From 15,000 to.....the Muhan House

We finally sent out an email about what we are going to get to be a part of in Nepal. It has all the information and in lieu of writing it all again, I posted it here :-). Thanks for taking the time to read it, and we'd love to tell you more! Let us know if you want to be involved.

Hello Family and Friends,

We are so excited to finally be writing this email to you all to tell you about what God is doing in Nepal and how we are going to be involved, and how you can too!

So let's get right to it. Almost 10 months ago, now, we sat on the front lawn of our friends' property in Nepal where we lived for 2 1/2 months, and God really impressed upon us an idea. Now at first, we thought this idea was a new concept that God specifically given to us, but it turns out that He had been planning this for quite some time now and was about to make us part of His plan.
Before we unveil the plan, let’s start at the beginning… and that is 15,000. What's the deal with 15,000? 15,000 is the number of Nepali girls that are sold into the sex-trade EVERY YEAR! That's 1,250 girls every month, 41 girls a day, and 3 girls every 2 hours that are uprooted from their homes in mountain villages and taken away from a life they will never know again, to be sold into the ever-increasing sex-trade across the border into India and beyond.

Now, as appalling and horrific as that "sounds," it was even more horrifying to see this issue in person. As we spent 10 weeks in Nepal, we visited the mountain villages where unsuspecting girls live their lives, we drove on the roads which the brokers use to transport them across the borders, and we met and spent time with young girls that have lived through this trauma.

Our friends in Nepal have already taken in four amazing girls that were at one point sold, or about to be sold, across the border into India. These four girls have been living with them for two years, experiencing what love is really like and beginning to heal with Jesus' touch. We were blessed to be able to get to know these girls and spend time with them and hear their traumatic and sad, yet redeeming stories.

We learned all about different groups and organizations that are going into India or patrolling the border to rescue girls. It is AMAZING that there are organizations that are slowly being able to do this, but for several very complicated reasons that are difficult to understand for us, the girls are not welcomed back into their own homes and families, and therefore, have very few places to go once they are rescued! Also, the age at which the girls are being "sold" is becoming younger and younger; there are 8 and 9 year old girls being trafficked across the border! When these young girls are rescued, there are very few organizations that have the capacity to sustain long-term care for these young girls.

That hit us hard! Harder than anything we saw as we traveled and we really felt this was what God wanted us to become involved in. We continuously prayed as we were overseas that God would show us what He wanted us to do. We were open to moving somewhere and living overseas if that seemed best and what He wanted, but this is what He placed on our hearts. This also became more real when our friend in Nepal got news that five more girls were rescued from brothels in India or from the border and needed a place to live now. With limited resources, our friend faithfully trusted God and took them in, but here is the issue......

There is no HOME for these girls. They are temporarily staying in a renovated piece of our friends' property that we were able to help build (with amazing support from you guys!), but this living situation is not sustainable and can only house up to 9 girls.

So, back to the idea! These girls need a home! Let’s help build them a home. After praying about it a lot we brought up this idea with our friends in Nepal and the EPI staff and to our amazement this was something they have been thinking and praying about as well! At this point our idea became a little more tangible and we became EPI staff with this as one of our first projects. With God's help, we are going to help our friends in Nepal build a HOME for girls that have been rescued from sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. We hope to use our God given gifts, Justin's project management skills and budgeting; and Krista's counseling skills and heart to help these young victims.

What will this look like?

1) We will be doing what we can to raise awareness and funds so that we can raise enough money to build the actual house and then keep it up and running for years to come, with the ability to house 16-20 girls.

2) Krista will be putting together and implementing a counseling training curriculum to use with the staff of the house as she works with them to figure out the best way to help the girls fully heal.

3) We will not be moving to Nepal. We feel very strongly that God wants us to do all of this from the States (at least for now) and therefore, we will be living here and periodically taking trips to Nepal throughout the year. In fact, we’ll be taking a team back to Nepal this March! Want to come? The EPI partners (our friends in Nepal) are absolutely incredible and are fully capable of managing the project from the ground.

4) MUHAN HOUSE - this is the name of the future home to 16-20 girls rescued from the sex-trade. "Muhan" in Nepali literally means "source." It usually refers to the source of a river, and implied in its meaning is a source that never runs dry. In conjunction with our Nepali partners we came up with this name because we believe that Jesus is the true source of life and healing. Like the source of a river, He never runs dry and is the living water (John. 4:14) that satisfies every need and truly brings life back into dead situations.

What can you do?

1) Ask us questions. We have so much more information, but this email is already long enough and in lieu of writing a novel, please ask us questions that you might have about this and we would be more than happy to try our best to answer you.

2) Pray!! Please cover this whole project in prayer. Satan would like nothing more than to sabotage a place where girls will come to know Jesus and heal from this unbelievable trauma.

3) Stay connected through our Facebook page and eventually our website. Click HERE to go to the Face Book page,

Make sure to click on LIKE once you get to the page, and you can stay posted on the latest and greatest and learn more about the issue of sex-trafficking in Nepal.

3) Come and See! Join us on a trip to Nepal! We have our first one in March and then we will be going on a yearly basis (maybe more). Stay connected and find out when we'll be going and come with us!! If your are interested in going this March, let us know!

