July- Part 1 of our summer adventures!!

Hi to our friends and family!! And a big thanks to all those who read our blogs. So let me catch you up on what we did in July before we jump to August. 

We started July off with a BANG...literally...fireworks! We spent July 4th at RAF Feltwell (a base about 10 miles from our base) celebrating America's independence. Lets just say.. we never thought we would spend 4th of July in England, the country that we won our independence from long ago. A bit ironic eh? For many years now RAF Feltwell, joined with RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall, has opened its gates to the local Brits to come and join in the celebration. I was surprised to see how many British people came to see what this whole celebration was like. It was a big carnival with rides, cotton candy, funnel cakes, and fireworks! I couldn't stop thinking how ironic the whole situation was, but it was very encouraging to be able to share some of our culture with them after living in their culture for a year now.

The Red Arrows (British version of our Thunderbirds)

Carsten about to ride a carnival ride

That's Carsten, hanging upside down

Funnel cake....YES PLEASE!

Proud Americans!

Great fireworks

After our big 4^th of July celebration, we didn't do much until later in the month. Carsten focused on finishing up his 3^rd masters class. I attempted to stay busy with random things.

Towards the end of July we were more than blessed to fly out to Los Angeles, California to be a part of the NAACP (National Association of the Advancement of Colored People) convention. If you are scratching your head at this point with a confused look on your face….so are we. Carsten had been chosen as the winner for the Meritorious Service award for the entire Department of Defense for this specific association.  He felt very honored to be a part of this event, but he didn’t know how honored until we got there. We sat at the head table with General Schwartz, the Chief of Staff of the United Stated Air Force. Talk about intimidating…my second banquet for an Air Force-related event and I’m once again sitting at the head table with very important people. Do people not understand that I would rather sit at a normal table where I don’t have to be scared the entire banquet!?! Hehe…we find it comical anyhow! I’m getting good at smiling and answering simple questions without stuttering when important people (high ranking officers, who have served in our military longer than I have been alive) address me or that’s what Carsten tells me. I basically pray hard before and during the ceremonies, and then I breathe after. So I mentioned that Carsten didn’t know how honored he would feel until after…well that is because he was the co-winner of the award with a Brigadier General (1-star general). Not only that…Carsten is the lowest ranking officer to ever receive this award. No officer below the rank of Colonel has received this award. WOW!!! Carsten was completely humbled to the point of thinking they must have made a mistake. I simply tell him that God chose him for this very moment! I completely believe this after attending the banquet. After Carsten received the award, he gave an inspiring and convicting speech. Inside I was praying while thinking PREACH IT!!  I am so proud of him! He used scripture throughout the speech and many approached him after thanking him for the words he shared (God shared through him!). Our prayer is that at least one person in that room heard about God or found Jesus that day. That would be a reward worth more than anything else!

Carsten and me with General Schwartz

Carsten receiving his award

The award!

During our time in LA we were able to sneak in a few special moments with some friends and family in between the convention. We fought jetlag our first day back in the states by going to Disneyland with my life long friend Reba and her fiancé. We made a quick surprise trip down to Lancaster to surprise my friends and family at church. Then we were able to catch dinner and dessert with my favorite Baker family!!! My mom came down to LA to spend a day with me, which was very much needed after sitting in the hotel all week. It was definitely a quick trip because the next thing we knew we were back on a plane headed to…..

NEBRASKA!!!

For the sake of my sanity...and the monstrosity that our trip was...I will share about our Nebraska, Colorado, and 2nd California trip in our August blog. Stay tuned...I am going to go rest my eyes and my brain! 

We love you all!! Thanks for reading about Part 1 of our summer adventures!

God Bless you all,

The Stahrs

June Gloom....

Hiya (this is how the british say Hi!) Everyone!!!

