We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone! This past week marked 2 very important days for Colby and I this year....First of all, Sunday was the last day of Colby's 1st semester of classes! The week leading up to that day may have been a bit tense...but he made it! I have never seen a person so excited to just get up and go to work on a Monday morning :) This semester was a learning experience for him in more than one way. He learned from his classes but also learned quite a bit about the way he learns best and focuses best and managing time. It was a struggle for sure but still a good experience. He now has a break for about 1 month and is very excited to have a mental rest and time to do some of the outside, physical kind of work which he enjoys much more. 

The other important day was Thursday, December 21st...the shortest day of the year! We made it through the darkest day! The official sunrise on that day was at 10:57 a.m. and sunset was at 4:34 p.m. giving us 5 hours and 36 minutes of daylight. Today, just 2 days later we will have 5 hours and 37 minutes of daylight! We are on the upswing! And to be honest we haven't minded the short days. I enjoy the weekends when I actually get a glimpse of the sun, but there has been no extra tiredness or sadness that we've noticed. It's amazing how God has made our bodies to adapt and adjust to all kinds of different circumstances.

Weather

We  may have reached the shortest day, but we are still far from the coldest. Apparently this has been an unusually mild winter here so far. The winter months started out beautifully. We had a white thanksgiving and several smaller snows stacked up on top of that. The beautiful white made it feel like the Christmas season...

Buuut over the past week the weather has deteriorated quite a bit. Temperatures have been well above freezing so a lot of our snow disappeared and the world instead became an ice skating rink. It's looking like we won't be having a white Christmas after all...more of a brown/grey slushy slippery one. Slightly disappointing...In addition to the ice we have also been having a remarkable amount of wind. The combination makes walking anywhere, opening car doors, closing car doors...everything outside just more difficult. Thankfully, early on in our time here we took some good advice and bought ice cleats! Something I never thought I would own but am soo thankful for!

Looking ahead at the upcoming weather...the little graph makes a gradual downhill slant after today. The highs go something like 32...24...16...15...9...3 then next Saturday Colby's weather app just has an igloo. I'm not sure what that means...

Anchorage!

As far as exciting events go over the past month, to celebrate our first Anniversary this year, Colby and I took an extended weekend trip to Anchorage in November. It was definitely a fun break and we took the opportunity to see some of the parts of Alaska that everyone imagines...the parts with mountains and trees. We took a drive from Anchorage down to Girdwood and even got to see some Doll Sheep on the rocks beside the road on the way (no pictures...they stayed up high enough that they only looked like white dots in my camera). 

Our hotel also happened to be right beside the Ulu Factory! For those of you who know me my Ulu knife is possibly my favorite kitchen possession (maybe second to my AeroPress). I was first introduced to this (actually to both of those things!) by Rachel Alderfer when I stayed with her in Juneau, and my dad bought me my knife for Christmas a year later. I was pretty excited to visit the place it originated...

Although my Ulu was created here...these knives have been made and used for a very very long time by the Native Alaskan people. In case anyone is interested you can read a little about the history of the Ulu knife here on The Ulu Factory website http://theulufactory.com/ulu-history.php. 

Our trip was definitely a fun time away, however, when you live in Bethel trips to Anchorage also become necessary errand running and grocery gathering events. Groceries in Anchorage are soo much cheaper than they are in Bethel, and because we now live in Alaska, we can check three of those big plastic totes for free on Alaska Airlines. This means that you fly to Anchorage with empty totes stacked inside of each other as your luggage. Go grocery shopping, and fill each tote with 50#'s of goodies. Then fly back with full totes. We are beginners, so we only filled 2 totes a piece this time. Navigating through the airport with full totes is as challenging as it sounds like it might be...we decided to gradually work our way up. Even so, we are still eating our way through a lot of what we stocked up on during that trip. 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was very different this year, but it was still great. My coworkers invited Colby and I, our Pastors family, Job, and a few other members of our church for a Thanksgiving meal. We had plenty of delicious food and a wonderful, relaxed time of enjoying the day together. After we ate Keira and I and the pastors kids went sledding on the "hill" (there was kind of a bump in the tundra) behind their house and the boys did a little riding around on snow machines. It was sad to be away from home, but since many people in Bethel are from from their families, we were definitely not alone. We were very Thankful for great friends, and our church family here, to make the day special. 

