A Merry Christmas

We had a lovely time with family this Christmas. Leif's mom made the trip over for a few days to be with Anneka on her first Christmas. It was fun to pretend that Anneka knew what was going on and to put words in her mouth as she opened presents. It'll be so fun to have traditions throughout Anneka's childhood, celebrating our Saviour's birth and enjoying the holiday season. Here are a few pics. (Anneka in a stocking- my brother thought this was terrible, but we thought it was funny, a Raggedy Ann doll from her great grandmother, with Gramma Irene, a snowy day, matching cheetah-print socks from Grandpa, our little sweetie snug in her bed, Anneka's favorite hat)

She's smiling!!!

It is so amazing to see Anneka grow. She has put on weight and is becoming more aware of things, and a couple of weeks ago, she started to smile at us. It makes us feel so good when she looks at us or hears or voices and gives her big toothless grin! Of course she also will smile at bright colored toys and other things so it's not just us, but it makes us feel good when it is. I think she'll be smiling a lot this Christmas too :).

Tatiana

I've been doing far less language study than Leif, as Anneka has become my first job, but I am SO THANKFUL for Tatiana. She and I get together about once a week to speak in Russian. She welcomes me in with the utmost of hospitality, serving me tea and delicious cakes or breads that she has made herself. She's just a delight to talk with. After Anneka was born, I didn't see Tatiana for a few weeks and I felt like I'd forgotten all the Russian I'd ever learned! But now it's coming back, and I'm so thankful to have this language practice to keep my mind fresh before we return to Russia. I can see how God takes care of us in so many ways. Providing Tatiana is just one of those ways.

Our Wooden Anniversary

I have been so blessed to be married to the most beautiful, amazing and loving woman in the world!!! And we just recently celebrated our 5th anniversary! I am so thankful for the wife that God has blessed me with and for the deep and wonderful relationship that I have with her! When I look around both here in America and in Russia I see so many broken or disfunctional marriages and it makes me so sad. Even in the church it seems like couples often co-exist and don't thrive as they should. But, I absolutely love being married! I absolutely love my wife! And marriage is so much more than a thing to endure as our culture often tells us. Marriage is something to be celebrated and enjoyed, and I have to say that that is an easy thing for me to do! I know that a huge reason that it is so easy for me to enjoy marriage is that God has blessed me with such a great wife. She is always supportive and encouraging. She feels things with me and keeps me striving after God. I know that so many of you have seen and felt the beautiful qualities of Jami, and can see why it is so easy for me to love her and love being with her. Well, I just had to tell you all again about how much I love my wife!!!

Eyes Open

Here it is, for those who've requested an "eyes open" picture of Anneka. She sleeps alot, so a lot of our pictures are with her eyes closed. She's been awake more and more lately, though. It's fun.

Russian in Spokane

As many of you know, our job right now is to focus on learning the Russian langauge. That is of course always easier when you live in Russia among the Russian poeple and use it and hear it all the time. We'll we don't have that advantage right now, but we are blessed to live in Spokane where there is a large Russian population. Thanks to some asking around by Linda at Barton school where she teaches English as a second langauge to immigrants, both Jami and I have language partners. The picture is me with Vlodya and Tanya. I go to their house about twice a week and we hang out in the livingroom just talking. We talk about everything from history, to polotics, to what we're doing for the week, to cultural differences between America and Russia, and really anything that comes to our minds. It has worked out well, because Vlodya wants help with his English so we usually split out time in half between speaking in Russian and speaking in English. Even when we speak in English I am being reminded of how Russians think and look at the world differently than Americans because of their background. I think that we're both making progress, and at the very least we have a good time together. My original goal was to not lose any Russian, so I have to say I'm pretty happy with how things are going.

Thanksgiving and a couple of gifts from God

We celebrated a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday with family in Spokane. It's such a blessing to be here during this time of year. I love Thanksgiving and Christmas- the sights, smells, feasts, and best of all, the time with people who are so close to us.

