Happy Birthday, Ella!!!

Last week we celebrated Ella's first birthday! What a delight this little girl is. She's such a happy girl, full of life and fun. We awoke to her special day at a hostel in Hanover, Germany, and celebrated with the Kerin family. Ella's candle was in a yummy German pastry.




Here's the gang (except Garnder, who took the picture) eating our birthday breakfast and giving our attention to little Ella.



We bought some little shoes for Ella in Lemgo as a birthday present, but didn't wrap them, as she wore them right away. But the Kerins, Wickers, and Elisabeth's brother and sister-in-law Benny and Maria, all gave us wrapped presents for her to open. This made it feel like an official party! Rebecca picked out a baby doll for Ella, which was perfect, as Anneka is very protective of her dolls and doesn't want Ella touching them. It was evident Ella was happy with this present.




The Wickers got this sweet Hello Kitty dress for Ella. It's nice to have something girly and blue.



And Maria and Benny gave her these sweet little slippers (all Siberian kids need slippers!). They're so soft, and we were touched by their thoughtfulness. They gave Anneka a gift, too- gum and fun dyes for her baths. She LOVES the gum and talks about it constantly. The colors in the bath hide the rusty brown color in the water, and make bathtime an exciting event.
=)


Ella spent her birthday on two trains, a bus, and two airplanes. She's a traveling kid! In the airport, she led us around and around, walking all over the place. She knew exactly which direction she wanted to go and would get very upset when we veered from the proper course. When we'd let go of her hands, she crawled all over the airport floor. It's a good booster for the immune system.

This week Ella really started taking off with walking by herself (she really took off with it on Father's Day, per Leif's request). It's been so fun to watch, and she's so proud of herself. Today we were downtown and she walked around and waved at everyone, and I think I even heard her say "hi". She has started attaching herself to other people besides Mama and Papa. Today she wanted a sweet 9-year-old girl on the playground to carry her around. And last night she wanted our friend Igor to hold her. When we tried to take her away from him, she clutched his chest and sobbed. Funny girl. We love you, Ella! We love watching your personality come out more and more. We are amazed by how happy you are, even when you are tired. We love how you are so expressive and smart... you seem to understand everything we say. We celebrate you and look forward to watching you grow more and more!

The Conferences and Seeing Elisabeth!!!

Well, it's official- I looked in my pictures and didn't see any conference pics. I guess you can tell what stage of life I'm in when all of my pictures revolve around the girls and not historical sights or special events. Leif felt that his team leader training course was good and was valuable to hear what is going on with other teams and to connect with other team leaders. And the SEND Eurasia time was a great time of connecting with others from Russia, Ukraine, and Central Asia, hearing good teaching from 2 Corinthians, and seeing the kids enjoy other kids and be a part of a great kids program. We stayed on the campus of Brake Bible College. They had this Papa bunny that the kids liked to feed lettuce to. It's the biggest bunny I've ever seen!!! Ella watched the other kids feed the bunny and then 2 days later when I was there with her alone, she picked up a leaf and fed it all on her own. She totally knew what to do.




On Sunday afternoon of the Eurasia Conference, they organized buses for us to go on an excursion! Most people with kids chose the bird park. Anneka loved feeding many of the birds and holding a couple of them. And both girls really liked petting the goats. One tried to eat my dress!



My FAVORITE part of the conference was getting to see Elisabeth! She was part of our team here in Ulan-Ude up until 2 years ago when she moved back to Germany to be the Women's Dean of Brake Bible College. She had us over to her apartment, and it was just SO GOOD to be with her again! Anneka remembered her and took to her again right away. Elisabeth used to live right across the hall from us, and we miss her!



On the last afternoon, Elisabeth invited her family for us to see and spend time with. It was fun to see her parents, sister her family and sister-in-law and her kids and to talk with all of them.

