Here are a few recent pictures of Jaan playing with play dough and helping his grandparents pack:
One if the things that I love about living here is the Christmas season. While the holidays are winding down for most people in America, we're just getting started here. The churches that we know of celebrate December 25, at least some. Then we have New Year's; it's the biggest secular holiday of the year, but of course the church family has to enjoy it together, too. After that January 7--which is the Russian Orthodox Christmas--is our biggest church celebration. As our pastor in Moscow liked to say, "The Bible tells us to rejoice always, so we're going to take advantage of every day we can to rejoice in Christ's birth."
We had a wonderful family Christmas yesterday. Having my parents here really made it special. In the morning we had a Christmas breakfast, and Dad read the Christmas story. Jaan "read" along with him from his picture Bible. Right after that Will had to run out for the Sunday morning lesson with the orphanage children, then music practice. Mom and Dad joined him for church, but I stayed home with our coughing babies. The three who had been at church came home around 5:00. We went out and took Christmas cookies and cards to our neighbors, and then came back to a nice, hot Christmas dinner. Dinner was followed by opening presents; this was the first year that Jaan understood that. The last thing we did before putting two very tired children to bed, was my family's traditional Happy Birthday Baby Jesus cake.
The weather has been celebrating, too, I think. Both yesterday and today we've had clear blue skies. Right now I'm sitting between my two sleeping children, and sunshine is pouring through the window onto us. The trees we can see out the window are all lacy with frost.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas yesterday; don't forget to keep celebrating Christ's birth!
Will took my parents sightseeing in Vladimir today. We've just played
outside a little and had a normal day at home. (Raia did not like the
falling snow, but I sure thought it was beautiful!)
I thought I posted this one yesterday, but I guess I didn't. Aren't they cute?
(By the way, Anna and Abby, the Sasha I wrote about yesterday was Sasha Kondratyuk from Goose.)
Dad came out to video tape and photograph Jaan playing outside this morning. He and Jaan had a great time kicking and throwing snow.
Hurrah! My parents are coming. Actually, they're already in Moscow with Will. They'll arrive in Kovrov late tonight.
Hurrah! I finally figured out an easy way to go for walks, and so we got to enjoy the snow-covered woods and gorgeous weather this morning. I'll have to have Will get a picture of this, but for now you can imagine it. I put Raia on our sled, then tied a flexible piece of plastic behind for Jaan. I made a handle for him to hold and put a blanket under him, so people wouldn't worry too much. We have our sled train! Now I just need to find a horse to pull it for me. . . . 
Hurrah! As we crossed over to the woods, there was a babushka headed in the same direction. She stopped me, and I braced myself for a scolding. Yes, I did have the children dressed all "wrong," but instead of berating me too much, she just got them set right and then walked with us the rest of the way. We talked a lot, and she's now very interested in visiting our church. Her father converted from Orthodoxy, and several of her seven (!) siblings go to protestant churches now. She herself doesn't go to any church, but she loves the hymns that she remembers from her childhood. She hummed and sang quite a few for me, and was thrilled that I knew most of them. I don't even know her name--other than Babushka--but please pray that she really will come to our church!
This morning when Raia woke me up and I stumbled out into the living room for my quiet time with the Lord (and Raia), I was so tired that I could barely get my eyes open. I remembered that I had been encouraged by Isaiah 40:29 recently, so I went to meditate on those verses. I know verse 31, but I just really noticed the verses before it recently for the first time.
From there we've gone on to have a very nice day. There's a beautiful, fresh snowfall that Jaan and I have already enjoyed. We're going to go back out again after nap. The sky has even been a little bit blue, with the sun peeking out at times!
And when I was working on a Gospelink application for a new family with ten children, I discovered that the mother's favorite verse was the passage that encouraged me this morning!
I can't wait to go to bed. Either Jaan is getting another cold, or the one he just had is coming back. His nose is all stuffy. He hasn't been sick often enough to figure out how to breathe through his mouth, so he was up and down almost all night, crying. Will took care of him until 3:00, then he moved out to the couch and I took over. Raia didn't want to miss out on any of the fun, so she had to eat whenever she heard Jaan crying. Fortunately, after Will moved, Raia and Jaan started taking turns. I didn't get to sleep, but at least I didn't have two crying babies on my hands at any one time.
