Røsvik Top 10 from 2010

In keeping with tradition, here is our family's Top 10 from the past year!

10. Markus' travels
Markus was able to travel to NTM meetings in both England and Spain, as well as to his brother's wedding in Germany. The kids and I were *supposed* to join him for those trips, but we had to back out each time due to my visa not being approved, so that was a bit of a disappointment. But he had wonderful and encouraging and safe travels this year, and we are thankful that my visa was recently approved so that we can join him on a few trips in 2011!

9. First ambulance rides
I'll save you the gory details (you can reminiscence with us here and here if you want to...), but it was an action-packed spring for the kids health-wise, each of them getting to fly through the streets in an ambulance for the very first time!

8. Levi started school 
Our baby boy is now officially a first grader! (School here starts in first grade...no kindergarten!) It was a bit of a challenging start for him culturally and language-wise, but today he is thriving and he loves going to school...and reading in both languages. :-)

7. Trip to Trøndelag...and a blessing when we returned home
During Levi's fall break from school, Markus was invited to share about NTM in a church up north. We all tagged along, and had a wonderful week of rest. Then we returned home just in time for our niece's birth! Little Miriam Davina has brought so much joy and hope into all of our lives, and I state emphatically that there is nothing better than holding a sweet newborn baby!

6. Weekend in the "hytta"
I have never been a camping or fresh-air kind of girl, but there is just something about this place that makes me not mind the no electricity or running water. Markus' aunt owns a little cabin here, and when the one year anniversary of our miscarriage rolled around, we felt a need to go away for a weekend for some time to enjoy our two precious blessings. His aunt graciously gave us the keys for the weekend, and what began as a sad weekend turned into a special time for all of us.

5. Summer family reunion
Markus' dad turning 70 + his mom turning 60 = family reunion with all 6 siblings and their families! It was a crazy, busy, fun, and wonderful week here on the island...reminiscing, laughing, talking, eating, and loving. Who would've thought you could marry into as wonderful of a family as I did?

4. A new sister
And of course, how could we not include that we got a brand new sister-in-law this year? (Technically, I do not think Anne is my sister-in-law since I am her husband's sister-in-law. But I really don't care about the technicalities. As far as I'm concerned, we are now sisters!) It's not been an easy last few months for Anne and Erlend with many unforeseen challenges, but God has faithfully led them this far and we are excited to see where He will take them in the years to come.

3. Visitors
Is there anything better than visitors when you are living abroad? (Besides holding a newborn baby, quite possibly not!) This year we had two wonderful visits...first from my two younger sisters in March. And second from our dear friend Jancy and her husband Jakup! Both visits were wonderful and special in their own ways, and we look forward to the next round of visitors in 2011...a couple tentative ones in the spring and fall, and a definite 3-week visit from my parents in July!

2. Six months in Bergen
The year started out with a freezing, jet-lagged shock as we landed in Bergen in -15 degrees on the last day of 2009. Our plans were to find a home in Bergen and settle there, but as we've experienced so many times before, "A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps." (Proverbs 16:9) It wasn't easy for us to make the big decision to move our family north, and one of the biggest reasons for that was our church in Bergen that we had so been looking forward to being a part of. As disappointed as we were to say good-bye to them after just 6 months, we are thankful for the time we had with our church family.  

1. God's faithfulness
Wow, how humbling and incredible it is when we pause to reflect on the many ways God has answered prayers and provided for us in 2010. It may not have been in the way we'd wanted or according to our time-plan, but in retrospect it is always clear that God knows what is best for us. (The challenge is to grow in our relationship with Him so that we are able to trust and rest in Him when we're in the midst of the difficulties!) This past year has been a challenging year for us, but we know that God wants to teach us through the times of transition, uncertainty, loneliness, loss, and sadness. And how much more valuable the lessons learned through the painful processes! (Think: how is a pearl is formed?)

"When we look back and wonder how we ever made it this far, we realize it is not because we have been clever, but because God has been wise; not because we have been strong, but because God has been mighty; not because we have been consistent, but because God has been faithful." (Roy Lessin)


We wish each of you a blessed new year in 2011!

"Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
(Ephesians 4:22-24)

T-minus 2.5 hours until 2011 in Norway!


-the Røsviks-

I got the visa!!!!!

We have good news! My visa was approved!

(I have to sheepishly admit that this is sort of old news...we've known since Wednesday and soon after finding out I shared the good news on facebook, but I've not had a chance to update our blog until now. I got an email yesterday from a sweet lady, who is not on facebook, telling me she is still praying for the visa. And that's when I realized that I might have left a few people hanging. I'm sorry!)