This is Elisabeth's nephew, Samuel. We always used to joke that he was Anneka's future husband, as they would each watch video clips of each other over the computer and get very excited. Anneka used to go over to Inka and Elisabeth's and say "boy! boy!" and point at the computer until they showed her a video of little Samuel. On this day, they finally got to meet in person. Here, Samuel had dropped something on the ground and they were both looking for it. His little brother is Ella's age, so she had a boyfriend, too!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! We had a relaxed day at home. We were so jetlagged, that we overslept and didn't make it to church. I would've never guessed that we wouldn't awake in time. Normally our girls are our early morning alarm clocks!

I'm so blessed that Leif is the father of our sweet little girls. And both Leif and I are so blessed to have wonderful dads and grandfathers.

I'll still write more about Germany, but I realized that I didn't take any pictures of the conferences. I just didn't think about it when we were in the meetings/sessions. Oops. The teachers of the kids program took pictures, but I don't yet have them in hand. But Anneka loved her "school" and playing with kids who spoke English. =)

Tonight we're going to wait to put the girls down at 11:00pm in hopes that they'll sleep through and have no 4-hour middle of the night stints.

Time In Germany

We are back in Russia after a wonderful time in Germany! We were there for both a team leader's training conference for Leif and a SEND Eurasia Conference (the last one was four years ago, and because of costs, this may be the last one they ever have). It was so wonderful to be in such a beautiful place. The second or third day there we were walking with Anneka in the stroller and Anneka said, "I never knew there were so many birds in the world!" The airport in Moscow was so hot. Ella konked out in her stroller.

A very special blessing for our family was getting to go a few days early to see our teammate, Inka, and her home in Muenster. She was a wonderful hostess and showed us all around. Germany is 7 time zones ahead of Ulan Ude (and 25 hours travel to get there), so it was also a blessing to have these days to get our family into normal sleeping patterns before the conferences.
When it rained our first day there, Anneka was delighted. She squealed and said it was a dream come true. She loved holding the umbrella. Everything was walking distance from where we stayed and Inka's family's place.

Inka made doctor's appointments for both girls while we were there. Ella got updated on her immunizations and didn't even cry! We were thankful to be able to do this, and the doctor was really kind and even spoke good English!


Traveling with kids looks a lot different than without! We spent a lot of time at playgrounds and pretty parks and waterfronts, enjoying the flowers and greenery and playing with the girls. It was just the vacation we needed after some busy months and before sitting for days in conferences.




We enjoyed meeting Inka's family and seeing her home. Here she painted Anneka's nails on the patio.


Anneka loved helping Inka's brother, Timo, pot some plants.


We loved eating Turkish and Greek food at outdoor cafes.



Anneka and Inka, playing at the lake.

I LOVED the beautiful boulevards!

A fun swing at the playground




Our last day in Muenster, John, Sharon, and Heidi joined us. And we had more fun.

We were amazed by the number of bicycles! Inka said that the statistics are 2.5 bikes per person in Meunster!!

On the train, on the way to Lemgo for the Team Leaders Conference...



Right now we're in Irkutsk, staying with Alex and Yulia. We had to wait for our lost luggage, but are on our way home on the night train in just a little bit. I'll post more about our time in Germany soon!

The Army, Green Grass, And Messes

We've been waiting for this day for the past few years, but are very sad that it has finally come. Our friend, Sasha, got a call that he had 6 days to pack up his life and go into the army. All young Russian men are required to serve for at least a year in the army. We, of course, will miss Sasha this year as he's part of our family. He comes over each week to wash laundry, shower, and often he eats meals with us. The army is a tough place for believers. Pray for Sasha, that he'll be the light of Jesus to those around him and that he will stay strong in His faith.






Sasha is one of Anneka's favorite people to have for meals. She always invites him to eat with us, and she loves that she can play "I spy" in Russian with him. Speaking of "I spy", in the car a couple of weeks ago, we had a conversation something like this.

Anneka (in a high voice, pretending to be Ella): "I spy something brown"
Leif (first guess): "Is it the grass?"
Anneka: "Yes!"