This picture is of "Grandma Great". Anneka's middle name is Dorothy, after her Grandma Great. We love that this means "gift of God". They both truly are gifts of God in our lives!

the Grandparents

Yes, one of the big blessings of being in the US for Anneka's birth, is that her grandparents have been able to spend time with her. Jami's parents (Dennis and Linda) have been very gracious in letting us stay at their house, and have been loving taking every opportunity they can to hold Anneka and spend time with her. My mom (Mama Irene as she has been called in other blog entries) also got to be here during the time Anneka was born and got in some good cuddle time as well. Then a couple of weeks later my dad (Eric) made the trip over from Bellingham and spent a weekend holding and loving our sweet little girl. We have been so blessed by our parents, and know that the love and care they showed us will help us to love and care for Anneka. We just want to say thank you to them for how they have loved us and how we know they will be good grandparents who love and care for Anneka too.

Hurry Up and Wait

Many people have asked us when we're returning to Russia. We have tickets for the end of January, and prayerfully we'll make our deadline. We call this time period "hurry up and wait" as we need the following documents to go to Russia: Anneka's birth certificate and social security number, Anneka's passport, letters of invitation from the Russian church for all of us, and visas for all of us. We have friends who recently came to the States from Russia to have a baby, and they gave themselves two months after the birth to get all the needed documents... and sadly, they missed the deadline and have to buy new plane tickets. Their baby's social security card took a month and a half to come!! We are very thankful to say that our social security card came in the mail and we picked up the birth certificate yesterday! We had Anneka's passport pictures taken yesterday and it was both hilarious and stressful. They had to take soooo many pictures before we had one that worked... in one you couldn't see her chin well enough, in another Leif's hand was showing, in another her head was the wrong size, etc, etc. Plus Anneka had to have her eyes open and be looking forward- this is nearly impossible with a newborn. After two trips and a couple of hours at the photo place and many prayers, we got a successful picture... hooray! Please pray that Anneka's passport will process quickly and for the process of getting the letters of invitation. Thank you!

A Little Friend

On Halloween, Anneka's little friend Kariya came over. She's six months older and I was AMAZED at how much babies grow in that short of time!! She looked so cute in her little chicken costume. Anneka didn't have a costume, but we put her in a little hat with ears so that she didn't feel left out. They were so cute together!

Praise to Our Creator!

Thank you so much for your prayers. Anneka is doing so well! She needed to gain weight between Tuesday's discharge from the hospital and Wednesday's office visit (which I was a little nervous about) and she gained what is normal to gain in a week!! It is neat how Anneka's little life is already bringing praise to God as we see how He cares for her and answers our prayers. He wants us to trust Him with her. Holding Anneka and looking at all her perfect features and feeling her little movements is truly a miracle! It is so amazing that God created her and knew her before the beginning of time. Seeing her has caused us to be filled with praise to God in our hearts and is such a reminder of how amazing He is: creative, loving, powerful, intricate. We feel so blessed! It is also amazing to think that God gave up His only son for His love of us. And we are sinners! The thought of giving up Anneka for anyone, much less someone ungrateful and self-centered is more than I can imagine. I love how God teaches us about Himself through His marvelous creation.



Although it was sad to see Anneka get an IV in her little hand, we have to admit she was pretty cute with her eye patch under the billi lights. She's such a good baby! She was so good natured about all the poking and prodding. She's so snuggly-cuddly and rarely cries.



I love this picture of Anneka snuggled up on her Daddy. He's such a wonderful husband and father- constantly loving us and serving us with kindness and affection. I couldn't be married to a more wonderful person!



We took some family pictures in the yard yesterday while the weather is still so nice. It's such a beautiful time of the year!



Anneka looks so cute bundled up. At night between feedings, she sleeps so contendedly bundled just like this.

