We're Going to Tuva!!

Yes, that's right! Next week, we get to go to Tuva!! I'm soooooooooooooooooo very excited about this. Tuva is where I lived for a year before Leif and I were married. It is such a unique part of Russia (it truly feels like a different country altogether) and Leif has never been there. This opportunity came up suddenly when an American couple needed someone to help them to get there (someone who speaks both Russian and English). They'll be putting on a conference in Tuva. Anyways, we jumped at the chance to go. And I know I must really really want to go because the thought of 4 1/2 days of travel with a baby and being away from home for 10 or 11 days doesn't seem bad to me at all! The above picture was taken 6 1/2 years ago in Kyzyl (the capital of Tuva) with my teacher, Radmila.



Anneka and I went long underwear shopping for her today. It's very important for Russian children to have long underwear (and, of course, very practical when it's -40 degrees!) It was a bit of a treasure hunt finding long underwear that we liked. The styles here are very different than American styles, and my tastes have yet to adjust. While we were out, I bought Anneka a pair of pajamas, too. They're quite hideous, but she needed some badly and who could resist buying "booby bear" jammies? Haha.

The Heat Is ON!

Not only is the heat on, but it's roasty toasty in our apartment. We had the windows open today and are sporting our t-shirts. Ahhh, it's so nice. I don't think I mentioned it before, but when our apartment was so cold, Anneka would wake up in the night and she was like a little popsicle. (Thankfully, it was only once a night, but I felt so badly that she was so cold!) Now she sleeps 11 or 12 hours and her naps have been much longer, too. This is a picture of our little blooming cactus. I'm ashamed to say that I'm a "brown thumb" (especially since I come from a "green thumb" family), but cacti seem to like me okay because they don't really need water very much. Anyone know what kind of cactus this is?



Anneka's been doing so many cute and funny things lately, but whenever we pull out the video camera, she becomes so interested in the camera, that all else is lost. We need a third party to come and hide in the corner and film when she's not looking. On the last day of September, she officially took her first steps (four in a row). She takes a few each day but is still not walking as a form of transportation (crawling is much faster).



Anneka loves to play the guitar with her papa.



The other night we had Tanya over for dinner. Our friends, Ryan and Diana sent gifts for a few of their friends here in Ulan Ude and it was a great way for us to distribute the gifts and meet them.



The day their packages came, Leif brought them home from the post office on public transportation (vans that go in circuits). When he walked in the door, I laughed at him and couldn't believe that 1) we got three packages and 2) that he carried them all onto the van! haha. He's amazing.

Laying a Firm Foundation

Anneka and I went to visit Leif at the church on Thursday, and this is what we found. They've dug out all underneath the building in order to lay a foundation. "Why in the world did they build the building before they laid the foundation?", you may ask. Because the ground was frozen. But, oh, what a dreadful task! It is certainly easier to lay the foundation first! Yesterday, Leif and Dennis (pronounced Denise) went to the woods to find rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. Then they loaded trailer after trailer full of rocks to dump down into the holes that they've dug. Some of the rocks were so large that they had to haul them together.





Anneka officially has enough hair now to put into a bow. She likes being a bowhead. (and as you can see in the picture, she loves her mama's wallet)



Right on track with all of the child development books, Anneka basically doesn't want anyone except for her mama or papa to hold her. She's cordial and friendly to others as long as she can at least have a hand on her mama or papa's knee. We joyfully discovered, however, that Anneka LOVES Heidi, our 13-year-old teammate! We've left Anneka with Heidi a couple of times and they've done great.

Leif and I went out on a date on Thursday and had a delightful time eating pizza (different than pizza in the States, but good all the same)and talking. We took a taxi home and had a wonderful surprise on our ride. The driver was a 50-year-old woman (we'd never seen a woman taxi driver before!) and she was a Buryat and she was a believer! What are the chances?? It was so encouraging to hear her story and of how she came to know Jesus. Her children and grandchildren are all believers, too. Halfway through the ride, she excitedly stopped the car and dug around the glove compartment for a tape. When she put it in the deck, it was an English tape and the words to the song playing were "show me your face, LORD" I realized that He WAS showing us His face by crossing our paths with this joyful woman and reminding us of how He is at work in Buryatia.

Thousands of Pounds of Dirt!

Leif has been helping dig, dig, dig at church the last few days. They're digging under the building to lift it up and put a foundation underneath. On Saturday, Leif came home at about 7:30pm after working all day and said that he must have literally shoveled a couple of tons of dirt! Craziness. I'm so glad I'm not a boy.




I pulled out the crayons yesterday, thinking that Anneka may be a budding artist. She loved the crayons, but more to put in her mouth, drop on the floor, and roll around. Someday she'll figure out the "drawing" part.