On Wednesday around lunchtime, Markus texted me from Oslo, right before catching his connecting flight to Munich. The immigration people had just called him to tell him I got the visa.

I'm going to be really honest - the first thing I did when I read Markus' text message was cry.

Then I got a little angry when my mind cleared and it hit me that if we'd just gotten that answer a day or two sooner, then the kids and I could have gone to the wedding.

So I then texted Markus back a not-so-very-joyful response...which caught him a little off-guard, and he called me and then of course I cried all over again.

And then I realized how terrible I was acting...all year long we'd been praying for this visa. And God had answered our prayers, and my first reaction was to be angry and thankless.

So I sat down, breathed a little, and prayed.

And I got a major attitude adjustment.

And then I smiled.

And then I realized how relaxed I felt. And how thankful I was.

If God had wanted me and the kids at the wedding, it would have been no problem for Him to grant us that visa a day earlier, or even a month earlier. It still sort of stinks that we has to miss out on it, but I'm choosing to trust that He knows what is best for us.

We had a very special week here at home. Spent most of it with my sister-in-law and her family (baking, talking, playing, eating, holding the baby) and then we came home on Friday night and had a dear friend stay with us. We weren't able to get her car up the hill to the house, so first thing on Saturday morning she taught me how to shovel snow. (I told her, after my eyes and nose were running and my arms and lungs were burning, that THIS is why people move to Florida.)

Saturday night we had a wedding party at our house with the family who were "left behind." My brother-in-law Helge worked hard to get us connected via Skype for the wedding. We almost thought it wasn't going to work (no internet connection in the church) but at the last minute, a kind German man offered the SIM card from his cell phone for Helge to use and we connected through the cell phone signal.

It was wonderful!

The bride was stunning and the groom was handsome. And it was special to be able to see and hear Markus as he married them.

Our little "wedding party." The groom's big sister, 5 nephews and nieces, me, and a dear family friend.

We watched the wedding on our projector screen. Here is Emma i her flower girl dress,
which she insisted upon wearing as we watched the wedding. :-)

Thank you so much for praying for us, especially in the last few weeks. We appreciate you all so much. Good night!

-Sarah-

8 years (My annual sappy anniversary post...)

8 wonderful years.

8 amazing years.

8 crazy years.

8 expensive years.

8 fun-filled years.

8 difficult years.

8 growing years.

8 joyful years.

8 traveling years.

8 suspenseful years.

8 unknowing years.

8 wonderful years.

8 wonderful, wonderful years.

When I think back to 8 years ago...Saturday, December 14th, 2002...the day I said "I do" to the most amazing person in this world...the day I got a cool new last name that has an "o" with a slash through it...when I think back to that day, I almost don't recognize myself. (I wonder if I'll say that about myself today, 8 years from now?)

2002. A very young and naive Sarah and Markus.

I think back to little, 19-year-old me.

Sitting on an airplane 2 weeks after our wedding, looking down at the bright lights of New York City as we made our first international move as a couple. That is the exact moment that it hit me what I was doing...no, what I had just DONE...and that there was no turning back now.

And what a ride it's been so far! Wonderful and exciting, yet not always easy and fun.

Marriage is always hard work. And marrying cross-culturally and dealing with language and cultural barriers brings challenges all its own.

But one thing has been crystal clear these last 8 years, amidst the highs and the lows, the joys and the sorrows: God is good.

Even when things didn't go the way we wanted them to go. Even when we were forced to go in a direction we hadn't planned. Even when we had to go without. Even when we were faced with sorrow and loss.

Through it all, He's given us each other to have and to hold, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; until the day we die.

I used to be a little embarrassed at how young I was when I got married (19) and became a mommy (21 and 22), and I couldn't wait to hit my mid-twenties so I could seem a bit more "credible" to the world. Now that I'm finally in my mid-twenties (er...is 27 still considered "mid" or is it more along the lines of "late"?), I look back and am so thankful for the path God led me down in my younger years. It wasn't easy and I didn't have a clue what I was doing (not that I have that much more of a clue now...), but because of my weaknesses and vulnerability, I know that it's only by God's grace that we've made it this far.

But you know, it really has been fun to grow up alongside Markus. :-) And I know we're just getting started.

Looking forward to the rest of our lives!

I love you, Markus!