Sadly, that is often the color of grass here. In the past couple of weeks, though, the buds have come out on the trees and GREEN is entering Ulan Ude! This is always a very exciting time of year. On Easter we planted grass seeds, and now we're enjoying the lush green grass on the windowsill (pictured above).



Here's a spider that Anneka painted.



And the girls in a box.


And the little mess-maker! After our bout of sickness, we've had TONS of laundry (I think Ella went through ten changes of clothes, 6 blankets, two sleep sacks, and a set of sheets in one night). And it's so cold in our apartment that it's taking forever to dry. I just now finished hanging the final load, and I've been working on this for DAYS! I was folding clothes and making piles on the couch, and little Ella decided the floor was a better place for these instead.

Basketball, The Little Stinker, and Eggs

On Tuesdays Leif teaches basketball to neighborhood kids- a younger group for an hour, followed by an older group. I wanted to snap a picture when more kids were out there, but wasn't able to get outside with the girls in time. It's neat how Leif connects with kids and it's fun to watch them interact with one another.

I haven't blogged for a few days because the stomach flu has made it's round through our whole family. When Leif got it a week ago, we thought it was food poisoning, as he'd had fish earlier that day from our babushka friend. But lo-and-behold it was an awful virus. I'm thankful that Ella got it after Leif and Anneka, though, so that we had hopes that it would end. Both girls today are acting like nothing happened and are as chipper and energetic as ever. Something interesting about sickness here is that people always ask you why you got sick. Examples of what they'll ask are:
"Did somebody open the window?"
"Did you drink cold juice?"
"Were you wearing a hat?"
Our downstairs neighbor came over this weekend to borrow money to purchase her husband's death certificate (or some form of paperwork for him). I told her about Anneka being sick, and she asked if she had a temperature. After I replied, "no", she told me that it was from yogurt. I explained that a few days earlier Leif had had the same thing so it was probably a virus. But she was convinced that it was yogurt (she's not the first person to tell me this). But when Ella got sick that night, I knew it wasn't yogurt. She doesn't eat it.




Ella's favorite place in the world is to be is on Anneka's bed. She LOVES it up there. It's hard to express how much she loves it. And when we take her off, she screams her head off and cries desperately. It's really high up, so Leif or I need to be right there if she's on the bed. I always thought it was a place that she couldn't get to until the other day when I walked into the girls room and saw this (pictured above). Ella had climbed up this stool all by herself and Anneka was trying to help her get onto the bed. That's a disaster waiting to happen!



Anneka, Ella, and I made a trip to our little local store this past week, and Ella rode in the stroller. She'd been sleeping for awhile before while Anneka played on the playground and continued to sleep as we entered the store. Anneka really wanted to open the door to the store by herself and tugged really hard on it (it's heavy). A kind old Buryat man came rushing over to open it for her, and she began to cry really hard. I could tell the man felt just awful. I pulled Anneka aside and explained how the man was just being kind and didn't know that she'd wanted to open it herself. We got calmed down and then went to buy groceries. I got some eggs (they come in groupings of ten typically, packaged in plastic bags (pictured above). I was trying to figure out the best way to hold them and push the stroller and that same Buryat man told me to put them in the stroller by Ella's head. By then she was awake, and I envisioned a gooey mess, but I also felt so badly about the earlier door-opening-incident that I did as he said. And Ella was one happy baby. And amazingly all ten eggs made it home, safe and sound.

At the hospital...

Our little neighbor and teammate, Matty Brubacher, fell off of a slide and dislocated his hip last Thursday evening. He was in a ton of pain, so his parents took him right away to the hospital for an x-ray. At the time, he'd been holding his leg (like where the femur is), and there was no sign of breakage in the lower x-rays they took. But after a sleepless night of agony, they took him back to the doctors the next day for more x-rays and this discovery of the dislocation. He was admitted to the hospital (a surprise for everyone) and has been there three days already. We've visited a couple of times and really feel for the family. We're praying they can bring Matty home today!!