Harvest Day

Today for harvest day, our church met outside, by the river. We roasted hotdogs, played frisbee, and celebrated together. It was to be a kind of outreach for the youth, too. It was neat because last week our pastor told everyone that a lot of these kids smoke and swear and we don't need to tell them that they're sinners. We just need to welcome them. This was refreshing, as often the mentality is different.

I thought it was interesting to see what some people brought for the potluck... a bag of potatoes, a bag of onions, a carton of milk... but it all worked nicely together. We just threw the potatoes into the fire and then took them out after awhile to eat.



Last week when we were deciding what to bring, a few people got really riled up and said, "We HAVE to have tea. We can't be out in nature without tea!" I thought it was funny at the time, but today I was thankful to sip something warm.



Leif's friend, Greesha, came today, too. Leif met Greesha when he lived in Ulan Ude eight years ago.

The heat has finally turned on in most rooms of our apartment! It's SO much better. Hooray!

Brrrrr! part 2

Yes, this is how I found my sweet wife earlier today. She seemed pretty comfortable after putting on her hat and scarf, but was pretty chilly before that. Later on she was inspired to make pigs in a blanket because it sounded warm. I think that she also liked the thought of having the oven on. As you can see, Anneka is also getting into the spirit of putting on winter clothes and just loves playing in the hat box. When Jami put Anneka down for her morning nap she put her in a onsie, two warm sets of pajamas, and her fleece snow-suit then wrapped her in two blankets with a hot water bottle next to her. I'm not sure if Anneka was really cold enough that she needed all of these things, or if Jami was just cold enough that she thought it sounded nice herself, but Anneka slept nice and cozy warm. We have hopes that the heat will be turned within the week, but until then we'll have to continue to wear a bit warmer clothes when we're inside, and maybe I'll wrap Jami in a few layers of pajamas, a snow suit, some blankets and give her a hot water bottle :).

Fun Faces

Often I try to take Anneka's picture when she's engaged in something, but then she'll see that I have the camera and get up really close right before I snap the picture. She's just so curious.

Anneka speaks more Russian that she does English. (of course, she only says a few words, so this isn't a staggering statistic). I'm sure this ratio will change shortly.

Last week we only had a couple of things "planned" (on the calendar) and were wondering what we were going to do with ourselves. But it was so crazy/interesting how SO many last minute things came up every day. It turned out to be a very full week! Leif and I talked about this later and were reminded that it's very cultural in Russia to have a freer schedule and to do things more last minute. We realized that we want to be available for opportunities that we wouldn't have if we plan out every second (a very American tendency). So we're going try to be more deliberate about not "planning" as much and trusting God to bring to us what He has for us.

Brrrr!

Leif and I are having a race and I'm going to write this blog in the time it takes him to put the Cosby Show in the DVD player and play the intro.

It's so COLD in our apartment!! The heat is not turned on yet. Anneka is in three layers in her baby bed. And our clothes took THREE DAYS to dry. That's a long time to have them hanging around the living room.

Okay, HA! I beat him.

Youth Bible Study

On Wednesdays nights, we're a part of a Bible study for the youth from our church. ("youth" here usually means college-aged people). Every other week we study a chapter from Acts and the off weeks we study a chapter from Deuteronomy. In the daytime beforehand, Leif and I usually study it together so that He's prepared. Anneka and I usually just go for the food and then leave! haha. We'd stay, but she's so busy that it's a distraction. But I pray from over here. And it's good to connect with people, even if just for a short time.

It's so neat because four of the guys that Leif has played basketball with have come to our church's youth club. The club is designed more to bring in newcomers, with games and activities... whereas the Bible study is more in-depth. We'd love to have more of a "life group" here in our neighborhood with these people that we're meeting. We need wisdom for God's timing.

The picture is of some of the youth in the Bible study. Anneka wasn't happy because she couldn't see her mama very well.

Camp Follow-up

Last night we had a time of songs/slideshow/mini-talk/food/games for people from the English camp. Even though students were called ahead to be reminded of the evening, the turnout was pretty low. Bummer. School has started, so I think people are in the middle of studies. Even students that we see regularly weren't there. So hopefully we'll connect with them in other ways.


Anneka and her friend Kristina had fun playing during the meeting last night. As you can barely see, in the far left, Kristina's mom is holding a piece of banana.


Anneka LOVES bananas, and even though she'd just eaten a piece, she zoomed in on this one immediately.


She pushed Kristina out of the way to reach her goal.


Anneka happily ate her banana, while Kristina was not so happy. It was actually really funny because Kristina is normally a SUPER calm baby... but last night, she kept chasing Anneka and attacking her. So funny. And Anneka didn't really seem phased by it. I have a little video (of course, I couldn't capture the funniest moments), but I'll post what I have:

City Day and The Glavni Geroy

Last Saturday was "city day", celebrating 85 years of Ulan-Ude as the capital of Buryatia. And it has been a city since 1666. We went downtown to take some video footage of the festivities (and snapped a few pictures along the way). There were floats and bands and many, many people. It was fun to be in the center of it all and to run into people we knew.