On a side note...the most homesick we have both felt this entire time was on the Monday after Thanksgiving. There is something about rifle season...the anticipation, the getting up early, dressing in orange, climbing in tree stands and sitting and waiting, hearing shots, sharing stories...the smell of Jerky by the end of the week and mostly just the time we spend with family that definitely had us both a little mopey and missing home. Very glad we were able to share in the experiences from a distance through calls and pictures!

Work and Life

Work for both of us has continued on with no major changes. I still enjoy what I'm doing so much and feel as though I'm learning and growing a little bit every day. Over the last month I got to be a little more hands on with wound care and was able to help with cleaning and dressing changes for a few people, specifically for a person with frostbite. This is definitely an area of physical therapy I never thought I would enjoy, but I'm finding I really do and I'm excited to continue to develop my skills here.

One fun piece of news outside of work is that we now own a snow machine (all of you in PA would call this a snowmobile...but they are snow machines up here). You can add that to the list of things I never thought I would own but am very thankful for. We've learned that during the cold months here, a snow machine is almost a necessity if you want to travel outside of Bethel. Flying conditions are not great during the winter, but the trails and the river freeze opening a whole world of options by snow machine.  Colby has already been able to use this to travel to Napkiak with Job two times to help with the Bible study there, and he's looking forward to being able to do more as the winter goes on.

Christmas!!!

One more sleep until Christmas!!! : ) Colby thinks I'm a bit ridiculous this year, but I have been very much enjoying this Christmas season. Part of my excitement has definitely had to do with the snow and the cold (until this week) that just gave everything a much more Christmasy feel. I had to be a bit creative with decorating this year since there are no trees in Bethel and we did not feel like ordering one due to lack of space and time...but I found that by cutting up pieces of garland, taping them to the wall and putting lights on them, I could make a very nice little tree that did not clutter our apartment at all.

I think the biggest reason for my extra enjoyment of this Christmas season is that I have had extra time to reflect on the true meaning of it this year. Work does not take up as much of my time here as it did at home and there are simply not as many distractions in Bethel as there were in PA. So this year I have had more time to sit, more time to read and more time to listen and God has blessed me so much through that time. One of the things I have been reading through is "Good News of Great Joy" an Advent devotional by John Piper. Two different readings were focused on this verse...

"Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery."~Hebrews 2:14-15

The simple truth of those words has struck me more this year than any year before this. The entire reason Christ came, the reason why he was born in a stable so many years ago, was so that he could die and destroy the power that death has over all of us. He left the awesome glory of heaven to humble himself and enter this world, just like we do, as a tiny baby, to live a human life, just like we do (except perfectly...completely without sin), and then died...the only person who didn't deserve death...died. He took the punishment that we all deserve, the death that we all deserve...BUT He rose again and through that He forever destroyed the power that death had over all of us!

I have been reminded in a new way this year that this is why we celebrate Christmas. Because He came we no longer have to fear death, we no longer have to fear anything. We can now have hope and joy and life to the absolute fullest. As I've been reminded of this awesome truth over the past month, I've also been even more aware of the lack of this hope that is so apparent in many people around me. So many people here (and throughout this whole world) still live in slavery and fear. My prayer is that as we celebrate and give thanks for the incredible gift of freedom we've been given, God will use our lives and give us opportunities to share this gift with people around us.

As I close this out, I want to encourage you to set aside the craziness of this season just to spend time with Christ, and let him open your heart in a new way to the true significance of Christmas. I hadn't realized how much I'd been neglecting that, and how much I had truly been missing.

Final Thoughts

Thank you all...again soooo much for all of the love and support we've felt since we've been here. I feel like I can't say that enough. We have been overwhelmed with the thoughtful cards and packages we've gotten. This is the first time in either of our lives that we have been away from friends and family during this holiday season. Being away has made us realize even more how truly blessed we are to have all of you! So yes...just Thank you! We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Prayer requests:

• Continue to pray for us as we build relationships here and determine the best ways to spend our time, both in life and in ministry to make the greatest impact for God's Glory where he has us right now
• I will be traveling to Hopper Bay (by myself this time) from January 10th-12th. Pray for traveling safety, for the people I will meet there, and for the village as a whole and what God's doing there
• For Colby as he mentally prepares to return to the books in a few weeks, for focus and motivation to study and learn and especially that God would use this time to help him to grow in his own walk with Christ and prepare him to better lead others in the future

And a few more pictures....

