News from the Ultrasound

Okay, we thought we'd have a little fun with all of you. The picture above is the sign on the door of the bathrooms our child (no, it's not twins, but we thought it might be with how big Jami is) will enter in the future. Some will know right away, others may need to wait until the next blog or read through the comments to try to find out what this means and others may just want to give their best guess. It was an interesting process to get an ultrasound here in Russia. We had the privilege, though we felt a little guilty, of going with our midwife and being whisked to the front of a very long line of women waiting for their ultrasound, and had a doctor who is the best in the area and does a lot of teaching on ultrasound techniques. Also, she is good because she is known to not give false fears from her scans (unfortunately it is common for doctors to give a list of terrible or strange things that are wrong with your baby). The patients were signaled to enter the room by a light bulb flashing outside the door. Also, you need to bring your own blanket or towel for the table, I guess that cuts back on cleaning expenses. Then the process itself went pretty quickly. We saw different parts of the baby including the beating heart, and were given the dimensions. The baby is normal to slightly large, with an exceptionally large head. Actually, the doctor said something to the effect of, "that is a really big head." Then proceeded to look up at me and calmly said, "of course that could be because of the daddy." This is the part that may shock all of you in the U.S. medical system, we payed about $4.65 for the whole procedure.

The Heat Is On!

This past week has been hot, hot, hot. Every time I'm outside, I remember how cold it is in the winter and count my blessings. We went on a picnic with people from church on Thursday. We didn't realize that it was a "swimming event", so we didn't have our suits with us, but we brought a frisbee and waded in the river with our brothers and sisters. Our friends Vitya and Sveta have a van and took two loads of us to the river. We got to be in the second load, which meant that we got to meet and hold their new baby, Maria, while we waited.

We also had Leif's teacher, Alexandra, and her granddaugther, Olya, over for dinner this week. Irene met Olya at English camp, and they were able to converse, which was nice. I really like Alexandra. She is such a warm person and she likes to talk about interesting things and is very interested in Christianity.

Leif and I practiced a song in Russian to sing at church today, and Leif spend much of the week preparing for a sermon he was asked to give. When we got there, there were two people already scheduled to give sermons already... so Leif suggested that he could give his another week. It takes so long to prepare a message in Russian, that it makes sense for him to give it when he's really needed. And it's probably good because it was soooo hot in church today. We were all sweating. The leader of the service today forgot about our song, too, so we'll do it next week. Living here helps us to be more flexible! And our time preparing and studying was not in vain. God has reasons we don't even know!

Around the Apartment

We bought a crib and a high chair this week to prepare for baby Gustafson. The "free delivery" for these items was onto the road outside, even though we live on the third floor. I'm so glad I wasn't home alone when they came! Leif carried the crib up the first flight of stairs all by himself and then Irene helped. And now it's safely inside. Don't worry- we'll make sure something is done about the outlet and the heater next to the crib! Irene got us the colorful blanket in that's on display right now. We think a jungle theme would be cute for the nursery and will look for curtains and crib bedding in the States. Also, I made a wall hanging for our room that I've been wanting to do for awhile. It's basically just material over styrofoam, but I like it. It adds color. I really want to get some nice plants, but plants are sooo expensive here! The least expensive small ones are around $15 (and that doesn't include the pot). And big plants are astronomical. We're holding out, thinking that we'll come across just the right little stand that has great deals. It seems like plants would help to make the air cleaner... and they're just pretty.

Happy Birthday Jami!!!!!

Yes, it is that wonderful time of year where we celebrate God giving life to Jami our friend, wife, daughter, sister, grand-daughter, niece or whatever relationship you have with her. Yes, it is always fun to celebrate with Jami! Unfortunately we couldn't be with all of you to celebrate. We did have a good time though. We stareted our day with waffles on a newly purchased waffle iron, and then moved on to presents. Jami always is so good at recieving gifts, and she seemed to love everything that she got. After the morning activities we headed downtown and enjoyed lovely drinks in one of our favorite cafes. We then thought we would kill some time by walking down the walking street and that is were we stopped for the picture in front of the fountain. We decided to try a new restaurant where one of our friends works, and we've decided that it is a new favorite here. At the end everyone got a little restless and started to fold party hats and stuff like that out of the napkins! We then came home and enjoyed a chocolate cake that Mama Irene made for us. I am pretty sure that she had a great birthday, and I am so glad for that because I really love her a lot!!!

Lasagna

At the English camp, many students would ask us basic questions such as "What are your hobbies?", "How many brothers and sisters do you have?", etc. When the students in Irene's class asked Leif his favorite food, he said "lasagna". They'd never tried lasagna before, so we invited them over for dinner. There were five girls in the class, but only two were able to come today (hopefully the others can come later). They LOVED the lasagna and ate a lot of it.