Repeating my vows from the book of Ruth...
Little did I know how often those words would come back to haunt me in the years to come. ;-)

We are home this evening after an all-day Christmas shopping trip to town. We'd been planning to do a good deal of gift buying in Germany, but...well...like I wrote earlier, things don't always gone the way we want them to. :-)

Markus leaves early tomorrow morning for Germany.

The kids and I will "move" down the road to my sister-in-law Marte's house where we will have a big party for the rest of the week.

Then the party will continue this weekend as the kids and I "move" back home and a couple of girl friends come to spend the weekend with us.

Marte and I hope the computer-intellectuals at the wedding can figure out a way to transmit the ceremony live to us via Skype on Saturday...and if that works out, we will join the celebration that way. Maybe we'll dress up...or even make a cake!

And we are thinking so much of Markus' youngest brother Erlend and his beautiful bride-to-be Anne, who will be embarking on this wonderful journey of marriage in just 3 days!

-Sarah-

Visa...the next chapter

Well I didn't get the visa in time.

And our back-up plan didn't work out either, so Markus is going without Emma.

Emma's pretty flower girl dress and shoes (which were the cause of many hours of stress on both sides of the ocean) will not be needed after all.

It's been a pretty tearful and bleak weekend in our house.

Made bleaker by a bit of sickness.

And bleaker yet by discouraging news regarding some medical test results we've been waiting for.

And it's still pretty bleak around here today.

(I was contemplating canceling Christmas and New Year's yesterday and was on the verge of pitching the Christmas tree out the window, but thankfully that urge has now pretty much passed.)

Unfortunately we are still waiting for the answers regarding the visa. We don't feel as anxious as in the last months since we don't have the time pressure of the wedding bearing down on us anymore. But we still feel sick about it all. We've been discussing Markus' visa process for re-entry into the US and are ready to begin that the minute we might hear that I've been disapproved. (Yep, just going from one immigration nightmare to the other.)

And I have a lot more that I would love to say, but am going to stop for now so that I don't get myself into trouble or regret what I wrote later...

Why, my soul, are you downcast? 

Why so disturbed within me? 

Put your hope in God, 

For I will yet praise him,
  My Savior and my God. 

(Psalm 43:5) 

Frustrated and disappointed and a little angry too...
-Sarah-

Trick or treat?

Well, here it is. The long-awaited story of our trick-or-treating mishap. I do have to warn you that it is a little long, but I needed to include some background details so you fully understand why we acted the way that we acted....

Around 11 AM on Sunday, October 31st (commonly known as "Halloween"), we were enjoying a slow brunch on a dark and stormy day. Church wasn't until that evening, so the kids and I were still lounging around in our pajamas and Markus had just left the table to take a shower.

All of a sudden there was a very loud pounding on our front door.

(I say "front" door because it is the main entrance to the house. But technically it is at the back of the house...and it's pretty isolated back there. And when I say isolated, I mean it is an uninhabited, mountainous forest. Here is a picture of our "front" door. I took it standing on the rocks directly behind the house, and just a few feet behind where I was standing is where the forest begins.)

(Now so that you can fully understand some elements of this story, I have to digress for a moment to talk about me, doors, and my obsession with locking them.)

Here's where I come from : I grew up in a place where you always locked your doors. (And you locked your cars. And you had an alarm and/or some sort of anti-theft device in your car. Because it wasn't uncommon to wake up and find that in the night someone had swiped your car. Or tires. Or rims. Or car radio. In fact, you also locked your car doors when you were driving.) I saw drug deals on a semi-regular basis on the way to school, and I knew what streets to avoid driving down. I didn't usually go outside by myself after it was dark. Sometimes in high school when I came home late at night from work and had to park across the street, I would sit in my car for a very long time to psych myself up to get out and run across the street and get safely inside our apartment building. (One night I was so scared that I sat in the car for over an hour. Unfortunately these were the days before cell phones were common. Finally my dad came out looking for me because he was worried at how late I was getting home from work that night.) Some would argue that I'm making it sound too dramatic, but one night when I was a teenager, I witnessed someone being chased from her car into our apartment building by a very scary stalker. And I never forgot that.

