A New Little Life

This picture shows a model of a baby at 12 weeks in the womb... about the same size as our baby! Yes, the news is officially out! We are very excited and the birth of the baby coincides with our home service in the States this upcoming spring/summer. Anneka is sure that it's a boy. We ask her in different ways, "Anneka, do you think it's a boy or a girl?" "Anneka, do you think the baby is your sister or brother?", etc. She always answers most definitely with the boy/brother words. We'll see if she's right! She talks to the baby and pats the baby and kisses the baby. The funny thing is that she began doing this before we modeled that for her. The timing was good for explaining a baby to her because our friend Katia recently had a baby and Anneka remembers when her belly was big and now sees the baby every week at church. (of course, a baby in our home will come as more of a shock, but any examples are good)!

Our camera hasn't been working well and we haven't gotten pictures from teammates from Thanksgiving (I'll post them if we get them), but it was a nice time of celebrating and thanking God for all that He's given us

Meanwhile, I am feeling nauseous most of the time and awful smells waft in from our neighbors' apartment and there's NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT! I have to close the living room doors when we're in there so the stink from the hallway won't come in. And Leif has been SO sweet in getting up with Anneka most mornings to let me sleep more and in cooking up the types of meat that gross me out (I can't even say which kinds because even looking at the words makes me feel sick). But hopefully I'll be feeling better soon!!

Sled Season

It's sled season! No more carrying Anneka to the bus stop! But now we have to figure out how to fit the sled onto the micro-buses (vans). Sometimes it's a bit of a trick. It has snowed here a lot the past few days! And when it snowed, it was pretty warm (up to 25F!!). Now it's back down below zero. With wind. But the snow is still pretty.


When I am going to a store, I don't want to take the sled with me because there's nowhere to put it. Leif was nice to walk Anneka and me to the bus stop yesterday. It felt SO COLD! It was only -1F, but the wind made it feel so much colder!! As you can see, Anneka has no skin showing, and Leif is wincing with the cold. Anneka didn't like the cold (but who does??). On the bus, she was happy again. Once we were about one stop away from our destination, I told her that we'd be getting off soon. She grabbed her scarf and busily began wrapping it around her face and head to prepare. She's no dummy!


This evening we painted with watercolors. Anneka doesn't really get into too many crafts yet, but she does like to paint.

Lyena and Luda's Housewarming Party

This evening we went to Lyena and Luda's housewarming party. There were a ton of us crammed into their living room. We sang songs, ate yummy food, played a trivia game, watched a slideshow, and listened to a short talk from pastor Zhenya.




Anneka enjoyed feeding little Michael (above video).



It was warm enough to snow today. It snowed and snowed and snowed and got up to 19 degrees! Anneka loved tromping through it. Here she is, helping Papa shovel in front of Inka's garage.

Not a Cuddle Bug

Our little girl is not a cuddle bug. She loves to read books and sit on our laps, but she is much too busy for real cuddling. She's got toys to play with and dolls to take to the potty, and fake pancakes to make, etc.

Sometimes when Leif is gone in the evenings, I'll let Anneka read books in our bed and fall asleep there. Then when Leif gets home he likes to scoop her up and carry her to bed and say goodnight to her. And I figure it's good for her to get used to falling asleep in a big bed and not always her crib. Anyways, the other night I realized, "hey, Anneka is in there SLEEPING and I could CUDDLE with her!!" So I excitedly went into our room and climbed into bed next to my sleeping daughter and cuddled up close. Mind you, she is s SOUND sleeper and normally does not wake up once she's out for the night. But you know what happened? She opened her eyes, pushed me away and said, "Mama, nopie". (Nopie is kind of like "no please"). Can you believe it? Out of a sound sleep. Poor Mama. But then I tried again last night and she didn't wake up. Haha.

