Florida pictures

We've been back for a month now, and I still haven't gotten around to posting many photos from Florida. Here are some. I hope to go back and fill in more there, at least from that one little overnight trip.

If I add more there, I'll edit this post and add them here, too, so watch this space....

EDITED: from here on, there are new photos. You can go browse through the whole album, but I'm including a few highlights:

3D hands

I don't understand the draw of Pinterest at all, but I got a fun idea from there via a blog, and we tried it yesterday:

Today we've been working on footprints, using the same general idea. Fun!

Talking?!?

For quite a while Bogdan has had a very few words that he says and a few that he signs. He understands what is going on around him, but really doesn't say much. He does discourse with all kinds of expression, intonation and gesturing, but all with his mouth closed, just making noises in his throat. It's really cute, but hard to explain. And it's definitely not anything we can understand. Then, yesterday he started saying a very clear "nyet" except that it's missing the T on the end. Just now, Jaan went outside, and Bogdan was left behind. Bogdan went to the door and yelled, "Jaa! Where are you?" ("Я! Де ты?") His first sentence!

Keeping cool

Here are just a few photos from the past week or so. It has been very hot here: 38C/100F today. We've been swimming a lot, and we got an air conditioner! (That last part was not just spur of the moment for this heat wave. We had been talking about it and dreaming for a l-o-n-g time.) Bogdan finally decided that we weren't trying to kill him when we put him in his baby float. Now he really enjoys running around in the water with it to hold him upright. Oh, and we've been drinking smoothies; that's the last photo.

The church really hasn't had any questions about Will's sabbatical. In fact, he's had a sermon ready for three weeks now and hasn't had to use it. So, we're enjoying more time with Papa around.

That's about all I can think of to write now. Photos....

Prayer request

Dear friends far and near, 

Phyllis encouraged me to pass on this prayer request to all of you who aren't in our home churches, but would want to be informed of this need. 

I talked with church leadership here last week about my taking a time of sabbatical, a break from my over-involvement in various ministries (in a church where one can never do 'enough').

They approved a sabbatical, at least a short one, and I will be mostly pulling back to 'only' preaching on Sundays, helping lead congregational singing, and singing solos myself.
(I will also be involved in periodic meetings w/the youth as we prepare for an upcoming VBS at the end of August.)

Please pray that I can graciously explain why I need/want this break to people who have never considered the idea. I may meet with condemnation, manipulation, or accusation. (i.e."No youth meetings?? Those young people will leave the church and walk away from the Lord - and it'll be your fault!!")

It's truly a foreign concept to many here. They live under the driving need to 'do more for God' and heap guilt upon themselves and others when they think we fall short. (Which we always do, don't we?)                   

       

I've already had one rebuke in passing "Come on, you just had a month off in the States - how can you need time to rest - jump right back into things!"

  

Pray that I may use these conversations to talk about a life lived by grace, in dependance upon the Lord and His strength.

Also be praying that this can be a good time for our family to spend together, as well as a time to  consider direction for our ministry in the future. 

Thank you for your faithful love, support, prayers and concern!

Baby steps (and more)

Bogdan is trying hard to walk these days. He has been much, much slower to take off than any of his older siblings, but he did take four steps the night before we left Florida. Since then, he has discovered that he can get around upright quite well when he borrows Asya's doll stroller, and so he does. He rolls it up to where he wants to play, parks it while he is busy, and then takes off again when he's ready. He's still not walking on his own, though. The first two pictures are just of something he loves to do: crawl around with shoes on his hands.

And the "more" part of the title is that I'm sorry I've been neglecting writing here. I've been very busy with a big project online. (AO friends, have you heard rumors of a forum coming? ) Plus, I've just been really enjoying being back in Ukraine: playing outside, talking to neighbors, swimming and going for walks. It's been really hot, so the swimming part of that list has been especially wonderful. I'll be back to writing more regularly sometime soon, I'm sure. I still have a lot of photos from our trip that I want to share, too.

Mountain photos

I already wrote a Part 1 of our trip to the states. Since we got back, I haven't had much time to write more. I just started uploading photos, though. Now you can see part of our trip to the mountains.

Please keep praying for Bogdan to readjust to life here. Well, actually just to sleeping here. The rest of us are doing quite well, but he seems to be terrified of going to sleep. He's always been a really good sleeper, so we hardly know what to do with him now. Before we went, I was very worried about how he would do in the states, because he was going through a stage where he was really afraid of people and places that he isn't familiar with. I prayed and prayed about that, and he did just beautifully. God definitely answers! Now we just have to pray for Bogdan on this end of the trip.

