A year in the life of...

A year ago we were hanging out in the hospital in Klosterneuburg, Austria...the bells from the 300 year old monastery building (although the location has been a monastery since the mid 1100's!) rang as our baby girl opened her eyes for the first time to look around and explore her world...looking back on this year she has had quite a beginning...here are some highlights.

- Austrian birth certificate
- Visit to the consulate to get US citizen born abroad certificate and passport
- Staff retreat into the Austrian Alps...9 days old. Dedication service with all our ICSV family
- First rock show - Switchfoot
- Trip to Czech Republic for her brother's baseball tournament
- First international plane trip with mommy to the US right before Christmas
- First long distance train ride (to Prague)
- Second rock show (and running the merch table with mommy) - Good Weather Forecast
- First move (2nd apartment)
- Second long distance train ride (to Innsbruck)
- Trip to Croatia
- Second international plane trip to visit family in America for the summer
- First Angels game (second Angels game the next day- in a suite!)
- First Johnstone family vacation at Welk resort
- First swim in the Alte Donau
- First Birthday!

It's been a great year. We are so blessed to have this beautiful little girl be part of our family. Her personality is an absolute gift and we're looking forward to see how God is going to use her in the future. Check out the video below showing her first year...set to the song that served as the inspiration for her name,

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and baby makes four...

that's right...our little family will soon become a foursome. We have found out that Rebecca is 6 weeks pregnant! There is definitely "something in the water" as all the families that live within our block have recently had a baby or are currently pregnant. Our baby will be the 6th baby born to ICSV staff in a span of less than a year (first one was born in early November and we will be welcoming our new addition in September). So, kind of unexpected, but a pleasant surprise nonetheless!

Fly on the wall and shipping possibilities

We left Gjakova yesterd to go to Pristina for the night before our flight back to Vienna today (Thursday)...but before we left, Berat invited us to join him at the Bethany Christian Services Community Center for an event as part of the USAid celebration of 15 year anniversary of providing development assistance in Kosovo. We helped Berat do some last minute set up stuff, but mostly, we just sat around waiting for the show to start. Maples and Faisal spent a lot of time with some of the young men and women who were waiting to present their vision to the USAid Executive Director. Soon, the delegation from USAid arrived and took a short tour of the center, in the middle of the tour, Berat took some time to introduce the Baseball camp to them...and then graciously introduced me. The delegation was surprised and excited to hear that there were some baseball opportunities. We spoke for a short while and it turns out that the Executive Director used to oversee the Denton Prog...

Who are these kids at ICSV...

Hi everyone... The first week and a half of school has been absolutely amazing! We have had some great opportunities to begin building lasting relationships with the students that God has brought to Vienna to be educated at the International Christian School of Vienna. Rebecca has been adjusting well to her role as secondary secretary. She is learning quickly the many demands of her new role and is doing quite well in supporting us teachers and the rest of the staff. Rebecca hard at work I have been really enjoying my classes. I have a total of 43 students spread out over 4 periods. The students I have represent 14 different home nations, with many of the students who are "Austrian" are first generation, so they are of other nationalities as well. I have also had the opportunity to begin working with the soccer team...again, many nationalities are represented on the field, truly an international squad. Here are some pictures of the team training at the local club...

Johnstein!

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