Our internet has been out for ten days.  It's been very enlightening.  I realized how MUCH we use the internet (Bible study materials, Russian language classes and help, skype meetings, email, connections with family, friends & supporters, music, recipes, finding out the days' temperature, audio stories for the girls' rest times, ETC!)... and how helpful many of these tools are.  But I've also seen ways that the internet can suck time and make life seem busier than it needs to be.  So now we have internet again, and we're very thankful.  But I'd say these days away from it have been a gift, and I hope that we can take what we've learned in regards to our time and apply it!

     This man pictured above has been coming to our church.  Martina pointed out that he was wearing a GAP sweater, so I asked him if I could take a picture of him in his sweater.  It's always so interesting to see people wearing name brands that have come up through China.  It's so common that I honestly didn't even notice!  =)
    

     This picture is for my dad.  After church we have a light lunch together, and someone had brought a big jar of homemade pickles.  My dad makes pickles every year, and everyone loves them.  I, however, never shared the family's love for pickles.  But, boy, did Ella LOVE the pickles!  She had juice streaming everywhere (this is so gross to me!), and ate many of them.  She wouldn't let me take her picture, so I had to sneak this one in!

     I love how we have this time to talk with people and mingle after the service.  It's also nice for the kids to get a bite to eat so that we can put the little ones straight to bed when we get home. 

     On the way home from church a couple of weeks ago, Leif took Anneka and carried a sleeping Ella (who had fallen asleep on the bus) home while I stopped at the fruit stand to buy potatoes, milk, and a flat of eggs.  I was holding a sleeping Ike, and the lady who worked there kept asking me how I was going to carry everything (I got some bananas, too).  I told her that my arms are strong from carrying kids all of the time and it would be no problem.  But another lady there insisted on carrying everything for me (despite my insistence that it wasn't necessary).  She came all the way home and had tea and cookies with us.

     It turns out she's recently lost both parents and lives all alone.  She asked if she could come and visit again that week, and of course we said "yes!"  I was so touched by her kindness and took a liking to her immediately.   I love how God orchestrates our meetings with people and trust that He's brought this kind woman into our lives.

     The girls and I took some pictures that they'd drawn to the lady at work that week and a few days later she came over for lunch.  She stopped by another day, too, and has given the girls gifts from her little store.  She said that she's been thinking of us.  Pray for this relationship with this kind woman!

Sliding and Celebrating

     Leif had a birthday last week, and we-his lucky family- got to celebrate with him!!  It was a long day for Anneka, as she had both Russian and English lessons that day, but we decided to risk going downtown.  Thankfully she fell asleep in the van on the way and woke up refreshed and ready to have fun!  We stopped at a new game store first and Leif picked out a new game for our family to play.  This is pretty new here- to be able to buy good games.  So we were pretty excited.  Then we headed to the main square to slide on the ice slides.

     It was really cold- I think it was -35 that day.  But we were bundled and everyone enjoyed it.  Here are Leif and Ella (she wanted us to be with her when she went down).

I took pictures for awhile while I held Ike.  He went down the slide with us, too. 

 

Then Leif took a turn taking pictures (both of us took self-shots with Ike).  =)  He's pretty irresistible!

Such fun!

 

     

     These girls are hard-core.  Even after being outside for a long time, they wanted to keep going.  I love watching them hold their papa's hand!

 Here's the top of one of the bigger slides.  Ella got braver and let Leif push her down.

There she goes!

Ahhh... so happy!

     The girls sat on little hard plastic sleds that enabled them to go really fast!  Anneka keeps one of these sleds in her cubby at school for when the kids play outside (they play outside if it's -20C/-4F or warmer)... those days, we hope, will be coming soon!

     After a very yummy dinner at Subway (yes, you read that right! Subway is here!  There a few changes, like cabbage instead of lettuce... but mostly they are the same!) we headed back to the square to see the pretty lights in the sculptures.  Leif and the girls found another slide that was faster and slided some more.  I was frozen by then and cuddled with Ike.

     Then we came home for some German chocolate cake.  Ike konked out in the car, so we put him in his crib with all of his outdoor clothes on and opened up the balcony door.

The girls picked out face paints as a present for Leif. So after the cake, they had fun decorating him!

 

He was a VERY good sport!

a very, very good sport

     We love you so much, Leif!  Happy birthday!  We feel so blessed that out of all of the people in the world we get YOU in our family as such a wonderful husband and father.  You're the best!

Blessings At Our Door

     We met a young lady in the last few months who is a true gem.  She's serving God well here in Siberia, wanting to be a light for Him (and she truly shines!).  Her Dad sometimes drinks so much that he becomes violent and dangerous, so she and her mom have come to take refuge at our place a couple of times.... and what a blessing they've been to us!