Home again

We made it back to Ukraine. Thank you for all your prayers. To those who we got to spend time with: thank you for all you did for us. It was so wonderful to see you all!

The trip back was really exhausting. We all went to bed early last night, and now--after 11:00 am!--I'm the only one awake. Bogdan got me up earlier, but now he's asleep again. I figure sleeping in is the best birthday present we can give Will.

I hope to be able to post lots of photos from our time in the States soon.

Oh, by the way, one of our checked bags didn't make it here. This is actually a wonderful blessing, because it's already been found in Viena and will be delivered to us soon. Without this, we wouldn't all have been able to fit into the car that met us in Dneptropetrovsk. So, that's an answer to prayer for any of you who were praying for smooth travels for us.

We're in FL

Thank you for your prayers. If you haven't already heard, we made it through the long drive down without any carsickness! That really made it much more bearable. We also had a great little visit in Georgia, and we're really enjoying catching up with people here now.

Will shared at my home church on Sunday. (Well, one of our two home churches, but this is the one that I grew up in. Oh, I don't think that I've linked to our other home church. There. Is that enough in parentheses?) There was a great time of fellowship afterwards, with a question and answer session. If you want to hear the morning service, here is a direct link.

And then just a very few photos....

Granda with all his grandchildren

No, he was not pretending.

The USA visit (part 1)

Well, it's quiet here (nap time!), and no one else seems to want the computer. Let's see if I can write something, and get it scheduled to post while we're driving to Florida....

This is just a quick, one photo a day, list format summary of our time here. There's so much more that I could say, but at least this gives you a glimpse.

June 4: Left Ukraine, wandered around Vienna

 June 5: Flew on from Vienna and arrived--finally!--in Charlotte

 June 6: Abby arrived, everyone played outside, rode bikes

June 7: Jeremiah got here, visit with the L family for us

June 8: Absolutely wonderful conference for Bogdan and me. We didn't get back until, um, after midnight. Anna's birthday and other fun for everyone in Charlotte.

 June 9: Lots of fun! Breakfast at John's, slip'n'slide in the yard, family gathering that evening

June 10: Will spoke in church, dinner on the grounds afterwards, first day that I didn't feel really jet lagged

June 11: Family photos at a park, followed by a picnic there, supper with the S family

June 12: Will met with the elders, while I went to the church ladies meeting. Plenty of good fellowship for all, but I don't have any pictures of that. Of course, there was great family time, too. Here's a movie-watching pile up on Anna's bed:

On June 13, we left for a quick trip up to the mountains. I'm running out of time now, so that and other photos will have to come later.

More from sisters

I'd really like to sit down and post a summary of the fun and fellowship we've had here in North Carolina, but it would take too long for right now. Will's youngest sister posted two albums of her lovely photos, and Anna has more of hers up, too, and that's probably better than anything I could pull together.

Tomorrow we're leaving for Florida. We'll break our trip up with an overnight at our friends' home in Georgia. Please pray for safety and smooth travels; pray especially that the carsickness will stay away!

Hello from Charlotte!

 While I don't have time to write, go read what Will's sister has to say. And enjoy these two photos....

We're having a wonderful visit!

On our way

Goodbye! (And hello! We'll be seeing so many of you soon.) I posted our travel plans last week. Nothing has changed there. I might update this blog some over the next month, but we'll be very busy and we unplug when we travel, so please don't expect much. Thanks for your prayers!

Choir concert

Jaan's end of the year choir concert was Friday. Earlier this year, they divided the huge younger choir up into two groups, and Jaan ended up in the little ensemble group. A friend caught these videos for us with his phone. First they sing a Ukrainian folk song, then a Russian song:

Getting ready

One week until we fly out! We can't wait to see as many of you as possible, and we really appreciate your prayers for our preparations and travel. Next Monday we'll fly out around 2:00, only going as far as Vienna. We were able to find and reserve a cheap family room at a hotel there, so we're hoping for a good night of sleep before we fly on. The next day we'll go from Vienna to Washington, and then on to Greenville, SC. In Greenville we'll get a minivan from Macedonian Call Foundation (praise God for his provision for us, and pray for this worthy ministry!) and drive to Charlotte. We'll have two weeks there, then we'll drive down to Florida for two weeks with my family and church.

