Further prayer requests

Please see the email below from Claire:

To our Prayer Warriors,

Hannah has not had a good morning, her breathing is getting worse rather
than staying the same or getting better. I know something is wrong, but
so far haven't heard any answers from anyone. Maybe today will be the day
they get to the bottom of it. Hannah needs healing, the doctors need
wisdom, and I need strength and patience....

As a praise, she continues to do well with her feedings and is gaining
weight.

Love,
Claire & Hannah

Hannah update and other less important news

I received an email from Claire earlier this week that Hannah was successfully taking milk and processing it all the way through. Isn't it strange how your view of poop changes once you enter parenthood? Anyway, she was also having to go back on some sort of respirator to help her breath a little easier. Please keep praying for this little girl.

In Haskew news, Abby is beginning to speak a bit of German. It is pretty cute how little words are starting to pop out once in awhile. Daisy seems to be the preferred recipient of the Deutsch, but also appears to be unaffected by the commands given in a foreign language. I started back to German class this week also. I wish I could say I was thrilled, loving it, and doing awesome. Sadly, I can not. You know what? Learning to speak another language is HARD!!!! And please don't try to console me with any of the following statements: "It is easier to learn a foreign language when you live in the country where it is spoken." or "You probably don't even really need to know German, because everyone speaks English anyway." or "Don't worry it will come eventually." To all of these I would say, "Well, thanks for the advice, but obviously you don't know what you're talking about." Needless to say, be praying that I can get my head and heart around this language thing.

Prayer Request

I would like to ask each of you who read out blog to be praying for a very special little girl. Her name is Hannah Jeane Fowler, and she is the daughter of my college roommate Claire and her husband Matthew. Claire is a very special friend to Jake and I, and we have come to love Matthew as well. Hannah was born 3 months early and weighed in at 2 pounds and 2 ounces. The last report I had was she was doing well, all things considered. She has had to have a little help breathing, but is doing a lot on her own. I will try to post an update if I find out anything new. Please pray that Hannah will continue to do well, and grow strong and healthy. Also, please pray for her parents that they will be comforted, encouraged and given energy during this time.

Valentines Day

Our first Valentine's Day in Vienna was one of the best ever!!! Although, at the start of the day I had my doubts. Silly girl, don't you know your hubby always comes through!?! So, here's the breakdown for the day. The morning started off as usual, waking up and getting Abby ready for kindergarten, eating breakfast, taking a shower, nothing grand. Due to a crazy German class schedule this month, I have been taking Abby to school. That is exactly what I was planning on doing this particular morning as well. So, as we are about to walk out the front door, Jake comes out of our bedroom saying he is going to drive us to the bus stop and drop us off. What? This throws a wrench in my day. I had planned to take Abby to school and then drive to a store I have been wanting to visit and do some research on entry way furnishings. Well, now that was blown. We hadn't previously discussed the day's events, but I definitely made my plans. FYI, in case you didn't know, I don't like it very much when my plans get all messed up. I got over it and said it was fine if he dropped us off, thinking, "Well, I guess Ill just have to go down to Karlsplatz and have a Starbucks instead." So, Jake dropped us off at the bus stop and said to call him when I dropped Abby off. Arrrggghhhh, here he goes again, messing my plans up!!!! Then suddenly, it occurs to me he may be up to something. So, naturally, I cheerfully say, "Ok." Kisses and Abby and I head to the bus stop. I think I see the bus coming and we have to make a run for it. If you haven't done it before, picking up a 33 pound 4 year old and making a run for the bus isn't fun. Turns out, it wasn't even our bus.
We'll skip the uneventful bus ride and jump ahead to calling Jake. I make the call and he he asks me to meet him at the u-bahn stop close by one of the shopping centers. He says it will be a little bit so I can just hang out at the mall. Darn, just walk around the mall, well, if I have to. Turns out I'm glad I did. I found Abby a super cute hat, scarf and gloves in the clearance bin for less than 10 euros. You can see it in the pic below. Back to the big day. We finally meet at the u-bahn and jump on. We head downtown to have breakfast at a favorite cafe. They make a mean omelet and have a picture perfect table in the front window. We make the hike down there, only to find out they are "machen urlaub" aka on vacation. Who takes vacation in February. Apparently, restaurant owners in Vienna. Plan B. This is Vienna and there is always another cafe around the corner. We head around the corner and low and behold another cafe. We sit down and enjoy of very nice fruestuck (breakfast). Then Jake leads me down to fav little shop to pick out a Valentine's present. You can see that in the pic below, too. We have just a little time before we have to pick up Abby, so Jake takes me into Starbucks. We grab a cup of coffee and set off to pick up the pipsqueak.
So, I'm thinking, "What a great day. Good breakfast, shopping and coffee to boot." We get Abby and start to head home, or so I think. Nope, my awesome man has other plans. He made arrangements with Brian and Alisha to keep her for the afternoon. Abby is jazzed about the prospect because she gets to play with Sharkdog. After we drop Abby off, we do indeed head home. Jake had rented 2 movies for our "Valentine's Theater Matinee" He also had a very pretty rose plant for me. Once again, see pic below. So, we watched movies ate popcorn and just relaxed on the couch. Around dinner time, Jake told me to get my shoes on we were going to go get something to eat. He took me to one of our fav places that is close by our house. They serve great traditional Austrian food. We stuffed ourselves and enjoyed another cup of coffee and then went back home to watch the second movie. Around 8 he went to pick Abby up. It was a perfect day, despite the initial bad attitude and early dining setbacks. Thanks, Hon, you're the best!!!!

