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!

More Easter Pictures

Jesus Is Risen!

We had loaned out our camera before we realized we wouldn't have it for Easter, but Martina took these pictures in front of our church gate. We had a lovely time celebrating Jesus' resurrection with our church family here. On Thursday we had a special service in the evening and Anneka CRIED afterwards when she found out we wouldn't all eat together. The pastor told her not to worry because on Sunday there would be a big feast and he would make a cake just for her. And he did. =)



This picture is missing about half of the people. But it shows the "feel" of the meal. =)

The First Flowers Of Spring

They're here! The first flowers of spring! Literally translated as "from under the snow", these little purple furry flowers resemble crocuses.



Writing on a rock in the woods behind our apartment with blackened tree bark.



A walk in the neighborhood with Heidi and John



Ella and Heidi in their horse shirts

A Day In The Life

Every once in awhile I write about one of our days here. Yesterday we have four pictures from different parts, so I thought it would be a good day to blog about. Although now that it was already half a day ago, I'm not sure if I remember what all we did yesterday! I'll try my best. =) Nathan and Matty went to preschool for the first time yesterday with Anneka. I love this picture that Martina took of them walking to the van. Matty and Anneka on their own decided to hold hands.

While the kids were in school, Leif and I went on a nice walk up the hill and in a pretty wooded area. Ella was with us and she slept happily in her stroller. (It's so cute how she loves to sleep in the stroller. She gets the biggest smile on her face when we carry her and the stroller down the stairs and she literally falls asleep within 30 seconds of being seated). We walked and talked and prayed for teammates, people in our church, and for Ulan Ude. I love looking down at the city and thinking of how much God loves the people here. We sat on a rock and sipped some tea that I'd packed in a thermos. We saw a man with his goats roaming the hillside. The weather was sunny and pleasant.

Martina braved driving in Russia for the first time on our way to pick up the kids. During that time, Leif make phone calls and checked emails. I got Anneka a little roll from the bread stand (a tradition on school days). We had lunch together as a family (leftover enchiladas). Then Leif went next door to listen to something Dave had prepared in Russian and I read to Anneka and tucked her into bed for her rest time. Leif came back and worked on some official paperwork that he needs to turn in soon. I made baby food (pureed split peas), but Ella was kind of fussy(teeth?) and needed me to hold her the whole time.



Then Ella went down for her nap and Leif headed outside to teach neighborhood kids how to play basketball. Martina called to ask if Anneka wanted to go out and play with her boys. She did, and I was so grateful for Martina's offer, as we were having guests later and I still had to get things ready. I took the picture above from our balcony. In the top left corner you can seen Leif with the kids and down at the bottom you can see Anneka and the boys playing in the sandbox. While they were outside, I got a call that we would be having some guests in about 20 minutes. I threw some cookies in the oven. Then I madly did dishes and took laundry off the clothes racks.



After Leif showed Heidi some basketball moves and let Anneka slam dunk a few baskets(and talking outside for a bit- Ella was awake by then), Dwayne (the guy who opened up SEND in Russia) and another man, Tom, came in for tea. It was neat to hear what they're doing in the States, training missionary pilots. Right now they're training Russians to do this in their home country. We shared our ministry with them as well. Heidi played with the girls. I went into the kitchen to make dinner (pizza) and more cookies. John joined us.

Oh, and I must add that when Anneka met Dwayne, she was SO THRILLED because she could try out her knock-knock joke on him. In a fit of giggles, she smoothly executed this joke:
Knock-knock
Who's there?
Dwayne
Dwayne who?
Dwayne the bathtub, I'm dwowning

He loved it. Silly girl!



Guests overlapped each other (but no pictures to show). Sasha and Lena came over and so did Dave and Martina. And later Sasha and Katia came, too. It was so nice to talk with them and have time together. Somewhere in there Lena read Anneka a book and I put the girls to bed.

Now I remember why I don't write these that often... it sounds kind of boring all written out. Also in the middle was time that we read our Bibles and more phone calls and emails. Sasha's borrowing our camera for a fishing trip, so I'll just post a few pics from this past week in the next few days.

чёлка (bangs)

A few weeks ago we got family haircuts. Anneka got a mullet and I got these bangs. It was not planned. We just sat in the chairs at the haircutting place and in one fell snip, it happened. I hated them (and I still don't like them), but I got to looking around, and I realized that I'm very stylish now. Everyone tells me that I look like a Russian girl with my bangs (чёлка). It's funny how your sense of style starts to change. And it can happen in one day. I used to think it was ridiculous how all of the ladies went around in high heels all of the time... especially high heeled boots in the winter! But then this week, I all of a sudden felt that I had man-shoes. And I find myself thinking a lot about high heels. I walked around with Ella in her stroller an hour before church today so that she could get a good nap in (and then I could just park her stroller outside). I like this time to pray and think. Anyways, I saw a lady walking in high heeled boots and thought, "she looks really good"... and just about the moment that I thought to myself that I need to get some heels, too, she tripped and fell a tremendous fall. And now I'm back to thinking that I probably don't need them after all.

Munku-Sardik

Our teammate Gardner (with me in the picture above) has a love for alpine hiking that he brought with him when he moved to Russia. A few years back, he helped with a project to get equipment together for the church to use to do hiking trips, and I got to benefit from this this last week. A group of 15 of us hiked up Buryatia's highest mountain Munku-Sardik (nearly 11,500 feet).



Much of this hike takes place by going up a frozen river. You get some idea of the general incline in the picture above but not of the really fun waterfall areas. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the waterfall areas on my camera.



We set up camp a few miles in from the road. It is a great place as you are still low enough to be in the woods with plenty of wood for a good campfire to cook on. As is often true, the campfire created a great environment for talking and sharing with each other. We had some times where everyone shared and where we all listened to some of the guys give their life testimonies, but there were also a lot of great informal times for laughing, sharing about life, and talking about our wonderful God who made the amazing world around us! This was refreshing for me to talk with people who seemed very open and ready for deep conversations. On the hike there were 15 people, and only 5 Christians.



We ate a lot of sausage, cheese and crackers. I thought it was great, but it seemed like the Russians really got tired of the crackers. They usually don't go a meal without bread, and crackers just weren't the same for them :).



After we woke up the first day, we hiked up a ways to get used to the elevation and to do some training on what to do if you fall on the snow and ice. People did great and had fun with all of this.



Then the big day came and we made our push to the top. Just like the day before, God blessed us with amazingly beautiful weather. Gardner and others have had to turn back on previous trips here because of weather. In fact we met a hiker who was leaving the day we came and he was kept from the top because of weather.



The last section before the top was a bit of a rock scramble.



It is always a great feeling when you finally get to the top of a mountain. You can see the flag in the background marking the summit.



It was so nice and mild, that we just hung out at the summit for a while. It was great to see that all 15 people made it to the top! This is the first time they have had the entire group make it to the top which is a testimony to God's grace and the great team that we had!



Of course once you go up, you must come down.



Sasha, from our church, also took a role in leading people and organizing the hike. He did a great job, and I'm really proud of him.



I also got to see my first large wild animals in Russia. It was a herd of mountain goats. Everyone else was pretty excited about this too.



Of course we had fun with things too :).



Please pray that this would not just be a conquering of a mountain, but that there would be great spiritual victory here too. God is at work, and it is wonderful to be in the midst of Him working!