Please be praying

The last few days have been pretty crazy, as Anneka had to go to the hospital. I called our pediatrician's office Saturday night to ask the nurse on call a few questions and she said to go to the emergency room immediately! From there, they admitted us to the hospital for a couple of days. Anneka has jaundice (not a big deal), but it could have been a big deal if it wasn't caught it time. Basically, the jaundice makes her more lethargic which makes her not want to eat, which makes her not pass any food, which keeps the billirubin in her body longer.... a big cycle. So now we're home and haven't had any time to call anyone. But we appreciate your prayers that she'll eat and get rid of this billirubin in her body. And THANK YOU for all who have heard via the grapevine and are praying. We KNOW God is answering your prayers. We'll update in a few days after we get some rest. A newborn causes little sleep for the parents anyways, and with the stress of the added hospital trip and doctor's appointments, we're living on basically no sleep for the last week!

Anneka is here!!!

Wow! What an amazing thing to have a little child born! We loved her before that, but there is something so wonderful and special about being able to hold her and look at her. We have been loving all the time we have with her. We'll give more stories later, but right now we just wanted to give you some early pictures. By the way doesn't Jami look amazing for being only a few minutes after the birth! Also, for those who are interested she was born at 11:21 pm on the 17th, weighing 8 pounds 3 ounces and measuring 21 inches(Jami is very happy we induced and didn't let her put on another pound or so before her due date of the 30th). Also, there are a couple of pictures at the hospital website deaconess-spokane.org, look at baby faces from October 17th, and it should be there by later today (19th).

Anneka is coming this week!

Yes, it's true, Anneka is coming! For those of you who are wondering who Anneka is, it is our beautiful baby girl! She is going to be born this week. Now, for those of you who are saying, "come on now, no one can predict a baby's birth accurately," we agree. But, we are going into the hospital on Tuesday night to start the induction porcess, so unless for some reason Anneka and Jami are major exceptions and don't take to the induction, we should be holding our little baby girl in our hands this week! It is so exciting, and we will be posting pictures as soon as we can. I love the picture above. Our friend Rachel came over and helped Jami make the letters for Anneka's room, and as Jami was taking a picture of them she noticed that her belly got in the way. The brown arch in the picture is Jami's beautiful belly sticking out a bit further than she realized. This has been common for her in pregnancy as she unexpectedly will bump into things or not fit through spaces that were no problem for her before. We'll write again soon with a baby Anneka update!

Greenbluff and God's Blessings

The leaves are turning beautiful colors and there is a definite crispness to the air. Autumn has come! I thought I would be sad when the reality sunk in that summer was over, but fall is a lovely time of year, I think. It seems too cold to be outside for long in the fall in Siberia, but here I'm fine in a jacket and jeans. So nice.

This past weekend we went to Greenbluff, the harvest area around here, with some friends. We walked through the corn maze (which really was quite impressive), drank apple cider, and saw "punkin' chuckin" where a farmer shoots a pumpkin 1500 feet through the air at a target in a field. Very impressive. We keep thinking that our baby is so manageable right now. She doesn't cry. She doesn't need to be changed. We want to take advantage of these moments!

Speaking of our baby, we received an incredible blessing from my parents' neighbors. They brought over a crib set (bedding, valance, diaper stacker, etc.) from their grandson to see if we would like to have it. The amazing thing is that it's EXACTLY the same set we registered for and picked out of all the other crib sets!! What a blessing. God loves to show how He is a part of even minute details like decorating a baby's room. It is so neat to see how he lavishly provides.

American Ultrasound

We had an ultrasound this week, and our daughter is quite large for her age (35 weeks). She's already estimated to be 7.5 pounds, with 5 more weeks to go! The doctor said we may induce a week or two early so that she'll fit. haha. It's fun to see the ultrasound pictures. She's smooshed in there and has cute chubby cheeks. That's her arm stuffed up under her chin. She must be so uncomfortable!