4) Give. The estimated cost of the house at this point is $150,000. In Nepal, land and building supplies are very expensive, but we are trusting God will come up with this figure. In addition, we are trusting that He will provide the funds to keep the house running and the girls supported indefinitely. To give to this project, go on the EPI website (www.eagleprojects.com), click on donations and put Muhan House in the options line.

What a great way to make this Christmas different!!

We look forward to partnering with you on this project! And please feel free to come to us with questions, concerns, thoughts, or anything!

In Him,

Krista and Justin

What we were doing last Halloween?

Today, November 1st, I'm working on putting together a computer file of all the counseling/training hours I compiled during our year abroad. In doing that, I opened the computer file that contains the daily journal that we kept while we were traveling. Yep, that's right, we kept a DAILY journal to remember everything we did this past year. At times it got a little annoying and cumbersome, but now that we're back, it's AWESOME! Especially now as I'm trying to remember how long I trained there and what we did then, etc.

Anyway, as I was working this morning, I came upon our journal entry of last October 31st. It's weird to think that one year ago, we were in Zimbabwe doing this on Halloween. This is the exact journal entry that we wrote that night (I added the pics to the blog post for proof :-))....

Saturday October 31st:

Today, the plan was to leave at 10 to head straight to an African Wedding! At this point we are not sure who the couple is, but we are excited to see how it all works. We got all dressed up, Justin in a tie and khakis, and Krista in a nice skirt and blouse. We had a super breakfast of eggs and bread and coffee (yay!); and met some visitors that had come in for the wedding and had arrived at 3am that morning. 10 am came and went; and we found out that the guests didn’t know where to go so we needed to wait for them. The wedding organizer was a little frustrated since she was hoping to get there as soon as possible. It was interesting to see a local get a little anxious about time since we seem to feel it all the time. Finally at about 11 we were off to the wedding, but gas first, and then the wedding. We walked right in and it was hard to tell at first if we wereat the ceremony or the reception. Nearly everyone was sitting down in rows, but people were cheering and talking; and there was a large crowd at the front around the Bride and Groom. Some seats were found for us at the front… it’s good to be with such honored guests like Lucia and the visitors. Turns out they are the pastor and his wife from the Groom’s church in South Africa, and the newly married couple will return to that church. So yeah, being associated with the big dogs gets you good seats. The large crowd at the front consisted of the Bride and Groom, a whole entourage of camera-men and videographers, a lot of bridesmaids and groomsmen, all sitting down behind the camera crew, and then behind them another set of bridesmaids and groom-children – just a younger and smaller version of the typical wedding party… probably all around 10 years old. There was a bunch going on in Shona, so we were pretty lost. Then they kissed… well that part is the familiar. And they did a receiving line of everyone in the place (which was quite a few, maybe 150 to 200), again, pretty familiar, we could see this happening in the states.
So we’re thinking we are probably about done, but nobody seemed to be getting ready to leave. Oh, there is more… they cut the cake, at the ceremony, a little different, but cool. Then they presented bigger pieces of cake to family members and respected people in their lives (Lucia got a big piece), and they gave out bite sized pieces to everyone there. It was delicious.

The AMAZING cake (even with Fall Harvest colors)! Check out the Africa Hut!

Other stuff happened and then the toasts and speeches started. About 4 or 5 from each side of the family… then Lucia got up there and talked for a little while (she is always a crowd pleaser) and introduced the couple that had gotten there that morning, and they went to the front and gave a little sermon and advice to the lucky couple. At least that part we could understand since they spoke in English and someone translated,

not sure what they spoke in SA, but the common language was English. And at some point relatively soon after that they all danced their way out of the ceremony hall… the little one’s first, then the “regular” bridesmaids and groomsmen and then the happy couple. And we were done. At this point it was probably about 1 ish, and the wedding technically started at 9 – Yeah, 4 hours for the “Ceremony”. We then followed the whole wedding party to where they were going to take pictures; Lucia wanted a picture with the Married couple. And apparently somebody wanted us to have a picture with them as well, because before w

e knew it we were standing next to the newlyweds and everyone was snapped photos of us as well.

See, I wasn't lying. They really had us take a photo with the Bride and Groom!

Then back to the hall for some lunch and the reception. We hung around outside for a while after lunch, bought some ice cream, talked to a few of the people there we knew (we talked about the big church service we were going to go to on Sunday), hung out some more, and then finally we went in. They were at the gift receiving stage… not sure what was going on while we were outside, maybe just gift giving, I hear it can take a while. People come up family by family, or person by person, and give a gift, and the emcee announces to everyone what they gave. Crazy huh? I wonder what would happen if we did that in America? And then churches give and the emcee announces that too!… so we went up with Lucia and everyone from Eternal Word Ministries and we even gave a little donation (as “Eternal Word America”). Then we finally headed out… it’s about 4 or 5 pm at this point....but the party probably kept on going.

The End

There you have it. What we were doing last year on Halloween. Wow, it seems almost surreal that a year ago we were doing that when yesterday we were here in Colorado, mountain biked with friends, went to church, ran some errands, and handed out candy to neighborhood kidos. And now that we've been back for a month now, I'm realizing that God is found in both the extravagant and romantic as well as the mundane.

Back Home! What's Next?

Disclaimer: This post is very similar to an email we just sent out. Just thought it was worthy enough to make the blog as well, as we hit the two week mark of being back in America!

