One morning as I (Jamie) was having my time with God,
I just looked out at the city. So many people - 40,000 here,
if you include the surrounding villages, it's 100,000. There are only
5 churches here. That may seem fine, but we go to the second biggest.
It's about 30-35 people. Just the realization of how many people here
that don't know God and their final destination is overwhelming.
I have no doubt we are right where God wants us to be. Please,
continue to pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send out workers
into the field.

This morning we heard loud music and went to see what was going on.
These are gypsies walking down the street playing music for money
right outside our flat. It is normal to see gypsy children beating on
boxes with sticks or a drum completely taped up for money. We so
look forward to when we can hang out with and minister to these
people - maybe join them and play some music together. We will
know the language soon enough to do that!

Our first game night. This is "spoons". It was so fun to have just the
OM team here come over and play and laugh together. The team here
consists of 8 or 9 other people from all walks of life and from all over
the world. They have blessed us very much welcoming us in and showing us
around. We have meetings twice a week for prayer and worship, etc.
We'll get a pic of that soon.

Ups and downs for the kids

This was about three thirty in the morning. Kya woke up
throwing up and not feeling well. Thankfully, we had saved
one of grandma Bartlett's books she gave us to give to Kya for
a special occasion. It definitely worked because she read it over
and over and still does even now. Thank you grandma!

This was Kya's first day of school. There is a preschool/kindergarden
underneath the O.M. center with just Albanian kids. She has gone
three days now and she loves it! There are a few women who work
there that are believers and it will be a great outlet for Kya to
make new friends and learn Albanian.

This is fruit and vegetable stand just around the corner from the
O.M. center. You see them all over the place and we just happened
to stop by on the way back from church and get a few things.
Those bananas that the kids are holding were free. It is not
uncommon for the women on the street working to give the kids or
any kids some fruit, candy, snacks,etc... We just have to work on
Kadence eating bananas as she bit through the peel a bunch of times
and broke through trying to get inside it.

Oh no!

Our stove and oven are run by propane gas,
but we didn't know the glass cover on the stove
was supposed to be lifted up before cooking.
While attempting to cook a stew, we heard a mini pop/explosion
and the glass shattered!
Oops!!

Kadence is finally starting to take some steps. It's about time!

One of the other missionaries here gave us
this chair for the girls to play with. Yay!

Here is our washer. Nobody has dryers, everyone hangs
their clothes outside. It may seem funny, but a simple thing like
washing the clothes can become complicated.
Not knowing the language yet means having to learn by making mistakes.
Many things have to be relearned for us. In order to get groceries,
we have to go to a few different places (one for bread,
one for cleaners, the market for produce, etc.) and things like that.

On top of all of the buildings are these water tanks.
It is a system because in Albania, water is only available
a few hours per day. This ensures water throughout the day
as long as you don't use too much. Power cuts are normal
and a part of every day life. So is the internet connection
cutting on and off regularly.

This was a day the team got to spend at the beach.
It was a two hour drive South to the Ionian Sea.
The water is beautiful and clear and not real cold.
The beach was made up of rocks and pebbles
but when you went out in the water it turned into sand.
As you can see, mountains surrounded us.
The girls had a lot of fun. We just couldn't keep track
of how many pebbles and rocks Kadence ate!
It was a great break from so much learning with
the missionary training school sessions.

This was the temperature inside our flat around 9pm.
It has gotten up to 95 degrees inside and 101 degrees outside.
The adjustment has been living without a.c.
but thankfully we were able to buy some fans.
The humidity is also lower than in Florida too.