Milestones

This week on Monday Balázs turned 21! It's hard to believe that he has been with us almost 7 years!

He recently started talking about moving out on his own - which seems fine and good from a rational perspective, but I was surprised at how sad the thought of not having him in our home made me.

Nate has been doing Tae Kwon Do for the past few years. It's been good for him, and he has done well at it. A few weeks ago Nate took the test to get his green belt and today he found out that he passed and he received his belt.

 

Graduations

Last week we had two graduations in our family: Nate graduated from Kindergarten and Balazs graduated in High School.

We are very proud of both of them, but especially of Balázs because of how far he has come sine he first came to live with us. High school wasn't easy, especially since he had to study in a foreign language, but he did it, and he finished well. His last semester was probably his best in all his years of schooling so far.

One week from today Balázs will start his new job at LEI companies in Denver, in an electrician apprenticeship program.

Here is a video of Nate's kindergarten graduation and some pictures of Balázs' high school graduation.

 

Receiving an acknowledgement for his community service:

 

The End

Guess who got his Social Security number today!

This means that now he can get a driver's license, get a job, etc.

We thought the process of getting the SSNumber would be easy- just a formality- but like everything else in this process, it wasn't as easy as we had expected.

Anyway, it's good to be done, and we're glad Balázs can start his life.

5 Years: Joining Day

During the time we lived in Hungary, Thanksgiving didn't have quite as much pomp as it does here in the US. We usually gathered with a handful of American friends. There was certainly no Black Friday over there.

This Thanksgiving we got together with family and some friends from church, but this Thanksgiving marks an interesting anniversary. 5 years ago, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our friends Ryan and Anita and Shane and Marianna - but there one was extra person there that Thanksgiving who has been with us ever since.

This Thanksgiving marked 5 years of Balázs coming to live with us.

It was in December of 2008 that we were given guardianship, and in December of 2011 that our adoption was finalized in Hungary.

Yesterday, to celebrate 5 years of Balázs in our family, we went up to Estes Park - saw some deer and elk and ate some ice cream.

We're glad you're with us, Balázs!

Thanksgiving Video Update

This is a video we made for our friends and supporters over at Calvary Vista. They showed it as part of their Thanksgiving Eve service.

It was pretty cold outside when we made it - I thought I wouldn't need a jacket. I was shivering!

Calvary Vista supported us while we were in Hungary and they have continued to love us and support us since we've come to Colorado. We are thankful for them!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! What are you thankful for this year? How have you experienced God's grace and provision?

The End of a Long Road

Balázs got his green card last week!

It has been a long road... We began the adoption process in June 2011, which means that we have been jumping through legal hoops for 2 years and 5 months. But now we're done!

There were times along the way when it looked like it would be impossible for Balázs to stay with us here in US; like every door closed in front of us. God blessed us with some good lawyers and the means to pay them, and with favor in the eyes of officials who made the final decisions. We are also glad that the laws existed to support people in our situation.

Balázs got a green card for 10 years, after which he will be eligible for citizenship. Now he can work, get a driver's license and go to state college if he wants. God is good and we are glad.

 

Baby Raccoon in our backyard

Another project I had for myself while Rosemary and the little ends were away was to get the garage reorganized, so we could fit both our cars in at the same time. We moved into the house over a year ago, and our garage was our main staging area, so for over 12 months one of our cars has always been parked outside - in the rain, snow and sin, which are all taking their toll on our aging Acura.

Balázs and I worked hard for a few hours and successfully moved things around enough to make room for both cars.

As we were taking some things to our shed in the backyard, I almost stepped on a ball of fur - which I soon realized was alive. At first I thought it was a mole, but as I looked closer I realized it was a baby raccoon, sleeping in the middle of the yard.

We figured out that he was probably only a few days old, since his eyes were not yet open and he was just learning to walk.

However cute he was, it was a bit concerning that he was out in the open like this, unprotected. I called animal control, and they said to wait overnight, to see if the mom came back for it. When morning came, the little guy was still sleeping in the same place in the yard, so I had animal control come out and get him. They said the mother either abandoned him or died, and that's why he was alone.

He was certainly cute, but I'm not interested in seeing any grown raccoons around, although according to animal control, there are a ton in our area.

 

Camping on the Middle St Vrain River

As part of our marathon of male-bonding, Balázs and I went camping last week Monday-Tuesday.

Balázs would have been perfectly happy going somewhere like a pay campsite, but I wasn't going to let that happen. I asked around and heard that there was good dispersed camping along the Middle St Vrain river, up above Allenspark.