Sunrise over the river

Ice fog makes crystals on everything!
  Even chain link fences become beautiful...

Snowy tundra behind the fitness center

Christmas Eve Sunrise

One Amazing Year

October was a pretty full month for us, which made it go by incredibly fast! We are still doing some adjusting, but we're finally starting to get into a rhythm here. We're very much enjoying our little apartment...we have furniture!!...and work and life in general is starting to feel less new and  more comfortable. The weather is slowly starting to get a bit colder, we actually had our first snowfall a few weeks ago! It was only maybe 2 inches, but it was enough to make things really pretty. Sadly it only lasted about a day and then everything went back to being muddy. We obviously have nothing to compare to, but according to everyone around us temperatures have been much warmer than usual for this time of year. We had a few below freezing days, but over the past week temperatures were hanging just above freezing overnight and climbing to nearly 40 during the day. One of those almost 40 degree days I caught myself saying "It's just so warm!"...and then I paused and thought about what I had just said. Apparently we're adapting pretty quickly...which I'm thinking is a good thing considering whats coming! This morning temperatures did drop below freezing which made for a beautiful frost over everything. Here are a few pictures from our porch right around sunrise : )

We (Both!) Made It!

I want to start by saying thank you, so much to everyone who has prayed for us, encouraged us and supported us over this past year. We officially survived our first year of marriage! There were definitely a few bumps along the way (and I'm sure there will be quite a few more to come)...as is to be expected when two very different and maybe a little (or alot) stubborn people are learning to do life together. But God is so faithful and by his grace we've been learning a ton about each other, ourselves, and what it actually looks like to put another person first. Our anniversary itself was very nice and relaxing. It happened to fall on the day of our monthly church potluck haha...which made for a great anniversary dinner. We may have cheated and eaten our frozen cake topper the week before we left home (hehe...whoops!). Hated to waste it though, and there just isn't a great way to transport a cake for a 3200 mile drive and a flight. Even without the cake, it was a great day of thinking back and reflecting on all God has done over this past year. In some ways its so hard to believe a year has passed already. It feels like just a few weeks ago we were decorating for our wedding. But at the same time, when we look at all that's happened it's amazing to think it all fit into 1 year! So far following Christ  together has been an incredible adventure and I can't wait to see whats in store for the years to come!

Bear Hunt

Early in the month Jesse (one of my fellow PT's) invited Colby to go with him on a bear hunting/camping adventure. They loaded their gear in Jesse's boat and took a 3 hour, 86 mile, boat ride up the Kuskokwim River on a Saturday afternoon. Per Colby's report (I was not included in this man adventure) they arrived at their destination on Saturday evening, carefully surveyed several potential spots to camp, then selected a place near the foot of the mountains they were hoping to hike the next morning. They set up camp, sat around the fire and ate some freeze dried food packs (Colby was supposed to bring hot dogs, and Jesse was going to bring sausages...I found the hot dogs were still in our fridge on Sunday morning. Jesse also forgot the sausages.) They slept in a tent in very warm sleeping bags, Colby woke one time at night to sleet and freezing rain outside. Temperatures were around 30 degrees. The next morning they hiked for about 4 1/2-5 hours through some very beautiful and completely remote parts of Alaska. Then loaded up their boat and returned home. In the end the score was tied at 0-0. Colby and Jesse did not find a bear to shoot...no bears were able to eat Colby and Jesse. 

Hooper Bay

I took my first village trip to Hooper Bay from the 10th-12th of October. To give you a little background on the village, Hooper Bay is located right along the Bearing sea. It's one of the larger villages in the Yukon-Delta with a population of about 1,100 people. Almost no one in the village owns a car or truck, in fact according to one of the workers at the clinic there are 6 trucks in the whole village. Everyone else drives a four-wheeler, so parking-lots look like this...

 

Because this was my first trip, I got to travel with Eliza, one of the other therapists I work with. We flew out on a little plane with 8 passenger seats although we were the only passengers. The seats went up the right side of the plane, on the left side there was a place for cargo. On this particular flight most of the cargo was groceries, and a lot of the groceries were eggs. We landed on a tiny air strip right beside the ocean and were picked up by one of the clinic employees who drove us about 1 1/2 miles to the clinic.