Here's where Markus comes from : On this small island, he grew up keeping car doors unlocked. And house doors unlocked. And sometimes they even walked into each other's houses without knocking. Most people are related and everyone knows who everyone else is. (Seriously, just the other week a really sweet lady came up to me and introduced herself and lo and behold, we share the same last name and our husbands are second cousins. And I didn't have a clue who they were.) Because of the everyone-knows-everyone mentality, they know immediately if someone is a stranger or foreigner. (Believe me, I was peeked at from behind curtains for a while when we first moved here when we were newlyweds.) I do have to say that things have changed quite a bit from his childhood and teenage days as more and more "outsiders" have moved to the island, but you still have a pretty strong sense of a small-town feel here even today.

Because of all that I just explained, I just cannot bring myself to leave our door unlocked. I cannot relax in the house during the day or night unless I know that door is locked. And this drives Markus nuts. I guess it's understandable once you understand how different our upbringings were.

(Ok, back to the story.)

Suddenly, there was a very loud pounding on our front door. Like I said, Markus was locked in the bathroom and it was dark and stormy outside. We have a totally functional doorbell that everyone uses, so I found it really odd that this person was choosing to violently pound on our door instead of ringing the doorbell.

Needless to say, with the darkness and wind howling outside, I was freaked out.

I checked out the front windows and saw that there was no visiting car parked out front. And I even opened the kitchen window (which is a few feet away from the front door, but out of sight) and called out to whoever was at the front door, asking who it was.

There was no answer.

The pounding went on and on. The kids were getting really confused as to why I wouldn't open the door or let them open the door, and I was hopping up and down in the hallway, hyperventilating, pounding on the bathroom door telling Markus to get out and save us.

(Of course by now, Levi and Emma are freaking out. But judging from my upbringing and all I saw and experienced as a kid, can you not blame me for being so dramatic???)

Markus finally came out of the bathroom, and strangely enough, I seemed to have freaked him out as well. (Which is weird, because he's normally so calm and collected.) He also tried to get the door pounder's attention through the kitchen window, but to no avail.

And just as suddenly as the pounding began, it stopped. We all held our breath and stared at each other....and then ran to the front windows to peek around the curtains to see if we could catch a glimpse of whoever it was.

And out from the corner of the house emerged a small boy carrying a plastic grocery bag. "That's *****!" shouted Levi, referring to a neighbor child. Just as he said that, the boy turned around and stared right at the four of us peeking at him from behind the curtains.

(In hindsight, we've discussed how the proper thing to do at that moment would have been to wave and smile and motion for him to come back. But instead, as soon as he whipped around and saw us, we all four dropped to the ground to hide from him. And then Markus and I looked at each other in horror as we realized that Levi and Emma had just witnessed us acting like complete idiots and the neighbor boy had totally seen us. What must he think of us? What would he tell his mother?)

As the day went on, our discussion kept coming back to what had happened that morning and we couldn't figure out for the life of us what the boy had been wanting from us...maybe he had a school fund-raiser or something like that?

But then the next day, Levi came home from school and said that he had talked to the boy during recess.

Apparently he'd been trying to trick-or-treat.

Wow.

I felt awful. (And a little confused...I've never seen a child trick-or-treat in normal street clothes with a plastic grocery bag, but then again this is my first experience with trick-or-treating in Norway. And to be honest, we had absolutely no candy in the house, so had I actually answered the door, it would have been very disappointing for him.)

Several weeks went by before I saw the boy again. (I see his sweet sister almost each day at the bus stop.) And just last week I finally saw him. I started to say something to him about it, but before I could finish the first word, he took off running.

Oh dear.

I think we might have really scared him.

This was definitely not one of our prouder moments in life.

And I am very embarrassed writing about it.

But it feels good to get it off my chest.

Next year, I am going to be prepared. (Or just stay hidden until the trick-or-treaters are out of sight...)

-Sarah-

All is calm, all is bright...

...in our warm, cozy house tonight.

This morning we went to town to run some errands. And it snowed and it snowed and it snowed!

Then we came home and ate dinner, and after a fun (messy), joyous (dramatic), and memorable (stressful) assembly of a gingerbread house, we all curled up on the couch to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas. Finally, after 9 years of togetherness, Markus knows what I (and all other Americans) are referring to when we talk about a "Charlie Brown Christmas tree."

Now the kids are fast asleep, snuggled up in their warm beds, and Markus is speaking at the youth group meeting, which began at 9:30 this evening.

The house is so quiet, and our Christmas decorations look so peaceful and pretty in the candlelight. 

So here is what our house looks like tonight...

