Ella is Officially a Preschooler!

           A few weeks ago, we discovered that there was an opening for Ella to go to preschool two mornings a week at the same school as Anneka (in a different room).   We jumped on this opportunity, as Ella has been showing signs of readiness for school, and we've seen how it's helped with Anneka's Russian like nothing else.  We want to give Ella this chance, too.  This meant that we had to to a battery of medical tests.  (You can click here to see what all is entailed).  Ella doesn't love doctors like her sister, but she was very sweet about everything, and I discovered that she loves gum so much that if I bought gum and gave it to her each time we headed to the clinic (I had to stock up- there were MANY visits!), she was happy as a clam!!  I tried to make it into a special mother-daughter time (as much as trips waiting in lines and going to a bizillion doctors can be).  We always packed books, and while at first I wouldn't read if we were actually IN an office with a doctor, by the end, we just did whatever to make things fun and smooth!!

    One day Leif asked me how our doctor's visit went, and I said something like, "well, first we started on floor 2 and then they sent us up to floor 6, but they sent us to floor 3, but that doctor was in the hospital, so they said to call back next week.  And then we went to floor 5 and waited in a long line, but we didn't make it in time before we had to leave to pick up Anneka from kindergarten".  And after I said this outloud, I realized that I'd left out a couple of floors and it seemed completely nuts because we hadn't accomplished anything!  The first half of filling our our medical card, was pretty much like this for over a week.  I really felt that God wanted me/us to praise Him in the middle of it and to keep our eyes open for His goodness and His opportunities.  One day, as we were leaving the clinic with no stamps in our medical book because of time, we ran into our friend Masha outside.  She sweetly volunteered to take Ella for me and when I came back an hour later, she had seen TWO doctors!  Another time, we met a really nice mom and her son and had a good conversation with them.  God provided fun things like this slide (pictured above) in the hallway of floor 2.  And the second half of the medical card process went very quickly!  Once we got three stamps in one day!

     After we got our final stamp, Ella and I were so excited!  We asked a lady to take our picture outside, and we told her that we were celebrating because it was like a holiday to get our medical card filled out!  She gave a knowing smile, as it is not easy for people here either!  I had one friend say that the next time they buy an apartment, they will buy one next to the clinic because they have to go there so often.  And she was serious!

     The very next day, Ella had her first day of school!   Ella was excited, and Anneka was so excited for her, too!  Ella walked right into the classroom without even looking back.  And since she's begun I already hear her using more Russian with people.  

     I made a special lunch for Ella that day and we had a special "first day of school cake".  

     Ella's regular teacher has been sick, so she's had substitutes.  One day it was a mom that I've met on the playground and have talked with several times over the past couple of years. (her daugher is a friend of Anneka's)  She said that Ella had played really well with the kids and did great!
   
      I am also amazed that there's one teacher for sixteen 3-year-olds and they all get totally changed out of their clothes into outdoor clothes (this is very cultural- you wear different clothes outside than you do at home or at school) and into their coats, hats, and boots.

  By the second week when Ella's teacher returned, she got really sad as I was dropping her off and cried really hard.  Leif was out of town, and that morning I'd had to get all of the kids up and ready and out the door pretty early (and Ike dropped a glass on the tile floor right as we were leaving that I needed to clean up really fast so no one would get hurt).  When we got there, another kid's clothes were in Ella's cubby and her clothes had been moved.   I'm guessing that all of these things added to her feelings, but it was SO SAD leaving her.  Ike and I could hear her crying all the way outside.  She was okay when I came back to get her 3 hours later, so I'm praying that it was just one of those hard mornings because of all of the abnormal circumstances.  Ella is so brave.  I'm so proud of her!  I love her love of learning and watching her interact with both kids and adults.  She is a treasure.

      

Stuff Around Home

 

     Leif was gone for the last 5 days on a mountain climbing trip, and there were about 3 blogs I wanted to do while he was gone.  But I decided to preserve my energy and basically went to bed right after I got the kids to sleep each evening.  So now I will try and play catch up, as there's a lot to write about!  I thought today, I'd post some pictures from our daily life.  We like to watch Ike in action.  He always has a special project in mind and is very very busy.  Often his projects will involve pouring liquids (he always uses the word "dump" for both dumping and pouring).  We have to watch him!  And we love to watch him.

