Sunday, June 28, 2009

VACATION....FINALLY

Well, we have finally come to vacation for my husband. Here in Sweden he is entitled to at least 4 weeks of vacation. Yes, all of you Americans that are reading this are jealous, I know. We have now moved out the our house in the woods. It is unusually warm here, which to most people is not that warm, but to Swedes, they are dying. We are having fun swimming in the lakes, and being outside. It stays light until after 11:00 pm so we are able to enjoy being outside for a long time.

On the other hand we highly suspect that Samuel has a grass allergy. The poor little guy has been miserable. He will be tested on August 20th for all of his allergies. We take him to water a lot to help get out of some of the grass areas.

For now we will just enjoy being a family. The post will not come very often, but I will try my best. I hope that all of you are well, would love to hear from you.

God Bless,
laurie

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Bible Study

One of the things that I have been greatful for is my English Bible Study. It has given me fellowship and discipline. It has also allowed me to get to know many amazing and Godly ladies. I am thankful for all of them. Most of these ladies only stay a couple of years, but some are indefinite like myself. They are here for work with Volvo, Saab, Astra Zenica, Husqvarna, Coclear, missionary work, and so on.... We had a good gathering the other day to say goodbye to one of these wonderful ladies, Trudy Cranney. Trudy has used her time in Sweden to serve at Fisher's Creek International Church in many capacities. One of those was to facilitate the Bible Study and incourage more woment to join and serve. Thank you Trudy for letting God use you so we could be blessed. Trudy is moving with her husband and her twin sons (and two cats) to Argentina. There her husband will be the CFO and Vice President of Ford and she will be the wonderful mom that she is and looking for new ways to serve Jesus in a new culture. She has spent more than four years total here in Sweden. Trudy, we will be praying for your transition, your ministry and your family. We will miss you greatly.

This goodbye is just one of many that I have already been a part of in the short time of living here. There are many more to come, but I will enjoy the fellowship of these women while God has brought them into my life. You are all a blessing, Thank you.

Samuel and Toby, just goofing off.

Many, but not all the women.

The Friggebod, Part I

You all may be asking, "what is a friggebod?". Well, it is a little house about the size of a good walk in closet in the States. Our friends, Jennie and Twain Weaver, were getting rid of theirs in order to build a bigger one for guest and such. So they kindly sold it to us for a very cheap price. All we had to do was find someone who would move it (for a price that wouldn't break the bank), prepare the ground at our house for it, and prepare the friggebod for moving. Doesn't seem so hard? Well, it was harder than we thought, but it worked, join me as the saga unfolds... It now sits at Ott's (our house in the woods) and we are making it into a writing house for Andreas. He has always wanted to write a book, or books... now he will have a quite comfortable spot to do just that. It also has a soffa that pulls out to a bed, so now we can have quests. Anyone want to come and try it out?


The kids thought this was great fun.

The truck and the man that would do the job.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The Friggebod, Part II

This is the Friggebod sitting at Jennie and Twain's house. We had taken the roof tiles off and actually cut the overhang off so that we didn't have to get a special permit to move it. This was the time of prayers. We didn't know if the house would hold together when it was picked up and it had to go over several bushes and a workshop/barn. The crane truck driver was really amazing. As you will notice in later pictures, the friggebod is two different colors. Two sides are black and two are red. Jennie and Twain wanted the black, but only two sides wher showing, so they painted those sides. The funny thing is that now it will all be red again to match our house in the woods.

This is the truck that moved it.

Althought the kids wanted to be a part of the action, they had to stay on the porch. We were all nervous enough without having to watch kids running around with heavy machinery and a house in the air. They had a lot of fun though. The workshop you see behind them is the one the friggebod had to go over. Twain was praying that it didn't drop on it.

The moment of truth!

It made it over all it need to in one piece. The next step was to move it to our house. The video is pretty cool, but too long to put up here.

The Friggebod, Part III

The Crane truck coming down our driveway at the house in the woods (Otherwise known as Otto's)

Here was the tricky part. If you look closely you can see how low the electrical wires are and the crane had to get the friggebod under that.

The friggebod sitting on it final resting spot. The crane man was amazing.

Samuel wanted his picture with the crane truck man. I think this man might be Samuel's new hero. Samuel said he wants to grow up to drive one of those trucks.

The truck driver and my guys.

