one of our special cards...
Дякую, Сергей і Наташа
Христос Народився - Славімо Його!

Christmas lights...

strolling around a neighborhood

Someone's front yard

Having a jolly, jolly Christmas...!

one of our best Christmas presents...

Yeh - our friends from the Czech Rep, the Dagens are here!

Holiday fun...

Josh's school party - a little bit of cookie with the frosting

update...

It's so nice receiving everyone's Christmas cards. They are decorating our dining area. Many of you are asking how my health is so I'll give you a brief update. My doctor says that the cancer in me is "learning" right now - learning to get around the chemo treatment I had and the current RX I'm taking that helps keep cancer cells from growing. I would say I feel about 70%. I have some nerve damage in my fingers (numbness) from the chemo and body aches from the RX and get a little tired in the afternoons. Nutritional supplements seem to help. We are thankful that my tests keep coming back with the cancer marker count in the normal range. Thank you for praying! We pray that the cancer doesn't "learn" very well. It's always on Mark's and my mind, but my mind is also on verses such as, "You give me life and breath and everything else..." Acts 17:25 I love the "everything else" - like His peace. Thank you also for being part of His 'everything else' to our family! Emmanuel continues to be with us.

on a lighter note ...

We got our Christmas tree up as you see, but not only is Christmas upon us, but also the end of the semester. Last night was Talbot's baccalaureate dinner. Mark had to dress up in his peacock uniform he calls it (doctoral robe) for the ceremony. We ate dinner at a table with one of my Talbot student wives, her graduating husband and his family - they are all from Columbia! He is headed back to Columbia as one of the rare ones with higher religious education to help teach.

I had the joy of being a co-leader of one of the Talbot student wives' groups this semester. Besides Columbia, the wives in our group were from Jordon, England, S.Korea and America. I enjoyed each one of them - they were a blessing to me!

Today is graduation and then it's grading stacks of papers for Mark, parties for the boys and be-lated shopping for me.

Pray...

My heart is burdened this morning to pray... since we left Ukraine last March, there have been 5 of us families in Kiev with SEND Ukraine that have left for serious medical reasons - two others for cancer. Pray for the Friesens (the husband) and Barnharts (the wife) who are currently undergoing chemo treatment. Mark, Genna Friesen and Kevin Barnhart were part of the 5 man leadership team of SEND. Reading updates from these families, though, is a total blessing - watching them lean on God and God in action. Some of you have asked, "Is it Chernobyl?" There is just as much cancer in America and it doesn't matter. I love the verses: "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?..." Matt. 16:25-26. Because we didn't shy away from Chernobyl - our whole family, yes, including Ben and Josh gained so much LIFE in Christ our 13 years in Ukraine. Especially now, looking back, we wouldn't have traded it. Pray for our SEND team - they need just as much of God's grace losing our 5 families - they are waiting on the Lord to see if the other 4 families will be able to return - we pray that they are already experiencing God in deeper ways. Pray also for our Ukrainian colleagues - we love and miss them.

We also received some great news that my brother-in-law's surgery to remove some cancer was successful and is cancer free now - Yeh Michael!!! Good News is always music to our ears!

...off shooting hoops!

Guess who's playing basketball this year?! Ben received his letter of congratulations today for making the JV team! He's pretty excited that he truly will play on a basketball team for the first time in his life. I guess all those days going to the park with Dad and Josh to shoot some hoops since we've been back to America has paid off. Practice begins on Monday already!

correction...

Today, Mr. Winger told Ben that Mr. Taran (Ben's PE teacher and the JV coach) will most likely choose Ben to be on the JV team, but if he doesn't, then he would like Ben to be one of the student managers for the Varsity. Ben is fine with that and pretty excited that he'll at least be on one of the teams. He'll find out which one this weekend.

school days ...

We went to Josh's school Christmas program. The story was quite touching about some simple kids giving their hearts to the "King". The whole school was in it, so it was held at the elegant Civic Theatre with over 1,000 in the audience. Josh was part of the big choir and a small group playing the recorder. It was also quite the cultural experience as well. Ben commented afterwards that if it was a Ukrainian school, the program would have been more professionally done - our observations too. We like the casualness of American culture, but we also miss the professionalism in the area of the Arts in Ukraine beginning at the preschool age. Also, whenever the curtains were raised, parents, grandparents, siblings would yell out their child's name cheering them on. OK, is that a So. Cal thing? Talk about casual! Pictures and video cameras were not allowed, we have to BUY the DVD of it. Like I said, the story line was very touching. Grandpa and Grandma (Mark's parents) thought it was the best children's Christmas program they ever saw!

Ben tried out for his school's Jr. High basketball team. The coach asked him to be 1 of 2 student managers for the Varsity team, explaining that they will probably play the least, but will help him with stats, etc. Ben decided to go for it. He said he'd rather be a student manager on the Varsity team than play on the JV team and besides he thought, "... I won't be the worst player, maybe the other student manager will be like me." We were so glad that on his own, Ben wanted to try out. He's never been on a basketball team before and was going up against these boys who have played all their lives. His coach - Mr. Winger - is his Bible teacher, whom Ben likes alot.

We are sooooo thankful for these two Christian schools the boys are in. I'm usually a public school person - thinking we need to be in the real world, but these schools have been such a nice nurturing environment for this year of transition for Ben and Josh. The schools are not small - 250 7th and 8th graders at Ben's Jr. High and 2 classes of each grade at Josh's school, but the teachers and administration are God-sent. We thank the Lord for leading us to these schools - He knew what they needed.