     I was making dinner the other evening, and I turned around to see Ike all bundled up in his sister's winter clothes.  The girls had bundled him and then plopped him down at the table and left him.  He's usually pretty good natured to their antics.  It's really hot in our apartment right now- it was up to 88F yesterday!

   

     We make cookies a few times a week for our home group, guests, and just for us to eat.  The kids like to be my helpers.  This year, I've given up sweets for Lent.  I actually didn't really think it would affect me too much- I just thought it would be a fun way to look forward to Easter and a reminder of Christ and His ultimate sacrifice for us.  I have to admit that I've really missed the sweets!  I'm totally eating more other food, too (I'm not on an official diet), but I can tell that I'm losing weight.  It's good to help me to be aware of what a sweet tooth I have and to hopefully tame it down a bit when I start eating sweets again.  =)

     This boy had a great time playing with our kids while his mom was with me at the women's outreach at our church a few weeks ago.  Here, they're playing doctor.  We went to his birthday party this past weekend and the kids all had a very fun time!

I missed catching a picture when they were even more inside Leif's shirt!!

     Anneka and her friend, Lina, had a blast recently coming out in every assortment of winter clothing and introducing themselves as guests with Russian names.  They were so funny to watch.  Lots of giggling.

     Almost every morning, we have a filling breakfast (such as pancakes, waffles, eggs, puffed oven pancakes or oatmeal), because the kids have a long morning at school without food or drink and we don't want them to be hungry.  Whenever we feed our kids cereal, they are hungry again within 30 minutes, so then we end up feeding them 2-3 breakfasts anyways.  When time allows in the morning, Anneka likes to make the pancakes, and she especially likes to make fun animals out of the batter.  She always wants to take pictures of her creations.

... and Anneka also likes to fix my hair.

     I had planned on doing an entire blog on this little stuffed tiger.  If you asked Anneka and Ella, she is not a tiger, she is Anneka's daughter (Ella's niece) and Leif and my granddaughter.  Her name is Lily Violet.  We have dozens of pictures of Lily Violet hanging with the family.  Here she is with her princess birthday cake (we just microwaved it in the mug).  There was a time when Lily Violet ate all of our meals with us, required babysitting if we were to be gone, etc.  She went to Thailand with us in November, and Irene had a great idea to tie her to Anneka so that we wouldn't lose her.  So we have lots of pictures of her being drug through the sand and the waves.  Well, one morning (on my watch), Anneka handed Lily Violet to Ike in the stroller and he dropped her somewhere along the way.  It was pretty traumatic for Anneka to lose her daughter in Thailand.  The Jordans were visiting in Russia soon after, so we ordered a new Lily Violet that they brought with them.  In the meantime, Lily Violet called us and wrote to us from different countries and told us of her adventures on land and sea.  She made it just in time for Christmas... Anneka awoke to her daughter nestled into her arms.  But the reason I'm not going to do a whole Lily Violet blog anymore is that it seems she's resumed her status to just being a stuffed tiger again.  

     Sometimes when Leif is gone, I'll sing the kids all to sleep in our bed and then move them later (usually I'll keep one with me because sleeping children are just so sweet!)  The kids like it when we let them sleep together, and often any two do sleep together in Ike's bed.  Lately the girls will wake each other up in the mornings,though, so we've had to make sure that they're separated. 

     This is a picture of a mug that has brought both joy and sorrow to our lives.  Anneka's class had the "mug man" come to school.  They each had their pictures taken and got to order a special mug.  The girls all chose the same design as one another.  Every day after her picture was taken, Anneka would ask if her mug had come yet.  She would jump and squeal with excitement, just thinking of her mug.  When it came, she was so incredibly happy about it!!  Well, it lasted about a week and then Ella (who was very sweetly clearing Anneka's plates for her) dropped it on the floor and her toe.  There was a lot of blood and a lot of tears.  But I was really happy to see that Anneka was more concerned about Ella than about her mug.  And sadly, the mug is now gone.  This picture on the mug is very funny to me.  Anneka has SUCH a cute mouth right now, with her top two teeth missing.  I just LOVE her smile.  But it's not really cultural here to smile a big smile with your mouth open.  Anneka smiled, and her teacher told her to "smile smaller" and to close her mouth.  And this is the picture we got.  =)  I just had to take a picture of the picture before we threw the mug away.

     We've had the Brubacher boys over a few times during English Club the last couple of months.  We've had fun both playing indoor games together and playing outside.

     Ella was delighted to get to fix Papa's hair!