Will spent all day yesterday and today painting the room the church rents, and he's still not finished yet.
I was going to post some other photos, but I'm having trouble sending them right now. These are from Masha.
As usual after a weekend, I was greeted by a huge pile of dirty dishes, toys scattered to the four winds, and a mountain of laundry. But it's worth it! Our weekends are very full and fun. We've added in a "physical and spiritual supper" for the youth and young families here after church, hence the dishes and toys. I don't have time to wash diapers on Saturdays, and I think it goes against my principles to wash on Sundays, so the laundry adds up, too.
Saturday night a new guy came to the youth club! So, pray for Misha. He has to come back at least once, because he loaned Will a CD.
Sunday I served everyone a casserole made from leftover turkey and a second pumpkin pie. Will served them the first lesson that he's translated from our NTBI Christian life class notes.
Monday is our day to catch up and spend time together, so I'm off to enjoy my family and chores.
I was going to post Thanksgiving photos, but then I realized that Will
took the camera before I could get the pictures off of it. He's in
Vladimir all day, so pictures will have to wait until tomorrow.
I just spent nap time helping a neighbor from the second floor with
some English. . . some hard English! I think I need to review my
grammar. Can anyone tell me all the verb tenses we have in English?
She was referring to them left and right. Can you explain off the top
of your head what the difference is between "each" and "every"? (I
know the official answer to this one, because I looked it up in my
Oxford answer book.)
When the babies woke up it was a relief to go back to my usual simple
conversations! My brain did appreciate the exercise, though.
Last night we got to see "korova" (a cow), so Jaan's been going around saying "moo" and "korova" all day today. He was rather afraid of the real thing, but still very fascinated. I had a terrible time getting a photo, because he didn't want to be close to the cow (except with me holding him), and he certainly didn't want to take his eyes off of her!
Today I was going to spend the morning outside with the children, so that Will could sleep in a little and then work on Gospelink letters undisturbed. Well, we three woke up to rain, and then Will was awakened by me running in and exclaiming "There's water spraying up under the kitchen sink!"
These days we usually have this little His and Hers potty station set up in the hallway.
Hurrah! For the first time in about two weeks, we have clear blue sky! Guess what we're going to do today?
Just quickly, I'll share about yesterday's and today's walks. Yesterday we went to the woods. Since we didn't see anyone else, I guess other people aren't thinking that this is a good time for a walk in the woods. We enjoyed the solitude, though. Jaan was fascinated by the sound of the wind in the trees. Once Raia fell asleep, we found a log to sit on, and just listened.
Today we stayed closer to home, but we saw a flock of waxwings. Even Raia noticed them, and her wide little eyes got even wider at all the noise and activity in the trees above us. I think the first waxwings are a sign of winter here in the same way that robins signal spring in other parts of the world.
People have asked about what a typical day is for us. Will's days are very unpredictable, but I can tell you about what Jaan, Raia and I do on a typical day at home.
7:00 - I get up. This is just a goal, a new thing that I'm trying to get started. A few years ago I wouldn't have thought it was early at all. Now it can be a real struggle not to just lie in bed until my babies wake up. My days go much more smoothly if I get up and have some quiet time in the Word first, though. (If I don't get up, I can fit quiet time in during naps. I was content with that, but I'm really finding that this way is better.)
8:00 - Jaan and Raia wake up, almost like clockwork at the same time. I know, we're very blessed that they get up together and not early! We eat breakfast right away.
9:00 or 10:00-ish - We head outside. Jaan and I walk while Raia falls asleep in the stroller. If we were just walking around our neighborhood, then we stop somewhere once she's asleep and Jaan plays. If we went to the woods, we also usually find a place to stop for a while, so that Jaan can explore.
12:00 - Come in and have lunch.
1:00 - Naps. I really work toward having both Jaan and Raia go down at the same time, but some days it just doesn't happen. If they do both sleep, I try to divide the time between having a break myself and getting something done without helpers. One or both of them are up by 3:00. We used to go outside after naptime, but now that it's getting colder and darker, we're going to have to transition out of that. Now we work on various projects (like the never-ending translations! Are you reading this, Dean?)) and maybe some preschool fun. Today we did laundry (and translated), and then Jaan used scissors, glue, and scraps of construction paper to make collages.
6:00 - Supper.