So you've probably heard these clichés before:
Time flies...
It seems like just yesterday...
You'll be back before you know it...

Time does indeed fly, and it seems like just yesterday we were packing up our house, selling a car and getting ready for our year overseas, and as we have been back for two weeks now, we are definitely back before we knew it! We used to think these clichés were silly, not anymore!
It has been a while since most of you have heard from us (sorry for that, "we were out of the country"...we still love saying that:-)) so here is a quick recap of our "year overseas" which we generally broke into two parts:

Part 1:

The first half of our year was what we considered our intentional ministry and humanitarian portion of the year as we partnered with the non-profit organization, EPI (Eagle Projects Int) and visited 3 of their overseas partners in Harare, Zimbabwe; Kisii, Kenya; and Kathmandu, Nepal. We were also very blessed to be able to visit some of our friends laboring for Christ in Nalchik, Russia.

And for an even quicker version of our first 6 months, check out this video we made!!! Click HERE to launch the YouTube video.

Part 2:

The second half of our year included our not-so-intentional ministry and humanitarian portion of the year, or we could call it our sightseeing portion. :-) We visited some beautiful countryside and met up with some great friends and even family as we explored Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, and Germany. We even had the pleasure to spend some time with an EPI partner in Cesena, Italy. For a look at some photo albums from Europe, click HERE.

But first check out this video we made of our 4 months in Europe, click HERE!! (It's hard to choose 106 photos out of 12,000, but we did our best)

And now for another cliché...

The real world...

What are we going to do next, as we are now back in the real world? Justin's day job will be back at EnCana as he is lucky enough to be able to get his job back and has already started working. Krista is trying to narrow down a long list of possible options for her time which could include working towards a counseling practice, volunteering in some capacity, and taking a few more Seminary classes. And for the rest of our time we are excited to share with you two recent developments that will allow us to continue traveling and working overseas!

We have recently become official staff with EPI! We are now working with EPI in Special Project Development. This will allow us to continue to travel and visit EPI's great partners to see how their ministry is developing and what their needs are. Check out our profile HERE.

One of our first opportunities with EPI is managing a project with our EPI partners in Nepal. We are very excited to continue our relationship with the awesome couple that is working in Nepal (you have probably heard us talking about them) and the need that we are hoping to help with, which is very close to our hearts. They are doing some amazing work with young girls that have been rescued from the sex trafficking industry and we have a way we think we can help, with your help as well, of course. But as this email is already long enough, we will be sending another email with more details! So stay tuned.

We feel very blessed to have had this opportunity, and we are super excited about the future! Thank you so much for your support, prayers and well wishes!

In Him,
Justin and Krista

All Good Things Must Come to an End

One of several amazing sunsets in Cinque Terre

Now, obviously this is a common saying, but to be honest, I don't like it. And part of me doesn't believe it (or more accurately, doesn't want to believe it), but like all age-old sayings, there is some truth to it. Change is inevitable, and a necessary part of life. It is change that helps is grow and become the people that God created us to be. So even something that seemed so good at the time, must end and other things must take it's place. Just like a beautiful sunset turns into peaceful night.

Our four months in Europe were absolutely amazing! We had such a great time with each other and loved seeing the in's and out's of God's creation. It was so GOOD. But in this case, obviously not sustainable, unless someone wants to give us millions :-). Therefore, this GOOD thing had to come to an end. We will forever cherish this time we had together (literally 24/7) and will remember all the amazing things we got the opportunity to do.

To wrap up our four months in Europe, we spent a week in Cinque Terre, Italy.

The adorable town of Vernazza in Cinque Terre, Italy (home for 3 nights)

This was one place that several people told us we HAD to see if we went to Europe. So with that in mind, we scheduled a whole week here at the end of our trip, sort of like a grand finale. And it did not dissapoint. Cinque Terre, or "five lands" is a grouping of five towns on the Italian Riviera. Cars are not allowed in the towns, so the only way to get from town to town is by train, boat, or foot. In addition, there is a National Park so there are lots of hiking trails connecting the towns and going all over the beautiful cliffs, hills, and vineyards. And finally, what makes it even cooler, it's in Italy, so you have Italian food and gelato!!

Hiking above the town of Monterosso

We had a great time hiking from town to town and above the towns through the vineyards. Our only recommendation if you plan on going to Cinque Terre in the future - prepare yourself for crowds and book in advance. We luckily had booked a month in advance, but even that was difficult, and while we were there, we did have to strategically find places where the crowds would not be. It is no longer a "hidden gem" if you will, but nonetheless, it is still gorgeous, fun, and definitely worth going to.

To take a better look at this BEAUTIFUL place click HERE! We took lots of photos and hopefully the captions show up as well.

Where is the Pope?

So if I asked you about Church in Italy, what would come to your mind first? The Pope? A large, Catholic Church with organs and choirs? Or would you first think of The Da Vinci Code? I bet the last thing you would think of is a small,evangelical church next to a Kebab Restaurant with a few guitars and a Brazilian man at the pulpit preaching on God's unconditional love! That is the exact church we got to experience in Cesena, Italy with Pastor Fabiano Nicodemo a few weekends ago. We knew about this church from our work with EPI (Eagle Projects International) who have been working with Fabiano for over 20 years. When Phil Eyster (EPI Pres.) heard we were going to be in Italy, he said we had to visit Cesena to meet this great man and his family, and to get some excellent Gelato... we did all that and more. Here are some of the highlights:

Meet Pastor Fabiano and his new English Club Poster. One of his outreach tools is to hold church sponsored English Clubs each week that can help locals practice conversational english, and occasionally hear about the love of God! We got to attend one of the meetings and meet some great people. They need some help, anyone out there speak english and want to visit Italy?

