So Fun To Be Four!!!

     We celebrated Ella's fourth birthday in some woods that are within walking distance from our apartment.  Our original plan was to go to the river, but our van was in the shop.  In the end, I think this turned out to be the perfect place to celebrate our little Ella!!  We invited our friends to join us, who have 2 little girls, Anya and Lina.  Our kids love them so much.  We had a picnic with fresh cherries and peaches (just now in season) and chicken wraps with different veggies and sauces.  And chips.  Ella adores chips.

It was so special when this butterfly landed on Anya's hand!

We got each of the kids a bottle of bubbles.  Here, Leif was helping Ella with hers.

     I made Princess Leia cupcakes for Ella. Anneka and I wore our hair like Princess Leia for the day, but Ella wanted her hair in braids.

Ella wanted a candle in each one.  How fun to blow them all out!

     Our friends, Angela and Culley, had sent us Hello Kitty party decorations.  We used them all around our apartment as well as at the party.  Something we recently discovered is that tablecloths are very important to Ella.  If the table has a tablecloth, then it's a real celebration in her mind!

Anneka spelled out Ella's name with some garbage and sticks she found on the ground.

     Our kids faces are ALWAYS dirty.  It's funny because people are constantly pointing out their faces to me, as if I didn't know.  (sometimes people will even wipe them off).  I actually do wipe them off often, but they are dirty again within minutes.  So then I kind of let it go for awhile before the next wipe.  The kids are happy, and we're happy.  A little dirt never hurt.

     Ella pulled her friends up the hill with her stick.

     And at the top of the hill was a little amusement park!  What could be better?!?

Sweet, happy girls!

     And, of course, the picnic wouldn't be complete without ice cream!  Ella likes ice cream so much that on her actual birthday, she had a plan all layed out in her mind.  We were driving back from Lake Baikal and we were SO dirty and it was getting late.  But she so sweetly asked if we could stop at the mall (it's just a little over a year old) and get the scoopable kind of ice cream.  And then sit on the green couch that's in the mall and eat our ice cream together.  This was so funny to me, as this is not something we've ever done before- "stopping at the mall".  It would have never crossed my mind that this would be her birthday wish.  We said we'd stop and see if they were open.  I think it was getting close to 9:00.  But they WERE open, and we got our scoopable ice cream and sat on the couch.  She was happy as a clam.

     After the picnic, Anya and Lina stayed the night.  Ella and Anya had matching pajamas and all of them watched a Tinkerbell movie before going to bed.  What a wonderful day!

We love you, Ella!   You are so thoughtful and loving.  You know how to speak works of love and encouragement and you are affectionate.  You are strong and express yourself clearly.  We can't imagine our lives without you!  As we often sing to one another, "We love you so much, we love you so much, we can't even tell you how much we love you!"  Enjoy your year of being four!

Village Life

     We were blessed with the opportunity to spend the weekend at a village on Lake Baikal with my friend that I met at the market last summer and her family.  Afterwards, the kids have proclaimed that they want to live there always!  They had puppies, so this- of course- enhanced the excitement of each moment!

     We took so many puppy pictures!  This family has a cabin really close to the lake as well as a farm a few kilometers away.  The first night we went to the farm so that Asya could milk the cows, and six puppies were there.  The kids convinced Asya to let them take 2 of the puppies back to the cabin for the weekend.  They also had piglets and calves.  So cute!

     This was Anneka's puppy, "Blackie".  Blackie basically lived inside of Anneka's coat the whole weekend.

     We went down to the shore Saturday afternoon, and the puppies were shivering because of the wind.  Leif put this little guy inside of his coat in the pocket.  The puppy LOVED Leif!  While we were there, the weather wasn't hot or cold- it was very pleasant.

     There's always something so mighty about being next to the ocean or a big lake.  You just can't help but shriek with glee!  I read today in Psalm 19 that "the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands".  I think this is also true with Lake Baikal!

There was a little sand bar sticking out into the water that the girls and I walked out onto.

And this picture cracks me up.  Asya's son was cold, so he stayed in the car, and her husband was out fishing.