I said that from time-to-time I'd write a little "day in the life". Here's what we did today:

Leif got up with Anneka at about 7:20 and fed her breakfast while I was able to wake up slowly and pray for awhile. Then he got ready to go to class and I got Anneka and myself ready for the day. While Leif went to class, I went grocery shopping with Inka (and Anneka). We went to three stores today. The first store was a new one that we wanted to try, but it turns out it was a big market (where you have to pay for each thing at separate stands), so we decided to move along. But I found real milk there! It's the kind that's pasteurized but refrigerated and in a bottle. It's the best we've found and we've only ever found it a couple of times. Then we went to another store that's smaller and more expensive... but they had chicken that I like. And then we went to the big/normal store that we go to each week. And they had REAL TORTILLAS and SALSA!! I saw these for the first time last week and was SO EXCITED. I thought for sure it would be gone by today, but it wasn't. So I stocked up big-time.

After class, Leif went to an agency to get letters of invitation for Shannon's family to come and visit in December. We're really happy that they're coming. I think it'll be good for all of us to process together and grieve together. It's still really hard to know that she's never coming back. I'll go for a few days where I'll feel okay and then it'll hit me again. On Sunday at church we sang a song that Shannon always played on her guitar and I started crying and couldn't stop. She's not a person we can just forget about, that's for sure.

Then Leif, Anneka and I had lunch together (fajitas with the new tortillas and salsa!).

After lunch, Leif and I brainstormed ideas for a Christmas party/program we'll be putting on for the kids of our neighborhood. Then Anneka and I both took naps and Leif worked on stuff (I think homework and Bible-study stuff).

At 3:00-5:00 Leif went to meet with the director of the kids' club in our neighborhood to talk about plans for the Christmas party. Anneka and I played/snacked/picked up the apartment after we woke up.

Then Sasha came to shower and do laundry a little before 5:00, and Matthew Wicker came at 5:00 to talk with Leif about going to interview a Buddhist monk together for one of his classes.

At 6:00, we all headed over to Inka's for Bible study. Anneka and I just stayed for the food and social part. Then we came home and read a stack of books, and now she's sleeping in "mama's bed", waiting for me to try and cuddle with her. =) Leif will probably get home pretty soon (it's 9:00 now). Then we'll have time to talk without sweet little girl distractions. Tomorrow is Leif's morning to watch Anneka and I'll go to a Bible study that the women on our team are doing together (every other week). I've been enjoying this study of Esther and a study of Jeremiah that I'm doing with the Russian women from our church. I think it's helped me to feel more connected... and it's good to be stretched in my language skills, too!

Sunglasses, Friends, and Hair Clips

Anneka is really into sunglasses. I can't find hers, so she always wants to wear mine. I really need to clean our room... I'm sure hers will turn up. With little storage space in a small apartment, closets, drawers, and under-the-bed become very full very fast. Here she is riding in Inka's car. I actually drove it for the first time last weekend. I didn't drive very far, but it was a good first step to driving in Russia!



The other night we went to our friends, Marios and Adriana's. Apparently, their little daughter (2 months younger than Anneka) asked about us and wanted to have us for dinner. Marios is taking Buryat classes with Leif. We like them a lot. Another Russian family was there, too. The guys (and kids) played Settlers of Catan while us girls talked in the other room.



Marios and Adriana's 6 and 8 year old daughters put clips in Anneka's hair and she felt so pretty! She didn't even try to take them out.

Leif has a lot on his plate again this week. It's hard because a lot of the stuff he's doing isn't stuff I can really help him with. And everything just takes longer here! He spent hours at an office this afternoon only to find out that he couldn't do what he needed to do. And that was sandwiched between our team meeting and his class. Then he was home for 45 minutes before leaving for a men's meeting at our church. Sometimes that goes until 11:00 (and walking home in the windy-cold... it's been down to -13F that we've seen and probably lower). So I know he'd appreciate your prayers!