June has come and gone....I never understood the whole June gloom concept until moving to England. This June was one of the ugliest I have ever experienced! Almost every single day it rained. It didn't just rain....it POURED!!!! We also got some good marble size hail storms along with some intense lightning and thunder storms. This is not my definition of summer. I know I often discuss the weather in our blogs and thats probably because I come from a place that the weather is pretty boring. In the summer it is dry and hot. In the winter it is dry and cold with a few wet and cold days. Nothing too exciting besides the days where the wind gusts get forceful enough to move a small child. Living in England has opened my eyes up to the 4 seasons! I have never seen such a dramatic change with the fall colors as I have here. I have never experienced the excitement that spring brings with the blooming plants and new born animals as I have here. I also have never experienced so much weather change just in one single hour. You can walk in a store with sunshine behind you and walk back out 10 minutes later with pouring rain. And it keeps changing! I am still having a difficult time deciding what to wear on a daily basis. I often find myself walking through puddles and getting drenched while wearing sandals and a tang top. I also find myself sweating to death because I wore a long sleeve shirt and boots when it was rainy and cold, then suddenly turned humid and sunny. I don't think Carsten experiences such amazement as I have because Nebraska is more true to the four seasons than California. It is just insane to me! I never knew weather could affect me so much. Pathetic, I know. But hey...I'm a Cali girl at heart!

Ok so enough about the weather....let me update you on what we have been up to here in England. At the end of May we went to an event called "Big Church Day Out". This was where a few christian bands came to put on a 3 day festival for people who were willing to come camp out in the unpredictable English weather. We decided we wanted to go even if it was kind of far away. We gathered all of our camping gear and headed down to the coast. We had such a fun time! We set up our tent and then took our camping chairs up to where the bands played. Bands like Chris Tomlin, Newsboys, The David Crowder band, and Matt Redman played. It was so fun! It was different yet familiar for me because I spent 10 years of my life going to support my brother's band at festivals like this. It was kind of strange to just go to the festival and not be there for a specific band. Each band lead a time of worship which was sooooo awesome! We really enjoyed it! Then we camped out that night. God held off the rain, but he didn't hold off the wind. We didn't get much sleep because it felt like our tent was going to blow away with us in it.

Our cute little tent!

The main stage area

Carsten and Me trying to stay warm

The stage at night

Other than that...we didn't get to do much traveling in the month of June. We are hoping to do more traveling in the coming months before Carsten deploys.
Since we were home...we had the chance of puppy sitting for some friends of ours. My dog India was very excited because their dog Winston is very playful! They played all day long!!! It was so funny to watch them.

Winston and India play tug-of-war

Fighting over a toy

Belly rub for two please!

Nap time after a hard day of playing

On June 20^th, we celebrated our 1^st year anniversary!!!! Yiipppeee!!!! We celebrated all day. We made shishkabobs for dinner and watched our wedding video.  We were not able to eat a piece of our wedding cake as most married couples do on their one-year anniversary because our cake is in my parent’s freezer. We couldn’t figure out how to ship a cake to England. Haha! So instead we did a toast with the Martinelli bottles that we saved from our wedding. We are hoping to eat a piece of our cake when we go back to Cali in July and August.  

Carsten grilling the kabobs

Cheers to a great 1st year!!

Other than that....Carsten is finishing up his 3^rd masters class. He has been working so hard these past two months! I am so proud of him! We are ready for him to have a break from school.

We have so much to be thankful for here in England. I know I complain about the weather or the different things that the British do, but God has totally blessed us with a wonderful life here in England. A lot of the military here have such mixed opinions about living here. One thing I have come to grips with is that….its not about me. It doesn’t matter if I don’t like the weather. It doesn’t matter if I miss the states. It matters that God has placed us here for such a time as this and we need to be focused on doing his will. Before we know it we will be headed back to a new base in the states and I don’t want to look back on this experience and regret anything. I mean come on…who gets to say that they lived in England for three years? We are blessed! One of the many blessings God has given us is our wonderful bible study group….I thank God for each and every one of them! These are people that became family in a short amount of time because of the experiences we have gone through in such a short amount of time. We cry together, we laugh together, we pray together, we talk about God, we encourage one another, and we help each other when husband’s are deployed. A year ago I had no clue who these people were…today they are life long friends! 

