September 1st

     September 1st is a big day in Russia.  Not only does it officially mark the first day of fall, but it is the first day of school!  It doesn't matter which day of the week the first falls upon, September 1st is THE day.  Today we met up with some new friends at their daughter's first day of school ceremony.  I love how it's a family event.  Everyone meets outside for a welcoming program for 40 minute or so, and then they enter the building to go to their classes.

     The kids wear uniforms and they all look so nice.    Everyone comes and brings flowers for their teachers. The little boys wear suits and ties and the girls where skirts or jumpers and white shirts and their hair is all done up in braids and puffy white bows.  Some bows are so huge they are larger than the girls' heads!  

     I wish I'd gotten a better picture of a group of kids entering the school grounds.  It all feels so festive!

     Yesterday evening, we had this new family and the Brubachers over to play a game.

 

     The boys played and played together, and our girls just clung to Liza.  So cute.  They were all pretty loud and wild, running around and screaming.  Last night Egor was so excited from the events that he kicked and shouted in his sleep, reliving everything.

 
      We let the girls stay up until 10:00.  At one point, I went into our "reaading room" and saw Ella cuddled up with Liza.  =)

     We're looking forward to growing in friendship with this nice family!

Everybody's Doing It

     These last weeks, we've been making the rounds of medical tests for Anneka to enter Russian kindergarten.  Every child who enters the Russian school system has to go to each of these doctors:

* Pediatrician
* Psychologist and Educator
* Ear, Nose, and Throat Doctor
* Surgeon
* Orthopedic Doctor
* Optometrist
* Dermatologist
* Neurologist
* Dentist
* Gynecologist
* Speech Therapist
* Audiologist
* Dentist

They also have to have these tests:
* Electrocardiogram
* Urine
* Stool
* Blood
* Another test with a swab that I don't know what it is
* Chest X-rays from the parents

....Plus a home visit to make sure that the child has a safe and proper living environment,
.... and copies of birth certificate, insurance, medical card, & immunizations.

Isn't this amazing?!?!  I definitely feel like we are experiencing Russian culture as we do all of these tests. I've had different Russian friends that have helped us along the way.  It's actually been a neat way to form new relationships with people.  And Anneka has been a really champ.  She LOVES going to the doctor!  (It's a very good thing.)

Today we got her lab tests (pictured above in the patient room).  All we have left are the speech therapist and a final checkoff with the pediatrician (and picking up some lab results).  The end is near!

Crawling Ike

 This is for you, aunt Claudia!

 Leif has been in Mongolia on a mission trip (more in a later post) for the past 8+ days.  We have definitely missed him and are eagerly awaiting his return tonight.  God has definitely helped us around here.  The kids have been behaving really well (after a rough patch a couple of weeks ago), and we've tried to have a lot of fun to help pass the time more quickly.  In the above picture, the girls were kitties and had to go to the veterinarian (me) to get their paws all bandaged up.

We made a calendar for 10 days (the original length of the trip) and had a fun activity each day.  I'm trying to remember all we did: made bracelets, dyed and decorated Easter eggs, made flower belts, playdough, puppets, ice cream (with chopped up candy bars they picked out at the store) and a pizza cookie, went to a birthday party, had a scavenger hunt for a harmonica, took the hamster for the ride of her life, opened a package, had a mock wedding, had a few friends over, watched Mary Poppins, etc (I can't remember everything).  The girls got into it!

The highlight of our week was when Nettie spent the night and played with us!  It was so fun to have her here, and I was able to run to the store for milk and take a shower!

        Here they are, making creation with paint.

     I caught a cold the day after Leif left and had LOW energy.  One night all three kids woke up more than once! And every other night at least two kids woke up.   I'm definitely lacking for sleep, but know that God has been sustaining me.  Thankfully the cold has been pretty fast moving and the kids are all still well.  Thank you for your prayers for us!

     We can't wait to hear Leif's stories of all that he's experience these last days!  