One night we enjoyed worship and teaching with the local college age Christians and after that some time to hang together and eat:

And a little Gelato after that (Gelato has already been consumed :-)

On Sunday we got to visit their church service:

And then play with the kids after that... it doesn't matter how old, or in what country, Justin usually gets beat at video games.

And of course, a little Gelato with the whole family at the famous La Cremeria!

After we reluctantly left our good friends in Cesena, we hoped on a train to the famous, beautiful and popular, Cinque Terre! Stay tuned for some pics and a chance encounter with some friends from Colorado... Who you ask? Well, you'll just have to catch the next blog (or stalk our Facebook page :-)!

Lugano and Venice!!

Left the mountains of Switzerland for the waters of Lake Lugano and the Adriatic Sea. Both places were absolutely beautiful, but don't take my word for it. Enjoy these pictures!

Click HERE to see pics from Lugano and Venice!

Week with the Parents!!

Well, the much anticipated week with my (Krista) mom and dad has come and gone. It was technically a little over a week and we jam packed all kinds of goodness into those 9 days.

We covered three countries and 11 cities. Luckily we had a car to whip around to all of these places quickly.....and it also gave the men a chance to drive on Germany's autobahn :-). They got up to speeds of 180km/hr!!

We started in Germany and went along the Rhine River to Bacharach, then on the Romantic Road to Rothenburg, and then in to the mountains and castle country to Garmisch. From Germany, we went in to Austria and explored Salzburg, then the Lake District around Salzburg in the town of Halstat, and finally in the Austrian Alps in Innsbruck. After Austria, we went to Switzerland to see Lucerne, the Alps in the Berner Oberland area, and finally Zurich.

It was tons of fun and a great way to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. We experienced Spaghetti Ice together, rode an alpine slide overlooking the lakes in Austria, did a few awesome bike rides (even one with belting some Sound of Music songs :-)), and had some great dinners overlooking gorgeous lakes and rivers. I'm so glad they came over and braved traveling with us :-). After Zurich, they headed to Scotland and England for a few days, and Justin and I headed to southern Switzerland (Lugano) and then into Italy (Venice).

Click HERE to see some awesome pics of our week with my parents.

We now have less than two weeks left on this crazy adventure and we'll be in Italy for the rest of the time. Tomorrow we leave Venice to go spend four days with an Eagle Project's Partner in Cesena. And then we finish our trip up with 6 days in Cinque Terre!!

A Tale of Two Cities

It has been quite some time now since we've posted and that is because we've had tons and tons of fun with my parents the past week or so and have had no time to make photo albums and write blogs. Pictures of our week with George and DeeDee are coming soon :-). But we did a few things between leaving Italy's wonderful Dolomites and meeting up with them.

We went to Vienna, Austria and Prague, Czech Republic! We liked both of these cities! They were super easy to get around and had lots of cool sights. In Vienna, we even got to see some Mozart in the Vienna State Opera House (I can never complain about Justin not taking me on cool dates again after this year)!!

In the nicest clothes we stuffed in our backpacks, ready to see some Mozart!

We were a little skeptical about Prague just because we had heard so much good stuff, we thought it had been built up too much in our heads and we were going to be let down, but it lived up to it's rep and was super great. The food is not as cheap as it once was we think, but still cheaper than most of the places we've been.

So, as some pics are long overdue, here you go.

Click HERE for pictures of our adventures in Vienna.

and

Click HERE for pictures of us in Prague.

The lesser known beauty of Northern Italy...

Northern Italy was absolutely amazing. I know we say that about a lot of the places we have been, but really, Northern Italy is incredible. We spent a few days on Lake Como, playing in the small Italian towns and of course on the lake,

Sometimes we had a little too much fun on the boat we rented for the day. Justin is just too funny, I can't help it.

and then we spent a week in the Dolomites. We spent a few nights in one of the central towns there called Cortina where we did our first Via Ferrata (roping in to a cable and climbing up huge rock peaks),

Here we are at the top, after the Via Ferrata (for more pics, click below on the link to the album)

and a 40 mile bike ride (don't worry, half was downhill) and then we did some backpacking. We hiked in for two nights to two different mountain huts or "rifugios." If we thought Nepal trekking was cush with all the tea houses, this blows that level of cushness out of the water. The so called huts were unbelievable, complete with full-staffed restaurants, bedrooms with small flat screens, Italian food, Italian coffee, and Italian wine! We had such a great time and we feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to do itl. If Northern Italy weren't so far away, we'd suggest going every year with all our friends and family :-).

We took lots of pics as usual and this time Justin even wrote captions for the Dolomite Album. He took that location on as his own little baby and planned most of our time there. It was great!

Click HERE for the Lake Como pics!

Click HERE for the pics of the super cool Dolomites!

There is more to Switzerland than cheese and chocolate....