Pictures are Multiplying

I have found more pictures that I didn't put up here. So now I am back in May. I believe this was May 17th. Mor Far (Andreas's grandfather on his mother's side) had his eighty fifth birthday. So we all come to celebrate. Samuel absolutely loves getting together with the cousins. We also tried to take some family pictures and you can tell below how that turned out. All in all we had a good time though.

Viktor was done by the time that we tried to take these pictures.
This is Mor Mor and Mor Far in a candid moment. You don't often see this so I was really glad to get it on film. I love this picture. This is a love that started before World War II and has lasted and will last their whole lifetime. What a blessing from God to have grandparents that show how a marriage relationship should be.
Elizabeth (Andreas's cousin) played with the kids to keep them occupied. Thank you Elizabeth.

I think Viktor is just one of the cutest kids. Samuel loves his cousin very much.

And here you have it. The Kjernald Family portrait. So fitting for us. This one should definitely be blown up and framed. We make our parents proud!

Annual Conference: The Road Ahead

In the beginning of June... yes, I have finally made it to June... We (Andreas, Laurie, Samuel, and the dog) traveled to Malmo. Malmo is the 3rd largest city in Sweden. It is located on the west coast almost at the bottom of Sweden. It was Annual Conference time for the Methodist Church. Now I love to travel and see new places, but I have realized this is not family time. Unfortunately it made me feel more like a church widow than I already did, but part of that was because I was sick. Andreas was usually gone from 8:00 in the morning to 11:00 or so at night. I saw him a few times in between. Most of my time was spent with Far Far (andreas's dad) and Samuel. I have a quick summary of our trip... playground, playground, playground. We tried to find every playground around and play on it. Samuel had a great time. He loved being in a hotel room, getting to play with Far Mor and Far Far, whose hotel room was across the hall, eating out all the time, seeing the ocean with all the cool boats, and, or course, playing constantly on new playgrounds. He seems to attack these challanges like an explorer conquering new land. It is fun to watch his enthusiasm.

So while Andreas and the rest of the Methodist pastors and members debated on the future of the Methodist Church (sorry to say it looks pretty bleak....) Sam and I played. For more on the church situation you can email Andreas at kjernald@msn.com Please be praying.

Below are some of the pictures of our time in Malmo. Enjoy.

The best playground was this one. It looks a bit scarry in black and white, but it was really cool. Sam asked if we could build one like this at our church!



On Saturday night, they had a gospel concert. It was quite good, although the Swedes still had a hard time getting up and moving. I wish I could have gotten more light for this picture. The concert was in a Swedish Luthren Chruch and the cross in front was really cool. The church was actually named, St. Andreas!
One of the days, Dad took us to a small ocean town outside of Malmo. It was pretty windy, but great for the sport you see below. They are on surf boards with huge parachute/kite things attached to them. I wondered how they stayed in the water. However, it looked like fun.



Here is that cool playground again. See not so mean looking in color! Not to mention the cute kid (Samuel) smiling at me.

As we were walking on one of the boat docks, we heard a hissing noise below. There was a mamma swan with several babes and she is sitting on an egg. Her hissing came because she didn't appreciate that our dog was so close. *he was on a leash, the swan just picked a bad spot by a walkway*

Samuel's Forskola Avslutning

At the end of May (still working to get all my blogger back up pictures on here), Samuel had a program for the end of his preschool class (forskola avslutning in Swedish). It was really cute to see him stand up with all of his classmates. We didn't realize how short he actually is until he was up there. We never think of him as short! He came out wearing cotton ball ears and smiling from one cotten ball to the next. He loved the attention and even sang, which he had been having a hard time with during his preschool class (he didn't like the music part, we think he was having a hard time understanding it). In the picture below he is at the far right. We are so proud of our little guy. He has come a long way and is really amazing at making friends and loving them. His Swedish is doing really well. He is even translating a few things for me. I wish I could show you the video that Andreas took, but it is way too big to get on here. If there is anyone who wants their own personal copy of Samuel's forskola avslutning, please let us know.

Blessings,
Laurie



Samuel, with his friend Happy. Happy's daddy is American, and her mom is a good friend of mine. She helps me stay sane.


The kids where suppose to look like sheep. Here they are acting like them.

This is Sam having a great time singing and doing the motions to the song. He goes all out in whatever he does.

