Snow

I took this picture from out of our window last night. It's been warm enough to snow. Leif, Anneka, and I just came in from tromping through the snow. It felt SO WARM outside!! It was lovely to get out after a week of being in the apartment. I still feel so weak and my nose is STILL clogged. But my coughing is less and less and I'm able to sleep... which is wonderful after six or seven consecutive nights of hardly sleeping at all.

It sounds funny to say (with the snow), but today for the first time, I really felt that spring is coming. Hooray!

Sick, but recovering.

Well, our keyboard is broken and I just wrote a post about how sick Anneka and I have been (the flu) and how Leif has been lovingly caring for us and we've been home straight for the past 6 days. I fear that our keyboard will erase it again, and I'm still on the mend. Good news: we're getting better! Thank you to all who knew we were sick and have been praying. This picture was taken at Matthew's 18th birthday party the first day Anneka started feeling really bad. We left early.=( Now she's as fiesty as ever. So thankful.

A Little Song

Anneka likes to sing. Here's one of her little songs. She doesn't, however, like it when I sing. Well, sometimes she does, but it has to be on her terms- the timing and song that she requests. If I just start singing, she usually says, "Nopie, Mama. Don't sing that song". And at night she always likes me to sing her a song, but she wants it to be about certain subject matters. Her favorite subject for me to sing about is boys. So I made up a "boy song" that Leif and I sing to her a lot about how Jesus loves boys and girls and everyone in the whole world. But sometimes she wants a song about cats or about Mama or Papa or men. She's a funny girl.

I'm feeling SO much better today. Still stuffy, but SO much better. Unfortunately, Leif is feeling worse again. This cold is CRAZY!! Anneka hasn't had any more symptoms since her morning of sneezing. She's as full of energy and fun as ever.

We got our drain fixed tonight! I'm SO happy. The reason Leif couldn't get the drain part off was because it was super-glued on. At first our landlord used Anneka's PLAYDOUGH to fix the drain. I overheard him talking with Leif and saying that it should be okay as long as we don't use hot water or that much water and I was like "WHAT?!", but then I realized that it was just a temporary fix before he could find the right parts. Thankfully, the store had them tonight, and the permanent parts are already in and the playdough is gone. I'm planning on doing mass laundry tonight before people come to do their laundry tomorrow.

Yesterday we got a call from our friend from the train station. She asked if Leif had her passport, as he'd used it on Sunday to register the American family who is here. He did- neither he nor she had noticed. He rushed off to get it to her, but unfortunately there wasn't enough time. She missed her train. I feel so badly about it. Here, she selflessly gave of so much time and energy and then she lost all of that money for her ticket. And it was for her job, too! She was responsible for taking a bunch of students to be interviewed at the embassy in Yekaterinburg in order to work in the States this summer. And now she's not with them!

I feel like lots of things like that have been happening lately. I definitely feel "hard pressed on every side". But I know that we are not "crushed". I pray that we can stand firm and draw our strength from Christ and not from anywhere else.

Ring-Around-A-Rosie

Well, I (Jami) caught Leif's cold. And it's not a fun one! Yesterday all I did was sit and blow my nose and wipe my eyes and make lunch and dinner for Anneka and I was wiped out. And this morning, Anneka woke up sneezing a lot. Leif was the HERO yesterday, though. He took Annneka to church with him in the morning so that I could rest. (all of this was before he spent all afternoon- into the evening- registering the family that has come to visit). I took a bath at Inka's because the drain in our bathroom is broken and we can't do laundry or shower right now. Leif tried to remove the old one to put in a new drain, but it's STUCK and he doesn't want to rip something out that shouldn't come out! Unfortunately, our landlord is out of town for a few days and our apartment maintenance hasn't been there when we've called. So we wait. I realize how much I appreciate laundry and hot showers when I'm sick- to steam open my nose and to wash all of our snotty stuff.

Leif took this little video clip of Anneka last night.



