I wish I could spend at least one day looking through the eyes of one of our Slovene students as they experience the States. We’ve been in NYC, DC and are currently in Nashville. When we’ve asked for their favorite thing that has happened they usually list off three or four things, one of them dinner at Hard Rock Cafe in Time Square.

It’s been fun to see them take pictures of the Taxi’s in NYC, yellow school buses, Starbucks, Yankees game and so many things they’ve only heard about. Yesterday we went to the Pancake Pantry in Nashville and you should have seen Andreja light up when she heard she will get free refills on coffee. Her exact words, “I just got a refill…it’s just like the movies.”

This has been not only a trip of a lifetime for them but also for Johnny, Kinsley and me. We’ve seen amazing things, experienced unbelievable hospitality from strangers and also see God reaching our students in deeper ways (of course Kinsley has slept through most of it). We feel so blessed to have this opportunity to share this experience and to make memories we will never forget.

P.S. The girls can’t wait to shop at Target today!!!

Here are a few pictures of our time so far.

No, this blog is not about that great 90’s movie. Every time I see a head of hair full of gel I think of “Soul Glow”. For some reason I’ve always loved that movie…again this blog is not about that

Tomorrow morning at 6:30am we will be leaving Ljubljana, flying through Prague and landing in JFK at 1:42pm. We will be traveling with 4 students, our friend Marko and of course little miss Kinsley Jane will be going to the States for the first time. How is it that she has been to 5 countries, 6 including the states, at four months?!?…oh the life of an MK.

We are really excited about this trip and the opportunity we have with our students. Please pray for safe travels over the next two weeks and a great time of connecting. I will be posting pictures along the way as our travels takes us from NYC to DC to Nashville and ending in Orlando.

We are so thankful for sweet little Kinsley. She has brought so much joy to our lives and is so much fun as she interacts more and more. Here are a few recent pictures. She was definitely showing off her modeling skills for her Dad…and a little for me too! Yes, Johnny is SO tan!

We’ve have now completed 5 English Camps in Celje. The past two years we have partnered with our teammates in Maribor to help give momentum for both of our youth groups as we continue to meet throughout the year. This year we had 37 students!! It was an amazing week as the kids opened up, made new friends, and also heard what it means to be redeemed. Johnny, along with our teammates Brad and Andrej shared stories about people from the Bible who have been redeemed. They focused on Rahab, Judah, David and Jesus. Our students really responded to the gospel and we know that many lives were changed!

This week was different for me. Last year I worked on photos and videos, leading the dances for camp songs, participated in discussion groups and spent a lot of one on one time with some of the girls. This year I simply attended camp and hung out with Kinsley. It was hard at the beginning but I think we got the hang of being out of routine. Kinsley was a hit with some of the girls and I loved serving from a different perspective!

It was a great week! We feel so blessed to get to serve in this area!

Two weeks ago we went to the Czech Republic for our annual JV Spring Conference. The topic was Parenting Your Children and/or Spiritual Children. Totally appropriate for where we are in life and ministry. We learned so much that we will continually refer back to! Here is a picture of the JV Family. We are on the top right side of the picture.

Many of you know that Johnny and I help with the JVKids and each summer we get to spend a week with them at camp teaching them about Christ. As the kids gathered for the JVK picture at conference, I LOVED getting to see one of my JVK girls, Hayley Ellenwood, hold MY girl (lower left). It’s fun knowing that she will grow up as a JVK with a great group of Christ following kids!

This was a new experience having Kinsley with us. I don’t think I had more than one meal where I was holding her. The JV team is like family and Kinsley was passed around to all of her aunts, uncles and cousins. One of my favorites was this sweet 5 year old girl named Jalin whose family lives in Slovakia. Every time she saw Kinsley she bee lined me and would say “Can I hold her?” One time when I told her that she could later she said, “ok, when I can hold her come find me.” Another time she said “I have class now and then I will go to bed so I will hold her before I go to bed.” The best part is that when she ran away she would forget until the next time she saw someone with Kinsley. So after three days of telling later she finally got the chance.