Our wonderful bible study group

Praise the Lord!

Well, that was our June. We should be having some busy months coming up until Carsten leaves. Thanks for reading our blogs and following us on this amazing journey. If you would like to pray for us here are some prayer requests to consider:

1.     Pray for Carsten as he juggles work and school

2.     Pray for both of us as we prepare for Carsten to deploy for a year

3.     Pray for God to prepare Carsten and the base that he will be heading to, Safety!!!

4.     Pray for me as I try to figure out what I should do while Carsten is gone. I’m debating on whether to start my masters or not. I have been praying for a friend or two who would understand and be with me while Carsten is gone.

Things to look forward to in upcoming blogs….

1.     Our trip back to the states for Zach’s wedding.

2.    A possible trip to Spain before Carsten leaves.

As the british say....Cheers!

May- Forever Sunshine

Hi friends and family,
I know I am a month behind on blogging, but part of me has been putting off writing this blog. It is almost time to write our June blog and yet I am struggling with writing a May blog. May was a difficult month. I was tempted to skip a blog for May all together, but then I was convicted with the thought that myself and others would be missing out...not missing out because you wouldn't know what we were up to in the month of May... but missing out on a story of a girl who has changed the lives of many, including ours. This special girl is my friend, Sara Swenson.

Sara and Chary at Heidi's Wedding, I think in 2007.

Sara and I were what we have heard called "bossom buddies". We grew up together since we were born. Our parents went to college with each other and then moved to Palmdale shortly after. They served together in a local church. Our mom's became best friends. Sara and I were both the youngest siblings so it was just natural for us to always be together. I remember going to her house when she lived in Palmdale and we would play with barbies, dance to music with her sisters, and do other things little girls do. I saw Sara, Kari, and Heidi as the sisters I never had. Our families would take beach trips every summer when we were young. This is where the infamous Zegan/Swenson Pyramid would take place between the 7 kids. Our parents would help us figure out how to best put ourselves into a human pyramid and they would quickly snap a picture before we all collapsed on one another. Another special memory is the chosen bathing suits for me and Sara for these trips. My mom put me in a cute little one piece bathing suit that showed a little bit of my belly. Noreen put Sara in a one piece bathing suit with a large elephant on the belly. Sara was the cutest chubby little girl and this bathing suit accentuated that. As we grew up Sara would ask her mom, "why did you have to put me in a bathing suit with an elephant on it when I was already chubby?" haha...we had many laughs over this topic.

Chary and Sara

Then the Swensons moved to Nevada and it was really hard to be so far away from our friends. Our mom's kept in touch by writing emails, talking on the phone, or through hand written letters. They helped Sara and I do the same thing. Sara would come back every summer to stay with her grandparents so I would stay days and sometimes weeks with them. We would swim pretty much all day long and then her grandma would make us bagel bites and strawberry kiwi jello with whipped cream. This became our summer tradition until her grandpa and grandma moved to Apple Valley.
I always looked forward to seeing Sara. Our mom's decided to start a new tradition...mother/daughter weekends in Bishop, CA. This was a mid point between Fallon, Nevada and Lancaster, California. We would meet each other in Bishop for a weekend of nothing but girl time. We went out to eat, watched chick-flicks, went shopping, went swimming and visited the salon/spa. It became a tradition for Sara and I to get something peirced on these trips. The last trip we took I got my nose peirced and Sara got second wholes in her ears. We always had such a great time!
When Sara was 19 years old, almost 20, she discovered something was wrong in her leg. Her doctor informed her that she had a tumor by her knee. This began a very hard, long, exhausting journey for Sara. I remember praying with Sara before her very first surgery and after she found out she had a tumor in her knee. She was stronger than any of us could have been at that point. We cried and she encouraged us that it would be okay. She had surgery to remove the tumor. The doctors put a bionic bone in replacement of Sara's femur bone. The cancer spread into her lungs. She endured through many rounds of Chemo Therapy. She over came many lung surgeries. She even returned to college out of determination to graduate. Sara never gave up hope and she was fighting so hard.