In my reading, I also found out that there is a Middle St Vrain 4x4 road, which is for "high clearance Four-Wheel-Drive vehicles only, which - I figured - is exactly what my Toyota Sequoia is, right? ...Wrong...

So my plan was to drive the Sequoia up the 4x4 road and then camp in the wilderness. When we got to the trailhead on Monday and the beginning of the 4x4 road, we realized that our Sequoia was going to have a hard time. The test pile is at the beginning of the road, which basically is there to say: 'if you can drive over this, then you can handle this road'. We were pretty sure we would hurt the car if we tried to take it over the pile, but the road on the other side looked totally do-able.

While we were considering our options, some guys pulled up in Rubikon Jeeps. One of the guys said he thought we could handle the test pile and the road if he spotted us. He did, and while I was on top of the pile with me truck, he asked me: "You don't mind if your car gets scratched up on the bottom do you?" Um...

So, we got over the pile, but not without bending the stairs on the side of the car a bit. I was able to drive up the road about 300 yards/meters before the engine began to overheat and we got to the next big obstacle. Realizing I had made a bad decision bringing the truck up that road, we decided to park it, leave a note that we were coming back for it the next day, and hike in to hike, carrying our gear.

We had to leave behind a lot of things we had brought for camping since we knew we would be hiking in over a mile, and couldn't afford to make more than one trip. We finally made it in far enough, found a good spot off the trails and near the river, pitched our tent, and went out to fish for food.

The river was running really high, so we were not able to catch anything, so we ended up going hiking - and found an awesome place with a 40-50 foot cliff overlooking a waterfall. It was breathtaking, and we could see the peaks in the Indian Peaks Wildernesness just beyond us.

After going back to camp we spent a lot of time shooting Balázs' air rifle, doing target practice with a tin can, and we ended up going to bed early after eating a meager dinner.

During the middle of the night, I woke up and went outside with a head-lamp on, only to see two shining eyes reflecting rig back at me. I knew we were in bear territory, so I was a bit concerned, but the animal moved away from me slowly and didn't make a sound. I'm still not sure what it was, but I think it may have been a mountain lion, since its eyes faced forward and it was so silent.

In the morning, we packed up, hiked back out to the car and, with Balázs' help, after about 20 min of work, we were able to get the Sequoia over the test pile with minimal impact to the car. It was a huge relief! I had lost sleep the night before, worrying about how we were going to get the Sequoia out of there.

Anyway, it was a good trip. I'd recommend the Middle St Vrain for people who want a hike-in camping experience. Go up to Camp Dick off the Peak to Peak Highway, and keep going until the parking lot, which is the trailhead for Buchanan Pass.

Family Photos

At Wild Basin, Rocky Mountain National Park.

Right before these guys left for Hungary.

 

Tubing the Poudre

I'm in Frankfurt, Germany right now, in transit to Hungary, and so I have the chance to write. Rosemary and the kids went to Hungary 10 days or so before me, so Balázs and I had the house to ourselves for that time. As much as I love my wife and kids, and hated being separated from them, Balázs and I got in some much needed bonding time, and it was good.

At the end of May I tore my rotator cuff in a mountain biking accident. I've been doing physical therapy for it, and making progress, so the first thing that Balázs and I did was go mountain biking. He's not as into it as I am, which wasn't bad in this case, because it helped me keep a slower pace. I've been going up to the north slope of Heil Valley Ranch outside of Lyons, one of the best, well-rounded, enjoyable, yet still challenging trails I've found. The bottom part is a lot of fast single-track, which goes up a small canyon, and as you get higher you come to an old homestead with two abandoned cars, which look to be from the 1940's, and above that is a lot of rock climbing through a forest. I only fell once, and thankfully didn't hurt my shoulder again, but all the bouncing on the way down did make it tired.

The day after that was the Fourth of July, so we called Isaac and asked if he wanted to do something fun. My idea was to climb Mount Toll in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area, but it seems I was alone in wanting to climb a mountain. Balázs and Isaac wanted something a bit more relaxed, so we went up to Cheyenne, Wyoming to buy fireworks that you can't get in Colorado. One of the hardest things about being in Cheyenne was finding anything downtown that was open! We finally found a coffee shop and got some local advice on where to buy fireworks, so we went. Talk about a true American experience... For about $30 we bought fireworks that were grand enough to put on a better show than most small towns in Colorado.

We headed back to Colorado and started talking about what to do next, when the idea of tubing came up. We knew that people often tube on the St Vrain river in Lyons, so we called around to see if anyone we knew would lend us some tubes. Then, as we drove past Fort Collins we got an idea - why don't we tube the Cache la Poudre river in Fort Collins?! It is after all, Colorado's only designated "wild scenic river". I had been to Fort Collins a number of times before, but only downtown, I had never been up in Poudre canyon...