After leaving Chamonix, we wondered how things could get any prettier......well, going deep into the Swiss Alps is as pretty as the edge of them in Chamonix, if not more stunning! Switzerland as a whole is a super cool country. The cities are crazy clean and there are tons of free things to do for the public. We biked, swam, saw bears, and hung out in parks all for FREE. Now there are lots of things that cost an arm and a leg too, but let's not dwell on the negative. And then, to add to its cool cities, Switzerland has.....well duh.....the Swiss Alps.

For the majority of our Alp exploring, we met up with one of my best friends from college, Maggie, and her husband Brett. They are an absolutely amazing couple on staff with Campus Outreach in Indiana. It was such an incredible blessing to see them (I hadn't seen Maggie since our wedding) and we all had a blast.

Brett, Maggie, me and Justin in the Alps!

After saying goodbye to Maggie and Brett :-(, Justin and I headed down to Zermatt, Switzerland for a couple of days, and then to the east via some scenic trains before going back into Italy where we are now.

So, all together we were in Switzerland for a week and a half this time around. We'll be going back with my parents when they come over in September. We took lots of pictures of our week and a half, so when you have a few minutes or need a break, take a look at the Alps!

Click HERE to see the Switzerland Album complete with captions :-).

A Little Slice of Heaven....

...in the town of Chamonix.

We absolutely LOVED Chamonix. Really, we have loved everywhere we've been, but for some reason, Chamonix will always hold a special place in our hearts (cue in cheesy music here). Here are a few reasons why and some pics to prove it....

1. Beautiful Mountains (e.g. Mt. Blanc....who wants to go back some day and climb it w/us?)

2. A great train and gondola system to take you to the starting point of any amazing hike.

3. French speaking people (we love the French.....they totally get a bad rap, but they're amazing)

4. French Bakeries!

5. Crepes

6. Great mountain biking trails

7. A river that goes right through town

8. Economical lodging!

9. Getting to Chamonix via three gondola rides up and over mountains from Italy!

10. Our THREE year anniversary!

So, needless to say, we miss it a little bit, but don't feel too bad for us (I know you don't), because we move on to new amazing places everyday. To see some pics of God's amazing creation (mountains and crepes!) in Chamonix click HERE

The Coast with the Most!

After Rome, we hoped on the train and headed south to the town of Sorrento which is right at the start of the most beautiful stretch of the Amalfi Coast. On our way down, we made one stop in the town of Pompei where we saw Mt. Vesuvius (the volcano that erupted and preserved the town of Pompei back in the day). It was pretty cool!!

Once in Sorrento, thanks to Justin's traveling he did for work early on in our marriage, we were able to stay at a sweet Hilton Resort overlooking Sorrento and the Mediterranean Sea for FREE! It was awesome and we took full advantage! We spent one whole day just hanging out at the cool pool.

Another day, we rented a scooter and lived on the edge as we drove the hairpin turned road down to the town of Amalfi through Positano on the Amalfi Coast. It was so awesome (as it always is) getting to see some of the places that we've always heard about or seen in movies. We loved the Amalfi Coast and tried to think of reasons why we'd HAVE to get back there someday......like maybe we have to fly through here on our way to Nepal or something :-). It's totally on the way, right?

We had great weather and an absolutely fabulous time!! Check out some of the gorgeous sights that we were so blessed to see by clicking HERE.

When in Rome....

Here are some highlights and pics of our three days in the "Eternal City" of Rome.

The HIGHS:

• The History!!
• Tons of sweet sights, such as the Colosseum (with guided tour!), the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, the Trevi Fountain, and Bernini's Sculptures.
• Drinking ice cold water out of all the fountains in the city (those Romans we're clever).
• Our favorite meal in Italy thus far.

The LOWS:

• Trying to drive into Rome to return our rental car.....not really Rome's fault.
• Justin didn't see what the fuss was all about with the Spanish Steps (feel free to enlighten him).
• Nothing else, Rome is Rome!

For Pictures of the eventful three days click HERE

Under the Tuscan Sun!

It was such a perfect place to spend three days.....sandwiched between Florence and Rome, Tuscany was like a small peace of Heaven, well at least it was cooler in temperature :-). And Justin would like to go on record to say it wasn't that bad in Florence. He would! :-)

After leaving Florence, we rented a car and took to the Tuscan roads. We purposefully drove on some scenic routes, which turned out to be well worth it. We made a couple of stops along the way, Monticino (for lunch), and Montipulciano (just to see it and grab some coffee), which were really fun. We even learned that a scene from a certain popular movie was filmed in Montipulciano (you'll have to see if you can figure out which one). We finally arrived in Cortona, where we stayed for three nights. Cortona was amazing.....it was beautiful, cool, and had great food and gelato! We even saw Francis May's house (and maybe Fran herself, funny story, ask us later), the author who wrote Under the Tuscan Sun which the movie was based off of. And we also made it to Assisi (home of Francis of Assisi) and to a vineyard to learn all about how they make true Italian wine.

In short, we loved seeing the beautiful Italian countryside and were blessed by God's creation immensely.

Check out all the pics from Tuscany HERE.