Last night, we had Chingis, Ksusha, and baby Daniel over for dinner. Leif and Irene assembled a bouncer chair that Irene brought for our baby before they came, and Daniel was so fascinated by the chair. It was a great place for him to sit and entertain himself while we ate and talked. I'm also including an updated "pregnant" picture. I'm five and a half months now, and I don't feel like I look very pregnant. But others laugh at me. I want to be really big. haha. The funny thing is that our midwife thinks that we may be having twins. She wants to see me again in two weeks and will take me in for an ultrasound if it still seems like it. We just think it's probably a big baby, but it's crazy to think about!!

Mama Irene's in Town!

Mama Irene is here until the beginning of August, and it's been fun to show her where we live. It's neat, too, because she was also at the English camp, so she met the same students that we met and comes with us as we follow up with them. Yesterday, on the way to a game night with students, we showed Irene around the outdoor market. She tried on some shopkas (fur hats), and all the lady at the hat stand loved her. Then we bought some berries. Mmmmm! Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, mini cherries and interesting green berries (maybe gooseberries). The green berries were really tart, so Irene made a yummy pie out of them this morning (mixed with the mini cherries). Also today, Leif and I put up ribbon as a border in our bedroom. The walls and ceiling here are really crooked, and the ribbon hides it a little (and gives a clean line). Later this afternoon, some girls took Irene and me to a museum with stuffed Siberian animals on display while Leif played volleyball with some guys. It's nice to connect with people in such natural ways.

Followup Meeting

Tonight we had a get-together for all the students who went to English Camp and their families. We didn't know how many would come, and there were at least 70 people there!! (all crammed into Shannon's living room). Most of them stayed for the church service afterwards. The sermon was a message about God's love based on the prodigal son. It was good to reconnect with students. We invited Irene's English class over for lasagne in a few days and there's a game night planned for whoever wants to come on Wednesday. It'll be neat to continue developing relationships with these students.

Summer Camps

We just returned from summer camps, and it was a truly great time. God's spirit was definitely at work- both in our hearts and the hearts of campers. We saw a couple of people make decisions to follow Jesus with their lives and saw many more soften to the LORD. And we had fun! Here are some pictures from our time. We slept in tents and had a covered area for eating and an outdoor area for meeting times, too. Drama was a big part of explaining spiritual truths (in both serious and funny ways). In this skit, Leif is in the middle as a pilot wanting to land at a location other than the runway.

The second week, a team from America came to teach English to students twice a day. Mama Irene came, too, and here she is with her small group of students. Her group only knew a little English, and Leif helped translate.

One of the Buryat students at the English camp REALLY wanted to do a skit with Elvis in it... guess who got to be Elvis?

Leif was one of the sports instructors at both camps. Here, a group plays water volleyball with plastic sacks filled with water.

I worked in the kitchen, which was wonderful for getting to know people from our church on a deeper level. Before camp, I memorized a list of questions to be able to talk on a deeper level with people. It was so encouraging hearing so many people's stories of what God has done in their lives. Here, I'm doing dishes with Aryuna and little Ioana. Ioana is four and LOVED to help me whenever she could!

In the afternoons, we had free time to spend on the beach of Lake Baikal. This was great for connecting with people and cooling off.

Heather Ann Wicker was baptised at the first camp, and her dad got to be the one to baptize her. Here is the whole Wicker family after the event.

Four people were baptized in all.

A group of 10 of the Russian workers will ride on this boat for TWO WEEKS after the camp! We enjoyed an hour riding on it... quite lovely. Our Romanian friends were on with us, and we traded off singing praise songs in Russian, Romanian and English as we enjoyed the wind and the waves.

This sweet girl was in Irene's tent. She's an orphan who is currently living with a believing family. At the beginning of camp, she seemed scared, but by mid-week, she was so affectionate, hugging many of the leaders. To the right is the kitchen crew (minus Inka, the head-chef!) For the first camp, we cooked for about 60 people and for the second, about 90. We peeled A LOT of potatoes!!!

Ron and Gretchen brought us marshmallows in May that we were able to share with the leadership team between the camps. Everyone loved s'mores, and it was fun to share a part of American culture with our Russian brothers and sisters.

We're Off To Camp!