     Our kids love them and they help cook (hence, the cabbage in the picture).  We pray together and have hopes that God will free this man (father/husband) from His addiction.  This is a dark place to live, but God is bigger and stronger than that darkness.  And he offers hope.

This young lady says that she believes our family is here to offer hope and to show an example of a healthy, loving family to many broken families.

     It's such a gift to meet people like these ladies and to see them loving God with all of their hearts.  They are blessings in our lives!

To The Unreached

     Last week, Leif had a few days of meetings with the Area Counsel to pray, research, cast vision, and start making plans for where SEND should send the next teams in Russia and to which unreached people groups.  There are over 100 unreached people groups all throughout Russia.  These men looked at which groups are currently being worked with and also looked at different statistics of numbers and locations and came up with several new places.  Exciting stuff.

      Ken was supposed to come, too, but he didn't get his visa in time... so instead of going to a retreat center, the guys met next door and skyped Ken into their meetings.

     While the guys had their meetings, Renata came and stayed the night.  It was really nice for many reasons- it was a big help that she stayed with the kids while I took Anneka to school (when it's so cold it's dangerous to take the little ones out in the mornings), the kids all loved having time with her, and I really enjoyed our time together, too!!

     Leif got me this new hat for Christmas, and Anneka tried on Renata's hat.  Wiith Ella's furry hat, we all made a very cute trio!

     We had a team meeting while John and Carl were here to hear about some of the decisions the Area Counsel had made.  Afterwards we had lunch- seven layer pasta and everyone brought different toppings (and yummy desserts).  It was fun to mingle and talk with everyone.

     We took a team picture (plus Carl and John).  The other kids were at their homes this time.

     Randomly, a bunch of us wore red/pink that day!  It was so notable that we took a picture.

     Carl and John stayed with us for a few days.  It was really nice to get time with them.  The girls were my helpers in preparing meals.  Anneka made their beds all by herself, and here she chopped the olives for pizza very small. =)  Our friends, the Knights sent us a BREAD MACHINE for Christmas and we LOVE IT and use it all the time!!  I tried out making some garlic pizza dough this day, and it was incredible.  I can never go back to regular dough again!

     If you turn your back, this little guy ends up here.  On top of the table.  We have to watch him like a hawk!

     Ella really likes helping me in the kitchen.  Here we made some cookies and cream ice cream.  You can see she's so proud!

 
     On Carl and John's last night, we played a rousing game of Twister.  Carl's back was hurting, so he was the spinner.  I was the first one out, so I was the photographer.

 Ike thought it was really funny and laughed at everyone.

We stayed up late talking with John and Carl and telling them our story of how we first met and ended up with SEND and in Russia.  It was fun to reminisce and to remember all that God has done.  Ike climbed up on Leif's lap in the middle and fell fast asleep.  So cozy with Papa!

Happy Birthday, Baby Ike!

     Ike had quite the start to his birthday last week!  He'd had a cold along with the rest of the family a couple of weeks ago (with a fever for a day or so)... then he continued to have cold symptoms but was okay other than that- had energy and ate and slept well... and then about a week later he got a pretty high fever (about 104) that would go down with ibuprofen and acetaminophen but would always come back up.  We weren't too worried because he still seemed okay.  When his fever was high, he was more tired and wanted to be held, but when we got his temperature down, he was mostly like himself.  However, by day 6 of his high fever, we started feeling a little more concerned and took him into a private clinic.   (We were also in touch with our doctor from the States and just about when we started feeling concerned was when he said it was probably a good idea to have him looked at).  The doctor here saw some "green stuff" in his throat and was guessing that it was a bacterial infection and prescribed an antibiotic and also some more tests to see if anything else serious was going on.

     We wrote to our doctor from the States and held off giving Ike the antibiotic until we heard back.  Ike's fever started to get high again in the evening so I gave him some ibuprofen and we went to bed.  In the night (at about 12:30am the morning of Ike's birthday), I felt him and he felt COLD, so I took his temperature and it was extremely low- 94.3!!  I thought it was probably a mistake, so I tried again and it was still low.  So I looked online and got freaked out that it was something super serious and then I woke up Leif.  We took his temperature rectally and with another thermometer and it was still low.  THANKFULLY our doctor in the States was home that day and was available to take our call.  He was very concerned and told us we needed to take him in to the hospital.  This meant we had to call the ambulance. (we also started him on the antibiotic... thankfully we had some that we'd brought with us from the States and our doctor gave a different/higher dosage than the doctor here).