The trip itself went very well, Eliza introduced me to the staff at the clinic, gave me a quick tour of the village (this took 5 minutes...we drove to the grocery store and back), and explained the process of working there. We each treated patients, so I got to begin meeting some of the people in the community as well. Life in the village is hard, both in terms of climate and living conditions. As is true with most of these remote villages, many people there are living in poverty and there are high levels of alcoholism, depression and suicide. In such a small area, everyone has been touched by tragedies related to these in some way. Even in my short visit and brief interactions the effects of this were evident. Although it will be challenging, I am incredibly thankful to have the opportunity to continue to work and build relationships in this community. Starting again in January I will be traveling to Hooper Bay every 7 weeks to evaluate and follow up with patients there.

Colby's Travels

The truck looks fine to me...

Colby also got to make some village trips this month. He continues to travel with Job to Napakiak on Thursdays (weather and time permitting) to be part of the Bible Study there. This week they went  by boat because it was too foggy to fly. He was also able to fly with Job to Camp Kako, which is located just outside of the village of Russian Mission. They flew there to help make some repairs to things that were damaged when the damn between 2 ponds, which supply the camp with all of its water, broke, causing a good bit of flooding. This included moving brush, removing a building from the lower pond which ended up there due the wash out, and working on a dump truck, among other things.

Camp Kako

Working with Job and having occasional opportunities to travel within the area provide very much needed breaks, but Colby's focus continues to mostly be on studying. His classes take just as much time and effort as expected, maybe even more. So even though it's definitely not something that comes naturally to him most days are spent in books. We did have a huge blessing in that area this month though...We were able to buy a desk for a very very good price from a local couple who was preparing to move. We set this up in our extra bedroom and Colby now has a lovely little office space!

I'm Learning Too...

I did some learning of my own this month. First, because wound care is such a huge part of what we do everyday at the hospital, I'm trying to learn as much as I can as fast as I can so I can be more of a help. It just so happened that there was a two day wound and foot care course offered in Anchorage a few weeks ago. Because this was necessary continuing education, my company paid for my tuition, flight and hotel and I was able to soak in some information! I feel like I still have so far to go, but it was good to hear from some very experienced medical providers.

Since we moved here I've been noticing these very fun looking shirts that so many people wear. They are called Qaspeqs (Kuspuks). Basically they are traditional shirts, worn by both women and men, with a hood and a pocket in the front. After talking to a few people I learned that the tiny local college (it's a community branch campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks) offers a weekend course where you learn to sew one! I took a hobby inventory and realized that all of mine take place outdoors...which is going to make for a boring winter...so I decided this was a great opportunity to learn to sew, and make a Quaspeq! Prior to this I had sewn one pillow before in my life...I e-mailed the instructor and they said there was no sewing experience necessary. Well let me tell you, experience was not necessary, but it would have been helpful. The whole experience was just a tiny bit overwhelming (although the instructor was very patient), and I'm not sure that I'm suddenly going to start sewing clothes for Colby and I or something BUT in the end...out came a Quaspeq : )

 

Last but not least...

Thanks again for taking time to read this and keep up with our lives and for your continued prayers as we settle in and begin to invest in life here. Even from very far away, we still feel very much loved and supported by everyone back in PA! We so much appreciate every message, call and card! Looking back at our prayer requests from last month, I think most of them will be continued throughout our time here. 

• We continue to ask for prayer for Colby's focus as he studies, for my growth and ability to invest at work and for our marriage as we adjust. 
• As we're beginning to get past the initial phase of settling, you can also pray that we would have wisdom to know where to best invest our time here to make the most impact
• That we would continue to build deeper relationships with the people around us, and learn to bridge cultural barriers

A few final pictures....

I caught this guy dumpster diving.
He individually got out each of those plastic bowls
 and ate whatever was left inside of them.

One of Colby's views from the boat

One of Colby's views from the plane...

The first snow!!!

Sunrise :)

One Month Down!!