We may very well be the only family in Norway who has already put up their Christmas tree.
Like everything else, cross-cultural marriages require extra compromise around the holidays.
For me, who is used to putting up the tree in November,
and for Markus who is used to putting it up on Christmas Eve,
and for the kids are used to putting it up in October like the Filipinos,
early December seemed like a good compromise. :-) 

Here are my Christmas tree decorations!
Thank you to my mother-in-law for helping me sew them!
I really, really like them!  

Good night from an arctic winter wonderland!

-Sarah-

Visa

Hi everyone.

I have been keeping pretty quiet on this subject because it evokes a lot of mixed emotions for me and I don't want to say anything wrong, nor did I want to be overly dramatic and sound the alarm, but I figure that it's time to share this with you all so you can be praying. This might be a bit long (that's nothing new for me!) but it takes a while to explain everything.

We are nearing the end of my 11-month visa application process for permanently living in Norway. (As in, it is next Friday.) This is something that usually goes like clockwork and is approved within a few weeks. Especially for a family like ours when it doesn't involve seeking asylum or a possible marriage scam (8 years and two children later...not likely!), and even more especially since I've had this same visa TWO times before.

But for some reason, there have been problems upon problems upon questions upon issues with my paperwork all year long. I think the biggest issues have to do with finances - not necessarily that we don't make enough money, but ranging from topics like taxes to the method that we are "paid" through NTM, which is something almost unheard of here in Norway. (You try telling the immigration official that you are trusting in your Heavenly Father to provide through churches and individual supporters when they require you to provide solid proof of a steady income for the next year...I promise they will look at you cross-eyed!)

Anyway, next Friday is the deadline for the visa process and the fact that this has been drawn out so long is making us very anxious and to be honest, quite skeptical about my being approved.

For the last few months, the most anxiety was from wanting it to be approved in time for the wedding in Germany (which we are supposed to leave for in just over a week) but now I have stopped even thinking about that and am now focused on whether or not we will be allowed to continue living here.

When I said "mixed emotions" at the beginning, I mean that it's hard for me emotionally because I feel so pulled in different directions. Everyone knows that it wasn't exactly easy for me to leave the Philippines to move here to Norway, and my feelings haven't really changed over the course of this year. Now I'm not saying that I am justified in the way I am feeling, and I am the first to vehemently oppose making decisions based on feelings because I know first-hand how wishy-washy and emotionally-driven feelings are. But when we find ourselves in this situation where each day the chances of us not staying in Norway get bigger and bigger, it does a number on my heart and emotions as my mind races thinking and dreaming about "Can we go back? Is this God's way of leading us back?"

Now I do need to say that if my visa is disapproved, that doesn't necessarily mean that I am kicked out right away. We have two options : either leave the country within 4 weeks, or decide in less than 3 weeks to contest the outcome, and then I can continue staying here throughout that process.

Markus and I have begun talking a bit about those two options and what we would do. It's hard to make a decision like that until you actually find yourselves in the actual situation, so we don't know yet. We'll cross that bridge if we come to it. But that would definitely be a difficult decision for us to make.

Markus has been calling the immigration department frequently for any sort of update on my paperwork. (On Monday they told him not to call back until next week. Ha.) What we were last told about 2 and a half weeks ago was that I should have my answer by the end of that week. And now it is two weeks later...and we are feeling like this can't be a good thing.

We do know without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord is in control of this situation. And this is not the first time we've found ourselves in a stressful, down-to-the-wire visa situation - I could spend all morning writing out the gruesome details from past experiences. Unfortunately that doesn't make it any easier this time - up until now, the Lord has graciously allowed us to be approved for the various visas for me in Norway, Markus in the US, and all of us in the Philippines. But we do know that approval might not always be the outcome.

Please pray for us as "hearts-a-racing" is a pretty common feeling these days, all day long. We talked to the kids a bit this morning at breakfast because we don't want Levi to be caught suddenly off-guard if it turns out that he and I can't join Markus and Emma at the wedding. (Markus and Emma will definitely go; Levi will only go if I am able to go.) Of course that turned into tears - for him because he wants to go so badly, and from Emma because she doesn't want to go without me (even though she will be a flower girl). But we all prayed together, and to be honest, this is such a cool situation to find ourselves in because this will be yet another chance for the kids to experience first-hand how our family is totally dependent on God.

I will keep you all updated as soon as find out anything...Markus called again today and there were still no answers. :-)

-Sarah-

P.S. Here are some pictures, each from early December over the past years...sort of to make up for the long, wordy post... ;-)

2010, Norway

2009, USA

2008, Philippines

2007, Philippines

2006, Philippines

2005, Philippines

2004, Norway