I asked Sara to be a bridesmaid in my wedding, not knowing if she would be able to physically. She was sooooo excited and she was determined to be by my side on that day. She was such a trooper. After chemo and many surgeries she was on her way to recovery just in time to be a part of the wedding festivities. Praise the Lord! She came to my bachelorette party and tried to do whatever she could. She spent the night with me on the last night before my wedding. She walked down the isle with no crutch and stood beside me as I took that huge step in my life. She did her best to dance and have fun at the reception. I am so thankful God gave Sara the strength and the determination to be there with me. It meant the world to me!

Zach (my brother) walking Sara down the isle

Me and Sara on my wedding day

The Zegan and Swenson (minus Heidi) kids grown up 

After we moved to England, Sara and I would try to skype once a week. She returned to college and was thrilled to be living a somewhat normal life again. Then things took a turn for the worst. The cancer was back and it was spreading. I decided to make a trip out to see Sara in January since I was already in the states for Carsten's cousins wedding. That was such a special trip!

The last Chary and Sara picture

It was the last time I will spend time with Sara until I go to heaven. On May 2nd, Sara went to be with her Lord and Savior in heaven. What a joyous day for Sara! She is now pain free and able to dance again!
May was a very difficult month for all those who knew and loved Sara. Yes, we rejoice at the fact that she is experiencing eternity in our heavenly father's presence but we mourn the lose of a friend, a sister, and a daughter here on earth. I was not able to fly back to the states for her service, which was extremely hard for me. I miss her so much and it has been very difficult to wrap my head around the fact that she is gone. I can no longer skype with her or make new memories with her. She kept telling her mom that she wanted to come stay with me in England for the year that Carsten is deployed. I can't help but think that the year would have been so much easier and more fun if she were here with me. I keep hoping that I would get an email or some sort of message from her so we can have another skype date. Selfishly, I want her back! Selflessly, I have to let her go and share her story with those around me. I will forever be changed by her death, but most importantly her life. Sara had JOY that permeated throughout any room she was in.  Amongst pain, she put others before herself. She wanted to love and be loved. She trusted the Lord's will for her more than her own. She rejoiced with those who rejoice and she mourned with those whose mourn. She is and was a godly example for others to follow.
I'm not really sure how to end this...so I will say to Sara, So long my friend! It is not goodbye, but see you later! I will forever miss you and I will look forward to seeing you again in Heaven! I love you and miss you!

April flew by

Wow, its already May. Where did April go? It flew right on by! 

We started April off with a birthday celebration for me. My friends and Carsten decided to throw me a California themed "surprise" party. It was definitely not hard to catch on that they were throwing me a party, but it was still lots of fun. My friend Darla made me a "California Girl" cake. My friends all pitched in some sort of mexican-ish dish. Carsten told me we were going out to eat at my favorite Thai restaurant, but I already knew something else was going on. We arrived at our friends house and all of our friends cars were out in the front. I started laughing and said to Carsten "mm...looks like everyones here." He said, "how long have you known?" haha! It was very thoughtful of Carsten and all my friends to put together such a special party. It was my first birthday away from my family and California. It turned out to be a very special day, especially because Carsten was done with his classes for a little while. 

The cake my friend Darla made. 

My first birthday married to Carsten and in England. It was a GREAT birthday!

Since Carsten finished classes for this semester and we had a free weekend, we decided to take a trip to explore some English castles. We went to Dover Castle first. This castle was absolutely breath taking. It was the first castle either of us had ever been in and we would have to agree it is the best castle we have seen so far. 

Carsten and me standing in the car park. Look at that view!

This was my favorite part of the castle. It is one of the entrances to the castle. There is one british official who lives in this part of the castle, but the rest of the castle is property of the English Heritage. 

Dover Castle is located right on the white cliffs. So after we explored the castle we took a walk along the white cliffs, which were beautiful!

The next castle we went to was Deal castle. This is a very small castle that has been used for the british military up till just 10 years ago. 

Then the next castle we visited was Walmer castle. This castle was eventually made into a resident for some of the royalty of Great Britain so it is not a typical looking castle. 