We have officially survived just over a month in Bethel! Looking back, this has been an incredibly good month, full of God's blessings...but also full of learning, adjusting, and sometimes feeling pretty uncomfortable. I may have mentioned in my last post that even though we are still in the U.S....it really doesn't feel like it sometimes. From the little snap-shot we've gotten so far, Western Alaska is much different from any other part of the country. As strange as it sounds, aside from the climate, we've actually noticed quite a few similarities between Bethel (and especially the surrounding villages) and places we've been in Africa. Time is a bit more relative here, people are often late and things don't always start when they're supposed to. The roads are dusty and bumpy and often there are people walking in the middle of them or small dogs darting across. Because of the remoteness of the area and the lack of resources here, the native people (the Yupik) did not have contact with the western world until much later than other native american people. As a result, the Yupik culture is still very strong, and the Yupik language is still the first language of quite a few people we've come in contact with, especially people from the villages. All that to say, life is different here! But God is so good and for the most part the adjustment has gone smoothly so far!

The Little things...

Because we're pretty separated from the rest of American life, we've found that things we used to take for granted, like getting the mail, have now become very exciting! Especially since we have some great friends and family members at home :)

                    

 And things that used to be soo simple, like getting groceries take a bit more planning and thought. This grocery situation was one of my small challenges for the month. After trying Amazon Prime Pantry (which does not deliver to AK fyi) then attempting regular old Amazon Prime (which does work...just usually means you have to order

All items in this picture were completely usable!

in bulk...and it takes 2 weeks instead of the 2 days in the lower 48) I found out that Target also delivers to Bethel for free! My first order was a 3 day process of conversations with 3 different Target Customer Service people discovering what could and couldn't ship here and learning to use my street address and not my P.O. Box. Have to admit I was not very joyful or patient during parts of this process (thankfully I have a husband who lovingly pointed this out to me)...But in the end we received many packages of groceries and paid less than half of the grocery store prices! I also learned to be careful about what items I order together because apparently this is a common occurrence....

One incredibly exciting part of this month was the arrival of the Explorer! We waved goodbye and loaded it on the barge in Seattle on August 23rd, about 1 week later the barge set sail and after stopping in Anchorage and a few other Western Alaska ports, it arrived here on September 26th! Even though Bethel is a very small city, it is actually pretty spread out. I'm an active person, but walking a mile to the grocery store on a rainy day, and then walking back loaded down with groceries is just not exactly fun. We are so incredibly thankful to have a car, and especially all of the home supplies that were inside of it! The barge itself was an amazing site to see docked here in Bethel. I was able to get a few pictures, though they don't really do it justice. Keep in mind this is already partially unloaded...and yes that is really an ambulance and few fuel trucks up there!

We have a home!!

As I mentioned in my last post, one of our prayers for this month was to find a place to rent. We were provided with temporary housing by the hospital for our first 30 days, but after that we were on our own. Rental hunting was not an easy task and ended up being a pretty big exercise in faith for me. I knew God was going to provide a place for us...but after calling nearly 20 landlords and hearing there was nothing available...it was difficult not to become discouraged. Apparently we arrived in Bethel at the absolute worst time possible to be rental searching. Bethel is small as it is, so rentals are limited, but we also came just after all of the teachers had moved back into the area for the year. There is also a huge construction project at the hospital which brought many more people to town, and there was recently a pretty big hire of healthcare workers as well! Thankfully we were able to extend our hospital housing for 1 week (to wait for our car to arrive) and after our initial turn downs, we did end up having several options. Most of these were out of our price range, however we managed to find a cozy little apartment, in a great location and right inside the range of what we were hoping to pay with one week to spare! Slava Domnului! (praise God in Romanian...thought a few people might enjoy that). Here are some views out of our window!

The weird spot in the sky is a reflection of our living room light

This is crazy zoomed...but you can see mountains from here!

The fall colors may not be quite as bright here, but it's still pretty beautiful!