Yesterday the room to the hospital where they check in visitors was like a scene from a movie- masses of people, people with horrible gashes and wounds, a lady having a panic attack (or maybe it was an attempted suicide attempt- she had cuts all over her arm). It was awful. Then they wouldn't let anyone up to the room except for Dave. I begged the lady, saying there's a little bored boy upstairs, and we brought Anneka to cheer him up. So she conceded, but told me, "okay, but only for 15 minutes". You can see in the picture above the blue booties that visitors have to wear to protect from bringing dirt and germs into the hospital. Us adults had to wear green capes, too- like superheroes!



Thankfully, Martina is allowed to be with Matty the whole time, and so far there is an extra bed in the room that she can sleep on. The other three beds in the room have kids (sharing their beds with mom and grandma) with broken bones. The room next door had at least 5 beds. Everyone seems bored and happy to talk. I had a swarm of people talking with me out in the hallway. I asked a couple of moms if they had to be at the hospital long. "Oh no, just a week", and "no, just 10 days" were the replies I got. I laughed, as to me, that is a very long time to be in the hospital!! During visiting hours, a lot of kids with broken arms run around outside. We are curious why they even need to be there? Sleep has been a challenge for Matty and Martina. Matty normally goes to bed at 7:00pm, but at the hospital, people eat their dinner at 9:00 and 10:00 and they turn out the bright overhead lights after 11:00. There's a clean, communal bathroom on the floor, and each room has it's own sink. People supply their own soap and toilet paper.


On display in the hallway is this case of treasures. They are all objects that doctors took out of bodies. I should have put my hand next to the case for perspective- some of them are HUGE! So far the treatment they've given to Matty has been reasonable and similar to what I've read online about what's done for this condition. The doctor has been so nice and gentle, and for that everyone is grateful!




One of the little girls in the room had some balloons that we batted around. Matty enjoyed that.



In this picture you can see the contraption they are using for Matty's leg. There's a weight hanging down at the corner of the bed. This is a long time for a little active boy to have his leg still! And he'll probably have to have it in traction for 2 weeks! Dave borrowed our sled to re-create something like this at home. As I type, the Brubachers are trying to get out of the hospital and HOME so that Matty can finish his recovery there- more comfortable for everyone! I'm sure they'd appreciate your prayers in this time!

Official Residents of the Russian Federation!

Yesterday after waiting in line for a couple of hours, we received our long-term residency here in Russia! We got this a whole week before our temporary residency runs out... how wonderful! On Thursday we went to the immigration office (also long lines) to pick up Ella's exit visa. It was that day that they told us, "come in tomorrow to get your residency". Hooray!! Pictured above are the girls with their little presents. The chocolates were from a lady (I think she's from Mongolia) who was also standing in line. Anneka really wanted to draw her a picture, so I encouraged her to and to give it to the lady. You could tell it made her day. Later she brought Anneka the chocolates. And then the lady who processed our residency gave Ella these post-it notes... a thrilling thing for a baby.



Our teammate, Renata, also got her residency, just minutes after us. This was her fifth time to the office in the last two weeks. And she got hers on the last day before her temporary residency ran out. Talk about faith building!!


We're so thankful for this. We now have 5-year living status here that is renewable. As you can see, the girls didn't quite understand or share in our joy. They'd just endured the heat and the waiting and the lines. But when I told Anneka that these little booklets mean that we won't have to go get more shots at the doctors and we won't have to stand in more lines, she said, "hooray".

Then we (with Renata) celebrated right outside the immigration office by eating Anneka's chocolates. Thank you, Lord, for opening this door for us!

A Dough Roast

As team leader, Leif regularly meets with team members to see how they're doing and help out in any way he can. Last week, our whole family got to go with him to Ziagraeva to see Melly! Her electricity had been out most of the day, but turned on just before we got there. She made us a lovely cherry chocolate cake and it was nice to get the time with her. After a few hours with Melly, we had dinner with her and the Ratinkov family. Valeri (that's a man's name here) will be the pastor of the church that they're in the process of planting there. Melly taught us her fun tradition of roasting dough on a thick stick, then roasting a hot dog and sticking it in the center. We also put things like sticks of cheese and veggies inside. Mmmm!

