Lance and I decided to use just one site for our blog, mine. Lance’s previous blog is still floating about in the cyber world though so those of you who may have never had the opportunity to visit his site there is still a chance!

Visit the Life and Work of Lance by clicking HERE!!

Lance has been in Ukraine for over 7 years and therefore has many more tales and stories to tell than I do. He also has lots of photos for you to peruse at your leisure.

You will get to know Lance in a whole new way!

So I have lots to catch up on, like a major wedding for example! Yeah, nothing big or anything.

Lance and I were married October 12th, 2013 in Auburn, Washington at 4 in the afternoon. It was a glorious wedding!

What else should I say? It was glorious.

What we looked like the day before.

Lance and I are pretty laid back people so wanted our wedding to feel as calm and relaxed as we can be. We wanted people to sit at tables, we wanted there to be opportunities to chat with those at the tables; we wanted people to enjoy their time together with us. It was to be a party, a big fun ole party.

Two friends

The display

Steppin out

We incorporated little bits of our personalities and what was important to us. We love the outdoors, wood and things that are natural. Lance loves to work with wood, so we had lots of wood and nature in our décor. I love lots of bright colors, so we had bright fun colors everywhere we could add them. We both love games and breakfast, so we had games and breakfast food. We didn’t want to get bogged down in tradition but to simply have what was us in the wedding.

Just the girls

Just the guys

Just taking a walk

We also wanted to incorporate a few other things from Ukraine. In Ukraine, the parents give a blessing to their children before they are given away so we did our version of that. A parent’s blessing is a beautiful and powerful thing and we believe our families play an important role in our lives. This was a time to honor them and make room for them to speak into our lives; both Lance and I were blessed by our parents. Another tradition is to throw candy to your guests as you leave the church, so we did just that. Instead of everyone pelting us with rice, bubbles, or confetti, we bombarded everyone with candy. We thought it was fun.

Father & daughter

Blessing

Blessing

God’s Word is a gift

His vows

Her vows

The Kiss

Mr. & Mrs. Roberts

We loved hearing each toast, we loved giving an understanding of missions to people, and we loved being blessed by friends and family.

Roberts side

Murray side

I don’t know what everyone else thinks of their honeymoon but I’m quite sure Lance and I had the best one ever!  Seriously.

Our first few days were spent in Gig Harbor, very peaceful and quiet, we hardly saw anyone.

Our next 5 days were spent in Port Townsend at one of my neighbor’s cabins. It was right on the water in a quiet neighborhood. It was here that Lance and I discovered how much fun it is to cook together. We loved it. In Port Townsend, we saw a play called “The 6 Rules of Marriage.” How funny that such a play was there while we were in town! We met a great couple that had been married for 50 years, and they gave us their advice for long marriage. We also visited some sites in the area.

After Port Townsend we made our way around the peninsula. We spent a night in Neah Bay where the motel owner’s son was a missionary in Ukraine! Crazy connection! We continued around for a night at a bed and breakfast in Forks. Little did we know that this place was a hotspot for Twilight fans. They served a scrumptious breakfast of stuffed French toast, did I say it was yummy?

Then we drove down to Seabrook near Ocean Shores. Here we had our own little cabin with a kitchen near the beach. We played shuffleboard (I won), horseshoes (Lance dominated) and soaked in a hot tub near the woods. At one point some raccoons popped out from the porch and looked as though they wanted join us in the tub, but luckily the noticed Lance’s massive muscles and thought better of it.

After Seabrook we made a quick stop in Auburn to try and take care of some business i.e. opening gifts, starting to attack the mountain of thank you cards to write and starting to change my name.

Then it was off to Newport, Oregon where Lance’s family has a cabin right on the beach with a gorgeous view of a lighthouse. There was a wood fireplace and our room looked out over the ocean so could we fall asleep to the sound of the waves crashing. It really was bliss. In Newport, we had fun going around to the different beaches and exploring, visiting Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and filling up on fresh seafood. We loved every minute of it!

When our week in Newport was finished, we headed to Culver, Oregon for our stay with Lance’s family. Now we are planted here for the month of November catching up on people’s lives and sharing our own.

In the previous post I explained what went on at the clinics and how they were set up. One station that I did not mention was the photo station. My job at the clinics was to capture the people in a photo. It is a privilege for me to know that I was able to see every person who came through the clinics, maybe I didn’t see them in person or talk to them but I saw their picture.

Majority of the people we saw had never owned a photo of themselves. This is rather mind boggling coming from a culture full of photos and pictures we often just throw away!

Seeing the people

While people were waiting to be seen, we would take their picture and then print it using a mobile printer. We put it in a plastic sleeve and gave it to them when they were finished. So many people broke out into a huge smile or even cried. I received a few kisses from old babushkas. I discovered later that many of the people have no record of their existence. There are no birth certificates, no shot records, nothing. So when someone dies it is often as if they disappear. Families have nothing to remember them by. The missionaries we worked with explained that they have been asked more than once to take a picture of a loved one in a coffin.

Writing Isus te iubește (Jesus loves you) on the back.

So taking photos of the people who came through was not just a fun hobby or a job to keep someone busy, it was a true ministry and blessing to the people. I was blessed to see on a house call, photos from the year before on the wall in the home of a dying man. The family treasured those small pictures.

The people varied from single moms to single dads. There were the young teenagers to 80 year old men with great health. We saw 20 year old moms with 10 year old kids, we saw grandmas taking care of multiple children, we saw singles, widows, couples, and families. Everyone was different in their own way.

I wanted to give you a glimpse of some of the people we saw. I don’t know all their names or their stories, but I love their faces. The people are beautiful and God loves them all.