It seems like forever ago that Kinsley was born but then looking at her little body it seems like yesterday. She is great! The most commonly asked questions are “is she sleeping through the night?” or “are you getting any sleep?”. We answer this question in a way that seems like it has been hard and that we are surviving. The truth is, no, she is not sleeping through the night and yes we are getting sleep. I’ve heard of babies that right at bedtime get super fussy or after they eat in the middle of the night it takes them a long time to fall back asleep. Thankfully we sometimes have this issue with Kinsley during the day, but at night, she is great. At least I think so…Johnny puts her down after the first time she gets up We sometimes get one good stretch of about 5-6 hours before she is up the second time. She really is an easy and sweet baby.

Johnny set up a little studio in our apartment 4 days after she was born so here is a picture from that and then her one month birthday pictures.

I know this post is overdue but being a new mom and having family here and loving on Kinsley has made it hard to find time to blog. Oh and sleeping when she sleeps

When people ask me to tell the story and then say “I know you’ve probably told this a million times” I think…I can’t wait to tell it again. I feel this way because really it is a testimony to God’s faithfulness throughout the entire thing. There were a few specific things that Johnny and I prayed for throughout my pregnancy concerning the birth. Things like a midwife who spoke English come game time. I knew I could do it in Slovene but I also wanted the encouragement along the way in English. Our midwife spoke Slovene the ENTIRE time with us…until game time. Praise the Lord!  Another prayer was getting my own room after delivery. If I had a roommate then Johnny would only be able to visit for two hours a day…boo!! We asked for this room and they said it was available so when they wheeled me into a room with two beds I was thinking that maybe I wouldn’t get a roommate….wrong. The next morning at 5am they brought someone in. When the nurse came in I asked about the private room and she said it was available and that our request for it earlier got lost in the shift change. Johnny was able to be with me all day! Praise the Lord!! A huge answer to prayer was for my language during the times when Johnny was not with me. I really feel like the Lord gave me a better understanding of the language, a confidence to communicate and a deeper understanding. The staff was so gracious with me and I felt unbelievable cared for. I didn’t speak English with any of the nurses and they didn’t speak English to me. Praise the Lord! Talk about an increased medical vocabulary. Something I never thought I would need to know when I moved here 6 years ago. There were a few others so feel free to ask sometime.

Thank you all for your prayers! We definitely felt covered and praise God for this sweet little life!

Yeah, so my last post was all about getting our house together before Kinsley came. As most of you know she came three days early. Thankfully having our friends David and Katka over on Monday the 22nd gave us a deadline to have our house in order. This was great because the next day I started having contractions. So here are a few pictures of Kinsley’s room and the process of getting it done.

Yes!! That is right, my due date is one week from today. I just want to share these pictures with you that were taken today to show you where we are in the nesting process. I think it describes the chaos of our lives that seems to never end but we embrace and always look forward to the outcome of these random events! We can’t wait for Kinsley Jane to come into our family and I sure hope we have this mess cleaned up! Oh and Johnny is doing all this while he is sick!!

You can kind of see Johnny behind the plastic sanding down the mud on the drywall.

Johnny is just reaching his six year mark and in June I will reach mine. I can’t believe that we have lived here this long. It has been amazing and we are both so thankful for each thing the Lord has taught us. And…of course we couldn’t be more thankful that He brought us together.

However, this blog is not about our time here. It is about Out with the Old…In with the New!! That is right. After six years of drying our clothes on a rack, clothes being blown of  our balcony, spiderwebs connecting our socks, and colors changing because of the sun…we have now upgraded to a DRYER!!! We are so thankful to my mom and dad for this generous gift!

We used it last night and Johnny said, “There is just something so soothing about the sound of a dryer.” I couldn’t agree more!