I wanted to post this really cute picture of Leif dumping water over his head, but he didn't want that to be what everyone looked at for the next few weeks, so we settled for this other cute picture of Leif on a Siberian road. (I thought the water picture would be cute because we haven't had a real shower since June 7th, as they shut our hot water off for the summer. Well, they said it'll be back on July 15th, but our neighbor doesn't believe it. She said that last summer it was off for 4 months. We're hopeful, though.)
Tomorrow we leave for a couple of summer camps on Lake Baikal. We'll be riding on roads similar to this to get there. Thankfully, we get to ride with our friend Shannon instead of taking a bus. That'll be especially nice because it's important to me to pack a lot of water. And fruit.
We appreciate your prayers for us and for the people we meet at these camps. We'll tell you how it goes when we return!!

Muffy, Our Messy Neighbor Dog

We have the privelege of having "Muffy" as our neighbor dog. Muffy is my favorite dog in our whole neighborhood, and he always keeps us smiling. I think that Muffy is a boy and Leif thinks he's a girl. I asked Muffy's owner, and she said they didn't know if he was a boy or a girl! But she said that they call him Sophia. It's a nice name, but it's kind of feminine for a boy, I think. Many mornings, we open our door to messes like the picture above. Sometimes there are pieces of carcuses, sometimes large chunks of fur, and sometimes bones or other mystery items. Many times our question is "what IS that?" Often we never know. But Muffy's owner is very good about cleaning up after him. She loves him so much. He was lost once for a few days and she cried and cried. I like our neighbor. I like Muffy.

Many, Many Sleeping Bags

We've been washing sleeping bags for camp over the past few days. Our washing machine holds one at a time, and when the water drains into the bathtub, it is black and leaves behind streaks of dirt. It is a very good thing these bags are being washed!! Today the weather is nice, so the sleeping bags are drying pretty quickly. All of our clothes have to be hung to dry, as there are no machine dryers here. On Sunday night, I hung a bunch of sleeping bags outside and then it started to rain! So, on Monday, our house was filled with open wet sleeping bags strewn about everywhere (over doorways, chairs, clothes racks. etc.) Right now the last one is in the washer... hooray!!

Today I got together with a girl who is studing economics at the university. We walked around for a long time, talking. (It's such a beautiful day!!) At one point she came right out and asked me if I was a Christian. I said "yes" and asked her if she was. "Not yet", she replied. She then explained that she's caught between two different cultures and two different religions. She's trying to sort them out. I loved her answer "not yet" and look forward to talking with her more in the future.

On the crowded bus today, a man looked at my belly and got up to let me have his seat. I thought that was so nice. People are really respectful to moms here. Often moms with little kids get to cut in lines that normally people push and shove to be at the front of.

Later on, I bought some fruit (nectarines, plums, and apricots!!) and an older lady behind me wanted to know where I was from. She said that she'd read in books that Americans are fat and ugly... but then she looked at me and said that I'm okay. So funny.

We're a team!!!

We're a team was our rally cry, or whatever you want to call it, at the camp workers "conference". As Jami shared in the last blog, the time together was long. It stareted after church on Sunday and went until Wednesday morning and was from 8am to midnight. I actually came home early and did end up coming home each night. It was pretty tiring, but it was also really good to connect more with these brothers and sisters who will be working at the camp, and many of whom are members of the church we go to. Each day started with some time together in the Word, then we had a mix of team building exercises and planning/understanding our roles at the camp. I am actually one of a team of three sports instructors. Our job is to lead a time of morning calisthenics/warmups, organize thematic games for each day, lead a sports time each day, and generally be available to help out through the rest of the day. It is a challenge, and I am having to push into some areas of Russian vocabulary that I haven't learned in class. Despite the long days, I am really glad that I went. I think that we really did connect as a team. It will be exciting to see how God utilizes and grows us this summer.

Team Photo

Here's a picture of our team from the conference in Germany. It was neat to have everyone there (of course, it's sad not having Dwight and Joyce as a part of our team anymore). I like our team more and more all the time. Don't get me wrong, I liked them at the beginning, too... but I like them even more now that I'm getting to know them more. I find that my personality is "slow-to-warm-up" and it's hard for me to instantly feel close to people. I think I can even seem cold at first. It's not something I'm really proud of, but I guess the good part is that people have to like a less "likeable" me to begin with and then they're happily surprised later.

Right now, Leif's at a conference for 3 days to plan for summer camps. Our Russian pastor is the one heading it up. The meetings go from 8:oo in the morning until midnight!! No joke. I wasn't invited to this conference. I'm not really sure why (because my language isn't as good? because I'm pregnant?). But trust me, I'm not sad about this one! I'm praying that this will be a good time for Leif to connect deeper with people here and to grow in his language skills. I'm also praying that God will give him incredible energy. A conference like that sounds exhausting in English... how much more in Russian!!

