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!

Around the Apartment

We bought a crib and a high chair this week to prepare for baby Gustafson. The "free delivery" for these items was onto the road outside, even though we live on the third floor. I'm so glad I wasn't home alone when they came! Leif carried the crib up the first flight of stairs all by himself and then Irene helped. And now it's safely inside. Don't worry- we'll make sure something is done about the outlet and the heater next to the crib! Irene got us the colorful blanket in that's on display right now. We think a jungle theme would be cute for the nursery and will look for curtains and crib bedding in the States. Also, I made a wall hanging for our room that I've been wanting to do for awhile. It's basically just material over styrofoam, but I like it. It adds color. I really want to get some nice plants, but plants are sooo expensive here! The least expensive small ones are around $15 (and that doesn't include the pot). And big plants are astronomical. We're holding out, thinking that we'll come across just the right little stand that has great deals. It seems like plants would help to make the air cleaner... and they're just pretty.

Happy Birthday Jami!!!!!

Yes, it is that wonderful time of year where we celebrate God giving life to Jami our friend, wife, daughter, sister, grand-daughter, niece or whatever relationship you have with her. Yes, it is always fun to celebrate with Jami! Unfortunately we couldn't be with all of you to celebrate. We did have a good time though. We stareted our day with waffles on a newly purchased waffle iron, and then moved on to presents. Jami always is so good at recieving gifts, and she seemed to love everything that she got. After the morning activities we headed downtown and enjoyed lovely drinks in one of our favorite cafes. We then thought we would kill some time by walking down the walking street and that is were we stopped for the picture in front of the fountain. We decided to try a new restaurant where one of our friends works, and we've decided that it is a new favorite here. At the end everyone got a little restless and started to fold party hats and stuff like that out of the napkins! We then came home and enjoyed a chocolate cake that Mama Irene made for us. I am pretty sure that she had a great birthday, and I am so glad for that because I really love her a lot!!!

Lasagna

At the English camp, many students would ask us basic questions such as "What are your hobbies?", "How many brothers and sisters do you have?", etc. When the students in Irene's class asked Leif his favorite food, he said "lasagna". They'd never tried lasagna before, so we invited them over for dinner. There were five girls in the class, but only two were able to come today (hopefully the others can come later). They LOVED the lasagna and ate a lot of it.

Last night, we had Chingis, Ksusha, and baby Daniel over for dinner. Leif and Irene assembled a bouncer chair that Irene brought for our baby before they came, and Daniel was so fascinated by the chair. It was a great place for him to sit and entertain himself while we ate and talked. I'm also including an updated "pregnant" picture. I'm five and a half months now, and I don't feel like I look very pregnant. But others laugh at me. I want to be really big. haha. The funny thing is that our midwife thinks that we may be having twins. She wants to see me again in two weeks and will take me in for an ultrasound if it still seems like it. We just think it's probably a big baby, but it's crazy to think about!!

Mama Irene's in Town!

Mama Irene is here until the beginning of August, and it's been fun to show her where we live. It's neat, too, because she was also at the English camp, so she met the same students that we met and comes with us as we follow up with them. Yesterday, on the way to a game night with students, we showed Irene around the outdoor market. She tried on some shopkas (fur hats), and all the lady at the hat stand loved her. Then we bought some berries. Mmmmm! Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, mini cherries and interesting green berries (maybe gooseberries). The green berries were really tart, so Irene made a yummy pie out of them this morning (mixed with the mini cherries). Also today, Leif and I put up ribbon as a border in our bedroom. The walls and ceiling here are really crooked, and the ribbon hides it a little (and gives a clean line). Later this afternoon, some girls took Irene and me to a museum with stuffed Siberian animals on display while Leif played volleyball with some guys. It's nice to connect with people in such natural ways.

Followup Meeting

Tonight we had a get-together for all the students who went to English Camp and their families. We didn't know how many would come, and there were at least 70 people there!! (all crammed into Shannon's living room). Most of them stayed for the church service afterwards. The sermon was a message about God's love based on the prodigal son. It was good to reconnect with students. We invited Irene's English class over for lasagne in a few days and there's a game night planned for whoever wants to come on Wednesday. It'll be neat to continue developing relationships with these students.

Summer Camps

We just returned from summer camps, and it was a truly great time. God's spirit was definitely at work- both in our hearts and the hearts of campers. We saw a couple of people make decisions to follow Jesus with their lives and saw many more soften to the LORD. And we had fun! Here are some pictures from our time. We slept in tents and had a covered area for eating and an outdoor area for meeting times, too. Drama was a big part of explaining spiritual truths (in both serious and funny ways). In this skit, Leif is in the middle as a pilot wanting to land at a location other than the runway.

The second week, a team from America came to teach English to students twice a day. Mama Irene came, too, and here she is with her small group of students. Her group only knew a little English, and Leif helped translate.

One of the Buryat students at the English camp REALLY wanted to do a skit with Elvis in it... guess who got to be Elvis?

Leif was one of the sports instructors at both camps. Here, a group plays water volleyball with plastic sacks filled with water.

I worked in the kitchen, which was wonderful for getting to know people from our church on a deeper level. Before camp, I memorized a list of questions to be able to talk on a deeper level with people. It was so encouraging hearing so many people's stories of what God has done in their lives. Here, I'm doing dishes with Aryuna and little Ioana. Ioana is four and LOVED to help me whenever she could!

In the afternoons, we had free time to spend on the beach of Lake Baikal. This was great for connecting with people and cooling off.

Heather Ann Wicker was baptised at the first camp, and her dad got to be the one to baptize her. Here is the whole Wicker family after the event.

Four people were baptized in all.

A group of 10 of the Russian workers will ride on this boat for TWO WEEKS after the camp! We enjoyed an hour riding on it... quite lovely. Our Romanian friends were on with us, and we traded off singing praise songs in Russian, Romanian and English as we enjoyed the wind and the waves.

This sweet girl was in Irene's tent. She's an orphan who is currently living with a believing family. At the beginning of camp, she seemed scared, but by mid-week, she was so affectionate, hugging many of the leaders. To the right is the kitchen crew (minus Inka, the head-chef!) For the first camp, we cooked for about 60 people and for the second, about 90. We peeled A LOT of potatoes!!!

Ron and Gretchen brought us marshmallows in May that we were able to share with the leadership team between the camps. Everyone loved s'mores, and it was fun to share a part of American culture with our Russian brothers and sisters.