Greetings from Riga!
Life with God is full of surprises!
The Sabbath year was meant for us to rest and seek God’s will, and for our kids to get to be close to their extended family. We thought we’d come back and serve in Latvia for the next 20 years. But already when half of the sabbath year had passed, we began to realise that Hiiumaa might become our home in the future. We had talked about it before, but we had always imagined it would happen once we’re retired. Now it seems like we might retire young, as we’ve started to look for our own home on Hiiumaa. We don’t know when our work in ministry will end (probably in 2-5 years), but we are in the beginning of the end.
Karola enjoyed herself a lot on Hiiumaa. Her Estonian is great, and she has become quite a chatterbox 😊. In September, she started kindergarten. During her first month there, she refused to speak Latvian – Latvian is spoken only with daddy 😊. Her Estonian is still better, but Latvian is slowly starting to catch up. Since Karola started kindergarten, we were ready to dive into full-time work. But…
In the beginning of this year we got a phone call where we were asked whether we’d be willing to accept Karola’s biological sister into our family. Rebeka was born in April 2018, and at the time of the phone call, she was already living with a Christian foster mother. Of course, we went to see her and tried to discern whether we could raise another child. We had to go through all the paperwork again and take some courses, but on September the 6th, Rebeka arrived at home. The first two months were very difficult because the girls didn’t get along, and jealousy didn’t mend matters. Interestingly enough, Rasmus and Rebeka got along fine from the first day on, although it didn’t go as smoothly with Karola. Rebeka isn’t officially adopted yet, as she must live with us for six months first, but it seems like our family of three has unexpectedly become a large family of five. 😊 Which brings us to the next surprise…
According to Latvian law, all our children must sit in a safety seat in the car. We had planned on using our nice and comfortable car for a couple of more years, but it didn’t have room for three child seats. Kaspar started reading advertisements and found out that there’s no way we can afford our dream car. Surprisingly, the kind of car he dreamed about soon stood parked in our yard, having my (Evelyn’s) birth year in the registration number. The car needed fixing, and there are still some jobs to be done, but otherwise it’s exactly the kind of car Kaspar has dreamed of.
The surprises in our life continue, but we’re not ready to talk about all of them just yet. Maybe we’ll continue in the next newsletter(s) 😊
Regardless of the events in our private life, Wings for Wheels continues its work. Soon we’ll hold the annual banquet for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the planning work for the summer camp has begun, Kaspar has started a small group as well as begun recording a podcast. He also continues with physiotherapy. I’m mostly at home with Rebeka, but sometimes I get a chance to do a little photography (or write a newsletter 😊) and be a part of W4W’s work, in the very least by giving advice.
Wishing you blessings,
Evelyn, Kaspars, Rasmus, Karola and Rebeka