Waiting for rain

Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD until He comes to rain righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12

Before you think I'm super-spiritual and reading Hosea for fun, I must admit that I found this little gem during my word study this morning (I'm all the way to "break" in my concordance). I don't make new year resolutions, but if I did, I think this would be it--I'm going to sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness, and get rid of all the fallow ground; then I'm going to seek the LORD until He absolutely rains righteousness down on me. I bet that would make for a pretty great new year, no matter what the circumstances, don't you agree?

We've had a pretty wonderful couple of days. We spent New Year's Eve with three other families here in Moscow. There were eleven kids (all the teenagers were missing, or there would have been 16) and eight adults, games to play, politics to discuss, and enough food to kill us all. At midnight, the boys of all ages headed outside to light fireworks, and we went home about 1 a.m. It was really one of the best New Year's I can remember in many, many years. More and more, this is beginning to feel like home. Then Hannah's friend came home with us and spent the night, and she was able to stay until around 3 yesterday afternoon. We just had a great day. We were able to watch College Gameday (our favorite show) when it came on at 5 p.m. our time, and then we watched the Tennessee/Wisconsin game until the Florida/Michigan game came on. Of course, we were disappointed that Florida did not win, but we know that with Timmy Tebow at quarterback, the Gators will be back to fight for a national title next season. (If it ever ends up a Florida/Oklahoma national championship game, WWIII may break out in my house.) While we do not know Timmy personally, we've had the honor of spending some time with a few of his family members, and I can assure you that win or lose a bowl game, Timmy Tebow is a winner.

Sunday morning, Marc got up at 4 a.m., set up one computer to watch the Texas A & M game, and set up another to Skype with his pal Larry, who lives in Prague. They watched the entire game that way, and then he fell back into bed about 8. Isn't the internet a miraculous thing? I can call the States when I want to, I can keep up with the news, I can watch my beloved Gators play football...it's just wonderful. Tomorrow morning, believe it or not, several of our mission friends are coming over at 4 a.m. to watch the Sooners play West Virginia. I can't believe I'm having a football party at 4 a.m., but why not?

Well, I'd better go. Not only do we have a party in the morning here and a language lesson in half an hour, but we also have houseguests this evening--Sarah Beth and her friend, Anna, are returning from MKR today, and Anna's parents are coming in to pick her up and spend the night with us. I can hardly wait to hear how MKR went, and tomorrow I'll tell you where they were, once everyone is home safe and sound. You are going to be really excited for her, I promise. Until then, I hope your favorite teams are winning their bowl games, you don't have any parties planned for 4a.m., and you don't have a language lesson in half an hour! Blessings to you and yours!
His,
Kellye