We drove down College Blvd until we saw some people with tubes, asked them where they bought them - Walgreens on College, so we bought some as well for $12 each. Not bad, except the guy filled them up with so much air that Balázs' tube blew up when we took it outside into the heat!

Here's a tip: don't fill your tube up too full of air!

So, after talking to a few people we heard about a place called Picnic Rock. So we got an idea: since we only had one car, we would park our car, and hitch hike to Picnic Rock, and tube back to our car. We parked our car at Legacy Park, just north of Old Town in downtown FC, walked out to Jax on College, and eventually succeeded in getting someone with a truck to let us sit in the back and give us a ride up into the canyon.

Since none of us had ever been in Poudre Canyon before, we didn't realize how far it was from the city of Fort Collins and where we had parked our car. As we sat in the back of the truck, we noticed that we kept going further and further, and we still weren't there, and we understood that the farther away we go, is how far we have to tube. Turns out Picnic Rock is about 15 miles from where we parked...

How long does it take to tube 15 miles? Well, that depends. Most of the time I would say we were traveling 3-4 miles per hour, but there were many obstacles, namely dams, that slowed us down. About 7 later, we got to the city of Fort Collins. The river was fun and fast until we got through the town of Laporte, but after that it got painfully slow because of all the dams before FC. When the sun went down and the river was so slow, we ended up walking the last mile back to our car.

The rapids in the river were fun, we each flipped over a few times, took hits from branches to the face, Balázs hurt his foot, and in the slow sections, all the pushing for speed did a number on my aching shoulder.

But here are my recommendations for anyone going tubing on the Poudre:

• Don't overfill your tube with air. It doesn't need to be firm to hold you and float. The last thing you want is to have a tube pop on you when that's your only means of transportation. Isaac's tube also burst when we got to the river. If not for the kindness of a fellow tuber, who gave us her tube since she was nearly done for the day, we would have been stranded!
• Park your car in Laporte, at Lions Park. That's a good 4-5 hr float from Picnic Rock, and the water moves pretty fast until then. After Laporte the water slows down a lot and it's no longer fun. From Laporte you can either hitchhike up, or if you have another car you can drop one in Laporte and drive the other one up to Picnic Rock.

It was a trek, but I would totally do it again. However, I think before I do another marathon tubing, I'm going to check out the St Vrain in Lyons. Hopefully they don't have any dams there!

 

Happy Birthday Balázs!

19 years old! They grow up so fast...

 

Check out White Fields On YouTube

A few weeks ago Balázs started uploading videos of the sermons at White Fields Community Church to YouTube. You can check out White Fields' channel here: http://youtube.com/user/WhiteFieldsChurch

 

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Road Trip

We spent last week in Southern California. I attended a pastors conference in Murietta and Rosemary and the kids spent time with family and friends in Carlsbad.

We had a really nice time. On our way home we decided to take a detour through Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. They look really close to I-15 on the map, but they are a bit of a jog off the highway...especially Bryce Canyon.
Usually the trip through Utah is hard because it is so desolate and monotonous. I admit that I've never thought of southern Utah as a beautiful place - BUT I really did enjoy Zion and Bryce Canyon - especially when we got off the road and hiked down into the canyon. Our kids were troopers and had a great time hiking around and getting to see some wildlife up close.

Road trippin':








Kids at Bryce Canyon:




Here are some photos from Zion and Bryce Canyon:

Made It to Colorado

Balázs and I made it to Colorado. We left California on Wednesday after lunch and drove to Las Vegas, where we stayed with my friends Chris and Jeremy. We went down to the strip to show Balázs around...needless to say, he was amazed. We went on the roller coaster at New York New York twice - it was the first time Balázs had ever been on one, and my first time on a roller coaster in over 10 years! We had a blast.

Thursday morning we left Vegas after breakfast and drove straight through to Denver. Everything was really great - no problems with the car, no tickets, no problems. The Lord was gracious to us!

Rosemary and the kids fly in to Denver in a few hours. Our first few weeks here are going to be busy. We need to find a place to live, schools for the kids, immigration stuff for Balázs. Please pray for us!

I Bought a Mac

I bought a new laptop last week. Balázs will be doing the rest of this semester of school online, so he needed a computer, so I gave him my PC laptop and I got a MacBook Pro.

I kind of felt like a lemming buying a Mac, but I really do like it a lot.

I like the operating system, I love all the touch pad fast gestures, how the email program integrates with the calendar and how I am able to sync everything together.

I also love that my battery lasts 6 hrs on one charge.

