These are the times...

The are the times...The best times and some of the hardest times of my life.

I love this time in my life. Maybe more than any other time so far. I have a wonderful husband- he's absolutely golden! And a great little boy. I could sit and watch Gavin for hours without tiring. He is always discovering new things. All day long. One day he figured out he had toes- and how much fun they were to play with (not to mention how tasty they must be!), another day he figures out how to scrunch up his nose and snort, the next day he figures out that the cat is more fun to play with than any toy we could buy...The list just doesn't end. He is only beginning to discover the world around him- what a gift that I get to watch. What a greater gift that I get to participate is his discoveries.

It's Christmas time. I've always loved the holidays, even more so now that I have JB and Gavin to share it with. What would have been such a great first Christmas with Gavin has become something very difficult for me. I knew it would be hard to be away from family during the holidays, but I think I forgot to figure in how different it would be to be overseas too. It would be hard being separated from family and still in the states, but it somehow seems so much harder being somewhere where they celebrate Christmas so differently. At least they recognize Christmas here, but there are no lights on houses, no snow (crazy thought, I know, we're in Russia!!! Where's the snow?) , no lighted trees or candy canes hanging from the street lights...Don't get me wrong, at least we can buy fake trees and lights and ornaments and all here, but the thing we call "holiday spirit" isn't really in the air -if you know what I mean. No Christmas carols playing in the stores, no salvation army ringing their bells outside of the grocery stores, no "Merry Christmas" greetings from clerks...That kind of stuff.

All that said, please don't feel badly for us- "those poor Hecocks, stuck in Russia"...It's not that at all! Just that we're adjusting to a very different culture, to being new parents, to being students again, on top of missing the 'comforts' of home. We are extremely blessed and have all the important things of life- number one being a gracious God who knows all our struggles.