Philippines No. 3

Just a few more pictures from our time in the Philippines

 Alia being very cool

We went to this church several Sundays, they had really good teaching, a coffee shop and ...

 ... lots of people

went to the zoo which was very interactive, Alia got to feed a lamb 

 and pinea pigs 

my phone got stolen while we were riding in one of these

 and on a lighter note: We made lots of awesome new friends like these two 

(this picture is just for you, Sarah!)

aaand we are back - well, almost

Our two week trip to the Philippines ended up being one month long and we left the country (with new visa in our passports - Praise the Lord!) with 3 hours left on our visa for the Philippines.

Now we are back in 'our' country, but not quite in 'our' city. We had to go to another island first to be registered...
The Lord has once again provided in an amazing way as we get to stay in a house of friends of our friend's friends. The place is amazing and the play area they have makes Alia's wildest dreams come true;

can you spot the happy child?

Philippines 2: The island in the lake on the island in the lake on the island...

During our time here in the Philippines we had the privilege to spend the first week with our very good friends Ragnar and Liz. For a while now we have simply referred to them as our third set of parents, and our kids' third set of grandparents. They are really, really cool people, and we are very thankful that they took time to come to Manila to hang out with us.

Since they know this area quite well, they offered to show us some of the sights in the area.
One really cool place they took us to see was the island in the lake on the island in the lake on the island. Let me explain real quick: We are now on the island of Luzon, which has a lake called Taal, in that lake there is a volcano, but the crater in that volcano is full of water, and in that lake there is a small island.

After about an hour and a half's drive from Manila we arrived at lake Taal. We stopped up on a ridge in a town called Tagaytay to look at the view of the lake. This is me and Alia with our third set of (grand)parents

After we drove down to the lake, we hired a boat to take us across to the volcano island

I have tried to stay away from this whole selfie hysteria, but... I guess this counts as one.

Alia enjoyed the waves.. at first at least

After arriving on the island we had the option of walking up to the crater, or riding horses. Because of a certain broken ankle because of a certain accident you might have read about a month ago we chose to ride the horses. Ragnar and Liz wanted to walk, and they were just as quick to the top as us

Ok... so the island in the crater lake is not huuuuuge, but it still is an island...

But, anyway, the sights up there were fantastic, and it was also really cool to look around the shoreline and see all the holes in the ground with the smoke pouring out of them. As you understand, the volcano is still active, and it is actually not legal to live on the island, but with all these tourist wanting to see the spectacular sights, a few people live there anyway.

So that's all for now.

Erlend

Philippines

Since we have been living in Asia for a year now, we had to leave "our" country to renew our visa. What better place to go then where you have lots of friends and there are lots of malls :-)? The choice was easy for us after we found cheap tickets, we were going to the Philippines! We have already been here for a week now and we are loving it!

 On the way to the airport (don't worry Mama, it was already on the property of the airport and only "Schrittgeschwindigkeit") our driver and friend Pak Wiwid let Alia "drive" for a little bit. She was thrilled!

So excited to spend our first few days with our favorite "third set of (grand)parents" - Ragnar and Liz

We went to an aquarium together where Erlend and Ragnar had their feet eaten by little fish

 Alia enjoyed all the extra attention

 nothing says bonding time more than sweating together on public transportation 

on Sunday we went to the biggest church I have ever been at and thanks to awesome Grandma Liz, who took care of Alia, I got to sit through a whole service in over a year. Thoroughly enjoyed the good teaching!

It has also been a really good time for us as a family to have some quality time together after a few rough weeks at home

Now we are just waiting for our visa to come through and then we are headed back to "our" country. Please pray that the visa will come through in time for us to make our flight home.

It's a...

BOY!!!

That's right! We are having a son, Alia will have a little brother!

 Little smiley, waving Mr. Røsvik junior

Of course we had to celebrate by buying little baby boy his first cool item of clothing :-).

We are so thankful for a healthy baby and are praying for a good rest of the pregnancy, a smooth delivery and wisdom as we will attempt to raise this little boy to be a man after God's own heart - for His glory - what a privilege, what a challenge!

health update

Just a little update on how our in-house patient is doing.

 These crutches have been a big help during the last two weeks, even though Erlend still has some pain in his left wrist, which made it hard to use them.

We are hoping that his foot will be healed enough by next Tuesday (which is when we travel to the Philippines for a Visa-Trip) so that he will be able to get around with just this cane (would be so much easier on the plane.)

All of his wounds have healed really well (except the ones on his toe, which are still open)

I am going to be honest here and say that the last two weeks have been tough. 

Erlend struggled with pain and being tied to the house.

I struggled with having a lot more responsibilities, like being both parents, while still being very tired and exhausted because of the pregnancy.

We would appreciate your prayers for extra strength and patience as we wait for Erlend's foot to be 100% again.

Deutschland - Weltmeister!!!

Sorry to everybody who does not care about football, but of course I have to acknowledge Germany winning the World Cup this morning. (we had to get up at 2 am to watch the match - that is true fanship!)

We went to a local "cafe" to watch the match along with lots of locals and a few whities showed up as well.

 What a nerve wrecking match it was!

 the crowd (a lot of these people would have gotten up at 3 am anyways because right now it is the month of fasting and they are not allowed to eat after sunrise)

besides a few short power cuts and all food and drink being sold out after a few minutes - it was a place to watch the great event :-)

Congratulations to the German team - well done!