This is the class as they were coming into the sanctuary (the adult if one of his teachers, Birgit. He is so funny. I wonder how much he can see with that thing on.

More of the May Blogger Back Up

One Sunday in late May, Andreas decided that he wanted to see the ocean. It had been a while and the sun was up - when we started out, but then it became grey. Should have known that was going to happen. We kept going anyway. We went out to an island called Ockero. We use to spend a lot of time out there when we lived in Gothenburn in 2001-2003, but since we live in Alingsas it is too far to go very much. Above is the field that you see when you park at Lobster Bay (Hummersvik in Swedish). It is hard to tell, but the field was blooming and was very pretty.

The picture below is the bay. We walked out on the rock in the left of the picture to find a place with no wind that we could eat our snacks (really the only food we could find because everything was closed). The food consisted of Cheese balls, apple juice and trail mix. Not a bad dinner! Don't worry, we do feed Samuel better than that. (as you can see in the pic below, the sun was there, just covered a bit)
I love this picture of Sam. He is my little billy goat. He is amazing on these rocks. Just like Andreas. It scares me to death, but I did pretty well,. Sam actually got to explore without holding my hand. I am getting better, I just have mini heart attacks all the time and Andreas laughs at me.

The Kjernald men and their dog. So GQ!

The is the ferry that we had to take to get to and from the island. Samuel loved this! He may have enjoyed the ferry rides more than anything else. Tis the life of a child.

Amy VanderVeen and the Bucking Bronco

This is a friend of mine. She is hear with her husband and 4 boys from Australia. Her husband works for Husqvarna and will be here at least until Christmas. Amy has been a wonderful spirit in our Bible Study. She amazes me. She has 4 boys, which means her hands are full, and she still has the time to buy thoughtful gifts and remember occasions that most people would not. I am thankful for God bringing her here, even if it is a short time. Sam is thankful for Toby, they get along really well. I put this up because Sam really likes this little clip. I am so thankful that I finally got a video to upload. Enjoy!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Happy Anniversary

Today is twelve years of marriage. It doesn't really seem possible, but here we are. I also want to say happy anniversary to Heidi and William Spencer, they are college friends who got married two days before us. We miss you and wish we could be flying to Hawaii or Fiji with you, maybe for our 25th.

When I think about all the time that we have been blessed with it seems to have gone by so quickly. I am still very much in love with my husband, trust him completely, and wouldn't want to spend my life with anyone else. He has been a wonderful friend, patient husband and amazing daddy. I am so thankful for this man that God put in my life so long ago. I look forward to many, many more years of marriage, parenting and serving God together.

If it has been a while for some of you, take the time to remember how thankful you are for your husband or wife. It is good to remember and thank them for who they are.

May we all be aware how God is blessing our marriages.

Blessings,
Laurie

Blogger Back Up

I have a ton of pictures from middle of May until now that have backed up and I need to get on here. The problem is that my internet is not very cooperative. I just spent and hour or more working on a post that didn't work, had to be deleted and now this is the new one. FRUSTRATION!!!!!

In the middle of May, my English Bible Study decided to take the kids to a farm outside of Gothenburg called Noah's Ark. It was rainy and cold, but that doesn't stop the Swedes, so it didn't stop us either. Samuel had a great time with the other kids and the animals. The pictures below will tell you that story. I will try to get a vidoe or two up, but I am not holding my breathe by this time. I will however try to get more pictures up.

We have been busy here. However, things will settle down for the summer as the whole country goes on vacation. I am looking forward to having Andreas home with us for a while. Samuel is really looking forward to it also. He asks just about everyday, "when is pappa on vacation?" We will move out to our summer house this week. Just wait until you see what we have been doing there. That will not be put on tonight however.

No adoption news at the moment. Just waiting. I don't think Nepal has even offered anymore referrals since the little government shake up. But I am hoping that I am just out of the loop. So for all of those waiting, hang in there.

Blessings,
Laurie


Sam is giving the bunny... bunny ears. The funny thing is he has no idea what he is doing.

Samuel and Zachary are patiently waiting to ride the horses.

If you get a chance, blow this picture up so you can see the cheesy grin on Sam's face, it is hilarious. He loves to ride horses.


From Left to Right.... Andrew (whom Sam calls his big friend with glasses), Samuel and Toby (Sam's friend from Australia)