     Leif called, and the paramedics didn't believe us!  They told us to take his temperature again and to call back.  So we did.  Three more times.  And we called back.  I packed a hospital bag and kissed the sleeping girls.  And Leif and I prayed and prayed.  They arrived at about 2:00am. The main doctor/EMT washed his hands while the other lady came in and sat down, looking very somber.  I asked her if it was really serious and she just looked like she was going to cry and nodded her head.  I had sent off a note on facebook after we called the ambulance and I knew people were praying.  I knew that God had our little guy in his hands, and I was so thankful for everyone's prayers.

     We took his temperature again with their thermometer.  The doctor did a check and thought that Ike's vital signs seemed good for having such a temperature.  He told us to give him a bath to warm him up.  This just made his temperature dip a little more!  He then told us that Ike needed sleep and to call back at 8:00am.  If his temperature was still low, they would take him to the hospital.  Of course, I didn't sleep all night.  Our apartment is so HOT (85 degrees) and I had Ike bundled in warm clothes, wrapped in a down comforter and up against me.  I kept checking his temperature every 15 minutes and it was still low.  Finally, I stopped checking and knew there was nothing I could do anyways except pray.  Anneka had just memorized Proverbs 3:5 that day on the way to school and it was going through my head:  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding".    I knew that God is good and that God loves Ike more than we do.

     The girls woke up at about 6:45, and I got up with them.  I checked Ike's temperature shortly after, and it was back in the normal range!  I was sooooo happy!  The girls just looked at me with smiles and big eyes, as they had missed all of the drama in the night.  Ike didn't seem really sick, and I knew we'd still be taking him in for blood and urine testing that morning, so we didn't call the paramedics back.

     Ike's lab results ruled out any kind of deep infection (the previously thought cause of such a low temperature).  While it's still a mystery what happened, I have no doubt of God's healing touch.  I'm so thankful that we didn't have to go to the hospital and were able to rest and recover at home!!  A couple of days later Ike got a rash, so it could have been the virus Roseola that gave him the fevers.  And it seems to me that he probably did have a sinus infection from his previous cold.  But all of that doesn't really matter.  What matters is that our baby is okay!  What a gift on his birthday and what a reminder of how precious is his life!!  Happy Birthday Isaac Jack!  We love you so much!  Because of the events, we were very low key on Ike's actual birthday.  We played a game of rolling a ball as a family.  =)  But on Saturday, we went to a brand new mall with a brand new indoor play place with some other kids from our team to celebrate!

   

     This mall and play place are incredible.  We're still kind of in shock that they exist!  The Jordans and Brubachers along with some out of town guests (John, Carl, Rich) and Daniela went with us.  Ike was pretty mellow that day (still in recovery and lots of stimulation), but I think he liked it.  =)

     Ella wanted to be close to Mama or Papa the whole time, but after awhile she warmed up enough to slip down from our arms and play a bit.

     Leif and I remember loving big rooms full of balls as kids.  Anneka definitely shared that love!

 Ike was so cute riding this tiny little merry-go-round!

     His favorite part was playing with these balls.  There was a big launcher that shot them into the air at a target.  You can tell in this picture that he wasn't feeling 100%, but he was still happy.

The girls helped me make these froggie cupcakes.

None of our pictures of the other kids/people turned out!  But we all sang happy birthday to Ike!  

     Anneka and Ella each separately went shopping with me to pick out a toy for Ike.  It was special for each of them.  Ella picked out a car, and Anneka chose these bath paints.

     Ella was very timid around Carl at first.  She hid behind me and didn't want to look at him (and even gave him grumpy looks).  But after a few hours, she warmed up, as you can see!

     In the morning, we had hosted a welcome breakfast for the guys who flew in and for our team and then after the mall excursion, we had dinner for those who wanted to come.  Anneka, Matty, and Nathan convinced John and Rich to be a house or a garage or something.

And after everyone left, the girls tried out Ike's new bath paints while he slept!

We'll have to include him in the fun some day soon! 

 

And we ended the day with another game of ball.  After his nap, Ike was back to his happy self!

After another day of recovery, we actually let Ike EAT one of his cupcakes!

Anneka and Papa, showing how it's done!  

He really liked it!  (He also really likes carrots, by the way.  But don't worry, it's cooked!)

Such a sweet family!

     Ike really likes being one, I think.  A few weeks ago when Ike was running around, Anneka said, "Ike is a real person now!  He's walking like a real person!"  And Ike certainly feels like he can do everything that anyone else can do!  

     Ike, we love you so much!  You bring us so much joy and laughter!  We love that you already tease us and have a sense of humor.  We love how you can be both cuddly and busy.  We love how you enjoy each of us in different ways, and oh, how we enjoy you, too!  We thank God for you and for your life!