A Night Out

Jake and I had an actual date last night. A full date, can you believe it? Bart and Tamika had offered to keep Abby overnight for us awhile back and so we finally took them up on it. We dropped her off right after Jake got out of school and then we hit the town. We went down to Mariahilfestrasse to grab a bite to eat. We just wanted something quick and small so we had McDonalds. I know, I know a night out and we got to McD's, well it was still early and we had other great plans. After our super, yummy snack we went to Starbucks. Again, I know we live in the birthplace of the modern coffeehouse and we go to the lame, American imitation. Well, Starbucks is totally smoke free and just happens to make a great Carmel Macciato. So, there. When you visit us, we'll be happy to take you somewhere authentic, until then I'll have my coffee sans lung cancer as much as possible. Anyway, back the date. After we finished our coffee we had a little time before the movie started so we just walked around and talked and looked in a few shops. After our window shopping we went to see "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." Jake had been waiting to see this movie for a couple of months and I'd say it was pretty good. A bit unrealistic, but good. After the movie and a huge tub-o-popcorn we headed to one of our favorite restraunts. It's near Stephandom and we love it. Its called Ribs. Yep, that's it, Ribs. Now, mind you we live in Austria and not in Memphis, but these are really good ribs. We pigged out throughly and then decided it was late, like 7:30 and headed home. A note about the time, is it just me or does having kids totally change your life? We really feel like we are livin' large if we are out past 6:00 pm. I remember when.....(sigh).
So, this morning we slept in till 8:30. Once again, kids sure change things. We went and had a Wiener fruestuck (breakfast) and then went to pick up Abby. Well, actually Jake picked her up and I went to meet Alisha to go to a fabric shop. All in all, a great date. I can't wait to do it again, hopefully in the next 6 months :)

Another Milestone

Well, we've reached another milestone in Vienna. All three of us are sick at the same time. Jake started in Sunday night with a cold/allergies and now Abby and I both have some sort of stomach bug. Jake went to German class today, but Abby and I stayed home and watched movies all day. Looks like we will do the same tomorrow. Enjoy your day!!!

Email Problems

I just wanted to post a note about our Vienna Team website and email addresses. If you have sent an email or tried to log onto the website recently, you've seen the problem. Feel free to leave a comment and I can send you an alternate email.