     For part of the time we didn't have electricity.  There's also no running water.  We used this bucket for hand washing and for washing dishes.  And for paint when Asya decided on a whim to white wash the wood stove.  =)

 
     In this little town is a hot springs.  We couldn't stay in for long because it was so hot for the kids, but they LOVED it!!  Ella loved it so much that she asked to go again the next day (which was her birthday).  How could we refuse such a request to a sweet little girl?  Kids under 7 were all free, so our kids all still qualified!  I tried not to think about the water too much and what may be growing in there.  Instead we just enjoyed the time.




     One afternoon, they butchered a pig for some men who wanted to buy it.  They handed me this little pile of fish while they were working.  I couldn't resist us getting this picture.  With Ella and the puppy, it's a perfect picture for village life!  I don't know what kind of fish they were, but I was picking scales off of my hands for a couple of hours afterwards!  It was fascinating.

     Asya did something really special for Ella's birthday.  Not only did she get her amazing presents, but she bought a lantern (like in the Rapunzel movie) that goes up into the sky.  We set it off at around midnight, to mark the start of Ella being four.  The kids stood in a line like this while Asya and I lit it.

    I didn't know what to expect.  I honestly didn't think it would work!

But it took off higher and higher until it was a tiny dot in the sky!

  It felt magical to watch, and Ella felt so special!

     This is the room we all stayed in.  Their kids went to bed after midnight each night.  The first night we tried to get our kids down "early" at 10:30, but by the second night they were down at midnight, too.  Thankfully they all slept in!

Sharing a breakfast of cut up hotdogs and onions.

Getting water from the well.  Unfortunately, the bucket totally fell off of the rope, so we had to use baby wipes for washing after that.

     Asya's mom found a huge treasure in the woods- mushrooms!!

Asya made flower crowns for the little girls.

They loved them!

     We celebrated Ella's birthday on a second day where I made Ella some cute little cupcakes.  But on her actual birthday, we sang to her, too.  She picked out this little cake at the village store.  (that and drinkable yogurt)

     The kids made a little home inside of the old hen house.  One night the puppies got lost (through a hole or something) . We prayed for them and they appeared the next morning.  What a relief!  Of course there were many tears saying goodbye to the puppies, too.

     We're thankful for this time to get to know this family more!

Semi Summer

     Summer is kind of here!  It's not completely here, as the weather is still cold some days.  At the end of May, Ella prayed before bed that winter would come.  The next morning we woke up to a blanket of 3 inches of snow!  And Anneka still has Russian kindergarten until the end of June.  (it's late this year because there was a quarantine this winter... I don't really understand because she still went to school during the quarantine.... something about her not having special classes like music and all of the regular lessons).  But there are also a lot of days that are sunny and beautiful.  And all of the school-aged kids (older than kindergarten) are out of school, so it makes for fun times on the playground.  A few weeks ago, we met these sweet little girls on the playground.  They come from a Christian family (which truly is amazing to find here!)  and they come over to play pretty much every day. All 3 kids just LOVE them and ask every day when they get to play, and they make plans about how  long we'll play outside and how long inside and what they'll do, etc.

     I've really noticed a jump in Ella's Russian since playing with these girls.  It's fun to see.  Here they are playing Polly Pockets.

     One thing that's really interesting about playing with Russian kids is that most of them go to bed sometime between 10 and midnight.  Our kids go to bed between 8 and 9.  When I ask the girls to get on their pajamas at 8:15 and tell their friends it's time for them to go home, they simply can't comprehend WHY our kids would be going to bed so EARLY!  One evening "K" came to the door at 8:45.  Anneka was already in bed (but not asleep).  She asked if Anneka could play and I told her she was already in bed.  I said something about how she had to do her homework in the morning before church (because we had plans for after church) and she needed her rest to be able to get up.  "K" offered to help her with her homework.  I was a little hesitant, but I thought it may be interesting to see and told her "okay", but just for a short time.  Anneka was thrilled to get out of bed, and it was truly fun to watch them together.  Anneka had to write 5 different sentences using question marks.  Those were the only rules.  But Kristina wouldn't let her start any sentences with the same word (such as how, why, when, etc.) And she wouldn't let her write about the same subject matter for any 2 sentences. (like a cat, for instance).  It was truly comical.  Anneka did great with the strict rules, and Leif and I were happy that her homework was done!  Afterwards, Anneka said, "That was SO FUN doing my homework!  I never knew doing homework could be so fun!"

     Another indicator of summer is that Anneka completed her lessons in English this year with Art and Lisa.  They threw an end-of-the-year party at their home with great kid foods for lunch.