Thankfully, both Leif and I have found language partners to keep up on our Russian along with self-study while we're here. I really admire Leif because he's made a goal to read through the entire Bible in Russian before we return to Russia at the end of January. So far, he's on track! I think it'll prove to be helpful in so many ways, but boy is it time consuming! Many of the words in the Bible aren't words that we've learned in classes or conversations, so he reads along with his English Bible and his dictionary.

It's been good to be back in the States and fun to see many people that we love so much. The time is flying by! Especially if the baby is induced early, we may only have three more weeks of life as we know it! We're excited, though. And as I get bigger and bigger and my ribcage is more and more cramped, I think it'll be nice to meet our baby on the outside.

No Migraines!!!

We just want to give a little credit to where credit is due. Our amazing God has blessed us these last few months! Jami has not had a migraine since the end of April! That is almost five months without a migraine, and she used to average about one a week! This is an even greater blessing during this time of pregnancy because she is not able to take the migraine medicine that she used to. It is also amazing because one thing that used to trigger the migraines was being tired, and with all of the travel that we had and the tiredness of pregnancy Jami would have been miserable with migraines had it not been for God taking them away. Our wonderful God loves to take care of us!

Greeted by friends and family

We haven't even seen everyone yet, and we already feel very loved in our time back in the States! We had a wonderful couple of weeks seeing friends and family around the state, and are looking forward to settling into a bit of a routine in the next few weeks. It was great to see all of you that we have seen!!! And we look forward to seeing those of you that we haven't gotten to see yet!!! We love you all, and will continue to keep you updated through the blog (expect some baby pictures near the end of October!!!), so continue to check. There are more funny Russia stories as well as life here that will keep things interesting.

In America

After over 64 hours of travel, we made it back to the States! Everything went smoothly, and God provided wonderful people in both Irkutsk and Moscow who fed us and gave us a place to sleep for a few hours. It is good to be back in America. This past week we've been seeing family and friends on the west side of the state. This picture is taken from the train in Ulan Ude. It was so fun to have a group of people who saw us off!

So, this is what a garage key looks like. Elisabeth posed for us with her key. Garages here are actually little metal sheds. Oh, you can actually see some in the background of the picture of Leif and me. In this picture, we're standing right in front of our apartment building. There's a green and yellow sign to the left of Leif's head, and that's our local little store. It's soooo convenient! Well, it's often convenient. Sometimes they don't have normal things like sugar and bread and it's hard if you're counting on those items to have guests over. I guess it helps us to learn to be flexible. Our apartment is the third balcony up on the left of the building (two above Jami's head with clothes hanging on the balcony). The third picture is of our new chair. We looked and looked for a rocking chair, but the only ones we could find were $700 or more. We finally found this chair for much much less and it kind of bounces. We both love it. I made the little wall hanging from some Asian fabrics I found here.

We're getting ready to head back to the States pretty soon! We're preparing our apartment for a friend from church to live here. We're also getting last minute things ready for returning with a baby and are beginning to pack. The weight restrictions for flying within Russia are so small that our bags alone are almost 1/4 of the limit! (they allow 44 pounds per person, including all bags and carry-on) On Sunday we'll take an overnight train to Irkutsk. We'll get to spend Monday with Vanya and Larissa before our flight goes to Moscow Monday night. From the time we get on the train to the time we land in Seattle, it'll be 61 hours!! We appreciate your prayers!!

Sports Square

We just heard the good news that a "sports square" project has been approved by our organization to be put right in front of our apartment!! This is good for so many reasons. Here's a few, just to name them:

* a lot of people hang out and drink in that area because they have nothing to do

* several young men from our neighborhood have expressed great interest in a sports court and said they'd use it all the time

* the small children can have their play area back, since the youth normally break bottles all over the ground there and take over the area

* This will involve our church for the labor of building the sports court and will be a bridge-builder between the community and the church

* This will provide an avenue to meet people from our neighborhood and to invite them into our church, which is within walking distance.