Brain Exercises....

We are sitting in Alpina Cafe in So. Lake Tahoe sipping on our hot drinks surfing the net. We all have our own laptops this weekend thanks to Aunt Genevieve and Uncle Micheal and Biola. Mark and I are checking and sending e-mails, Ben and Josh are playing chess with others in Poland, Germany, America, England, and Italy ... when I comment (interrupting our web comatose) "Did you know we're still getting e-mails from our mail.com address?" Mark replies, "I don't think anyone uses that anymore." I start giggling at this nonsense conversation and Mark replies in his usual humor, "and then we'll go to Indonesia". Ben perks up, "We are!" Now, we're all cracking up. OK, maybe we better get off the web and get some fresh air in real life. I would post a photo, but I forgot our camera. We hope you are having a great Thanksgiving weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!

P.S. ...

It looks like in order to play the song that I posted, you need to put it on the pause mode for some reason.
Have a good week!

cool and didn't know it...

Our last name Saucy is apparently a cool word these days - at least here in So. Cal. Ben says that kids at his Jr. High (including the cheerleaders!) have come up to him asking if his name is really saucy. Ben answers, "Yes" - their reply is, "Cool!" Young salespeople tell us the same thing in stores, "Cool name!". And here we thought we would be these "out of it" missionaries coming back to America. Someone said it means sassy in a cool way. We use the french pronunciation: So-(long o)see - the only place it was ever pronounced correctly the first time was when we were at the Paris airport, but we'll take saucy now too... we think! :)

a trip to City of Hope

I went for my follow-up appointment at City of Hope. Some of the symptoms I'm experiencing is from the chemo I had, the others are from the med I'm taking, so Dr. Chow switched me to a different med that helps keep cancer cells from growing. Hopefully, I won't get the achyness with this new one. The good news is that my cancer marker count is still 12 - within the normal range.

City of Hope is a cancer research medical center. I'm so thankful I can be treated there. The down side of it is that it takes about 40-45+ minutes to get there depending on traffic. Most of the time I don't mind the drive though -time to spend with Mark, a friend or just with God. This time, I discovered a beautiful song on a new CD we got: "You Are Good" by Point of Grace meaning that God is always good. Enjoy...

a special guest from Ukraine ...

We had a special visitor from Ukraine this week - Eduard Borisov (Edik). Edik and Eric Oldenburg direct Talbot's new Extension Master's Program in Kyiv at KTS, while Mark now directs from here in CA. Talbot flew Edik over to get better acquainted with Talbot and it's vision. It was so nice to have him here. After a week of meetings, on his last day, we gave him the So. Cal experience - as you see in the photo - Laguna Beach.

Dr. Chow had me come in today because I've been having some numbing, tingling and aching in my fingers and arms. They are taking me off the arimidex for a few days or so and re-evaluating. I've had it for a while now, but it has progressively been getting worse, where last night I didn't sleep all that well. I'll write what the outcome is. I'm so glad I'm being treated at City of Hope - I called today and was seen by the doctor the same day! I'm most grateful because "the nearness of God is my good..." Ps. 73:28

Passing Mom up ...

Our oldest son has caught up to my height and our 10 year old is not far behind! It's kind of fun to be surrounded by my 3 big guys. Yesterday at the grocery store, one of our items was a razor like Dad's - so after a short lesson from Dad, some peach fuzz was shaved off a certain 14 year old for the first time. My how they are growing!

Catching up on the latest ...

On Oct. 15th, we returned from a short trip to Kiev, Ukraine. It was a trip to say good-bye to our lives as missionaries there after 13 years with SEND International. The trip was everything we would have wanted it to be: Ben and Josh had the time of their lives with old buddies that they had grown up with - sleep overs, laser tag, soccer game, etc - as well as sorting thru their stuff to give away or ship and getting their school work done that they were missing. At one point, Mark and I reminisced of why we enjoyed our work in Ukraine so much - because we were having so much fun with the students at Kyiv Theological Seminary (KTS) where Mark had been a Professor of Theology. We had one group over the home where we were staying at, another group Mark met with one evening along with individual meetings during the day and I saw all my favorite student wives, colleagues and missionary friends. We are esp. thankful for our colleagues - Eric and Josie with whom we stayed and Lois who gave us an Open House where we were able to see our SEND team and seminary faculty. Anatoly (President of KTS) and Galina also came back into town just in time for the Open House for whom we were so glad to see. We will miss everyone very much.

On Oct. 4th, I (Bonnie) had my last checkup which was filled with good news. You see, we relocated back to the States from Ukraine because of a recurrence of cancer in me. However, after chemo and a current RX I'm taking, all the scans show NO detectable cancer anywhere! My doctor is careful not to say a miracle has taken place because those at my stage of cancer (4) which has metastasised will always have the danger of the cancer still lingering and spreading once again - it may not happen for many many years or sooner than we would like. Regardless - we are thanking the Lord and all who prayed for how God has chosen to show His grace to us thru these great test results for now. My doctor, Dr. Chow, doesn't want to see me again until January. In the meantime, I will stay on my RX and once a month go to City of Hope where I'm being treated to receive an IV of aredia to strengthen my bones - tomorrow in fact.

Tonight, life is peaceful - Mark is off teaching an evening class at Talbot School of Theology of Biola University, where he is now a Professor, Ben is busy getting a science project done, Josh finished his history project and is now playing on his Game Cube. God has been so good to us.

"For in You, Lord, I live and move and have my being. I am Your offspring." Acts 17:28