We arrived in Latvia on September 19, 2017, exhausted, but grateful for a mostly uneventful journey across the ocean (plus some!). While we were trusting in God to pave the way for us, we really had no idea what our life here would look like. We certainly had some hard days in this first year (like finding out after 6 weeks that our landlord needed his apartment back!), but we have been overwhelmed by God’s faithfulness to our family and the grace He has given us in language learning, culture adjustment, and relationship building, both with those inside and outside our church.

While we’ve had some very busy weeks with the beginning of the school year, we could not let our one-year anniversary pass us by without some kind of family commemoration. Luke decided to plan an overnight camping trip to just get away, have some time as a family, and talk about the ways that God has provided for us and what He has done in this first year. In hindsight, maybe we should have tried to go one weekend earlier because fall in Latvia seemed to arrive overnight! We were a little chilly in our tent (it got down to 45*F that night!), but the campfire and the hot chocolate and s’mores made up for it. It really was such a special time to hear from our girls some of their favorite memories over this past year and the ways they have seen God’s faithfulness. Here are some of the highlights that they mentioned:

• We can speak Latvian now!
• We really like our schools and our teachers.
• We have so many new friends.
• We really love our first floor apartment with the patio where all of our friends can play.
• Several of our friends from the neighborhood and from school came to VBS and a few are even coming to Sunday School with us now.

After we talked for a while, we sang several songs (some in English and some in Latvian!) and just enjoyed a beautiful, albeit cold, evening together.

We had thought that would be the extent of our one-year in Latvia celebrating, but we found out later in the week that we were wrong! Some friends invited us over for dinner on Wednesday night, which we gladly accepted. That afternoon they called and told us to meet them at the beach instead. When we arrived, we found most of our church family ready and waiting with a lovely sunset picnic dinner! They even surprised us with a beautiful and thoughtful gift – a wooden letter “T” with little lights, to remind us of the reason that we are here – to spread the light of Christ to those around us. We are so grateful for how patient and welcoming our church here has been and for the opportunity to be partnering with them to reach our community.