I'll say this - a few months ago I got to the point where I hated using my laptop, and rather used my tablet as much as I could, only turning on the laptop when absolutely necessary, about once or twice a week. Using this Mac has made me enjoy using a laptop again.

Disneyland

A few months ago we promised our kids we would take them to Disneyland when we were in California. Thanks to the generosity of some friends and Christian brothers and sisters we were able to make it happen, and we all had a great day.

Here is a video of some pictures from our day there:

Our First Week Back in the States

We've been back in the US for over one week now. Before we head on to Colorado and get into ministry there, we are spending some time in San Diego with family and people who have supported us over the years in Hungary.

Our flight back to the US went really well. The kids were really well behaved on the long flight from Frankfurt to London, and took good naps. When the kids are well behaved, it makes the whole experience better.
We had a 5 and 1/2 hour layover in San Francisco, which was very long - but it turns out we needed the time, because we accidentally lost Balázs' passport… We got it back, but it took a long time to find out exactly who had it, because it had been passed around from the airport employees to the police, to United…

On Saturday we went with Rosemary's brother Tony to see the USS Midway aircraft carrier in San Diego, and on the way our car started to overheat. Long story short - the radiator cracked and needs to be replaced. In all actuality, it couldn't have happened at a better time or in a better place. We have friends here in the car business who are going to get the car taken care of for free - not to mention how much worse it could have been if the radiator had gone out later this month in the middle of the desert or in the mountains while driving out to Colorado.

But while I took the car back to Vista, the kids and Rosemary and Tony all went down to San Diego and checked out the aircraft carrier.

On Sunday we were at Calvary Chapel in Vista, where Pastor Rob prayed for us at both services and we got to connect with people from the church. After church we had some people over who have been supporters of ours for years, and Rosemary made Hungarian food for them and we talked and hung out.
We really are thankful for all the support we have gotten from Calvary Vista over the years. This is a church that is really missions minded, both internationally and locally, not to mention a very loving body of people.

This past weekend we went to LA. We went to church at Reality LA and on our way back were able to make a short but blessed visit to Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, where we joined the missions prayer meeting, a great group of people committed to praying for missionaries week in and week out. They have prayed for our needs and requests for many years, and we are so thankful for their support and impressed with their hearts for the mission of God and for prayer.

On Wednesday Balázs and I will be driving out to Colorado, with Rosemary and the kids coming by plane on Friday. Please pray for our travel and our transition to Longmont!

Change - Változás

(Magyar verzióért tekerd lejjebb)

There are some pretty significant changes going on right now with our family and ministry that we would like you all to know about.

This coming Sunday, January 22, we are going to ordain one of our elders - Hernádi János - as a pastor, and shortly thereafter he is going to take over pastoring the church here in Eger and our church plant in Heves.

In March, Rosemary and I and our kids, including Balázs, are moving to Colorado, where I am going to pastor White Fields Community Church in Longmont - where our friend Pete Nelson is currently pastoring.
We will fly out on March 6 to San Diego and spend 2 weeks in Southern California before driving out to Colorado. Our first Sunday at White Fields will be March 25.

I have been serving in Hungary for 10 years now, Rosemary for 13. We love Hungary and the work that God is doing through Calvary Chapel here, and it is very hard for us to leave.
This all may seem sudden to some of you, but it has been in the works for about a year and a half. We have waited until now, because we didn't want to leave until the ministry here was at a place where we could hand it over and until Jani was ready to step in as pastor.

We are not leaving because anything is wrong - in fact things are going really well in our ministry here and in our family, and we are making these changes simply because we believe that this is God's will and direction for our lives and for the churches involved. When we moved to Eger 7 years ago, our vision was to raise up leaders and eventually raise up a Hungarian pastor that we could hand the church over to. We are sad to leave Hungary, but at the same time, we are excited and looking forward to all the God has in store in the future for our family, for the church in Eger and for White Fields church in Longmont.

The ministry of the church here will continue on. God has blessed this church with a lot of committed and gifted people who want to serve the Lord with their lives. English Camp will continue - we already have the dates for it: July 9-14 - and Lord willing, I plan to be here for it this July, hopefully leading a team from White Fields to serve.

We would be happy to answer any questions that you might have!

A közeljövőben néhány jelentős változás történik Egerben - a családunk életében és a szolgálatban egyaránt. Most vasárnap, január 22-én, lelkipásztorrá fogjuk avatni a gyülekezetünk egyik elöljáróját, Hernádi Jánost, és nem sokkal azután ő fogja átvenni tőlem az egri és a hevesi gyülekezetek vezetését.

