Life Elevated

Hello everyone!

We are now resting in Provo, Utah!  This is the city where our dear friends Ben and Kat Jarashow live in, and it is also the home of BYU, the university famous for it's Mormon faith.  In fact, the city of Provo, according to Kat, is 95% Mormon!  It's very different from the other, liberal cities that we are used to (Washington, D.C. or Toronto, Ontario).  That's the country we live in!  We used to think that all the cities were pretty much the same, but when you come here, you'll definitely see a cultural difference.  It kind of reminds me of Lubbock, Texas - where we were bible school students.    

Ben and Kat live here because they work with the ASL/Deaf Studies Department at Utah Valley University, which is a stone's throw from BYU.  The two big universities creates a very nice college-style buzz in this place with many restaurants and modern stores.  We'll take pictures of the city when we get out and about today and tomorrow.  We'll actually visit Salt Lake City tomorrow.  You'll see pictures of those cities in the next blog!

We arrived in Provo Monday night, and spent Tuesday visiting Ben and Kat at UVU.  There was a seminar about Deaf people's rights to have ASL, and we enjoyed seeing the signing community in Provo.  Dr. Flavia Fleischer gave the keynote speech and it was very inspiring to see a Deaf woman take the stage and educate many college students.

When Tuesday evening (last night) came, it was time for the fundraiser cook-out.  Chef Ben cooked the burgers and foot-long hotdogs, while Kat served up a dazzling array of dips and side dishes.  A nice number of people came, we mingled, and we gave our presentation.  It was a great time to get to know the local people here in Provo and Salt Lake City.  They were very interested into our goals, and they were motivated to help.  One couple came to us and asked for help into finding a child to adopt from Eastern Europe, and we told her that we definitely would help!  Another woman came to us and told us that her church does send packages of supplies to children, and told us to keep in touch with her.

It's really wonderful to travel to different cities and meet many different people.  We live in a great nation, really, and the more miles we cover, the more we realize how blessed we are.  Unfortunately, children in other nations doesn't share the same blessing that we enjoy, and that's what motivates us to give back to those who are less fortunate.  And we are very blessed to have many people who are willing to come and listen to our presentation and be a part of working towards a goal of giving love, hope, and a future to abandoned children in Eastern Europe.

Ben and Kat had to leave this morning to go to Washington D.C. for Gallaudet's film festival.  We miss them, and are grateful for them letting us stay here at their home for a couple more nights.  We have plenty of food left over from the cook-out, and actually before we typed this blog, we had leftover burgers and dip!

Tomorrow it's off to visit Park City and Salt Lake City, and we'll take pictures and share them with you. We will rest, because we haven't had much rest since leaving Iowa last Saturday.  We'll also work on editing and adding subtitles to the DVD of our presentation that we'll send out to different churches/families that we couldn't stop by on our road trip.

We leave this Friday early morning to go to Fremont, California.  It'll be a 13 hour drive, so we are recharging our road-trip batteries now!

- Alex/a

Just reminding you that we're in Utah!  :)

View from Ben and Kat's home when we arrived.  Utah Lake on the right.  

Their beautiful house is on the side of a mountain.  Nice!  

One of the cool signs in their home

Kat in the morning

The House, The Mountain, and The Lincoln

This is on the street of Ben and Kat's home.  Beautiful view.  Park City is behind that mountain.

Wanna climb that?  

Kat warning Alexa of the thousands of lions around.  Not.  

Autumn is a wonderful time

Kat's always been a close friend - since seventh grade!  

A budding rock-climber

Check out the mountains and Utah Lake in the background!  

BYU stadium

The cook-out!

Hungry yet?  

The guy is Philippe, Mark Montalette's dad!  His wife, Yvonne, is on the left.

No projector, no HDTV - just the ol' laptop and PPT!  It worked out great, though.  

Alexa sharing why she has a passion to go and help orphans

The Jarashows and the Abenchuchans.  We miss them already!