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!