* There isn't another sports court around within a reasonable walking distance

* Leif can get good exercise while he's connecting with the local guys.
* etc,etc, etc!

We've been trying to get good pictures of the guys outside drinking, but it always feels like they're looking right at us whenever we pull out the camera! We got these photos through our friend, Inka, who got them from a SEND representative. They were taken right outside our building, which is where the square will be.

I'm sure we'll have more to share with you regarding this in the weeks to come, but this is the latest update.

Interns, Pizza, and a Happy Kitty

This summer, our team has had the privilege of having four interns here to help with camps and following up with students and families in Ulan Ude. Steffen and Nicki (left of picture) are from Germany. They both speak English very well and have been so willing to help in any ways that they can. Steffen was a night guard at the camps, making sure that everyone was safe and sound in their cozy tents. Nicki helped in the kitchen, so I was able to spend time with here there. Both of them have magnetic personalities and even though they don't speak Russian, draw many people in with their love. Steffen is sleeping at our place while he's in Ulan Ude, but we see him more at other places than at home! Nat and Ashley are Americans, although Ashley has lived in Moscow for the past four years. The students at the English camp adore them, and they've spent a lot of time following up with them since then. We want all of them to stay!

Every week since the English camp, we've had a night to invite students to hang out, play games, sing songs, watch a movie, etc. Last Monday they guys had an American football night and the girls made pizza and sang songs. They're sweet girls.

We watched our friends' cat for a few days, and this lucky kitty gets half a fish at each meal. It's soooo funny watching her gnaw on the head of the fish. I don't know why it's funny because a fish is a much more natural thing to eat than processed food with preservatives... but it was still really funny.

"Vzglyad" from our weekend

I learned the word "vzglyad" in church today. It means "look" or "glance". I think it's a fun word to say... and interesting that it has 5 consonants all together. Speaking of church, today the guy who was supposed to give the sermon didn't come. Leif and I had prepared to sing a song (which we did) and Leif had thrown the written sermon he'd prepared last week in with the sheet music "just in case". As the men from church prayed together beforehand, Leif mentioned that he could share if there were no other options. I really like this about Leif. If it were me, I would not have even thrown in the typed sermon in the first place and then I don't think I ever would have freely volunteered something like that unless someone outright asked me first! But Leif is willing and I like that. He ended up giving it (without having read through it since last week). I get really nervous when he speaks... especially in Russian! It's such a hard thing to do. I admire his bravery.

Last night we got together with Vitya and Sveta, a couple from our church. They just had a baby girl the end of June. We like them a lot. We ate posie at a little cafe. Posie is a national Buryat food and is like a dumpling stuffed with meat that you slurp the juice out of after you bit a little hole in the side. Very yummy. They also bought something called "fish flakes" for us to share. I was afraid, but they weren't so bad. Just really salty. After dinner we walked and talked. I really like talking with Sveta because she talks to me like a normal person and it doesn't feel like she "dumbs down" language for me. It's really refreshing because, even though I don't understand every word, I understand most of what she says and I feel like I get to know her heart. Vitya and Leif schemed together about a great project that would involve our church, the neighborhood, and meeting lots of young men. They're really excited about it, and we pray it'll come to fruition. We need to run some things through the proper "channels" before we can say more, but it's pretty exciting.

The second picture is one that Mama Irene took when she was here... it's the entrance to our apartment. We have three doors and seven locks (one lock doesn't work). This is pretty normal here. Everyone has multiple doors and locks. And really big keys. Irene saw a man walking down the stairway with his keys and she thought he was holding a weapon! We'll have to post a picture sometime.

Good Bye Mama Irene, and Easy Sharing

We had a great time with Mama Irene. She left here yesterday morning on her way to Moscow and then back to the states. We only ran into one little problem with all of that. In Russia you must always be registered so that they can keep track of where you are and what your doing. Well, mom was registered with the rest of the Americans that she came in to the country with and it seems that whoever was doing the registering didn't register mom for a longer period (the others left July 16th). We, being at camp already at the time, never thought to check that. Well, at the airport we ran into the problem at the passport check. They brought us back into a security officer back room and told us that it was a problem. We wrote a little document that we signed and payed a roughly $120 fine. They said that everything would be okay from there, so we are waiting to hear that she has arrived safely in the states with no more fines.