Florence, the good, the bad, and the HOT

We're a little behind in our picture posting and my (Krista) mother is dying for some of Italy to get up here, so here we go....and instead of trying to give a detailed account of our first three days in Italy in the lovely city of Florence, here are our top three highs and lows and some pics for your enjoyment (well at least I know my mom will enjoy them :-))

Florence:

The Pics: Click HERE

The HIGHS:

Michelangelo's David - it doesn't disappoint

The Gelato - our first experience of the true Italian treasure

A cool river with lots of good views on it, especially at sunset

The LOWS:

It was HOT, like sweating walking at night hot.

We don't know Italian, and the locals we came into contact with there were less than thrilled about this.

Although the gelato was amazing, it was a little pricey.

Scenery, Sun, and Sweat in the South of France

We've been busy little bees traveling about, and I can't believe it's been over a week since our last post. We've done a lot since then.....made our way from Belgium to Southern France and then on to Italy! We've been in Italy over a week now and our having a great time.

Wanted to share some of our pictures from Southern France, though, before venturing into the stories and pics of Italy. One main change from Scandinavia and Belgium and the south of France in July . . . . the HEAT. Oh yeah, it got hot and at times I (Krista) almost had some meltdowns (no pun intended). But anyway, moving on, in Southern France we stayed in a smaller town called Arles, which is in the Provence region. The Tour de France got pretty close to where we were, but we were unable to see it. We did, however, spend an afternoon with some locals who adopted us for the day.....invited us over to their house for a great meal and took us sightseeing. It was awesome! We were in Arles for three days and then we headed east and a little south to Nice! We stayed a couple nights in Nice and had a great time exploring the French Riveria. We even met up with some of Justin's family for a day who were in the area.

Click HERE to see more pics than just this one :-)

Waffles, Chocolate, and Bikes

Belgium is amazing! We only spent four days there, but we loved every minute of it and are thinking of how we can go back. Our favorite thing in Belgium . . . the WAFFLES!!! They were incredible and we tried to make sure we got at least two a day. :-)

So, take a look at what we loved so much.

Click HERE to see the album from Bruges and Brussels, Belgium.

Right now we are finishing up our time in Southern France. We'll have some pics up soon. Next stop = Italy!! Headed to Florence tomorrow.

Summer in Scandinavia!

We had an awesome two weeks or so in Scandinavia! We spent time in Norway on the fjords, 5 days in Sweden with a former tennis teammate of mine (Krista) and her husband and two adorable girls (so fun!!), and then 4 days on an island in Denmark.

Everywhere was beautiful and we are constantly pinching ourselves to remind us that it's all real. We are so blessed and it has been amazing to see God's creation in other parts of the world.

So, here are a bunch of pictures from our time there. Lots of daylight as the sun doesn't set until like 11:00pm, which means lots of pictures :-).

Click HERE for the album! Hope you enjoy them!

We're in Belgium right now eating way too many waffles, and tomorrow we head to southern France for a week.

Pooped On In Norway!

So Norway is BEAUTIFUL! We spent 4 days there, spending most of our time on a fjord on the west coast in a little town called Aurland. We took tons of pictures, so we don't have an album yet because we haven't sifted through all of them, but for your enjoyment in the meantime . . .

So on one of our days, we decided to take a boat cruise on the fjord. It actually ended up being a means of transportation for us to get to another city we needed to go to which was a bonus. Anyway, so we're cruising on this beautiful fjord . . .

Enjoying life and feeling unbelievably blessed . . .

When a lot of people decided that it would be a good idea to try and feed the seagulls in the sky around our boat. I have to admit my judgmental heart here, because I was kinda annoyed and thought to myself, "that is so stupid, why are you attracting birds to our boat, disrupting this nice peaceful cruise?" But alas, they fed despite my internal thoughts . . .

This went on, seriously, for the whole first hour of the trip. And then, to prove that God has a sense of humor, this guy (well maybe not this exact guy but I like to think so . . .) . . . .

Did this to me . . . .

So if you needed an end of the week pick me up, I hope you enjoyed a good laugh at my expense. Justin did go get me napkins before he started recording, which was nice :-). And if you listen closely, you can here how he is trying to hold back throw up as he attempts to help me.

Ahhh, Norway, we will always have fond memories of you: your beautiful countrysides and fjords, your expensive . . . everything, your supermodel-like people, and your stupid seagulls!! :-)

Hanging with the Brits! (Photos of England, including Wimbledon!)

Oh yeah, we're on a roll now with uploading photos. Here are some pictures from our week in England. We stayed with some of my (Krista) distant family and had a great time hanging with them, sightseeing in and around London, and seeing Wimbledon!

Check it out by clicking HERE.

Beautiful Norway pictures are next. Today we arrived in Sweden and are staying with a former tennis teammate of mine from Furman and her family. We already had a great day going to the beach and trying to catch crabs with their girls!

Our Time in France

France was amazing! We spent two days outside of Paris at the Beaches of Normandy and in the Loire Valley and then 6 days in Paris itself (including the Palace of Versailles). It was unbelievable and we loved every minute of it. We could talk for days on this cool place, so instead of rambling on and on, here are a bunch of pictures from the week.

We have decided to abandon Flickr and are now trying our new Mobile Me account. Click HERE to go to the album. If you go to the slideshow mode all the captions for the pictures will be at the top. Let us know what you think.

We should have England pics up soon too!

