Clara's First Tea Party

But where's the tea?

Thanksgiving Table in our New Home

Well we looked all over for turkey, then high and low for chicken. Not finding either Renee turned to the canned chicken sent from the states, put it in a casserole with stuffing and all. Hot rolls, sweet potatoes, and even apple pie for dessert. Here's to being thankful for these and the One Gift Above All, and finding ourselves in His Loving Hands.

Sunrise Breakfast at 8:30

The View East

This is the view out our kitchen or dining room window. In the background there are schools, and a park with trees.

Coffee with Exotic Visitors

Here we are with our first visitors, all the way from Germany and Canada (Originally)

Home Portrait

Here we are in front of our fireplace.

Growing Together

All four girls seem to be growing these days. The three older ones wait in line to hold the baby.

Good Morning Gravy Tea

Stopped into my neighbor's today. They were making the day's tea. It's customary for a guest to stay and drink some. So I stayed. The usual milk tea was made, but oddly I wasn't offered any. First they needed to fry up chunks of fat, to which they added flour and salt. Then return the tea to the mix. The process took at least a half hour. There was no hurry. Then finally, they offered me my cup of gravy-fortified tea, complete with chunks of floating fat floating on top. Good to the last drop. And the second cup wasn't bad either.

Home Sweet Home

Last Saturday, we loaded up all our stuff on trucks and moved it three hours west into our new house in Bulgan, Mongolia. The roads turned white with snow about 50 miles before we got there. It was kind of memorable to move in on the first snow of the year. Mercifully, the snow covered many unfinished outdoor projects, which made concentrating on the interior unfinished stuff a little easier. Some of those jobs included hurriedly getting down new carpet before the moving truck arrived with furniture for that room. About two thirds done, the door to the room opened and the face of the driver emerged with a look that said he was unloading ready or not. We got ready quick, and he did too.

We got some great help unpacking that day and the next. Then our help had to go, leaving us with Renee's mom Ann to help with the baby and more unpacking. That second night a real cold wind came up. It gave our heating system a pretty good try. Without many curtains or doors yet, we had some bad drafts, especially upstairs. But the house stayed reasonably warm especially the rooms with heat turned on. Now we're in the city to bring Ann to the airport for her return flight. Since we have electric thermostat heat, our house can stay warm enough to keep the plumbing from freezing, even when gone for several days. Thank God.

Celebrating Birth!

Clara's body language here describes how we feel. Great to be out of the woods and in the clear. Thank God!

Clara Jem Bergevin was born October 8, at 4:45pm in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. She was 5 pounds and 19 inches. Mom and baby are both doing great. We thank God they both made it through a breach birth without surgery or serious incident. Thanks to those who prayed to help bring this blessing about. Relieved and grateful, The Bergevins

Clara Jem Bergevin is Here!

Lydia and Clara

Then They Were Four

Packing to Move

Renee spent a good part of the summer packing boxes for our move this fall. It's all pretty much ready.

Here it looks like Maggie and Lydia have Johanna packed in a trunk for the journey. Not that she appears to mind...

Night Work

Night fell on unfinished work, so the guys hooked up a light to try to finish this garage wall before calling it quits.

They got it done, then everyone inside the tent behind for dinner and much needed and enjoyed eats and sleep.

Warm Floor

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Here's a picture of the heating we put in all the floors of our house. After the thermal layer, this wire that gets warm when connected to electricity, then concrete is layed over, and in places tile over that. Thanks to many generous contributions, the price of the floor was easily covered. Thanks to God, we can expect to be nice and warm this winter.

Marshmallow Roast

Well, I think this September 1st photo captures are first and last marshmallow roast of the summer for us. Maggie and Lydia got to learn how to brown their own, and of course enjoyed eating them too.

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Lydia's Painted Rock

Here's Lydia with a rock she painted as a craft during a week spent with the other kids of our team during field forum. The big kids helped the little ones. I think God designed it to work that way. And this week it really did!

Summer Storm

Now I don't have pictures to prove this, but yesterday at the job site in Bolgan I saw snowflakes...on August 23rd. I was watching the cold rain, mesmerized by the 45 degree angle at which it was coming down in waves. Then if possible, the wind picked up even more, and I saw a few chunks of solid matter dancing through the air. Seems like winter is on the way.

C&MA in Mongolia Mission News Link

http://www.camamongolia.org/
Check out this link to find out how you could get involved in God's work in Mongolia.

Hand Dug Well

Here's a picture of Ganzorig about about 20 feet below. It took him and a team about a week to dig this hole. Then it had to be dig even deeper. They pumped and dug in waste deep water simultaneously to make the well about 5 feet deeper than this, before installing casing and an underground storage tank. It was a dirty muddy job.

Today the water comes out as clear as any tapwater, with similar water pressure powered by a small electric pump.

Birthday Party for Lydia

Lydia and Gang Eat Cake

Lydia turned 4 in July. Our middle child is growing so fast. Everyone had fun eating cake and playing water balloons on this hot day of her party.

The Roof's On the House

Ice Cream Fun

A new family has joined our team in Mongolia. They have even more kids than us. Here they are together having fun with popsicles outside a local restaurant.

Celebrating in the Heat of Summer

This was taken at the national celebration called Naadam. We were trying to watch some wrestling, but everyone was so hot, we were mostly concentrating on eating something to cool or quench thirst. The sun is so intense here, going without a hat is inadvisable and nextdoor to miserable. So all our girls were in proper fashion, for a little bit, on a hot Darhan day in July.

Job Site Living

Here's where workers sleep while working on the building in Bolgan. Just outside our Ger door is a nice 6 foot trench to fall in if you're not careful. This trench contains our septic line and tank, and is now partially completed and filled in. Now for a roof on that house!

Summer Work

So we're moving to a town 3 hours away. All we have to do first is finish this house, so we have somewhere to stay. This is us, Jeremy and three guys from Darhan C&MA, after we finished pouring the foundation. (On a log home here, you assemble the logs on blocks, then put the foundation under the house -- a little different but it works)