Yep, Sarah was in England! Veronika, the girl that got saved at the kids’ camp this summer received a trip to England from her parents for her 18th birthday. Of course, she couldn’t go by herself and when her parents asked me to go along, I was more than happy to help!
We had a great time! We got a good deal on a flight that had a car rental included. Man, was that a mistake. Driving on the left side of the road was absolutely INSANE. Trying to stay on the right side (that is, the left), keeping track of road signs (there aren’t any), and looking at the map (the one we bought was really general but so expensive that I couldn’t bring myself to buy another) about drove me over the edge. We laughed a lot, though. Mostly nervous laughter.
The highlight of the trip was the Manchester United (Vika’s favorite soccer team) v. Arsenal game we went to. It was Vika’s dream to go to a game, but the tickets were so expensive we hadn’t planned on it. We just went to the stadium pre-game to check it out and take pictures and there were all these friendly people selling tickets. Please believe me, I DID NOT KNOW buying tickets from scalpers is illegal! Who knew those freaky looking guys mumbling about tickets weren’t on the up and up. Okay, in retrospect I get it, but we seriously did not know. So we bought cheap tickets (which ended up being in the visitors section – and that was pretty scarey since Veronika couldn’t help accidentally cheering for M.U. – and they will totally KILL you if you’re an opposing fan!) and we had an incredible time. The tickets we had were very close to the field – we could see everything! Although I’m not much of a sportsfan and the experience was a little lost on me, even I was impressed with how cool it was. And Vika hasn’t stopped talking about it since.
So, yes, I’m a world traveller, and hope to do more. Ben and I have kicked around the idea of a missions trip/vacation with the girls in Africa in 2009. Cool, huh? Anybody want to come?
Here’s Vika getting baptized last Sunday. The water was chilly, but it was a beatiful day. Pray for her. It’s not easy being the only (probably) 18-year old saved girl in a town of 80,000.
Here she is this morning in the coatroom. She’s a little worried because this year the cubbies and drawers have their names over them (instead of last year’s assigned shapes and colors) and she doesn’t yet know how to read her name in Polish (Michasia, pronounced Mee-HAH-shuh).
Of course, this isn’t such a big adjustment for us since Mikaela has been going to this preschool (they have from 3-year old room up to kindergarten here) since she was just 3. She absolutely LOVES it!
Her teacher Ahlla loves Mikaela to death (as you can tell by the somewhat unwelcomed hugs). She’s a very good teacher and we like her a lot, especially her new stripey hair-do!
Thankfully, I still have Maia at home (and doesn’t she still look like such a baby?) – at least for a little while! If any places open up in the 3-year old room this year she’ll be going too, but for now I can still pretend she’s my little baby.
