Made it!

Good morning, Friends and Family,

We arrived in Riga last night about 6:00 in the evening safe and sound. It's a long ways here, but we had no problems and even had our luggage make it in the same flight! For that we're extremely thankful :)

We're sitting at our little kitchen table this morning trying to take it all in that we're really here, how good God is and what in the world does He have in store? I'm in awe and amazement. It's quite like Seattle here to me, the gray skies and the tall evergreen trees. Very pretty. We were awake at 7:30 this morning and it was light, but not too.....okay w/me. I'm looking at all those wonderful books dreaming about actually having time to devour them!

Funny story....we landed in Chicago, and were still kind of down, feeling such a loss of everything and everyone in our hearts. We were trying to figure out how to get to the next terminal for our trip to Copenhagen when this couple looked at us and said hello. She looked vaguely familiar, but I wasn't sure who the heck we would know in Chicago! I asked her where I knew her from and she said Faith. It was Nancy and Mark Nelson and they had "missed" their original flight earlier that day on their way to Harrisburg, PA, and had an hour before their next flight. We ended up at Chili's w/them enjoying a meal and hearing how they'd spent several years in Spain as missionaries, and some of their experiences. To me (not to overspiritualize here) it seemed like God just confirming in our hearts that He has many cool experiences planned for us that we won't know about until we step out in faith and follow Him where He leads....at least for us right now. Both Kelly and I were so uplifted and excited for our adventure from that point forward. And now the journey begins.....and we're praising God for the chance to be here and work for Him! We truly want to be His "lights" in this place and to whom He brings into our lives.

We were also reflecting on how we have the privilege of praying over all our special people for the next day while they sleep....just like I did when the boys were small and they were like sleeping angels in their cribs :) So before you wake up, you've had prayers lifted on your behalf by your faraway friends who love you so......

It was great to fire up our computer and see that there were messages from some of you!!! YAY! We treasure hearing from you, so feel free to write and keep us in your thoughts!!
We're off to explore this city and look around, buy some necessities (yes, toilet paper :) and see some apartments. We are staying in a really nice house for now that one of the missionaries had purchased and hasn't sold yet. It's only two doors down from Scott and Lisa, so that's rather nice as well. But we're anxious to find something soon that we can have ready when our stuff and our family arrives before Christmas.

Love to everyone and many hugs....the Lord bless you all and keep you safe!

Donna