The inside of this castle was decorate and furnished, unlike the other castles. It has lavished gardens surrounding it. 

Carsten standing in one of the gardens. 

England has so many different castles. It was fun to explore these three castles and we look forward to exploring many more here in England. 

That was our April. It went by so quickly and we had some fun! Thanks all for reading our blog! We miss you all and are looking forward to our trip back to the states this summer. We decided that it is about time someone comes to visit us again...who wants to come? 

March, Spring is HERE!!!!

Hello from England family and friends!! We miss you all so much!

Spring is HERE and let me tell you that we do not miss winter at all!!!! The sun is shinning, the birds are singing, and the flowers are blooming! Spring in England is soooooo wonderful, especially after the long, dark winters. We do not like England in the winters at all. There was hardly any snow fall, but it was sure cold and DARK!!! I know what they mean now when they say that people often get depressed when living in England during winter. In the winter, the sun didn't rise until about 9am and then it started setting at 3pm. I was ready for bed by 5pm and was tempted to sleep in till about 11am every day. It was tough on Carsten because he would go days, even weeks without even seeing the sun. He would leave for work before the sun came up and he would return home after the sun went down. We were both dragging and felt sleepy all the time. I began to think something was wrong with us, then I realized everyone else around us was feeling the same way. haha! So we can now REJOICE!!! And welcome the newness of SPRING!!! So far...I love spring!! I love seeing the baby lambs, pigs, and cows that have been born. It is so refreshing! Welcome SPRING!!!

March was not an exciting month for us. For the first time since we have been here, we did not travel at all that month! It was kind of nice to have some time too be home though.
Carsten started the program to get his Masters of Arts in Theology. He just finished the first 8 week session and it proved to be more of a challenge than we thought. He took two classes this session and it was too much! After work and on the weekends, Carsten was attached to either a book or his computer, doing homework. He never had a break from work or school. I was so proud of him for being so diligent in his studies. He pulled many all-nighters and had long days of work. I felt so bad for him and I was trying to work extra hard to make things calm around the house so he could just focus on his homework. I had to get creative in finding things to do so that I didn't distract him. He did a great job persevering through that huge work load. Now Carsten has a month off of school till the next session begins. We need this break!!!
So as I said before....there was not much excitement around here in March.  To give you a picture of what March looked like for us....here are two pictures to show you...










Carsten attached to a book...

Chary trying to not distract Carsten...










That is pretty much our March in a nutshell!

I would like to share with you all some news that surprised us in March. We were informed that Carsten will be deploying for 1 year starting this late fall. Ouch, talk about a shocker! We were completely not expecting this and it was one of my greatest fears in coming to England. The Lord knows what is best for us, so we are going to face these fears one day at a time while relying completely on our Lord, Jesus Christ to see us through! I will be staying here in England all by myself while Carsten is deployed. There are so many things to think about and so many fears in facing the unknown. The Lord is reminding us daily to take every thought captive so that our thoughts are glorifying to him. He is reminding us that we cannot worry about tomorrow because today has enough worries of its own. We are embracing these commands from the Lord in this situation. Its going to be difficult. Its going to be hard. Of course, we will not like being away from each other during our second year of marriage. BUT...the Lord is omniscient and he knows what is best for us. He provides for the birds of the air. We would be foolish to think that he would not provide for us, his precious children! So we are trusting in HIM!!!

If you would like to pray for us:
1. Please pray for Carsten as he continues his Masters program.
2. Please pray for the next 6ish months as we try to soak up every minute with each other before Carsten leaves.
3. Please pray for the Lord to protect Carsten while he is deployed for a year.
4. Please pray for Chary as she lives alone in England and has to take care of the house by herself.
5. Please pray for the Lord to provide for Carsten and Chary as they are apart from one another and will miss each other; to strengthen our Marriage through the distance!
6. Please pray for Chary as she decides what to do while Carsten is deployed; get a job, start Masters program, or what?


