Hello Everyone! So sorry for not keeping up with this. You can all yell at me when i get home MAY 3RD!!!!! But just a little update about the season. We are in the final 2 weeks of the season!!! woohoo. We finished the regular season a few weeks ago and then started the playoffs. How it works is the top 4 teams make it to the playoffs. 1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3 in a 3 out of 5 match series. And we had 2 days off in between each match. It was very crazy and exhausting. So we ended the regular season 2nd so we had to play the #3 team, which was Brondby. Brondby has 3 Americans on their team. One girl played at University of Arizona and then I can't remember where the other 2 played. So we got to host the first match. We started off kind of slow and lost the first 2 games. Then somehow made an amazing comeback and won in 3! It was very exciting and very exhausting! Then 2 days later we went and played at Brondby's home gym. The first 2 games we started out very good and were up in both of them 20-15. But somehow Brondby came back and won both of them. We took care of them in the 3rd game and then in the 4th game we were down 22-24 and came back at won it! It was amazing! I'm still in shock that we were able to do it. And then we finished it out and won the match in 5! It was one of the most mentally and physically exhausting matches that we had been a part of. But so rewarding at the same time. Then 3 days later we played Brondby again at home. If we win we are done with the semis and move onto the finals....if we lose we would have to play again 3 days later. Once again we started off the match very strong taking the 1st and 2nd games pretty easily. The 3rd game was very tight and Brondby had chances to win it but once again Fortuna came out on top! It was very exciting. We had so many fans cheering us on and one of the boys professional teams here came and cheered us on as well! They were very loud which helped keep us going. We have a lot of respect for Brondby and it is always fun playing them. So now we are in the finals!!!! We will start our first match this friday the 9th at Holte. Holte is the team we beat in the Cup Final in January. So they will be coming out very strong. I'm pretty sure they will be playing the game online at Holte's website. When I know the website I will let you all know!

Now just a little catch up on me. I'm doing really well. I finally feel adjusted to European lifestyle...only took me almost 8 months!....hahaha. But as the season is coming to an end it becomes more real how much I am going to miss my teammates and how much fun I have had this season. I could have not asked for a better team to play on.

My mom gets here April 21st!!!! I cannot wait for her to get to meet everyone and see where I've been living for the past year. If anyone else is interested in coming hop on the plane with my mom! The more the merrier : )

And personally even though there have been tough times where I have felt very far away from God while being here, I have also been able to strengthen my relationship with the Lord which was something I was definitely in need of doing. And to all of you prayer warriors who had me daily in their prayers I thank you all so much for keeping me close to your hearts. Your prayers were felt here and I couldn't have made it this far without you! I am so blessed to have to many wonderful people in my life!

Once again I'm sorry I haven't been more on top of this thing, but I will be letting you know how the finals go and when my mama gets here!

Love you all.....vi ses from denmark for now

Hello lovely Americans!!! So I have some fantastic news.....my team won the Danish Cup yesterday!!!! This was a big victory considering we had lost to this team both times we have played them this season. We have been preparing for this match since we returned from our Christmas break. There was a lot of anticipation for the match as we were all eager to go out and compete in front of a huge crowd. We won the match 3-0. Here is our website where you can see pictures from the tournament and also the link to one of the newspaper articles that has pictures as well. I know some of you may not speak Danish fluently so if you would like to read any of the articles or our website you can just copy and paste into google translate and see what it has to say. But just beware that some of the way things translate into English may not make much sense but you will understand the main idea. So here are the links http://www.fortuna-odense.dk/main/top/index.php and here is the newspaper link http://www.fyens.dk/gallerier/422835

I hope everyone is having a great start to the 2010 year! Fortuna Elite Volley is definitely starting the year off with a bang! I miss and love you all!!!!!

So this is Debbie, the mom! I am sitting next to Kristen and have told her how annoying it is to check her blog and see November 21 over and over again so she told me to say something. Kristen has been home in Colorado since December 22. It was quite the journey for her to make her way home for Christmas. But she made it and now it's time for her to return to Odense. I think she's kinda sad about leaving and I know I'm very sad that she's leaving. The not quite 2 weeks went by way too fast. She is flying back standby which will be challenging, please pray for her. She's going Denver to Washington DC, DC to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Hamburg and then maybe taking a train from Hamburg to Odense. All in all, I think she's doing pretty well. She loves her teammates and hanging out with the guys from the men's team. In between practices and matches, she does some cleaning and coaching to make some money. Things are pretty expensive over there so every little bit helps. About 6 weeks ago, K told me that she believes she's suppose to be in Denmark but that she thinks it has nothing to do with volleyball. Maybe some personal growth, maturity, that kind of thing. I'm convinced that one day she'll look back at this experience and say that it was amazing. And she'll be so glad that she did it. In the meantime, she misses home and family and friends. And a toilet that works and a shower that's normal. Her team is doing well, they are playing in the Cup final on January 24 and Bill is planning to be there. Well, that's a little update from the mom's point of view. Thanks for being a part of this journey!!