There's a law right now against campfires in nature until July 1st. There's even a law against walking in the woods until July 1st! We know someone who got a fine. He tried to pay it and couldn't find the office. Then the police came to his home at 10:00 at night to tell him to pay his fine. He told them he would love to, to please tell him where to go to pay it. And there was no definitive answer. Anyways, it was nice to be at a private residence and have this dough roast. =)


Anneka liked playing with Vera and Vitya. At one point she dumped sand down Vitya's back (and it was a cold day, and he had a bad cough and his mom didn't want to give him a bath). I misunderstood when Tasia told me what had happened... I thought he'd gotten sand all over himself. I said something to the effect of, "Eh, it happens." When I saw the look on her face, I immediately realized that my daughter was the culprit and apologized profusely- both for her and my language blunder! Thankfully she was gracious!



I gave Ella a big chuck of the roasted dough (bread) and she loved it. She wants food that she can feed herself. She doesn't really like to be spoon fed. She's much to grown up for such things.

Church Work Day

We had a church work day last Saturday, and Leif took Anneka with him to help clean up the property. (I kind of thought it may be hard to do any work while holding a baby. And I didn't really want Ella crawling all over nails and dirt). Pictured above is a gigantic cement telephone pole that had been buried on our church property. It was SO heavy! The guys had to dig underneath it in order to strap ropes around it. They heaved and hoed and finally hauled it away.



Martina took this picture of Anneka with these buckets. The kids had a blast helping and playing outside! I had cleaned our apartment while Anneka and Leif were gone, and as soon as they entered through the door, our place smelled like really bad smoke (from a fire they had to burn up debris). Ah, well. This time of year it's impossible to keep anything clean. We have huge dust storms that leave piles of sand and dirt all over the windowsills and throughout the apartment.



Here's Leif hauling water. There's a well about a block away from the church. Water soon becomes a precious commodity when there's labor involved in retrieving it! On Sundays when Anneka pets the cat or touches the floor and gets black hands, I help her wash her hands by letting just a trickle out of a special little spout. We talk about preserving water because someone has to go out and get it.

Tomorrow is another church work day. Leif invited Anneka to go with him again. But today she hurt her foot on the playground and was limping hours afterwards. Leif and I were talking about it- it doesn't look swollen, but we also don't think a 3-year old could fake a limp that well. Hopefully she'll be better by morning and back to her running self!

It's so nice to be outside!

Here are Martina and Anneka at the little playground next to our building. It's really nice for Anneka to have such nice playmates right next door! Today I was at a playground with Rebecca and we met a lady who lives very close to me (even though we were across town). She was very interested in getting together again and took my phone number and gave me hers. She has a little boy who is 4. She even spoke a little English! I'm looking forward to seeing how that relationship may develop.



Ella likes Martina's phone because it plays music. Here, you can see she was very possessive of it when Matty came close.



This weekend we went to the river to celebrate Dave's birthday and the kids loved playing in the water. They especially loved finding garbage in the water and pretending it was fish. Nathan is normally very clean and tidy. Anneka may be rubbing off on him... much to his parents' chagrin. The little pond area at the left of the picture is one that Heidi collected water samples from for a science experiment. Her older brother and sister collected water from various places and never got much to grow for the microscope. But Heidi's sample from this water source was FILLED with beautiful specimens!



Ella and Anneka probably make each other laugh and make each other angry more than with any other person. It's fun to see their little personalities together. Thankfully, the anger moments aren't too common. =)

And a cool story: a girl who was on the mountain climbing trip with Leif will be teaching Russian in Montana where our friend Stephanie works with Campus Crusade for Christ. Both are such neat people and seem like they'll connect really well. I just love when God shows us glimpses of how He's at work on a bigger scope. And it's a reminder that He keeps track of people much better than we can!