     We also had little Diana over a couple of times while her parents were taking a course on inductive Bible study.  The last day of the course, she was so tired of being away from her parents.  She cried a lot, and I was gone part of the day with Ella, doing medical tests, so that made it extra sad for her.  I think she likes me because I always bring snacks for the toddlers at church.  =)

All of our kids have really been into drawing lately.  I love this picture that Ella did.  It just makes me smile.

     Lisa came over with Christina while the guys had a men's meeting. We had a tea party and then painted our nails.  She painted the little girls' nails.  It was a lot of fun!  It's special for the kids to have adults outside of our family invest in them.

     We also had guests from a closed country come and cast some vision for us on how to pray and mobilize believers here to hopefully go and be missionaries there.  It is our dream to send people out from here, and Leif is working on setting up a missions program similar to the Prospectives course here in Ulan-Ude to cast vision for the Great Commission and missions.

     And we had a pastor from a village stay with us during the regional meetings for pastors and leaders.

One day we made puppets and put on a puppet show.

     In Anneka's kindergarten, the kids are occasionally asked to do a bigger homework assignment over the weekend.  (as a side note, they are already writing sentences in Russian!  This is amazing to me.)  This particular assignment was to make a 3D model of something from our neighborhood.  It was impressive to see what all of the families came up with!!  Leif guided Anneka through making this monument.  He verbally directed her and helped her with cutting the plastic for the U-shape and screwing the airplane monument onto the board, but other than that, she basically did all of the work.  Sometimes it's stressful when we get these assignments (especially if we already have a lot of plans), but it's also rewarding to have the end result.  And it's really special for all of the kids to share what they accomplished with others at the school!  Everything is really stellar... nobody turns in junk.  They display their artwork as a little exhibit for a few weeks for all the school to see.

Spreading the Love!

     This winter, a kind lady from one of our supporting churches wrote to us, asking if they could send a big box of warm clothes for people here.   She had been talking with her daughters about sharing with those in need, and her 7-year-old wanted to give warm things to people who live in Siberia.  I was touched by their kindness, and it was such fun to watch people accept these items and even more people to see them using them for weeks afterwards!

     The kids were so happy and loved picking out gloves and hats!

I only took pictures of those that I knew wouldn't mind, but their humongous box blessed many, many people!

Anneka got her "dream coat" out of the box.  I can't tell you how happy she was about it!  And she's matching her friend with her new white coat.  

     I think it's so great when we can teach our kids the joy and value of giving to others.  I often think about what we can do here to reach out, as there are so many people with real, tangible needs.  Pray that God will give us wisdom in this and that our hearts will be generous and trusting in God's great goodness.  Pray that we won't become desensitized to the many who are hurting around us, but that we'll always be filled with care and love for them.  

We have a new teammate!

     We have a new teammate!  His name is Bruce, and we're so happy to have him here.  Our kids love him, and lucky for us, he lives right next door (for the next few weeks, anyways) so he's been able to join our family some for meals and evening games. Bruce grew up in a large family and is great with kids!

     I was really blessed by so many people coming to clean the apartment next door to prepare for Bruce.  Nettie and Renata cleared out major closet space and put contact paper on the shelves to line them.

Dave organized the office to make room for a space for Bruce.

     And Inka did a stellar job cleaning the kitchen!  Others (not pictured) fixed some broken things around the apartment and cleaned off the balcony.  

     Bruce is very artistic and is talented in helping others to bring out their talents.  Our hope is that he can be a learner of Buryat culture and help people within the church to worship God in many artistic ways that both celebrate who they are and bring glory to our Creator!  Welcome, Bruce!

Little Milestones

       Our Ella got her first haircut recently!  She strongly dislikes having her hair fixed, and her hair is so silky and fine that it falls right out soon after I fix it.  I use teeny tiny rubberbands that grip her hair, but she really doesn't like those!  We decided that we'd get her bangs cut so that "her pretty hair isn't covering her pretty eyes".   The hairdresser was afraid to give Ella all-out bangs, and since I was a little hesitant, too, she got a trim all around.   

 
     She was so cute sitting there for her haircut and she liked the results, but I think she's not too happy that I still have to do something with her hair to keep it out of her face.  Our biggest method for hair fixing now is distraction.  There's a little Russian show called "Luntik" (about a little creature that fell from the moon).  It's about 5 minutes long- the perfect length of time for Ella to watch while I fix her hair.  It's so funny because if someone else fixes Ella's hair, she'll sit very sweetly for them and we all ooh and ahh about how pretty it is.  But 9 times out of 10 she goes into her room and pulls it all out a few minutes later.