Thank you all for the support and prayers! We recently got a magic jack so that you all can call us from the states. It is a Nebraska phone number, so it is just like calling Nebraska. It has a voicemail so if we are not available you can leave a message and we will call you back. Remember, we are 8 hours ahead of California and 6 hours ahead of eastern Nebraska so please don't call us when it is 2am our time. hahah! The phone number is (402) 404-5834. Feel free to call. We would love to hear from our loved ones!

Love you all and God Bless you!!!

Ps..let me know if anyone would like to come visit me while Carsten is gone. Please do!

February, the shortest but busiest month!

Guten Tag (German for Good Day) family and friends!

We have had loads of fun adventures this month that we would like to share with all of our loved ones. It sure has been a busy month!

We began this month with a special trip to London as a belated gift for Carsten’s birthday. We got all dressed up and rode the underground into London. We ate at a fancy restaurant called Tutton. Carsten and I agreed that it is strange that people pay so much money for such little food at fancy restaurants. Not our style, but it was a special occasion. Then we headed over to the Lyceum Theatre where we watched the musical, “The Lion King.” Carsten sang almost every song and looked like a kid in a candy shop. It was so fun to see the excitement on his face. We had a wonderful time! Here are some pics from our evening in London….

The next big event of the month was the Annual Awards Banquet at RAF Mildenhall. Carsten was chosen to sing the National anthem for the ceremony. What a privilege! This was my first banquet ever with the air force and I was quite intimidated. Since Carsten was singing, we had the privilege of sitting at the head table with all the “big wigs” from base. Talk about intimidating. I thought it was kind of comical that at my first banquet I would be sitting with people who have been in the air force almost as long as I have been alive. Haha! I think I was more nervous than Carsten and I wasn’t singing the National Anthem like he was. Carsten did an outstanding job singing. I am so proud of him! Here are some pics of this event…

Another event was Valentines day! The Saturday before valentines day, Carsten told me that I needed to be ready to go somewhere that night. He had planned a surprise. We drove around and ended up on RAF Lakenheath. Carsten made up an excuse to head to the BX (the store) on base. When we parked he started walking in the other direction towards the based chapel. We walked in and there were tons of people standing in a hallway. As soon as we walked in a lady said, “Is there a Charmayne Stahr here?” So Carsten raised my hand for me. Then she said, “I wanted you to know that your husband is the only one who planned this as a surprise for you.” I laughed while thinking what exactly is the surprise? Haha! Then we walked up some stairs into a room that was decorated with valentine stuff. There were tables set and romantic music playing. It turned out that we were attending a valentine marriage conference. At first, I thought this is kind of a weird present. Then a British couple got up and began sharing their experience of being married for 25 years and serving in the British Army. In the middle of the conference, I was filled with overwhelming emotion and was holding back tears. I had realized that this was the perfect gift! This gift showed me how much Carsten loves me more than any other gift could have. It showed me how committed he is to me and our marriage. It showed me that he desires a life long, happy, successful marriage that is centered on God. Wow! My heart was overwhelmed! I could not express in words to Carsten exactly how much that meant to me, but it was the best present he could have planned for me on our first valentines day as a married couple.

The final event of February, was our trip to Germany for a volleyball tournament. Carsten had hurt his shoulders in previous months by playing football and basketball. We were a bit nervous about going to Germany for him to play volleyball if his shoulders were still injured. At the same time we were anxious to go because some of our friends from England, the Wests, are temporarily stationed in Germany. We wanted to go spend time with them and Carsten wanted to get back to playing volleyball too. So we prayed about it and we decided to make the drive to Germany. We drove half way, stopping in Brussels, Belgium. We toured Brussels for the day and then drove on to Germany. Carsten played volleyball for two days straight and his shoulders did pretty well. He actually feels better now after playing that weekend. After the volleyball tournament was finished, we spent our final day touring Frankfurt, Germany. Then we made the long hall back to England by driving through Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, and France. We got to take our car on the chunnel, which is a train that goes under the ocean through the England channel. It was so cool! Here are some pics of this adventure….