Márciusban pedig Coloradóba fogunk költözni Rosemaryvel és a gyerekekkel (természetesen Balázst is beleértve), ahol a White Fields Community Church gyülekezetének a lelkipásztora leszek, Longmont városában - ez az a gyülekezet ahol Pete Nelson lelkipásztor barátunk jelenleg szolgál.

Március 6-án indul a gépünk, először San Diego-ba megyünk, és ott leszünk 2 hétig Dél-Kaliforniában mielőtt továbbautózunk Coloradóba. Március 25. lesz az első vasárnapunk a White Fields-ben.

Én most már 10 éve szolgálok Magyarországon, Rosemary pedig 13 éve. Nagyon szeretjük Magyarországot, és szeretjük azt a munkát amit az Úr végez a Golgota által, így nagyon nehéz elmennünk innen.

Lehet, hogy néhányotok számára, ez elég hirtelennek tűnik, pedig már másfél éve folyamatban van. Azért vártunk eddig, mert nem akartunk elmenni, amíg a szolgálat nem volt olyan helyzetben, hogy át tudjuk adni, és amíg Jani nem volt felkészülve hogy fel tudja vállalni a pásztori szolgálatot.

Nem azért megyünk, mert valami baj van; igazából, nagyon jól megy minden a családunkban is meg a gyülekezetben is. Egyszerűen azért megyünk, mert hiszük, hogy ez az Isten akarata és irányítása az életünkre és az érintett gyülekezet számára is. Amikor ide költöztünk Egerbe 7 évvel ezelőtt, az volt a tervünk, hogy alapítsunk egy gyülekezetet és neveljük fel helyi vezetőket, idővel pedig egy lelkipásztort is, akinek majd átadhatjuk a szolgálatot. Ez a vizió beteljesült, és ezért örvendezünk! Szomorú dolog nekünk innen elmenni, de ugyanakkor izgalmas is, és várjuk mind azt a jót, amit az Úr tartogat a mi családunknak, az egri Golgotának és a longmonti White Fields gyülekezetnek.

A gyülekezet szolgálata ugyanúgy folytatódni fog. Az Úr nagyon megáldotta ezt a gyülekezetet sok elkötelezett és tehetséges emberrel, akik az Urat szeretnék szolgálni az életükkel. Az Angol Tábor is ugyanúgy folytatódni fog - az időpont is megvan már: 2012. július 9-14 - és ha az Úr is azt akarja, én is jövök a táborba, remélhetőleg egy szolgáló csapattal a White Fields gyüliből.

Kedves magyar barátaink, nagyon fogtok hiányozni! Továbbra is fogunk imádkozni az itteni misszióért, és vissza fogunk járni amennyit csak tudunk. Kérlek benneteket, hogy szeressétek és támogassátok Janit és Tündét, úgy ahogy minket is szerettetek és támogattatok!

Ha esetleg vannak kérdéseid, szívesen válaszolunk!

It's Official

Here is the blog post I wrote a little over 3 years ago, when Balázs moved in with us and we became his foster parents. nickandrosemary.blogspot.com/2008/11/ch-ch-changes
Check it out - it is a blast from the past and worth the read.

This August we began the process of adopting Balázs. We didn't tell many people about it, because we weren't sure if it would be possible, as adoption can be a complicated and sometimes long and difficult legal process.

This Monday we got the papers in the mail that our adoption of Balázs has been approved and finalized. It's official; Balázs is now our son!



Why now? There are multiple reasons. To name only a few: Balázs is 17 now, which means that it was now or never. After turning 18 a person can no longer be adopted in Hungary. Another reason is because Balázs is part of our family - our little ones don't even remember a time when Balázs wasn't around; Nate was 1 and a half when he moved in - and we want to make Balázs' place in our family official and stable, and ensure that even after he turns 18, he has a secure family background.

I must say though, that as difficult as the adoption process can be for many people, we had an amazingly smooth experience. We saw the hand of God in a lot of things along the way which were potential roadblocks to us being able to adopt Balázs at all. It was also to our benefit that we had already had Balázs as a foster child for years and the authorities knew us and saw that we had his best interest in mind, which caused them to speed up the process.

We are glad to have Balázs as an official member of our family, and we are blessed that we get to be a part of God's work in his life.

Kitüntetés - Award

Balázs több mint más fél éve tagja az egri polgárőrségnek.

Tegnap egy kitüntetést is kapott: Az Év Ifjú Polgárőre.

Nagyon büszkék vagyunk rád, Balázs!

Balázs has been a member of the Eger citizen's brigade - a volunteer organization that helps support the police - for about a year and a half now.

Last night he got an award: Youth Guard of the Year

We're proud of you Balázs!