Meeting the Neighbor Girl (Yay!)

Hey, I'm so excited! I just got to meet the neighbor girl, Ira. She's 20, and going to college in Kiev, but she's home on weekends and speaks Russian, Ukrainian, and some English. Bruce met the family when they were out gardening a few days ago and said they had a daughter and that I shoudl meet her. I wanted to, but I felt anxious because i wondered how in the world it would happen. Was I jsut supposed to go knock on the door or what?

Well, I've been praying about it. And just a bit ago, when I was walking here to the Gollans to use internet, I noticed that the mom was raking in the yard. I thought "Maybe I shoudl just walk by that way, just in case we start talking..." but I was REALLY wanting to get on the internet, and was taking the short cut to save time. But I kept feeling that nudging. I thought "Ah, I'm probably just making that up." But finally I thought, "Ok God, I don't know if it's You or not, and but I'll give up my way just in case." It was a little and a big thing at the same time.

Well, I walked over there, and just then both the dad and mom walked up to me and tried to talk with me! We couldn't communicate too well, but they were really friendly. And then the dad said "Let me go get my daughter, she speaks English" or something like that. I don't think they even knew whether I was speaking English or not.

So out came Ira! Score!!! God is so amazing that way! We didn't talk long, and she said she understands quite a bit of English but can't speak it very well. I told her I was hoping to learn Russian, so maybe we could meet again and help each other. I told her she could come over and we could talk...and then she said I was welcome to come over some time too.

We parted ways, and tears jumped to my eyes. All day I've been so weak and not feeling that well (Ukrainian bacteria is finally catching up with my innards), and I've been draggy and not that great of a human being, but God answered my prayer anyway and gave me a very open door.

Now I just need courage to go knock on Ira's door. Maybe I can take her some cookies.

For Deb's birthday we made a raisin chocolate oatmeal cookie cake...it was crazy because I used a modified snickerdoodle recipe, that being the only cookie recipe available. They say not to tamper with baking recipes, but there was no choice in the matter...and the experiment worked! So there was something to put the candles in :)

I'm praising God for His faithfulness and praying for strength to keep following Him.