My Mom's pre-surgery

Here I am in Portland, OR at the hospital waiting as my Mom finishes up her angiogram, her surgery is tomorrow. She is doing really well! And I am so glad that my parents were able to fly me out here to be with her! I arrived on Friday and will be staying through some of her recovery period to be able to help out. At the moment, I don't know quite all of what to expect. But I do know that I have seen the hand of God in the little things leading up to this surgery. The fact that my Mom got headaches, usually there are no symptoms to alert the doctors or patients. The fact that when I was first told about the news, my passport was still in the Passport office of Eden being processed so they were able to quickly put an "Exit - Entry" visa into my passport. Also the dates that I wanted were at the price that I had prayed for! God is good, and He is here; in the big as well as the little things!!

Some News...

I just got a phone call from my Mom last week, she said that she has a brain tumor. And the doctor's recommended that they do surgery on it...now. It's a little un-nerving, I don't quite know what to think, but I do know this that God is in control and that even here in this little unknown brain tumor, He is taking control, thank you for prayers during this time. Depending on flights, school, and all the other details, my parents have said that they would like to fly me out there to be with them at this time, I'd like to be there for them too.

Russian to French to English to...?

Learning Russian is not the easiest language in the world. Here in Eden, there are two main languages: Russian as well as the native language. At a presentation done by myself, some other Americans, and Mike (whereas I played the part both of an American as well as a Belgian) the teachers also presented the benefits of the language program. At first the Language staff at the school was talking about learning BOTH languages at once, but I think that we'll just stick with Russian at the time being.

In my Russian classes, I am grateful that I have a knowledge in French. Why?, an inquisitive person might ask. Well it is not because of the similarities of the two languages. Instead it is because of our language teacher. In an effort to teach us Russian, she doesn't know any English, so she instead translates the Russian words into French whereas Mike or I will translate the words or instructions into English and upon need the words will also be further translated into either Chinese, Korean, or Spanish. It is indeed a multi-lingual class!