Ulan Ude Summer Conference 2012

     We used to have a conference with all of the other SEND Russia missionaries every year.  But Russia is so huge and airfare is so expensive, that it really added up.  Also, the winters are so L-O-N-G that someone very wise came up with a great plan!  Every other year, we all just have team conferences (something simple and inexpensive) and then on the off years, we go to someplace warmer than Siberia in the winter!!  It actually adds up overall to be less expensive than all meeting in Russia every year.  And everyone is happy!  Our team had a business meeting for 8 hours on Monday in Ulan Ude and then headed to Lake Baikal on Tuesday for tent camping for 3 days.  Three of our missionaries had parents in town, so they joined us, too.

    I wish we'd gotten a better picture.  This was an old lady and old man putting down the road.  They were so cute!

      Once out at Baikal, we had lots of time to just play and be together.  While I can't say it was easy tent camping with such young kids, I also loved seeing the girls so happy playing, playing, playing!

     

     The water was definitely cold, but not icy cold like normal.

     Anneka and Ryan, jumping the waves.  Ryan said that Anneka knew how to have fun... a great compliment!

      Ella and Elianne- cute little buddies.  As you can probably tell, there were times when it was cold... but I came prepared with many layers of warm clothes!

     We put Ike in a dry kiddie pool to keep him contained, but he just climbed over the edge and ate the sand.

    I love my guys!!  Ike, I'm sorry about your pink socks.  I couldn't find your socks very quickly, so you ended up with Ella's. 

     I loved Inka in her hat.  And I loved wearing the hat that my cousin, Brenda, made for me, too... it was nice and warm!

     Nettie was Ella's buddy.  She always wanted Nettie to show her her tent and stuck to her side.

     Anneka loves seeds and nuts... even the kind that take a lot of work that you have to shell.  Pine nuts and sunflower seeds are among her favorites.  Before we went to Baikal, I let her pick out a treat at the store and she chose sunflower seeds... a PERFECT snack for the outdoors!!  She and Ryan sat here for a long time shelling their seeds and eating them.

    A Dora swimming suit with horse rubber boots.  Quite the combo.

     I remembered to pack all of the swimming suits except my own.  Somehow Leif convinced me to go swimming in his shorts and a tank top, even though I'd been freezing all day (in multiple layers).  And I'm so glad he talked me into it!  This was probably my favorite part of the whole trip.  Swimming and playing with my family and others.  Ella LOVED being in the water.  She had a major meltdown when I took her back to the tent to finally get dressed.  It was 9:00pm and she was shivering like crazy, but she did NOT want to leave the water!

In the mornings, Dave's Dad (a pastor) gave wonderful devotionals and we enjoyed times of singing praises to God together.

Ella and Darin, playing in the sand.

    The teammates and parents from Switzerland and Germany sang a song in German for us all!

We have a great team.  I'm thankful for each and every person! My teammate, Martina, put together a video from our conference.  If you're interested, you can click here to view it.

Ike is officially a resident... and just in time!

      Less than 2 weeks ago, we didn't know if we'd be spending the next month and a half in Mongolia or staying here!  Ike's visa was about to run out, but we didn't have his temporary residency permit yet.  We waited with baited breath (Leif called the immigration office several times to check in, and the answer was always, "call back in a couple of days").

     On the very day Ike's visa ran out, we were allowed to go in to get him fingerprinted and turn in his passport for him to receive his residency!  And when we went back to pick up everything, the line was soooo long.  We waited for an hour, and it barely moved.  Leif and I were starting to say to each other that we didn't know if we'd make it in time.  The people in the front of the line started fighting about who was next and making quite a ruckus.  The guard had to come and tell them to stop fighting.  And the lady in charge got so fed up with them that she called us to the front of the line!  All to say, we were very happy.  Thank you to all who prayed for Ike to get this paperwork.

     To be honest, I don't think Ike really cares if he's in Russia or Mongolia.  He's just happy to tear apart nice, plush toilet paper (a gift to me from Nettie, as I have a cold and needed something soft for  my nose!)

At Baikal With Friends

     In July, we went to Lake Baikal with Renata, Ira and her son, Sasha, and the Thai guys.  It was a gift to get time with each of these people.  We were waiting for a new battery charger to come in the mail for our camera, so Renata took pictures and sent these to us.  Above, we ate some smoked omul (fish from Baikal).  It's funny because I didn't think I wanted any until I smelled it and tasted it, and then I think I ate more than Leif and Renata did!  It was super fresh and yummy.

