"The rich man and Oranges"

So today we took a trip to the park, the OMV for lunch and then to the market. Saturday we will be celebrating Thanksgiving with team members and I am making a few dishes. Every recipe I thought of making lacked one thing that I could not find in Bulgaria. As I spent the last two days hopping from store to store and market to market, I've no clue what I will make tomorrow! On the upside I have a few additions to the kitchen pantry! =) We've posted pictures of the park and the boys outside our front door. The pictures are of some graffiti painted on our door and the first day we arrived the boys nicknamed our house "the pumpkin face house". So they took a picture next to our landmark "pumpkin face" =)
After lunch, the boys were getting too tired to continue on to another market so the boys went home and I continued on. I returned to a market that Ms. K introduced me to the first time we went out. There was one vendor we purchased from that was very honest and patient even though we had a language barrier. Today I had to purchase from the vendor next to her for some red onions and cabbage b/c she didn't have those. WELL I mentioned I would also like some oranges with my purchase and the man loaded up a bag of oranges and as I motioned to the best of my ability that I needed no more, he continued. He quickly took my items around the stand and said 20LEV is what I owed. I tried to fix this obvious error and no matter my attempt he became more determined to collect the 20LEV. These are the times I beg for language to come quickly so that I can communicate and not look so easy to take advantage of. Choose your battles. So I paid my "rich man" dues and took my overflowing bag of expensive oranges and walked to my familiar vendor and purchased the few things I still needed. She once again took her time and wrote out prices and at the end of our transaction I hugged her and we kissed cheeks. Without language, I love her. I wanted to talk and talk to her b/c I feel such a pull to her but at this time I can only hug her. I went to the food vendors close by and bought her lunch and a coke and took them to her for another hug and kiss. I will buy from her alone and continue to build on our voiceless connection until I can speak to her.
On my way home there was "Lazarus" outside my gate begging from the cars that drove by. So if the Biblical story were retold it would say that the richman stopped and gave Lazarus alot of Vitamin C!! He was happy to receive a share of the $20LEV oranges and who knows between the market vendor and the begger, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship that all started with being ripped off on some oranges =)
So in the morning we will celebrate Thanksgiving with team members. I will cook something to take with me and have an adventure to talk about. I loved reading what other people said they were thankful for and to be honest I am thankful for most of the same things. I think the most amazing thing about having a relationship with Jesus is that should all of the things I'm thankful for be stripped away, I still have HIM and nothing can strip that away...That is what I am most thankful for. I have more than I could ask for and I have at times lost more than I desired, but all in all I have the priviledge of holding the hand of my Creator and calling Him friend. Praise be to my Savior who gives me everything to be thankful for!
With Love,
Jenn Phillips and Fam

Pancake bandits

I almost forgot to include our precious pancake bandits!!
You will notice how they had a perfect assembly line going as they had a dipping station and taking station. The pancakes are gone and the floor is sticky! =)

Prayer Requests

You've read of our first week in Bulgaria and now you ask what can you be praying for?
* A schedule, a routine with some structure. We want to have productive days after this week of unpacking and organizing that will assist us in knowing for ourselves and for our boys what our days look like. Productive days would include time with the Lord first, time in language learning, time in the community learning our way around town and having quality time playing and enjoying our children and not losing focus of them in the midst of newness and business.

* Continuing good health for our family.

* Times of ministry and giving God glory even in the midst of language barriers.

Thank you so much for the love and support you give us through your prayers and words of encouragment! We love you all so very much and we are so happy that you are in this ministry with us!

pictures described in the post below

Bulgaria week 1

This picture is a view from the balcony in the kitchen. Bulgaria celebrates Christmas and decorations are in full swing for preparing for the holiday.
Yesterday Cameron went with one of our coworkers to get us registered with the police so now we are official and can get things like a cell phone. When they returned we all rode the metro and took a bus to get to their house and have dinner. They have children (a boy and a girl) around our kids ages and they enjoyed playing with each other. The kids ran around with flash lights and hid under beds. We had a bulgarian meal and it consisted of egg, potatoes, ground beef and other things and we topped it with bulgarian yogart. It was absolutely delicious! Afterwards we enjoyed bulgarian ice cream that would put Blue Bell out of business! I thought of my father in law who always eats a bowl of ice cream at night and thought of how he would enjoy that bowl we had! =)
We talked to Micah about possibly using the name Michael or Mike while we live in Bulgaria. The way you say mother in bulgarian is "manka" which is pronounced Micah. So kids might wonder why the boy in their class is called mother. It's just a thought we tossed his way last night and he didn't like the idea so we will just wait and see how it goes.
Last night Micah said that he missed our old house where he could eat pancakes. I told him that I could fix those in Bulgaria but we didn't have syrup (syrup isn't something sold here. Most would eat them with nutella or jam). He said he really would like them with syrup. So this morning we had pancakes and I got a recipe from allrecipes.com and we had pancakes with home-made syrup. Praise God for providing the little things that help even our children adjust. Breakfast has been over for an hour but every couple of minutes Ben has grabbed a piece of pancake and come running to me saying "A pancake mommy!" I just looked in the kitchen and now both boys are grabbing and dipping pancakes so breakfast was just "over" as far as I thought!
There are some pictures above of the kids playing in costumes. This is their favorite thing to do right now. I've also included a picture from the grabbing pancake fun! The other picture is of a storm that just blew in this morning. It was amazing to see how much trash flew across the sky! It was crazy!! If you dare open your door (as I just learned) to take a picture, that trash comes into your home.