People get married on Fridays and Saturdays here (it's when the gov't office is open for making a marriage official). The office is right downtown, where city day was being celebrated, and we saw a lot of brides.



Every year, our Siberia area votes on the "glavni geroy" (biggest hero). Last year, Elisabeth was the glavi geroy for how many people she helped to get registered in the city and for all of the LONG lines she stood in. This year, Anneka won the award for how many lines she saved us from waiting in and for speeding up our process in acquiring our temporary residency... and for saving us from having to go to Mongolia! Here is Elisabeth, passing along the award.



It's a "Rescue Hero" action figure. Anneka likes it.



Anneka LOVES getting into drawers and cupboards. It's actually nice when I'm cooking or trying to do something because it keeps her busy. We just have to constantly re-inspect our drawers because sometimes if people use our kitchen, they'll put sharp things in drawers that she can reach. It keeps us on our toes!




Anneka got an early birthday gift from her great grandparents that she opened today. She had just as much fun tearing off the paper as she did seeing what was inside! I can't believe she'll be a year in a little over a month!

Let The Games Begin!

The sports square is completed! This is a picture from our window when it was near completion (all except for cement underneath the basketball hoop).




This is Leif and two guys from the church, laying cement. From the beginning, they decided that cement was the best surface to hold up in the winter months. It was quite the process, as the two cement trucks came at different times. At the end of this month, they will add one more layer to make it smoother. The surface now is totally acceptable, though, and hasn't stopped anyone from playing on it!



On Thursday, there was an "opening ceremony" for the sports square. The radio station and newspaper reporters were there, along with city officials. They had a special ceremony for kids in the neigborhood.




Also at the opening, there were a couple of soccer games between youth from our neighborhood and youth from the next neighborhood over (two age groups).



Here's an action shot.



The winners of the games were presented with cakes and a soccer ball and volleyball. This sports court accomodates hockey, soccer, volleyball, and basketball.



Leif has already connected with several guys (different ages) from our neighborhood. And he gets good exercice in the process! The square has only been completed a few days, and already more people come up and shake Leif's hand whenever we're walking somewhere. It's really cool. I had to take this picture on the sly, so it was hard to get a really good shot.

The Induction of the Sports Square

These cute girls danced in celebration of the opening of the sports square. There were also clowns, other dances, a tug-of-war competition, songs, and speeches. Our whole neighborhood gathered for this grand event.

The Recipient of Endless Gifts

I had to give Anneka equal opportunity and post a little "mama" video. She kept trying to grab the camera, so it was a bit tricky to catch her face before the image was hidden behind her little hand. She's been saying "mama mama" constantly the last few days and is endlessly raising her little hands for me to pick her up. Oh-so-cute, and oh-so-impossible to get anything done. Speaking of which, I'd planned on making dinner ahead of time this morning during her nap because we had guests coming this evening, but the electricity was out. It's funny because I'm reading a book about how to get more done in less time... but the author obviously never lived in Siberia. Many times each day I plan to get something done and it just doesn't get done because of circumstances beyond myself. (ex: the bank machine broken, the store closed, the water off, my phone not working, etc.) I'd say that I'm becoming a very flexible person.

You may wonder about the title of this post. Anneka is the recipient of endless gifts. Wherever we go, people love to give her gifts. She's received candy, money, a bouquet of flowers, an entire cake, and countless other treasures- from complete strangers! A man on the train last weekend gave her a tomato. Of course, I've read up on what foods you can give your baby when, and I happened to know that tomatoes were on the "after a year" list. I also didn't know if this tomato was clean or not. But I held all of these worries inside and said a quick prayer (after all, God is way bigger than food allergies and germs). And Anneka was the happiest baby on the planet. She was thrilled with her tomato! She always wants to take huge bites out of apples, but I don't let her because of the choking hazard. But mama let her take huge bites out of the tomato! She was hilariously ecstatic. She doesn't take after Leif or me with that one. We eat tomatoes only if we have to.

Siberia family conference

We just got back from a week near Krasnayarsk, another Siberian city that is a 26 hour train ride to the west of us. It was a great conference where we were challenged to remember that the theme of the Bible is the glory of our great God! To put anything else ahead of that is wrong. I was particularly challenged by how I want to do that, but in my own strength I cannot do this. I can only bring glory to God through Him working in and through me. I am so glad that He is gracious and merciful, quick to forgive and full of love. In addition we were reminded about God's desire for all nations to love and praise Him, and that this has been His desire from the beginning of time. It is a challenge to put our focus on the whole world and not just on the little things that we are doing here. Please join us in praying for all that God is doing across the globe and not to put what He is doing locally above the rest.