That's just absolutely the bare bones of the big adventure ahead of us. Really, please pray with us over every step of the way. If you want to see us, please contact us or our mothers as soon as possible. We're really looking forward to visiting with our families, friends, supporters, and home churches!

Changing photos

I've had the same photos in the sidebar for ages! I think the group photo was from two years ago? And newborn Bogdan was, of course, more than a year ago.

So, now it's time to update with something more recent. From Easter Sunday, 2012:

(That's not our cat, by the way. Just a very friendly one, who lives outside our building. We call her "Jaan's cat," because she loves him so much.)

Dacha days

We've been at our dacha with our favorite ragamuffins. So nice!

We have one more week there, then back to civilization to finish getting ready for our trip. Two weeks until we leave!

Children's conference

On Saturday we got to go to a children's conference in Zaporozhye. We took our own children, plus the rest of the Sunday school.

On the train

This is a very rare picture. Bogdan chose to sit with someone else. Even with someone as "scary" as Taras! After this, the pictures skip a bit. We got kind of lost crossing the city, and made it to the conference a little late. The morning was full of songs and stories and a sermon and all sitting in one place. It was all good, but I didn't take any more pictures for a while. Then came lunch....

Eating himself under the table

He was so hungry and so exhausted! I was actually feeding him the macaroni while he flopped like this in my lap. (Like Asya said at the end of the day, "Those people in Zaporozhye forgot about nap time." Then she added, "So I did it myself!" since she slept all the way home afterwards.)

Last one at lunch

 Then, after lunch there were all kinds of games.

Cheerleader at game time

Raia's team

Jaan in a relay race

Funny football

Asya's team won!

Everyone enjoyed themselves, and they were great sports about the adventures of getting there and back.

Happy Mother's Day!

We don't celebrate Mother's Day, and, um, we tend to forget about it, even though we dearly love our mothers. This year I saw a printable "quiz" linked from another blog that I read, though, and I decided to see what our children would say about our mothers, their grandmothers.

So, here you go, with questions changed from "All about my Mom" to "All about our Baba." First, Baba Julie:

Our Baba's name is Julie Hunsucker.

She is 40 years old.

She is taller than our other Baba.

She weighs 40 kgs./She is heavier than our other Baba.

Her favorite food is very spicy.

Her favorite thing to drink is juice.

Her favorite thing to do is go for walks with us.

She likes to wear dresses.

Baba Julie is really good at helping at church.

I like it best when Baba Julie gives me presents/goes for walks with us.

My favorite thing to do with Baba Julie is going for walks/riding bikes.

During the day Baba Julie sleeps and works and probably plows (tills) the garden with that thing they have (a tiller).

(Illustration is the bottom part of the photo above. It's of when Asya and Baba Julie--with blue hair--went out and ran into a volcano.)

And now for the other Baba:

Our Baba's name is Kathy Robertson. (Lots of discussion between Jaan and Raia to get to that, but I didn't have to tell them.)

She is 41 years old.

She is shorter than Baba Julie./She is little.

She weighs 26 kgs.

Her favorite food is very grapefruit.

Her favorite thing to drink is plain water/grapefruit juice.

Her favorite thing to do is take care of fish.

She likes to wear skirts.

Baba is really good at taking care of us.

I like it best when Baba talks to us on Skype.

My favorite thing to do with Baba is play in their yard.

During the day Baba makes breakfast for Granda.

(Raia drew a then and now picture of Baba on her wedding day and Raia now. Very cute. It's the top half of the photo.)

So, Babushki, what do you think? Do they know you well? They certainly love you!

Last week and this week

Last week seemed a little rough. A bit of sickness went from Bogdan, to Asya, to Jaan, to me. Will traveled to Kiev to reapply for a social security number for Bogdan. On his way back, he couldn't get a ticket to Zaporozhya, so he went to Dnepropetrovsk. His train arrived right around the time that four bombs went off there. (God protected him, and he didn't even know that anything had happened until later, but it was still very scary.)

This week is looking better. We're heading out to our dacha! Actually we had planned to go yesterday, but someone was needing a place to stay, so we had let him spend a few nights there. Today he found somewhere else, so we're going for a few days ourselves. Of course, you won't be hearing any more from us until we get back....

Oh, other good news is that God provided a vehicle for us to use during our trip to the states in June!