Carrying The Potty Around

We bring Anneka's potty with us now whenever we go someplace that only has an outhouse. I think it's easier to bring it along than to bundle her up as quickly as possible whenever she says she needs to "go" and then run outside to hold her over a hole. And also, she thinks that outhouses are really cool, so she likes to go A LOT to have the chance to look at all of the interesting sites out there. Hence, we bring the potty along.

Anneka always carries her potty, but usually we end up carrying her. I taught her a long time ago to say "up please", but she instead says "thank you". She knows that she needs to say something polite and "thank you" usually works. It's a long walk to the bus stop, and it's really windy in our area because it's on a little hill. I usually tell her "walk to the light post" or "walk to the building" and then I carry her. But she's getting to be a little tank! This is the first week since we've lived here that I've actually wanted a car. Especially when I'm carrying bags AND Anneka the 1/4 mile from the bus stop. But I should be thankful for the exercise.

Crash, Boom, Bang!

Just minutes before we were expecting dinner guests last week, our giant cupboard collapsed (6 big shelves!) Everything went CRASH-BOOM-BANG and when Leif opened the door, it all poured out onto the floor. I'd been wanting to re-organize that cupboard anyways, but I wasn't counting on this for timing! We bustled about, finishing up dinner and Leif repairing the shelves... and when the guests came they never knew what happened. I should've taken a picture right away, but this gives a glimpse of all the STUFF that was all over! Now our cupboard is nicely organized again, for awhile anyways. (Anneka likes to use her new stool to reach into new and higher places, so there are always surprises now, like water pitchers in the toy box or dolls in with the ziplocs).



Leif came into the living room the other day, and he found Anneka just like this- bundled under the blanket and reading a Guideposts.

On The Walk To Church

There's not enough snow/ice yet to take Anneka to church on her sled, so this is how we travel (except for sometimes when she walks... but that doubles the length of the walk from 15 minutes to 30, which isn't our favorite option when it's windy and bitingly cold).

Leif's classes were canceled yesterday and today because of the swine flu. It'll be interesting to see when schools will be opened again. It's been nice to have Leif home a little more this week.

Right now Leif is at a men's seminar with some of the guys from our church. It is every other week and is great for the men to grow in being men, fathers, husbands, etc. I think as families grow here in strength and faith, the whole of society will be changed for the better.

A Sign On The Bus

"If you're drunk, don't make a lot of noise."

Murder Mystery Party

It was Rebecca's Birthday last weekend and she hosted a murder mystery party. It was so fun! It was all girls, so some dressed/acted like men. We didn't know who the killer was until the very end. It was a mix of Russian and English, and it actually worked out really well. At the end, one of the ladies Rebecca invited that's not a Christian said that there was such a difference between this party and the many parties she normally goes to where everyone gets drunk. She had a lot of fun and really seemed amazed by interacting with everyone.

Here are some pics:

Bobby Sox, Tiara Diamond, Johny Angel, Peggy Sue


A lovely dinner with BBQ'd chicken and pork, crisp veggies and dip, crackers and spinach dip, baked potatoes, jello salad, baked beans, root beer floats, and cheesecake and mud pie for dessert. Gardner was the BBQer and he was the one "killed" on the patio while cooking. (it was snowing outside, but we pretended it was summer). Rebecca and I were talking about how everything here takes a lot longer to make. She had to MAKE the rootbeer for the floats and MAKE the mint ice cream for the mud pie, and MAKE all of the ingredients for the baked beans. All of her efforts were thoroughly enjoyed, though!! Mmmmm.


Me and Chubby Cheddar reenacting Tom's death later to see if an accusation was probable. Adriana is pregnant, so it was perfect for making a nice middle-aged "beer belly" for her character. haha.


This picture is on Inka's blog, too, but I'm guessing she won't mind if we both have the same one. This was the limbo contest. We also had a hoola hoop contest as well as a lip sinc and dancing. Very fun! Oh, I'll post one more, just for the fun of it. It's really blurry, but it shows ACTION!!