It is and has been such a blessing to live overseas in our first year of marriage. At first it was extremely difficult and I was very homesick, but now we are seeing how much greater God’s plans are for us than we could imagine. God’s will is perfect and good! God is good!!

If any of you would like to pray for us here are a few things to pray for…

1.   Pray for Carsten because he is very stressed and he has a lot on his plate right now. He started his masters program this month and will be starting a second job on base. Needless to say…he is on overload.

2.   Pray for Carsten’s back and shoulders. He is in constant pain and we have seen many doctors to see what we can do to help him.

3.   Pray for me to find fun things to keep me occupied while Carsten is busy with work and homework.

4.   Pray that we would be able to juggle everything and be able to make time for just spending time together.

5.   We are going to be on the worship team at our church starting this weekend. The pastor expressed to us that he is looking for a worship leader and thinks Carsten could eventually do that. It will take some time because we are Americans in a British church so we need to learn and get to know them first.

Thank you all for your prayer, encouragement, and support. We miss you all back in the states! For all I know, I am the only one who reads these things, but it is neat to take the time to reflect on all that God has done. If anyone is reading these, thank you!

So long for now!! God Bless!

Trips to America

WOW!!!! Thats all we can say after the past month of adventures. Carsten and I are just now able to quiet and calm ourselves to reflect on all that has happened. We would like to share with you all as we reflect on the past month.

December was a whirlwind of a time! Carsten and I prepared for our first Christmas together as a married couple...

There is our first Christmas tree ready to go home..

Leslie, Jon, and Zach Zegan all came to visit us here in England for Christmas. Plus, Zach's girlfriend Kara and her 5 family members unexpectedly came along as well. It was a Christmas of surprise and we never knew what was going to happen next. To give you a picture without telling the long story, we drove to the airport 9 times in three weeks. WOW!!! It was a blessing to have such an eventful holiday season. We loved having a full house and the company to share our first Christmas with.

We spent our first New Years eve as a married couple with friends here in England. We received a phone call on New Years eve that Zach had proposed in Czech Republic to his girlfriend Kara! Yiiipppppeee!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Shortly after the New Year began, we jumped on a plane and headed back to the states. We were esctatic to be back on American soil!!!! We went to Kentucky and Indiana to attend the wedding of Carsten's cousin, Rick Post. It was so wonderful to spend time with family and make memories together. We were able to go to Churchill Downs where the Kentucky Derby is run. What a sight to see! We toured the stadium and the museum...

We had such a great time with Carsten's family! Congrats to Rick and Rachel Post!! The wedding was beautiful! Glad we could make it to celebrate with them! We had never been to Kentucky or Indiana so that was fun! Just to eat American food again was well worth the trip. haha!

After the wedding Carsten flew back to England and I (Chary) flew to California. It was an unexpected change of plans, but God gave me the opportunity to specifically go spend time with Sara and the Swenson family in Nevada. I spent a few days in California with family and friends and then drove to Nevada. It was such a blessing to see Sara. If anyone does not know, Sara is my 22 year old friend who has been batteling cancer for almost 2 years now.

She was a bridesmaid in our wedding. She is a dear life long friend. In fact, she is more like a sister to me. The cancer has returned and the doctors have refused any radiation or surgery because the cance is so aggressive. Please keep Sara in your prayers and if you would like to find updates on her you can go to caringbridge.com and type in Swenson as the patient name. There you will find Sara's journal, pictures and medical updates. Any who...God truly blessed me with the opportunity to spend a few days with Sara before I flew back to England. We enjoyed times of laughter and nightly rituals of watching/playing Wheel of Fortune! She is the strongest young woman I know! Love you Sara!!

And now, a week later, here I am back in England! What a bittersweet feeling! It is sweet to be back alongside my wonderful husband. It is sweet to be back to our bible study groups and friends. It is bitter to leave our family and friends back in the states. It is bitter to be so far away and back in this dark/rainy place. With God's strength we take the bitter along with the sweet and we press on because the Lord has placed us here for such a time as this. And for this we thank the Lord for always blessing and providing for us!

God Bless and Bless God!