Boy, Howdy!

First, I want to thank all of you who read our last blog entry & prayed for me. I don't know if it's because of your prayers, or because of the fact that my staff & their student leaders successfully moved into the new residence hall over the weekend, or because I finally got some down time in the past couple of days to start regrouping (or a combination of all 3!)...but whatever it is, I've felt more peace over the past 36 hours than I have in the past two months. So, THANK YOU! We are so very thankful to have such a broad community around the world supporting & praying for us doing our times of need.

Now, a fun little story about our bilingual daughter. As most of you know, we have a wonderful Lithuanian nanny who spends the days with Ieva. Aurelija is a complete blessing in our lives for many reasons: 1) she's wonderful, 2) she's a committed Christian, 3) she adores Ieva, and 4) Ieva adores her! She also speaks to Ieva only in Lithuanian, which we love. And now as Ieva's vocabulary is increasing exponentially every day, she's coming up with some new phrases that at times, take some translation, regardless of the language she's trying to speak.

Over the past week, there have been certain times when Ieva has consistently said a phrase that sounds kind of like "boys howie" & we, for the life of us, have not been able to figure out what it is she is saying. At one point I wondered if Andrew taught her the old expletive "Boy, Howdy!" just for fun. But when he heard it, he didn't know what she was saying either. When she said it at our friend's house, they asked if it could be something in Lithuanian. "No - " I said wisely, "it doesn't sound like anything Lithuanian" (and I would know because my language skills are SO advanced!!! as if...)

So I came home from work tonight & as Aurelija & I were talking, Ieva said it again. I interrupted our conversation to ask if Aurelija had any idea what Ieva was saying. "Oh, yes - " she said matter-of-factly. "būs owie." Ahhh....it was starting to make sense to me now...
"Būs" is the Lithuanian word for "will have" and "owie" is our American slang for what can hurt our precious kid. Since Ieva (& us) refer to her getting hurt in terms of owies, Aurelija has fit that into her Ieva-language system, and would warn Ieva anytime she was doing something that had the potential for getting her hurt "būs owie, Ieva!" (you'll get hurt, Ieva!) It makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

So, now the mystery is solved, and we were reminded once again of how much more difficult it will continue to be for us (and others) to understand our daughter as she learns two languages while she's learning to talk. But, oh well...it's fun to keep guessing! And ultimately, we'd never trade away her gift of growing up bilingual for anything!

Kim and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Please forgive our delay in keeping you up to speed on the happenings of our life. The title of this blog pretty much sums up my day today, as well as many of the days I've had over the past month & a half. This has been a difficult season, and I need your prayer.

Within the joy of opening a new dorm on our campus, there have been many setbacks, mistakes & delays that have caused stress upon stress for many of us involved in this amazing project. I am passionately committed to this incredible facility and the opportunities it will provide our students for community development, but it's been a long hard road to get us there. Tomorrow we should have permission to occupy the building. The RDs who will live there already have their belongings in their apartments & will move in tomorrow. Our student leaders are showing up ready to move in. In a week, the building will be teeming with life. Only the Lord can give me the strength to make it to that day.

I have a Caedmon's Call album playing as I write this. Just now the song "Rest Upon Us" came on. It's lyrics are my prayer:
My soul is weary and my cup is dry. I am so in need of You. Though my righteousness is rags, your mercies are new. Holy Spirit, rest upon us. Breath of God, touch my soul. Come, unfailing love of Jesus, rest upon us. Rest upon us.

Please pray for me. I've been pushing too hard for too long. Thankfully, the light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter. Classes begin on September 3rd and life should go back to some degree of normalcy at that point. My folks will also be coming to stay with us for a month at that same time. I'm in desperate need for some TLC that only a mom can give, so the timing is perfect!

Please also pray for our entire community as LCC International University (our new name) goes through a variety of significant changes this fall.

Thank you for your prayers, your support & your encouragement. We are blessed to have such a gracious & loving community around the world supporting us.