A Thai Tradition

One of our friends in Thailand told us about a tradition they have there to find out the gender of your baby if you're expecting. You hold a baby that's 6 months old or younger over your pregnant belly. If the baby puts it's feet down, then you're having a boy. If it's moves it's feet or lifts them up, it's a girl. In Germany, we stole Elisabeth's nephew to try out this little experiment. It looks like we're having a boy! Hahaha.

A Few Germany Pictures

We're back in Ulan-Ude after a wonderful time in Germany. I'm wide awake in the middle of the night because of jet lag. The flight to Ulan-Ude from Moscow is an overnight one, and we didn't sleep too well on that (Leif not at all), so we slept in the morning after we returned. Tomorrow I'll need to push through 'til evening!! In looking over our pictures, I realized that Mom took all the really great pictures in Germany, and our selection is pretty sparse. As you can see, it was soooo beautiful! The last night we ordered food from our hotel's restaurant and sat on the balcony and talked. The last picture is of us at the conference with teammates, Shannon, Gardner and Rebecca. We're really thankful for our team! Upon returning, our neighbors and local store workers greeted us warmly, noticing our absense. It was nice.

In Germany Without A Camera Cord

Hello from Germany! SEND has a Eurasia area conference every three years... and this time it happens to be in Germany. It was wonderful because my mom and her friend, Jean, were able to come the week before the conference, and we spend time together, seeing the country and catching up on each others' lives. It was sad to say goodbye!

I'd love to post some pics, but we didn't bring our camera cord (and we haven't had internet access). I can't get over how green everything is. It's funny because we thought Ulan Ude was getting green right before we left... but it is NOTHING compared to Germany!!

At the conference it's been great to get good Bible teaching in English and to meet other missionaries from Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakstan. Yesterday, we went to the town of Hamlin and saw an enactment of the pied piper. (Hamlen is the town this fairy tale comes from). We've also met other missionaries with new babies or who are pregnant, too. We've picked their brains about the process of getting papers, passport, and visa after the birth.

We'll post some pictures in a few days!!

Our Baby

Medical care here in Russia has been a dilemna for us as we prepare to have a child. The system of prenatal care is quite different from the States and has caused us to pray about what to do. Thankfully, there's a midwife here (from the Spokane area, no less!) who is happy to do checkups for us. I met with her last week, and I am so thankful for her care and expertise. She had a kit of babies of different sizes, depending on how old they are in the womb. This picture shows the size of our baby now at 16 weeks.

We're still enjoying this time with the Brunos. Yesterday with took a passenger train to Lake Baikal. The weather was nice and it was so nice to breath fresh air and take in the beauty of God's creation. Ron and Gretchen have been such servants... washing our dishes, cleaning our floors, taking the garbage all the way out to the garbage cans... it's been really nice. Gretchen continues to give me new ideas for cooking. I feel more empowered to try new things.

More Fun Visitors

We have the privelege this week and next of having Ron and Gretchen Bruno visiting us. They're from our home church in Spokane. It's been really nice having them here, speaking in English, sharing things on our heart, and feeling connected with home. Today Gretchen helped me at the market to buy some ribs and a whole chicken. She's going to teach me different simple recipes to make with the ingredients we can find here. It's sooo helpful, because I find that we get stuck in a rut of what we eat: tacos, tuna melts, spaghetti and pasta dishes, beef stroganoff, etc... but I love learning how to make new (and easy) things. The Brunos were missionaries in Guatemala years ago, so they are familiar with a lot of what our lives are like.

Today we introduced Ron and Gretchen to "KVAS". This beverage comes in big wooden or metal barrels and is very popular here in the summer. Today, Leif and Ron had to stand in line before tasting this treat. Gretchen describes it as tasting like iced tea with molasses. It's definitely an acquired taste.

The second picture is from church on Sunday. I think Baba Ira (in the red scarf) is so cute. =)

Goats and Embarrasing Moments

The other day in class, I had an embarrasing cultural moment. My teacher asked me if I noticed what was on the trees. "Yes! I exclaimed! Horrible white paint!"... and then I realized that it wasn't at all the paint that she was talking about... she was talking about the little green buds that were beginning to form. I felt badly because 1) it is cultural (and seen as beautiful) to paint the bottom sections of trees white. (it is also "useful" for the trees, as Russians would say), and 2) I really am happy about the buds that are forming. They were just so tiny on that tree that she pointed to, and the paint was so WHITE. Thankfully my teacher is really nice and just laughed with me. The picture above isn't the best and was taken at dusk, but you can get the idea. I also don't understand why most trees have all their branches cut off. Some trees look just like straight poles with white paint at the bottom.

This monument and these goats are in front of our apartment building. The goats are so funny. On of the little kids (goat) came up to Leif when he was taking the picture and nudged his hand. Leif took a picture of him, but he was so close, it was just a picture of goat hair. haha.