(If the link doesn't work, type the following into your web browser: http://gallery.me.com/kochocki#100015&bgcolor=black&view=grid)

Freedoooooooom . . . . Scotland Pictures

Hi! Wow, we have been busy little travelers. We're a bit behind on pictures and blogs and will try to be better. Since we last blogged, we spent a week in Scotland, a week in France, and 4 days in London. We are still in England, staying with some of my (Krista) distant family (my third cousins!). It's been wonderful. They are absolutely great and the sights have been cool too. We even got a day at Wimbledon, which was just amazing and surreal for us. We'll get some France and England pics up here soon, but until then, enjoy the ones from beautiful Scotland. In four days we head to Norway!

Click HERE for a Flickr Photo Album from Scotland

The Beautiful Country of Ireland!

We have now been in Europe for two weeks! We spent our first week in Ireland and our second week in Scotland. At both places we were able to stay with awesome friends - friends we met in Kenya on our short-term medical mission trip with EPI this past January. The hospitality that we experienced was amazing and inspiring. Some of our friends even gave up their master bedroom for us!! We learned a lot about our version of hospitality and realized our own selfishness at times. Our friends in Ireland and Scotland are just amazing!

We just left Scotland today and are now in a little town in France near the beaches of Normandy (we flew into Paris and drove right out). I (Krista) am resurrecting the little French that I once knew :-). We will hopefully have some pics of our time in Scotland up shortly, but until then, check out the beautiful sights we got to see in Ireland. God is such an amazing creator and we are so blessed to be able to enjoy his brilliance.

Click HERE to see our Ireland photo album in Flickr.

We're still figuring out Flickr so if the above link doesn't work, try copying and pasting this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/51235431@N08/sets/72157624284298550/

And if we did something wrong with the album in Flickr, let us know too. We might not continue using Flickr, but for now, we'll give it a go.

A look back . . .

Oh how I've missed you life of plane flights and traveling and calling credit cards to tell them where we will be going and drinking bottled water instead of tap water.....oh wait, scratch that last one. Not this time! I'm pretty sure it's okay to drink the water in Europe!

This is so crazy! We are going to Europe for almost 4 months (we leave tonight, check out our updated calendar for our schedule)!! Who gets to do this kind of thing? We are so unbelievably blessed and are so excited about this opportunity. We are learning so much about God's grace and love and how we don't deserve any of it, but how He lavishes it upon His children.

We were also so incredibly blessed by our last 7 months. Over the past few weeks here in the States, we have had the opportunity to share about the past 6 months in a variety of ways (slideshows, videos, long conversations, etc.). And speaking of video.....we were able to share a little video we made with a couple of churches as we shared what God is doing around the world and in our lives. And since we can't go around to everyone's church (well, unless you want us to come, let us know! :-)), we thought we'd post it up here. So here ya go -- our last six months condensed down to 4 1/2 minutes!

Ochocki's not-so-much-Overseas...

So, we've now officially been back in the States for one month. Not a whole lot of blogs during this time, because, really, we are clearly not very exciting people when we're not traveling around the world. This may quite possibly be the most exciting thing we've encountered in the last 30 days.

Living overseas without a car for 6 months was so much easier :-).

Not that we haven't done some fun stuff in the last 3 weeks - we had some great times with our friends and family.......

The whole gang! (Ochocki's and Thomson's)

Our first nephew (Keaton) getting dedicated!

My parents' fourth child, Dillon :-). Our fabulous running mate!

We went to Maine and had an awesome week with the wonderful folks of EPI, Eagle Projects International (www.eagleprojects.com). For those that don't know, they are the super awesome organization that decided it would be a good idea to take Justin and I under their name and send us out to visit some of their partners in Africa and Nepal (I know, pretty daring right). Anyway, their headquarters is in Maine and we were able to go visit them, do some presentations on our last 6 months (we'll try to get a video of one of the presentations up on this soon), meet their board, discuss some future options, and also get some time to rest and play on Maine's amazing coast......

The awesome cabin that EPI let us use for the week. We got some much needed rest here.

Exploring the coast around Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park

Biking around Acadia National Park

The wonderful carriage roads we biked on throughout all of Acadia National Park (so much better than the mountain biking trails that cause high levels of anxiety for me :-)).

But, ahhh, most recently, as we've been bumming at my parents house in Colorado Springs, we have spent our days immersed in maps, guidebooks, and even apps, trying to plan the next 3 1/2 months of our travels all over Europe. Yes, I realize that we can't complain about this task because many would scowl at us for it, but let me tell you, it is a job. Europe is a big place with lots to see (profound, I know), and in order to save money and time, it really is best to try to have a plan of some sort, and even reservations, etc. I never used to be the major planner, always a strong "P" on the Meyers Briggs, but Justin is infiltrating my system with his "J" ways! We have this ridiculously large spread sheet (if you know Justin, this doesn't surprise you) with information on where we'll be when, what will take place, and how much it'll cost, on every day of our currently 116 day adventure (I got that stat from Justin)! It might be a little much, but hey, you know you'll want it if you ever decide to do some traveling in Europe and if you do, we'll let you see it.....for a charge......all the proceeds will go to our future work in Nepal!

So, yeah, that's a quick snap shot of our super exciting month back in the States. We head to Durango at the end of this week to go and stay with Justin's parents, and then it's back up to Colorado Springs for Memorial Day weekend and then we fly out on June 1st for Europe!