     In other family news, Anneka lost her two front teeth!  Her friend, Matty, lost his two front teeth, too.  We got a picture of them together before his grew back.

I just love how kids look with missing teeth.  So funny and cute!

Women's Day

     Women's Day is a big day here in Russia.  All women, young and old, are honored on this day.  Martina's language teacher challenged her to plan a special program for the ladies in our church and to give her first talk in Russian.  Lots of women came, and they invited others as well.   It was a special time of encouraging one another and focusing on how God is worthy of our thanks in everything.



     Nettie and I sang the song 1,000 Reasons in Russian.   It was a lot of fun, and the ladies really liked it.



     It was really exciting for me that my friend came, too.  It was her first time at our church, but she seemed really comfortable interacting with everyone there.  Her son played at our house during the women's program and had a great time with Leif and our kids!  Afterwards, my friend came over for tea and we had a lovely talk with Leif about what we believe and the differences between Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism.  I gave her a Bible in an easy-to-read Russian verson as a Women's Day present, and she received it gladly.  I am thankful for this friendship.

Then later that evening, Anneka and I took a gift to an older lady in our building.  She's going through a hard time, but I think it was encouraging to her to be remembered on this holiday.

     The kids made me special pictures for Women's Day!  I'm probably biased, but I think they are all budding artists!

Then on Sunday, Leif gave the talk at church.  He shared about how just as men and women are different, we need to be sensitive to approach people differently as we tell them the good news.

     The men all sang a song in honor of the ladies.  I just LOVE it when a group of men sing to God together.  I looked at each of them as they sang and prayed that God would strengthen them and grow in each of them.  What power and love and glory (to God!) are shown when men are living for Him with their whole hearts!

     They each also gave words of encouragement and wishes or blessings to the ladies.

     And the guys made the lunch for everyone to share together after the service!  Leif made these things called cheeseburger rolls (bread with meat and cheese rolled inside) and banana bread.

     And, of course, there was a program at Anneka's kindergarten for Women's Day.  Anneka had learned some lines the week before and then on Friday we were told she had new (even longer) lines.  We worked on them all weekend, and she did great!  It's very fun to watch her grow and develop in many new skills.

     There's a quarantine in the school right now and all of the other parents there were wearing masks.  We apparently missed the memo (and perhaps we weren't supposed to bring Ella and Ike with us).  But nobody yelled at us, and the little ones sat so still, I was in total shock!  It was a very pleasant performance in every way.  

Effective Parenting

 

 

     One of the things that's hard for us living here, is that we don't have many healthy families around us to learn from or bounce ideas off of with parenting.  Often others here look to us as their models/examples, when we feel like we need models/examples ourselves!  Leif and I have been praying for wisdom in parenting, and it's neat that recently, our pastor told everyone in the church (even people without kids) that he wants us to all go through a 10 week parenting course.  What's especially nice is that was originally made in English, so I was able to buy the book on my kindle to be able to fully understand everything.  People are going through this course in different groups, and we are facilitating one of them with the people in our home group.

 



 

 

     Something that has brought joy to my heart is a Tuvan family that moved here and became a part of our church and home group.  I lived in Tuva for a year after college, and the people there are so dear to my heart.  The mom has an amazing story of how God revealed Himself to her, and it's so neat to see this couple wanting to raise their family to love and honor Jesus.  This little girl's first language is Tuvan.  She and Anneka played so nicely, and Anneka was patient with her, knowing what it's like not being able to speak a language.  They dressed up and had a grand time playing!

 

 

     We love Masha and Vlad and their sweet little guy!!  All of our kids are always wanting to hold him.  He's just so kissable and adorable.  It's nice to be able to share our struggles with one another and pray for each other.

 

 

     Each week we watch a 30 minute video and then go through a list of questions together.  The discussions have been very interesting and helpful.

     Amak's family had to make a hard decision to let their kids finish out the school year in Tuva before they move here for good.  They tried being away from their older two kids for a month, but it was just too hard for all of them.  Then Amak was here for a few weeks without his family, but that was too hard, too!  So now they're back in Tuva, and we await their return this summer!

    We appreciate your prayers as we seek to love God with our whole hearts and to love our kids with an overflow of that love.