blessings and wisdom for you in year 5.

These are pictures of the St. Stephens Church in Vienna. We took a short tour of the catacombs under the church where they have coffins and millions of bones of people that died from the black plague. It was so fascinating! I have never seen anything like it. Very creepy down there. I wish we could have taken some pictures but we were not allowed. The kids were a little scared and they will not soon forget that tour.


We will be driving to Innsbruck tomorrow and plan on stopping in Salzburg to see the city where the VanTrap family are from. What a dream for me!