Pictures from Spain

Here are some pictures from Spain!!! These are in no particular order at all. I just started uploading and couldn't stop! :)

Noah is always happy when being thrown in the air!

Look at me fly!

This was a park near where we stayed.

"Huh..."

Our car, safranchik. She got us all the way there and all the way back,
but she wasn't happy about it.

Andre and Nikita tried to play basketball as often as they could.

This is the road down to the courts.

Check me out! Nikita on New Years!

Noah was teething for a lot of the time we were there, so he just laid around a lot.

One night we decided to go for a walk and found this fun little park tucked away.

Noah loved to ride on this one!

Family!!! It doesn't get much better than this!

This was a glass table that Noah played under,
until Nikita stood on the glass and broke it.
Thankfully, Noah wasn't anywhere near it when Nikita stepped on it. Nobody was hurt.

Downtown Madrid.

Nikita played "monster" with some kids and playfully chased them around the park. It was hilarious.

We all went to Retiro, a huge park in the center of Madrid.

Me by the lake.

Strong man. I feel safe with my boys.

Before...

After: His top half got going a little too fast for the bottom half and he face planted.
It was hilarious. He even laughed.

Good one of the boys with Abuela (grandma).

No matter what happens, God has put us together.

I have no idea what Nikita is looking at.

Such a little stud.

Woah horsie.

Noah loved these things!!!

We ditched Abuela and Papa to find a place with rides.

My two big boys.

My two little boys.

Love this expression. We see it a lot.

All three of them.

Me with the boys.

Near the lake.

It seems impossible that I'm his mom. I mean, he's almost as big as me.
We look like two kids fighting. (I was trying to get him to dance with me. Didn't work. :)

Again the horsie. We are trying to find something for this kid to ride around our apartment.

Woo hoo!!! Look at that man jump!!!

Ohhh, Papa, you're really good at that.

Whatever, I'm leaving.

Hope you enjoyed seeing pictures from our trip to Spain. Some have asked if it was worth it, since we incurred so many problems with the car and whatknot. Well, we would answer that with a resounding "YES!!!" It was hard, but we are stronger because of it. We have a better vision from God, and we are pumped about what He has for us! We also received our new family motto:

WHY WORRY WHEN YOU CAN PRAY?

Why worry when you can pray?

We got a box in the mail yesterday from my mom. Amongst the 6 pairs of basketball shoes for friends were many little goodies that mom threw in. One of my favorites was a plaque/sign thing that you put on your wall. It says "Why worry when you can pray?" I teared up as I looked at it, knowing that this is the lesson God has been trying to teach us, put into words and etched onto wood. He always provides. He always gives what He knows is best. His timing is best! His gifts are best! He is the Best!!! Don't worry about what will come in life, just pray and let the peace of God fill your nervous heart!

Reflections

So, most of the time, I blog about our family, put up pictures of the boys and just in general keep things light. It wasn't an intentional decision, that's just how it's all played out.
Anyway, I just thought I'd throw in a little bit of a different side of me. It's been over 3 months since my one and only brother passed away. To be honest, I still don't think that I really understand that he's gone. I live here, in Ukraine, thousands of miles from Iowa City, so my day to day life doesn't look that much different from the outside. But on the inside, I am different. I am sad. Although when something is funny, I laugh (like the movie Baby Mama, would definitely recommend that one) or if something is sweet I smile (like when the boys are playing nice together), but then sometimes I just cry. He's my brother. He was always so strong and put together. He always did his research into products, so he always had the most reliable stuff. He was safe. I guess, in some ways I may have taken it for granted, assumed he'd always be there.
I'm still not sure what I've learned from all of this. I don't really know if that's the point. Right now, it's still just pain. He may not have been the big brother you see in the movies, that beat up some guy that was mean to me, but he was my big brother. Mine. In fact, he was nobody else's big brother in the whole world. Just mine. I miss him.
I guess, I'll always miss him. And that's ok. The hole in my heart is there to remind me of him. It will shrink in size, maybe someday it won't be so painful, but it will be there, like a scar, to remind me of a man that I've known my whole life, a good man. Praise God for the time I got to spend with my big brother.