On another note, we went to a camp follow-up for the church that meets at Shannon's. Some of the students from the English camp also went to this camp so we went to connect with them. One young man came over to me before the "program" started and asked if I came from a Christian family. We sat down together and I quickly shared about my family and then the program started (i.e. singing, slide show, and an invitation to come to the church that organized the camp). I was thankful for the short opportunity to share and hoped that we would have a chance to talk later. Well, that chance came quickly. Right after the program this young man started asking me all sorts of questions. He asked how I became a Christian, what differences are there between Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox churches, why are all of Adam's descendants sinful just because he sinned, why do Buddhist priests and Shamans have power, and others like this. In fact it seemed like he wanted to keep asking questions all night, but we both had to leave after an hour or so. It was great to be able to share, and such a gift that it was so easy. I was so happy to share about how God has shown me His love, and about how He loves everyone. I hope that this message that he heard at the two camps and from me tonight will sink into his heart. Please pray that He will decide to enjoy life with Christ for the rest of Eternity. Also pray that we will have more opportunities to talk and that he will connect with others in the church.

News from the Ultrasound

Okay, we thought we'd have a little fun with all of you. The picture above is the sign on the door of the bathrooms our child (no, it's not twins, but we thought it might be with how big Jami is) will enter in the future. Some will know right away, others may need to wait until the next blog or read through the comments to try to find out what this means and others may just want to give their best guess. It was an interesting process to get an ultrasound here in Russia. We had the privilege, though we felt a little guilty, of going with our midwife and being whisked to the front of a very long line of women waiting for their ultrasound, and had a doctor who is the best in the area and does a lot of teaching on ultrasound techniques. Also, she is good because she is known to not give false fears from her scans (unfortunately it is common for doctors to give a list of terrible or strange things that are wrong with your baby). The patients were signaled to enter the room by a light bulb flashing outside the door. Also, you need to bring your own blanket or towel for the table, I guess that cuts back on cleaning expenses. Then the process itself went pretty quickly. We saw different parts of the baby including the beating heart, and were given the dimensions. The baby is normal to slightly large, with an exceptionally large head. Actually, the doctor said something to the effect of, "that is a really big head." Then proceeded to look up at me and calmly said, "of course that could be because of the daddy." This is the part that may shock all of you in the U.S. medical system, we payed about $4.65 for the whole procedure.

The Heat Is On!

This past week has been hot, hot, hot. Every time I'm outside, I remember how cold it is in the winter and count my blessings. We went on a picnic with people from church on Thursday. We didn't realize that it was a "swimming event", so we didn't have our suits with us, but we brought a frisbee and waded in the river with our brothers and sisters. Our friends Vitya and Sveta have a van and took two loads of us to the river. We got to be in the second load, which meant that we got to meet and hold their new baby, Maria, while we waited.

We also had Leif's teacher, Alexandra, and her granddaugther, Olya, over for dinner this week. Irene met Olya at English camp, and they were able to converse, which was nice. I really like Alexandra. She is such a warm person and she likes to talk about interesting things and is very interested in Christianity.

Leif and I practiced a song in Russian to sing at church today, and Leif spend much of the week preparing for a sermon he was asked to give. When we got there, there were two people already scheduled to give sermons already... so Leif suggested that he could give his another week. It takes so long to prepare a message in Russian, that it makes sense for him to give it when he's really needed. And it's probably good because it was soooo hot in church today. We were all sweating. The leader of the service today forgot about our song, too, so we'll do it next week. Living here helps us to be more flexible! And our time preparing and studying was not in vain. God has reasons we don't even know!