Good News

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     Last Sunday Leif was invited to speak at a church called "Dobre Vest", which is translated as "Good News".  This was the church he went to 12-13 years ago when he was a student here.  I took this picture before the service of him with the kids.  It was nice because they had a children's program.  All 3 kids were happy to learn and draw and play and squeal and run around.

     In Anneka's class, they got to jump off of the windowsill onto the couch.  I overheard her yelling "otoditye!" loudly before she jumped, which means, "get out of the way!"  After the service, she played ping pong with this little boy.

Leif, talking with some friends after the service.

     On the way home, we stopped at a little Russian cafe for lunch and then ran across the street to get some special things at a gourmet grocery store.  We found canned tuna fish, green beans, decaffeinated tea, granola, and french fries!  Talk about good finds!  In the parking lot, they had these fun animals.  

 Anneka was thrilled, and Ella was terrified... up close anyways.  From a distance, Ella liked this bee but started crying really hard when we got too close.

     Ella's been my little buddy in the mornings while Anneka is in school.  Yesterday she put this lipstick on her face when I wasn't looking.  It's hard to see in the picture, but she put it on her eyelids and under her eyes, too.  Unfortunately it's the kind of lipstick that's supposed to last 12 hours, so it was really hard to remove.  Even after several times of scrubbing, she still had red under her eyes.  It looked like she had a bad cold or something.

     Ella loves being my helper with Ike, and for the most part, he likes it, too.  I let her feed him when he's wearing clothes that need to be changed or when the food isn't something that would be gross if it got everywhere.   They laugh at each other and enjoy each others' company.  There are definitely times when Ella gets jealous and will say "Baby-Papa!"... as in, let Papa hold the baby.  But she loves her brother.

     Lena comes and helps us every week, and it's so sweet how much she and Ike love each other.  He's entering into the stage where he prefers me (mama) to others, but he still usually will let others hold him... and he's delighted with Lena.  This picture was taken at the Blakers the morning they flew in.  We had a team breakfast and are so happy that they've arrived!  Anneka was so excited that they were coming that she made a special card for them at her Russian school.  She knew exactly which day they were flying in and was thinking of them.  On the morning of the team breakfast, she excitedly said, "It's an exciting day today!  The Blakers are coming!!"  Mr. and Mrs. Blaker will be helping Anneka with preschool concepts in an English context.