     It's a good thing we went straight to the beach right after we arrived the first day!  After that afternoon, it was rainy and COLD!  Ira asked me why I didn't bring my snowsuit for Ike, and I thought she was kidding.  But she brought a snowsuit for Sasha, and after a day, I'd wished I HAD brought Ike's!

     Anneka wanted to ride in a paddle boat, and we thought it sounded fun, too.  It's so funny that the girls wore adult-sized life jackets!!

     With the super-padded girls on our laps, peddling was no small feat!

   
      We took turns and Leif took Sasha and Anneka out, too.  They loved it the most, I think. (See Ella watching them).

     Out at sea.

Anneka playing in the sand.

So fun to dig!!

   

     There's been so much rain this year, that everything is SO GREEN!  Ike loves to sleep in our arms. Looking at this picture, I feel like he's already 2 pounds larger!  We weighed him yesterday and he's basically double his birthweight... about 18.5 pounds.  He wants to do everything his sisters do and is very fast at crawling already.

     The place where we stayed had a nice little playground for the kids.  They also had a very clean, nice outhouse.  Anneka was very happy as she loves the kind of outhouse that is basically a hole in the floor.  She commented about how nice this one was, and wanted to go all by herself.  I wouldn't let her, as the whole is the width of her body.  Imagine if she fell through!

     We love this sweet little guy!

     We went for a walk in the rain on this day.  In a sad moment, the blanket on Ela's stroller blew off into the lake (when we were walking on a pier).  Anneka cried and cried, as Leif's grandmother made it for her when she was a baby.  We searched in the water, but it was so cold and windy and far from the shore.   We even went back a couple of times to see if it had washed up to shore.

     I think Ira thought our kids would surely get sick because they weren't dressed warm enough.  She called later in the week to ask if everyone was well and seemed surprised that we were.  I'm so thankful!

     We were all happy to get this special time with Renata and to know her better.  She stayed in our cabin with us.

     Picture taken by Anneka

All Smiles

 I think Leif was trying to get Anneka to go in deeper.  

Shivering after our swim

Anneka got brave with Renata

Falling Into The Fountain

     On my birthday, we had a fun family day and went downtown. There's a great fountain there that "dances" to music and has colored lights at night.  I was looking at the water with the girls while Leif was videoing us and standing by sleeping Ike in the stroller.  In an instant, Anneka fell in!  We watched the video several times after to see just how it happened.  (its still a mystery)  She was totally submerged and it scared her (hence the tears)... but after about 10 minutes, she thought it was the greatest story ever.  She kept laughing and talking about it- for days afterwards.  Lately she's been wanting to swim under water with her eyes open, after Inka told her about how to do that.  After falling into the fountain, she said, "It all happened so fast, I forgot to open my eyes!"  Ask her about it, and I'm sure she'll love to tell you the story!

Bittersweet Hellos and Goodbyes

For the last three weeks, the Kerin family has been in Ulan-Ude, packing up their things to move to Ulan-Ude.  They were a part of our team since before we moved to Russia, and we have spent almost every holiday together and enjoyed their friendship.  It was so good to see them these weeks and spend time with them, and so sad to see them go.... and yet we know God has great things ahead for them in Ukraine, too.  Bittersweet.  We've tried to help them in any way we could- making meals, helping them pack, watching kids, etc.  On this fun evening (pictured above), some of us ladies met downtown for a spontaneous dinner and walk by the fountain.  There is a much funnier picture of when I ripped my pants open, but for obvious reasons I chose not to post that one.  =)

Here's the group of us!

A few days ago, we celebrated Michael's 4th birthday at an indoor playplace and rollerblading rink.  There were SOOO many kids that came!!  Here, Anneka was LOVING blading with Naomi and Andrew!

The guys helped pack most of the Kerins' belongings into two big containers that should be delivered to them in Ukraine in 3 weeks.  

There will be a hole here in Ulan-Ude without these sweet friends!  Through the lives of Gardner, Rebecca, and their kids, many people have come to know Christ and are living with hope that they didn't have before.  The Kerin's introduced us to a family that lives in our neighborhood.  We went to their place for dinner this week and had a lovely time.  They are very warm and kind and open to talking about spiritual things.  We're excited about getting to know them more.

We will miss you, Gardner, Rebecca, Andrew, Katie, Matthew, Michael, and little Joy!!!