Now, amidst this time of hanging out with family and friends, visiting Maine, and planning Europe, there has definitely been some re-entry culture shock, but we'll just save that emotional roller coaster for another, more sentimental blog. :-). We just saw Iron Man 2 on Imax (awesome by the way), and I can't seem to bring myself to talking about my feelings right now. I'm still processing them (good excuse huh?).

Till they're processed . . .

Top 10 Things We enjoy about being back in America

1. Brushing our teeth with the tap water and not being sick in bed the next day

2. Mexican Food

3. Signs written in English (not always the specific words; is it almost May?)

4. Krista getting to wear her engagement ring (come on, I am a girl :-))

5. Electricity whenever we want it

6. Sandwiches with fresh cheese and deli meat

7. Going for runs on beautiful trails and in breathable air!

(Us with my sister Lisa after a run/geocaching adventure)

8. Going to our home church, Flatirons, and worshiping in our own language

9. Hanging with our awesome friends

10. Spending time with our super fun family!

Rockies Game with Krista's Family!

Out and about with Justin's family (gotta love REI)

Oh and a bonus number 11: A NEW computer to replace our dying friend!!! Yay!!!!

Our time in Russia - Photo Album

Russia

"Friends, Countrymen, Russians" (what movie?)

We have been in Southern Russia now for over a week, and have yet to get a blog up, so here we go! Our time here has been a whirlwind so far, from the landing in Moscow to our adventure getting here, to our fun times in and around the town working with our friends here. Here is a quick look back at the last week and a half:

We spent the whole day flying to Moscow from Kathmandu and then lugged all of our bags on the Moscow Metro that same night, by ourselves! It was crazy and I actually fell getting off the escalator once with one of the big bags. I was not a happy camper. We stayed overnight in Moscow with some American friends and then, by the grace of God, we decided to stay at their apartment the next morning and relax instead of going out to sightsee before catching our afternoon flight down to Southern Russia. This was the same morning that the Metro was bombed and there is a good possibility we would have been close to the site of the bombing had we gone sightseeing to Red Square. (This is me on the Metro right after falling on the escalator, but I actually don't look that bad....still not a fan of that bag!)

We made it to the Northern Caucus region, safely and immediately got to hang out with the locals and our friends that are living here. From the airport we drove to a House Youth Group that meets weekly. It was great to meet some teenagers and college age students who are seeking the Lord, many the first ones in their family. We quickly learned that the Caucasus is a predominantly Muslim region, and since we have had several conversations with Muslims who are investigating the claims of Jesus.

Throughout the rest of the week we enjoyed getting to know the town and seeing the life our friends James and Jane Hutchy live here. We joined their English Club . . .

. . . played lots of games with 300 Chechen children . . .

.... spent Easter at a small Russian House Church, and then Easter dinner at an American family’s house complete with ham, mashed potatoes, and green beans! Justin and some guys got to take on some of the Chechen children in a game of soccer (Can you find him? He looks like a local wherever we go!)......

......while I hung out with some of the local girls that Jane has formed relationships with. Last weekend, Justin spent a day in the mountains with some of the American guys here while I got to play with our friends two adorable children......

....and then had a girls’ night once they went to bed.

I must say though that one of my favorite things so far about being here instead of Kathmandu is that we can go running! There is a huge park and the air is clean! This morning we even went with a local, Russian girl that we met at English Club, Vilka. She showed us around the city, running here and there, attempting to teach us what was what in her limited English and our non-existent Russian. It was so fun!

We are currently spending the afternoon and evening babysitting. What? Yep, babysitting! We are mustering up some courage and watching our friends James and Jane’s two children so they can have a day off. Even though they are both under the age of 2, it’s not too hard, because they are the cutest things on the planet.

We’ll see, however, if this pushes us closer to or further away from having babies ourselvesJ.

We're Married!!!

So, as our days are winding down in the beautiful country of Nepal, our friends here had a little surprise for us . . .a Nepali wedding!! No, not attending someone else's, our own :-).

So, today, we got married! Our hosts here are so nice and hilarious - it was such a great demonstration of their love for us and how we are officially a part of their family. And they also said that since we have been "married" in front of them, we are now held to an even greater degree of accountability in our marriage :-)!

Getting Ready: So, just like on our first wedding day over two and a half years ago, someone did my hair and make up and then of course dressed me because putting on a Sari takes years to learn (at least it would for me) :-).

Hot, I know. Check out my eyes! :-) I could not stop my eyes from watering when she was applying all the eyeliner. It was awesome.

Justin had to get ready for the big day too - he could get most of his outfit on himself, but not all of it (the belt was a little tough), so he was helped as well.

Ceremony time: Justin had to explain to the officiator how much he loved me.

And of course, as a demonstration of our love, we exchanged rings (which was easy since we already had them).

It's official! We've now been married on two sides of the globe! Check out the knife Justin got to wear for the ceremony! He was pretty upset that it wasn't included in the deal. But don't worry, everything else we're wearing was, so you might see us walking around Denver in this get-up :-).

Picture Time: It was so great having guests with no stress over the guest's list and invitations!

Aren't these guys awesome? We are so going to miss this place!

Reception Time: Complete with wonderful Nepali snacks and Coke! :-)

And, one last picture of the newly married couple, from head to toe.

Now, in two days it's off on our honeymoon. Where do we get to go......Mother Russia!! It might be a little different than Tahiti :-).