A Good Little Traveler

We're back from traveling all around western Washington. It was so good to see family and friends, and Anneka was such a good little traveler! Among all the people we saw, Anneka was able to meet four more of her great grandparents. Leif's grandma was in the hospital after having open heart surgery. Thankfully, she is doing exceptionally well.

People keep asking us when we're leaving for Siberia. The good news is that our letters of invitation are in progress! We did have to change our flights to the end of February, and we can only get 3 month visas this time. We will use the 3 months in Russia to apply for temporary residency, which lasts for 3 years. The thought of traveling all the way to Siberia and all the way back in a 3 month period (with a baby) seems so exhausting, but we also have peace that God knows what He's doing. And, of course, our parents aren't upset about having to see us again this summer! =)

Dedicating our daughter

We dedicated our beautiful little Anneka Dorothy today at church. Actually we have already dedicated her to the Lord, but this was a chance to do it publicly and to ask the church to help us in raising her up to knowing Jesus and to pray for her. That is one thing that we have come to realize over these 12 weeks of parenthood, we cannot do this alone. God has often helped us at different times as we have come to Him in prayer. Friends and family have also helped out, and it was great to have some of our family there with us in front of the church as we prayed for Anneka. We are so excited to be parents and to help her recognize who God has made her to be.

A shower and a monkey baby

Yesterday, my friends Rachel and Laurie threw Anneka (and me!) a baby shower. It was so nice. They sent out the CUTEST invitations that looked like a little international letter and had people bring items that they'll ship to us in Siberia. It was so so nice. Anneka slept through most of the presents, but she'll be surprised when the package comes in the mail and we open it up. =)

Two of the ladies at the shower got us a down snowsuit to tote our tot around in. It's perfect for cold Siberian winters (and springs). Erin (one of the ladies) said that it reminded her of the time Leif and I held a monkey in a snowsuit in Moscow. I'd totally forgotten about this, so I dug through our pictures this morning. And found it. Haha. It's so funny. Here's the original monkey and our own little monkey:

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We celebrated with some refugees from different African countries that are now living in Spokane. They prepared African dishes, played festive music, and danced for us in fun costumes.

The girls in my family (Grandma, Mom, Aunt, Cousin, and Sylvia- she's like family) all went to the spa for some time together before we head back to Russia and a celebration of the new year. I love my family!

Our visas are still on hold. It looks like we'll be getting a guest visa, which is only good for 90 days. During that time, we'll apply for a temporary residency, which is good for 3 years. All of the government offices are closed until the 10th, so after that, hopefully the ball will begin rolling with our letters of invitation and visa process (about 40-45 days total).

The other night we went to dinner at the house of a Russian family (friends of my parents). When we got there, we asked where their 7-month old baby was. "Oh, she's outside", they said. We totally thought they were joking, especially because our experience in Russia has always been that babies need to be very warm. Even if it's 90 degrees inside, people will not crack a window if a baby is in a room because of the draft. But pretty soon, we heard a cry on a moniter, and sure enough- they opened the slider to their back yard (in below freezing weather) and brought in the baby! She was very bundled. They said that Russians believe it's good for babies to sleep outside, as long as it's not colder than -20 degrees. They said that if you have a balcony that's safe, you should put the baby on the balcony. But if it's not safe, you need to walk with the baby in a stroller, up and down the street. I had noticed many people with strollers in the daytime walking around in Siberia... maybe this is what they were doing. Of course, much of the winter in Ulan Ude is below the safe -20 range!! hahaha.