Work Life

Work here is going very well for me so far. In case any of you don't know, I'm working as a physical therapist at the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC). Even though I'm working in the same career I was in PA, there are quite a few differences. The hospital in Bethel serves as the only major health care provider for this region of Western Alaska, so not only do I treat patients from Bethel, many of my patients fly in from nearby villages for treatment. As a result, I usually don't see patients 2 or 3 times each week as I would have in PA. It ends up being more like 1-2 times/month. Often there is at least a partial language barrier which makes getting history, determining the best treatment, and educating patients a little more difficult. And because there are no orthopedic specialists in Bethel and patients need to fly to Anchorage for consults with surgeons or to get an MRI, I have to rely a lot more on my clinical skills to diagnose and figure out the best plan for each person. Even though the adjustment is a little challenging, and it's humbling to have to ask questions and feel like I'm learning some things all over again, it's very clear to me that God has placed me in this position, and I'm thankful to have the opportunity to learn and grow and serve here. I also have some pretty incredible co-workers which makes a huge difference!

As expected classes have been Colby's number one priority up here so far. The work load is pretty heavy and definitely consumes most of his time. Overall they are going well...buuut spending long periods of time sitting and reading and writing indoors is not exactly something he enjoys. So it has been a huge blessing that he is able to get out and work a few days each week as well. Job Hale (Job like in the bible), who Colby was able to get in touch with while we are still in PA, runs a local contracting business called Job's Done Right (how catchy!...Job pronounced like the occupation here) and has been incredibly flexible in allowing Colby to work 2-3 days each week. He works on a team with 3-4 other guys who are all locals. This not only allows him to do some good solid hard work, it also provides him with a great opportunity to build relationships. Two weeks ago he was able to fly to Newtok, a village about a 55 minute flight from here, to work on some repairs to a school building that was damaged in a fire. The project in Newtok has also opened up the door for Job to begin  ministering in the community. Currently the village of about 400 people has only one Catholic Church. 

Newtok From the Air!

And from the ground

A few other things...

Outside of work (and Colby's classes) we've spent most of our time here so far making some friends and getting involved with our new church family. We've settled into the Bethel Baptist church and usually go to services there Sunday morning, Sunday night and sometimes Wednesdays. Friday nights we've started to help out with Kings Kids, which is basically like Awana with song time, games, devotion time and verse memorization. So far we've only had about 8-10 kids, but they have been great kids! They are all so eager to learn and it's been so much fun to spend time with them. Colby has also been able to fly with Job to Napakiak, about a 10 minute flight down river, to participate in a bible study there that Job leads every Thursday. 

In the midst of some of the uncertainties of this past month, the tension of searching for a rental, waiting for our car, and just learning how to do life in a new place I very much felt God pressing on my heart the importance of seeking Him first in all things, and then trusting Him to provide the rest. When we first arrived here I had a good bit more time than I'm used to to read, so I read "A Retrospect" by Hudson Taylor. Over and over again I was struck by Hudson's accounts of faithfully and persistently seeking God's guidance and his provision in his life. Often he did not mention his needs to anyone except for God, so that when answers came there could be no question as to who was responsible! I realized as I was reading that I wasn't so much surprised at the accounts of answered prayers...I knew that God was more than capable of doing exactly what he had done in Hudson Taylors life and much more. But I did find myself doubting that He would ever do those things in my life.

While I was reading this book, Job lead a Wednesday night service and spoke on Matthew 6:25-34 (especially vs. 33). As we were studying through these verses, which I've read countless times, it hit me all over again that in order to truly see God work I had to stop working, planning, worrying and scheming myself and truly seek and trust Him. Over and over again this month when I was tempted to worry about where we might end up living...or how we were going to get all of the right winter clothes for the coming coldness...or numerous other things, those verses came back to my mind. God kept reminding me that all I really needed to do was seek Him and only Him. Although I definitely slipped into worry more times than I can tell, being stretched a little has helped me to realize in a whole new way that it's when we take the uncomfortable steps and actually have to trust God to come through that we are actually able to see him working! It's not that he isn't working in the other times...I just think we (or at least I) often miss it. There is an amazing peace that comes with taking our eyes off of the little things and focusing on Christ.

Prayer Requests...

• Continued focus and wisdom for Colby as he balances the work for his classes with work and ministry opportunities here.
• That I would be able to quickly grow and learn in the areas I'm not as strong at work and that I would have opportunities to share Christ's love with my patients.
• That we would be able to develop a better understanding of the culture we're surrounded by and be able to build relationships with the people around us.
• For God to continue to strengthen our marriage and help us to grow closer as we adapt to life here.

Here are a few pictures from this month to end with....

Cranberries

A little hike on the Tundra...

The road behind the hospital

Rainbow!!

Last nights Sunset :)