Purpose of my blog

I was just thinking today, "what is the purpose of this blog"? I came to the conclusion that some people are good at venting their frustrations or their thoughts verbally while others need to vent through writing or typing their thoughts. I fit into the second category. I find it much easier to type out my thoughts or frustrations, not saying that I don't ever vent... just ask Eric I definitely do verbal venting. :) But anyway I always feel bad if I don't write in my blog everyday or once a week. However, I realized today that I don't always have frustrations that I need or want to vent or have deep thoughts that I want to share. So I hope that you all will keep reading my blog even if I'm not consistent. :)

On a totally different note.. today Eric and I are heading to a new park. The trail we're going on is 8 miles long and I'm so stoked! We get to take Riley with us too! :) Hope you all have a good weekend and enjoy the sunshine.

Life is good.

Hey Everyone! :) Just wanted to write a quick post. I don't have anything important to say but I wanted to write something since I haven't in a little while. This morning Eric went hiking with the guys. They are going on a 6 mile hike...I'm jealous.. I wanted to tag along! I am going to a meeting this morning for Big Brother Big Sisters. I am signing up to be a Big Sister.. I'm so excited!

While I was in Poland, I really wanted to find a way that I could get involved in the community and I think this will be a great start. I also realized that I am very selfish with my time. Sometimes I forget my true purpose for being in this world. I know I have to be careful not to over commit and allow a little time for myself... but I still think that we could all volunteer a little time every once in a while. :):)

Well I'm off. If you're in Ohio enjoy the sunshine!! I'm so excited! I think Riley and I will go for a little hike ourselves. :)

I just love this man!!:)

Anybody there??

Wow! This has been the longest that I've gone without writing in my blog. It's actually been kind of freeing. All you bloggers out there know that it's not always easy or fun to keep your blog updated.

Lots of change has taken place since I wrote last. We are now back in the states and living in Ohio again. It feels good to be home, although I must say that I really do miss Poland. I really enjoyed being there and the people that we met were amazing! Sometimes I have to remind myself that I actually lived there for several months because it feels like a dream. Luckily, we were able to do some quick last-minute shopping before we left and so we have a few things sitting on shelves (actually, I don't really know where they are at this moment...ughh.) to remind us that it wasn't just a dream.

Eric is back at his same job. He even has his old office back...totally not far. I am out looking for a job. I've had several phone calls but no interviews yet. In the meantime I have been taking care of our 8 week old puppy, Riley. She is a handful! She's a weimaraner and let me tell you... she may be cuddly and sweet but she has a very wild side to her! It's fun though! (this actually is not a picture of Riley, but she looks just like this)

We are so thankful to have such a wonderful church that we have been welcomed back into. We are actually getting ready to start a new program called Element! It's going to be so awesome and we are thrilled to be a part of it!

So how are we doing with all this change and craziness? Pretty good. This week has definitely been better then the past couple of weeks. I think I've had a mix of culture shock and satan trying to get me down. I always think about the what ifs' and those are the times that satan really starts to take me for a spin. Please pray with me that God will give me the desire and the hunger for more of Him. It's been hard these past couple of months and I don't feel like my relationship with God is the same as it was before we left for Poland. I've let some negative thoughts creep into my heart and they have been pushing and pushing and not leaving enough room for love and passion for my creator. Thank you to everyone who has stuck by me through all of this. I love you and could not have done this without you.

Well, I just got a new vacuum and I'm really excited to try it out. :) Let me know if anyone still reads this... if not I may stop blogging.

We're Moved!

This is going to be a really short post. Just wanted to let everyone know that we moved to Gdansk and we are in the process of apartment hunting! Please pray for us! We're excited to get started on ministry work and meet the people here! Today we are going out and looking at a few apartments. Tomorrow we have Kids Club and we're going Bowling with the teens! We're excited to be able to hang out with people and start developing friendships here!

Got to run!!

Love,
Shelly

The Simple Things

I can't believe that we have been here for almost 2 weeks! The days have gone fast and slow all at the same time. We have kept fairly busy with mostly just getting situated and learning the in's and out's of Poznań. Eric has already started working on the computers here and helping the "flaky" internet connection. I have been meeting with fellow christians in the community and seeing how we can partner together. We have found a lot of the staple restraunts and grocery stores. We've been to 4 malls, ikea and I don't know how many other random stores. We feel pretty confident walking around by ourselves and getting around on the trams without help. The missionaries here (Ev and Rhonda Tustin) have been amazing. They have been extremely helpful and made us feel very at home.



We have already gone through what people call culture shock. I'm not sure what it is but whenever people go over seas it causes them to stop and think about what's going on in your life. It can be a difficult time and somewhat depressing. We are doing good though. Like I mentioned above, we have a good support system here and they have been a huge help.


So that the title of this post isn't totally random I wanted to share with you a few of the simple things that have come to my attention that I took for granted while living in the states. Here are just a FEW:



1. Eavesdropping. You just can't do this here. There's no hearing about a random persons best friends boyfriend that broke up with so and so's sister. I guess that's what happens when they all speak Polish.

2. Asking to borrow a chair. Eric and I went to KFC (yes, they have KFC here) and there was only 1 chair at our table so normally not a big deal, right? WRONG.. I had to sit there for like 20 minutes deciding which charade skit would work best to act out asking for a chair.

3. Cooking. I can't even believe that I brought this up. I've already blown things up, caught things on fire, made hamburgers... no wait turkey burgers, ate pickled canned kiwi... It's been crazy. I miss the days of easy mac.

These are just a few of the things that we have learned while here. I will sure more later. Have a great evening! Love and miss you all!

Dzien Dobry!

Twelve hours and three planes after we left on Wednesday afternoon, we arrived in Poznan without any problems at all. Every one of our bags arrived, we didn't get hassled at customs, and we even managed to sleep a little bit on the flight(s) over.

The past couple of days since we arrived we have been sight-seeing and unpacking into our apartment. We feel so blessed to be here in Poznan and to have such a wonderful opportunity to share God's love with the people here.

I wanted to share a few pictures of our apartment with you all.Unfortunately the Internet connection here in our apartment isn't the strongest so it is hard to download pictures. If you check out our website you can see a few pictures that Eric downloaded last night of our apartment.

Well, I'm going to be off. Time to start getting reading for a new day! :)

Love and miss you all!
Shelly

listen.

Have you ever had those moments where you sit back and actually listen. You get rid of all the craziness and head noise and you sit in silence. You drown out the cars outside or the neighbors voice that you hear creeping through your walls. I try to do this often, except most of the time this type of listening ends up with to-do lists and me racing off to finish something that I had forgotten about earlier.

However, tonight I listened. I stopped, and I listened.

I was able to forget about the past few hours, days, weeks and listen. I felt so blessed. I felt so unworthy. I felt so loved.