"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