Mr. Observant

Braden is the exact opposite of Karsten. It is truly amazing to have twins and then to watch them as they observe the world in completely different ways. If these two can remain close God can use them as a perfect team! Braden has the eyes of an eagle, honestly the best of the family. No doubt he is pilot material!

He is very mechanical and loves to see how things fit together!

Most of all though, he is a lover. He loves people, being with people, and caring for people. He has a huge protective heart and is truly a sensitive soul. We love watching him interact with friends, family, and animals, and he is developing an incredible sense of humor on top of it. We are excited to watch God use him to care for people, especially Slovenes. This pic below demonstrates perfectly his ability to link people together :)

The Independent

Karsten keeps us guessing, but we have learned to really embrace the personality God has given him. No doubt we are tested, but we completely trust God is going to use him in unique ways as he continues to develop. Here is a snapshot of the things we see, sometimes daily!

Most people get tired after a big lunch!

I wish we could do this everyday!

And then there is this last pic. Karsten is in the middle of this group. These are Slovene speakers only and Karsten played for an hour with them at our church retreat - they loved it and he never thought twice about it! This last picture helps us remember the personality so strongly displayed in the first pic can have great rewards. We pray Karsten will take his independence and let God use it to change the world around him!

Krofi

As a former police officer I haven't really lost my love of donuts, but they make them a little different here. Personally I prefer the plain American donut, but the kids like the size of the donuts (krofi) that Slovenia offers!

The Javelin

Random things. This year Tahlia has participated in the track club, known here as "Atletika."  Now in youth track you would expect running, long jump and maybe even hurdles if you were aggressive. Do you think you would see the javelin event? Well here in Slovenia they have javelin training.

Seriously, this is the youth javelin! Personally I think it would have been much more interesting seeing kids throw a spear, but I found this intriguing. Being a huge football fan I can only hope all the  young javelin throwers can progress into quarterbacks who want to intro real football to Slovenia!

Love of Music

One thing we love about Europe is the continent's love of music, not the 80's hits you hear in all the cafes, but the classical stuff. This is coming from a sports guy too :) Both Tahlia and Mikaela have enjoyed learning and we are grateful for how God has provided good instructors. Tahlia has been playing piano for several years now. Mikaela has sang in a choir, learned some piano, but is now at the music school learning classical guitar and theory. Here is a pic of her last performance. We really hope they stick it out and can fill our home with music in the years to come!

Chivalry is Not Dead!

It snows here in the winter, ALOT. Not that we get tons of storms, but when one blows in it can easily dump a couple feet at a time. This leads to a ton of work at trying to remove the snow from our driveway. The neighbors usually all work at this together, including Majda who is 60+ years old. This snow removal can punish you and can easily take a few hours of work. That is why this picture below is so precious. The boys did this work without being asked. Ashley just happened to look over and see the boys cleaning snow from Majda's driveway. It really does melt our heart and cause us to realize that the things we are teaching are beginning to set into their hearts, even when it seems like it isn't! Thanks Braden and Karsten for your hearts of service!

Hazel vs. The Neighborhood Bully

So much of our life is posted on Facebook, but I really do want to keep this blog going! If you are not friends with us on FB, please friend us at Chris Ashley Wick. Onward to our dog.

This is Hazel on Christmas Day with a new toy. Neither the toy or the dog look like this 2.5 months later, but Hazel hasn't changed much in look, just size! This picture was taken about 1 hour before we went on a walk through the neighborhood. It was on this walk that a German Shepherd tried to have a labrador for his Christmas dinner. Poor Hazel got mauled pretty good. At the scene of the incident it seemed like she was ok all things considered, but when we got home and cleaned her up we discovered she had a few puncture wounds on her back. Being Christmas day we thought we would just wait a day and get her to the vet the following day, but that was a poor choice. Infection set in so quickly and she struggled to breath with each breath. Ashley contacted a vet early in the morning and within a few hours Hazel had an operation to clean out infection and put in tubes. 

The whole experience was fairly traumatic for Tahlia and Ashley who were with the dog away from the rest of us. But when I (Chris) heard the screaming and finally got to them I was amazed to see Ashley restraining this massive dog and really saving the life of our own. This is probably why Hazel is completely attached to Ash, which is completely appropriate since Ashley is the true dog lover of our family!! Hazel is completely healthy today and almost over her fear of other dogs :)