Will Smith!!!

So, Andre and I got to go on a date the other night. We decided to go into Madrid and just walk around and see the sites. We picked a metro stop to get off and randomly started walking. Before we knew it, we ran into a huge crowd of people. They were all standing in front of a fancy movie theatre that was adorned with pictures of Will Smith advertising his new movie. Anyway, we thought, might as well hang out and see if we can catch a glimpse of the Fresh Prince himself. 45 minutes later, we were no more than 8 ft from the Will Smith himself. I was standing on this metal barrier, while Andre held me up, so I could take some pictures. (Spaniards aren't very tall, so Andre could see just fine just standing normally :) Check out what we got:

Are we there yet?

Keys to read: 1 mile - 1.6 km 80 mi/hr - 130 km/hr

December 26th, 8 am: we're driving through Ukraine heading toward the Ukrainian/ Polish border. It's snowing badly. Our goal is to make it all the way to Spain in 3 days! God is opening a door for us at the border. There is nobody there, and in 30 min. we are in Poland! Amazing! It usually takes 2-4 hours to cross the border. Praise Him! 4:00 pm: We're sitting at a gas station; the car broke down; we have no light. We are stuck 220 km from Katowice, our first stop. Andre is talking to the polish guys, and we figure out that our battery is dead! We got it charged and were on our way again. Praise God! 60 km. later, we broke down again! 2 hours later Dan arrived, changed our battery, and we were good to go! 60 km later, the car is dead again. We decided to leave our car at a mechanic in a small town nearby and go on to Dan's house in the his car. We arrived at 2 am. Good start, we thought to ourselves, as we closed our eyes with the thankful prayer that God was providing for us in Poland! Morning came fast, Dan and Andre got on their way to the mechanic to see what was wrong with the car. The place was closed for Christmas. As we were leaving, we saw a sign for another mechanic! This one is open, and in 10 min we pulled our car into the garage. God has provided again! Our alternator was broken!!! Wow? No problem, we can fix it in one day! Praise Him. The next day at 5 pm, we left Dan's house. Here we go!

Germany - good roads, so we can drive 120 km/hr, and by 2 am we are in Stuttgart, our second stop, David's! 8 am the next day David's family blessed us by paying for gas for our car! We are feeling pretty good. Let's get to Spain today! Yeah!

France - nice view, little bit confusing roads! Sunny!!! Then, boom, blizzard, our road is closed. We found a different road that was open!!! Good! Speed is 100km/hr, still snowing. At one point, Andre stopped, along with some other cars, to help a woman get her car back onto the road after spinning out. Nobody was hurt, praise God! We are on our way again! Going through a blizzard in the mountains, but after a few hours it's finally over.

Our view of the French blizzard!

In 1 hour, we are in Spain! Relief, we are here, but still 700 km to go! And our car breaks down again. Lindsay pulls over to a gas station!!! The same thing, the battery light is shining bright. We found a cheap hotel, and called mom at 2 am. The next morning, we are at the Spanish mechanic; the alternator is dead! We can drive on just the battery, though, as long as we don't use the lights. We can only go for 300 km and then have to charge battery again! 150km, 200km, 300km, nervous and praying non-stop, we found a Renault service, we have enough to buy a better battery that will take us all the way to Madrid, as long as there's daylight, we can't use any electric stuff! We didn't get all the way to Madrid that night, but we got 300km away. Mom had left to come and meet us anyway, so we finally got to see each other at a gas station. Praise God! We made it to Mom's house that night, December 30th. On January 1st, we went to get our car! 600 km there and back! God provided good weather for us to drive! And the car is here, being worked on as we speak! Yeah! Praise God for His great plan even if it's not quite like we imagined!

Through all of this God has really showed us the great blessing kids are for us!