Cute Memories & an Update...

ME & Her Chocolate Egg

Rest Time

Gideon getting some scooter practice in our apartment corridor.

We are having a great summer! Tomorrow, we are off to Church Camp~Family Session for 3 days! This will be our first time to spend the night at a Russian Camp & we are really looking forward to the opportunity to strengthen relationships with those in our Church. Please pray for the many details involved & that God would richly bless our time as a family & with those who attend. Keith will be leading a morning session & I have been asked to lead games. Please pray that we would do an excellent job, we (especially me) would communicate clearly & that the sessions would be well received, informative (Keith's) & fun (mine). Please pray for great weather (the forecast calls for rain) & that we would all be safe, healthy & have a blast!

I have entered Driver's Ed 101~Standard Transmission Version. I have driven several times, under Keith's supervision. The first time was to Gideon's school & involved no accidents, tickets, screaming or police. It did involve restarting the car several times, especially in a particular tricky intersection. Since then, my confidence has increased, but I think my skills are still rather lacking. Today, I decided that I must start driving regularly with Keith, because he will be gone a week in September (which is a whole other prayer request to come later) and I will need to drive the kids to school or take them on the bus, which is takes 3 times longer. So, today, we need to go get groceries at the mall, a 5 minute drive from our house. I thought...no problem!!! I confirmed a few points before taking off (Do you put the clutch in when you start? Does it need to be in gear when you start? Scary, I know nothing about driving a stick shift!!!) & hit the road. I began to sweat when a car pulled right behind me at the light & when it turned green I killed it, because I was so nervous about rolling back & hitting the other car & we were not even on a hill!!! 3 green lights later (no kidding---fortunately we were both laughing & the other cars just went around us), I managed to make it through the light (Me said, "Good driving!!!"; Keith said, "About time!"; and sweet Gideon just laughed!) & on to the grocery store we went! The entire time we were shopping, I was thinking about the light at the top of the hill, between the mall & our house that I managed drive right through last time. PTL, I drove slow enough that it turned green before I needed to stop & we made it home with no problems!!!