     They all had a fun time playing outside.  It was a beautiful day!  Even with just one day a week, Anneka has really grown in reading and writing in English and in her math skills.  We're so thankful for the Blakers and their help to our family.

     It's hard to see in the picture, but Matty put dandelions in Ella's hair.  She felt so pretty!

     Leif was gone this week in western Russia, and after the party, we headed downtown with the Brubachers.  Nettie met us there.  It's such a beautiful sight to have the fountain running!!

     Another day that Leif was gone (in the Siberian city of Chita), we went to the ethnographic museum with friends.

     We got to feed carrots to most of the animals.  I love that about the zoo here- you can feed the animals!

I couldn't help snapping a picture of these fun ladies dancing!

The kids ran and ran in the woods, played with sticks, and climbed trees.  

     We also were invited to Nathan's 9th birthday party.  The kids had a great time celebrating together!  It's such a special thing for our kids to have these friendships on our team.  They all understand what it's like to live as a "third culture kid".  They love each other dearly.

       I had to add this, because it's such a big part of our life right now that I don't want to forget.  Ike just LOVES puzzles.  He puts together several puzzles a day.  Often when the girls go to bed, I'll sit with him and do puzzles.  I never really liked puzzles growing up, as I'm not very good at them.  But I like watching Ike do puzzles.  It's so fun to watch the little wheels spinning in his mind and his little hands turning the pieces just right.  So now, I suppose, I love puzzles, too!

Back to the top of Buryatia

Some of you may remember that I took part on a hiking trip up Munku-Sardik, the tallest mountain in Buryatia, a couple years ago.  I was asked to participate again as we led a group of twelve people, a mix of believers, including some very new Christians, and non-believers, to the top of Munku-Sardik.  This picture is at the trail-head and shows the height of the mountain, 3491 meters (11,453 feet).

Much of the "trail" is actually a frozen river.  I guess in the summer everything melts so you do have to find an actual trail, but we have been told that the spring is the very best time to hike there.  It certainly is interesting to have the majority of a hike be uphill on ice!

I loved getting out of the city and into nature.  The scenery was beautiful and the weather was really nice.  Actually if anything, the weather was too nice as it rained on us one evening, though it turned into a nice blanket of snow by the morning.  The bigger problem with the warm weather was that the ice got weak and we had to be very selective on how we went across the ice.  I did have a few times of having my foot fall through the ice into the water below, and others did too, but thankfully no one was hurt and we were well equipped and able to avoid getting too cold.

On the first day we hiked a few miles and set up a base camp, then on the second day we went out to acclimate some to the elevation and to do some training.  Everyone had to learn how to fall correctly.  Well, I guess it was more how to stop falling, but during training you have to start falling first.  Some of us decided to hike up a ridge from there to get a view of Munku-Sardik.  I decided to go along and am glad I did as the view was amazing!  You can see Munku-Sardik behind us in the picture above, or more clearly by itself in the picture below.  

The mountain ridge is the border between Russia and Mongolia.

  As we started up for our ascent day we were hopeful, but uncertain if everyone would make it to the top as many in the group had little or no experience with hiking.  It really was wonderful to see everyone pull together and help and encourage each other.  It was certainly a major physical and mental challenge for most of the people in the group, but we were all able to make it to the top.  I really felt like this was an amazing witness of the community that Jesus gives us, and I was thankful for everyone who came.

 Here I am at the top.  In the background there are a lot of prayer flags that are common both in Buryatia and Mongolia.  It is another reminder to pray for the people here as often high places and natural features are seen as holy places.  I'm so thankful that God is with us everywhere and that we can turn to Him from any place and at any time.  On the way down I paired up with one young lady that had a really difficult time with fear.  She was afraid of falling and had panicky tears on the way up, then said she wasn't going to go back down the mountain!  Thankfully we were able to help her along.  About half way down she stopped worrying about herself and started worrying about the group that was behind us as we broke up into three groups.  I could tell at that point that she was doing better.  It was great to see her work past her fears and come through victoriously.  I hope that all in the group grew in their understanding of God and were blessed by the time like I was.  We had a follow up meeting with people a week or so after getting back and hope to continue to build relationships with the new contacts.  Please pray for us in this.

Here is a picture of me on the way out.  I was really excited to be heading home to my family after a few days on the mountain :)!