some pictures of our first metro ride

Our first time on the Metro

Today was our first time to ride the subway. We met with Ms. K, who has helped us translate language, give us rides around town and generally survive our first week in Bulgaria. Ms. K went with us on our first trip to the center of town and help us with any questions we had while on the metro.
We addressed alot of safety rules with the boys regarding waiting and riding on subways while we waited. We entered the subway and had a good ride (meaning we all got to sit down). The center of Sophia is beautiful and has vendors on the street selling goods, people singing or playing instruments for money, and elaborate buildings that are beautifully aged.
We stopped for coffee and it was far better than any coffee I've enjoyed in the last several months and definately would put starbucks out of business =) Micah and Ben also shared a hot drink called a "vanilla dream" and Micah said "This is the best drink of my life!" He is also known for being dramatic at times so I can't say if it indeed was or not.
We made it home safely and did last minute shopping and a grocery run since Ms. K leaves in the morning with her "Phillips family taxi" car. I can't tell you how grateful we are she came to help us out! So from here on out it will be walking, the bus system, subways or occaisionally a taxi.
I did a little language learning today and realized how consuming learning a new alphebet, grammar, sounds, ect will be! We take each day as an opportunity to learn something new and smile rather than cry hopefully! =)
Exciting finds: Dr. Pepper @ a gas station (may not carry again but while it's here we're grabbing a few!) Some M&M's! Peanut and Plain!
We love you all!
Jenn

Park

Just a quick photo that a team member took of Jen and Micah at the park after going to the market.

A quick update

Sorry we have not written in a couple of days. It is very very busy right now. Everyday has been spent shopping going from one confusing store to the next and then back to the same store again. Apartments here do not have closets so we have to buy wardrobes for the rooms. The wardrobes are made of particle wood and run anywhere from 200 to 600 Lev which is equivalent to 140 to 420 US dollars. The more money the thicker the particle wood! Real wood is out of the question! Everything just takes longer in general. For instance going grocery shopping without the ability to read what you’re buying. If the picture explains the product then you better know how to cook it because you won’t be able to read the directions and the cooking measurements are in metric measurements. You can’t buy a carton of milk. It comes in a bag or a box. The largest amount of milk I have been able to find is 1 Liter, so that lasts about one day in our house =) Vanilla is sold in small packets and you add water to it for your recipe. It’s one serving and is sold as such and is pricey (for my taste). We did find Nestle chocolate mix and so we had our first glass of chocolate milk today! This was a huge victory for this chocolate milk loving family! All in all, we have not adjusted to the time change so we are very tired and buying all household goods is tasking!

So the kids. The kids are doing exceptionally well. They are still adjusting to time changes but seem to be catching up quicker than we are and this could soon be a problem if we have exhausted parents and well rested active children! =) We are in our apartment for the first time tonight
(It is 10:00pm right now for us) They were excited to see all their toys we packed up in May today! It’s been a little like Christmas today! If we were smart we would have wrapped up those toys from May and passed them off =)

There is so much to catch you up on but I am really anxious to get into bed! The people in Bulgaria were tickled at the sight of the boys sleeping and we hope you enjoy the pictures too. We will definitely post some pictures of our area and apartment soon!
With love!!!
Jenn

Phillips in London falling down, falling down, falling down

The Phillips are in London for the night and we are falling down in praise to our awesome God who is Soverign of all things and timing! (all the boys in this family have plain fallen asleep!)

Hello friends and Family!!
Well the first leg of our jouney was beautiful. There was a hiccup at the gate when boarding and they checked Cameron's guitar and our stroller all the way through to Sofia. This unfortunatley required us to carry Ben, hold Micah's hand and drag 4 backpacks and three small suitcases as we made a dead sprint through security and the airport. While waiting in the security line Ben declared he was carrying a liquid and since he knows the security rules quite well he decided to release it all before getting to the counter. Unfortunatley for passengers behind us, this unknown liquid trailed us all the way through the security check before the janitor arrived. Yeek! =/

So you may have guessed it, we missed our connection! Fortunatley since it was British Airways fault they have booked us hotel to stay in for the night. We are waiting in the airport for 4 1/2 hours until our hotel can check us in at 12. We will fly out for Bulgaria tomorrow at 8:30am and our prayer is that all 16 of our bags will be waiting for us. We are very exhausted but also running on some adreniline so it is balancing out for now. I think Ben will not make it for our 12pm hotel check in. They took a 2-3 hour nap on the flight but it was from 4-7pm and so they were awake all "their" time zone night. It is 4:18 for them but they seem to be waiting for the sun to set in their new time zone. Oh well, that makes transition fun I guess =)

I just looked over at my boys and Cameron is holding a dvd player in his lap asleep, Ben is multi-tasking by playing with a squishy dog he got at his birthday party and watching the video that sways with Daddy's sleep patterns. Micah is next to me and he has taken over my game on the nintendo DS and should be happily occupied for a while. We are sitting in an area of the airport that is not crazy and so we will relax until we take a bus for the hotel.
Thank you all for your prayers, please continue them and lift up flights, rest, luggage, and arriving tomorrow!
Love you all so much!

So a couple of London things I have noticed is the word "Cheeky" spoken everywhere. Also people watching doesn't go over so well because they just watch you back and it gets a little uncomfortable and weird =) This of course is just my observation and I do not speak for London as a whole. I do not understand the change I got back from my coffee in "Pounds". Since we didn't understand the currency, we asked a man what the appropriate tip would be for carrying our luggage and he said "We aren't like Americans, Brits are stingy and tipping little is not considered rude." So I'm not sure what the amount actually was that was pulled from our pounds but I guess it was the right amount? =) I am realizing just how big the little changes will be in our lives! =)