This picture was taken a few minutes after the neighbors called and said that we were flooding their bathroom. Anneka and I had been taking a bath together and had a lovely time having a tea party (she loves to pour the water into her teapot and teacups). I'd drained some of the water and added some warm when it got cold... apparently that's when the flood began to happen. It's paneled off under our bathtub, that's why it's so hard to get under there. And there's a lot of uneven cement that covers everything. Not fun stuff!

A Sadness

Inka and I were with our friend, Lena, yesterday when she got a phone call that her Dad had died. She didn't know any details, but the news was so heartbreaking. He was only in his 50's and is the oldest of 4 kids... and three of the four have already died. While the cause of death is unknown, he was an alcoholic like over 90% of men here. And his life expectancy is right in the norm, too. (the average length of a man's life here is 52!) As I hurt with Lena, I also grieve over the fact that there are many Lenas who have lost parents so young. There are many people whose lives have ended due to darkness and emptiness that they try to fill. I pray that God's light will shine here brightly. And I pray for Lena's family- that they will come to know Christ's deep love for them and turn to Him.

It's still cold here, but the days are longer and the sun is stronger. It got up to 17 degrees in the day yesterday! The mornings are still in the -20s, but there is hope that spring is coming.

Leif has a bad cold this week. I feel so sad to see him so lethargic. He stayed home from class yesterday, and that's the first time since we've been married (7+ years!) that he's ever missed work or school because of sickness. I knew he must have felt pretty miserable. Right now we'd love to go to sleep, but the washing machine repair guy came (at 10:30pm!!!) He's six days late, but we're happy that he's here. I hope that we can soon be washing clothes again. I'm thankful that Inka has let us wash some things at her place.

I've been starting to do some preschool activities with Anneka. She's so much fun and loves to learn! I love to watch her explore and discover. I'll post some pictures soon once I get them off of our camera.

Oooh... it sounds like the repair guy found the problem and has the right part with him! It's nice to have some encouraging news!

As always, we appreciate your prayers!

Feeding Her Doll Broccoli

A couple of nights ago about 30 minutes before bedtime, Anneka decided that she wanted to feed her doll broccoli. I didn't know Leif was recording at first (hence, my chattering), and you can't see just how much broccoli she crammed into her doll's mouth, but it's still pretty funny. I hard boiled some eggs last night, too, and Anneka ate three and wanted a fourth... but doesn't that kind of seem like a lot?? So she had broccoli and an orange instead of a fourth. We think that she would eat ten hard boiled eggs if we let her. They're on her current top ten list of favorite foods.

Updated Pregger Picture (24.5 weeks)

Little Ham

On Sunday at church, Anneka and I hung out in the kitchen for awhile while Katia was getting Angelina to sleep. She wanted to do different things (like sweeping) and then have me take her picture. I guess she's wanting to pursue a modeling career like her Papa.



We always last for awhile in the main room, but then she gets really wiggly and noisy (even if I can tell she's trying really hard not to) and we don't want to disturb the others. Our church will hopefully get another room built/finished this summer and then there will be a place for the kids!



I snapped this picture of Leif through the little hole in the wall from the kitchen as he was giving his talk.

Last night Anneka and I went and hung out with Katia, her mom, and Angelina while the guys had their meeting. They had just gotten a potty for Angelina (she's 7 months old!) and Anneka played and played with that thing. (it looks like a horse). She kept wanting to use it and did a couple of times, but I have to say I'm SO GLAD we live in a place with running water!! There, we had to dump it in a bucket and it spilled on the floor... and then wipe out the potty with a napkin. I guess you would just get used to it and it wouldn't be a big deal anymore. But I'm still thankful for running water!

Kitty Cat

We went over to Chingis and Ksusha's house on Saturday evening, and they so graciously proofread Leif's talk (about the trinity and relationship) for church on Sunday. Anneka was pretty shy around Daniel at first, but she was enamored by their cat. Here you can see her joy as she first got to pet the kitty.




Here is her utter grief when Daniel took the kitty from her.




And then she was back to being delighted again. That cat was AMAZING with her. He let her hold him as long as she wanted to. He had a disturbed look on his face, but his temperament was so sweet and mellow. What a nice kitty!