God Watched Over Our Way

Moscow airport with Carl and John



Frankfort airport with Carl. Anneka asked Carl, "Why are your and Ella's heads so similar?" I carried around this foam mattress to lay across the seats on the plane and in the airport.




Below is what Leif wrote to our prayer supporters in an email upon our return. We're so thankful for God's kindness to us!....


We, want to pass on a huge thank you for all of your prayers for us as we travelled for 53 hours from Ulan-Ude to Medical Lake. We are here and tired, but see how God blessed us greatly at different stages of the travel.
-John and Carl traveled with us from Ulan-Ude to Moscow and took the girls and this let Jami lay down across a couple of seats!
-John and Carl then helped us get our luggage and girls over to the hotel room!
-We had a nice rest in Moscow despite Ella throwing up soon after we arrived (thankfully this was an isolated incident and not on an airplane)!
-There was almost no line at registration or passport control in the Moscow airport (miraculous for those of us who have experienced otherwise)!
-There were places to sit at every airport along the way, including some places where Jami could lay out across a few seats!
-The flight from Moscow to Frankfurt wasn't very full and Jami was able to go to the back and lay across an empty row of seats!
-Carl also ended up at the airport in Frankfurt at the same time as us and brought Jami and the girls into an airport lounge for food and a nice place to be!
-The girls slept almost the complete flight from Frankfurt to Denver!
-Ella took naps on every other flight too!
-No long screaming and crying sessions, and the girls did good too ;)!
-We made it to Spokane with all of our bags!
-Jami's contractions were controlled and she is still pregnant!!!
-Dennis and Linda picked us up from the airport!
-Dennis and Linda have volunteered to help us with the girls as we adjust from jetlag!!!


Anneka is pretty much over jetlag. Ella is NOT. We're thankful for my parents' help and are squeezing in sleep as we adjust to life here!

Flying Out In The Morning

We just got back from the doctor here in Ulan-Ude, and she has given us written permission to fly out in the morning. She prescribed stronger medicine for me for during the travels. She said that if I were to go into labor, the baby would come very fast. We really, really appreciate your prayers for this journey- 53 hours from the UU airport to the Spokane airport.

Ella has a cold and can't sleep well as her nose is all stuffy. Pray for the girls to feel well and be good little travelers. We trust that God is paving the way before us!

Happy Things And Sad Things

We had our last team meeting before we leave for the USA at our place this evening with dinner together afterwards. I was thankful that it could be here so that I could see everyone to say goodbye! Several people came to help clean and prepare earlier in the day, as Leif had to pay bills and meet with someone this morning and the Buryat Partnership this afternoon. I layed on the couch while everyone sat around our living room in chairs. It's so nice to have more space in this apartment!

Anneka was very sad tonight to say goodbye to friends. I just sang the sniffling little girl to sleep.

And yet each morning when we open a new envelope on our advent calender, she's SO EXCITED that we're one day closer to going to "Medical Lake" (in her mind, this little town is "America"). We have the calendar displayed so that the first ribbon of envelopes counts down to our departure and the second ribbon counts down to Jesus' birthday.

We talk a lot about how there are happy things and sad things about leaving Russia, just as there will be happy things and sad things when we have to leave America in a few months. It's hard to know how to help her through these emotions. I don't ever want her to be calloused in her relationships... it's a beautiful thing to love and miss people! But I want her to be able to process through these feelings as well.

A Place For the Kids!

Up until recently, a family of four (plus the grandmother) lived in this tiny room in our church It's a little wider than the width of my arms if I stand in the middle. It went- single bed, crib, crib (with no room in between). Now they live in our old apartment and the room has been cleared out for a chilren's program during the church service!




Anneka has really enjoyed this time and has been singing the songs after she gets home. Last Sunday, Inka took Anneka to church (as Leif was at church in a village and Ella was home with Anna and me). It was so nice of Inka to do that! Pretty soon, there should be a new room attached to our church that will be even better for the kids. This current room is FREEZING (note the coats everyone is wearing). Thankfully, Anneka is hot-blooded and doesn't care about that sort of thing.

(pictures courtesy of Martina)

A Puppy Named Joy

Leif's trips to the village and to Chita (a city 10.5 hours away by train) were really encouraging the last few days. We have pictures, and if he has time he will post more about them. I continue to have lots of great help around here. I kind of started freaking out a couple of days ago when I realized ALL that needs to be done in the next week... especially as I'm not supposed to be doing anything. It's weird to be so helpless. But I'm doing better now. It'll all get done. And God is giving us His peace.

Leif is next door right now, meeting with a few men, and a sweet lady, Nina, from our church is making soup for everyone and caring for me and the girls. She brought her new puppy. Anneka is thrilled. Ella is very scared if he gets too close. I was surprised by this fear, as she normally loves to talk about dogs and point to them (as seen above)... but it turns out, she doesn't want to be too close. At moments it's been kind of crazy between the puppy peeing on the floor, Ella screaming, Anneka going wild with excitement to the point of freaking the dog out, etc. In fact, right this moment, Anneka is getting Nina to show her where he pooped in her room. This little puppy's name is joy. Who knew that when I prayed for joy in our home a couple of days ago, that he'd arrive in the form of a dog! He certainly adds a little bit of excitement around here!

Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

Since we've lived in Russia, Thanksgiving has been the hardest holiday for me to be away from our family in the States. We have wonderful teammates who are like a second family, and yet Thanksgiving always reminds me that Thanksgiving is an American holiday (in November anyways) and that a lot of our teammates aren't American. This Thanksgiving we'd wanted to invite a lot of people over to celebrate (and now we have lots of space in our apartment!) and then I was on bed rest and everything changed. I never actually made invitations early on and nobody invited us (probably because they knew we couldn't come), but I must confess I felt pretty left out and sad about it all. So I prayed. I prayed that God would somehow allow us to celebrate Thanksgiving. And a couple of days later, Nettie asked if she and Renata could bring Thanksgiving to us! I was really touched by their offer, and really amazed at how quickly and kindly God answered my prayer. (and was reminded that if he cares about something like a holiday, how much MORE He cares about our family and this little baby inside of me!)

The day before, Leif made these Native American headresses (above) with the girls. Anneka didn't like wearing hers because she said it made her look like a fox. They love dressing up in costumes. And Ella always wants Anneka to dress her, not Mama or Papa.



Leif made an apple pie, mashed potatoes, and a green bean casserole, and Nettie and Renata brought everything else!! While the girls napped (both slept at the same time!) and the turkey baked(Renata found one after both girls searched and searched the city!), we played a rousing game of Beyond Balderdash.



Anneka and I found a template for placecards online, and she wrote everyone's names on them.



We had a wonderful feast!

Nettie leads a Bible study every week, and a girl that she's been pouring into came and joined us. It was really fun to share our tradition with her, and I felt like she was soaking everything in. In every spare moment, she read from different Christian literature on our shelves and she seemed really eager to learn more about God.



After dinner, the girls put together puzzles together and played games. Anneka and Ella loved the attention!



Ella really liked the whipped cream!



We shared things that we're thankful for and sang praise songs together. It was such a nice relaxing day, filled with God's goodness!



...and laughter...



and love.