Victory Day

On Tuesday we got to go on a lovely "plein air" and church picnic. The art school combined with the church this year, and we all went out on buses into Tsuyrupinsk Forest.

So, first the art school students drew and painted. Then we ate, climbed trees (mostly that was Jaan), played, explored the woods, observed butterflies, and just relaxed on our backs on our picnic blanket (Mama and Papa). Oh, and the girls chattered non-stop with their friends the whole time.

He was already on his way down.

I found a few pictures on other people's social media, too. I love this one of Jaan, and Bogdan is in this one. One of our friends was also taking tons of pictures with his professional camera, and he might share later.

There was a little excitement, too, when someone found an unexploded bomb from WWII. So, they spent the day keeping kids from running across that field, and toward evening, when we were getting ready to leave, the police arrived to check it out. As we headed back to our buses, two policemen were standing guard, waiting for whoever was supposed to come take care of it.

Jaan wanted me to add this photo from one of his friends:

I didn't go this close to it!

Our family day in Kyiv

The schedule for our Kyiv trip was one day of travel, one day of documents, one family day, then another day of travel. For the family day, I thought about seeing the Easter eggs in the center of the city, but I heard that they took them down the day before we were there. Next, I planned on Pirogov outdoor museum, but then found out that it's closed on Wednesdays. So, we went back to an old favourite: the Lavra. Our children either very vaguely remembered it from our last visit, or didn't remember at all. Now they'll remember. It was really a beautiful day and time of year to visit.

Raia getting water from a holy spring

Dressing to go down into the caves.
No photos allowed underground.

Oh, and the embassy day went well, too. No one completely broke down at any point, although there were a whole lot of emotions being expressed at times. After our appointment we really enjoyed the big park by the embassy. Will and Bogdan fed a squirrel, and everyone ran wild and climbed trees for several hours. Bogdan said that he wanted to live in that "forest." Also, later when I asked Asya about the best part of the trip, she said it was Puzata Khata (restaurant) and the escalators in the Metro.

It was a good little trip, but we're very glad to be home now and still a bit tired and sniffly after all the fun and exertion.

Hello from Kyiv

Yesterday we had a wonderful trip up to Kyiv. I love daytime train trips, and this is such a beautiful time of year. The fields that aren't freshly plowed, are bright, bright green. There was rain and snow and patches of sun coming from very dramatic skies, and we saw a few rainbows. Once it got dark and our children got tired, it was rather messy, though. This train doesn't get into Kyiv until late at night. It was 1:00 a.m. by the time we got to bed, and no one slept in this morning. I hope they can hold out through our embassy appointmen before anyone has hysterics or falls alseep standing up.

We need to head out pretty soon for that appointment....


Before we left home yesterday I uploaded a few photos, though. Here they are:

On Sunday I went out to the church in the village where Alys is building. She wants to "introduce" the boys who will be living there to the church so that they can already be praying and starting to feel like they know them. So, each month she's printing out photos of them and having someone share. Last month Oksana told them about Vitya, and this month it was my turn to introduce Sasha. Jennifer drove me out there; her photos are here.

After that and a special lunch with the church members, we went on to another village to meet someone who also might get involved in the ministry. When we walked into his tiny church, I noticed an Agape photo right away. (Agape has a program where they give photos of orphans to believers who will pray for them.) We recognized the girl in the photo. She was from Tsyurupinsk, and she was adopted by an American family about 8 years ago! The church has been faithfully praying for her all this time. Here is most of the church:

And then these are unrelated photos from after a concert that Jaan and Raia played in on Good Friday:

Lent and Holy Week recap

Years ago we made little people and acted out the events of Holy Week with them. Bogdan refound them and asked what they were from, so we kind of repeated what we had done before. Palm Sunday they actually went out to walk, so there wasn't a reenactment at home, but the next night we read that story, and Bogdan and Asya played it out for us.

Then we also did the cleansing of the temple:

Raia took pictures

Wednesday evening, since the Bible is silent about what Jesus did, we didn't read. Instead, we made a little Easter garden.

Thursday, I made matzo while everyone was at various classes. Then, when they came home, we read about the Last Supper and ate and drank together.

Friday I read about the darkest day in the world from the Jesus Storybook Bible, which fits really well with the Lenten Lights reading for that day. Once we blew out the candles, we also turned out the lights in our home, "sealed" them off with tape until Sunday, and tried to go to bed in dark and quiet.

And then we waited for the light of the resurrection.

(I actually got to read the Good Friday story from the Jesus Storybook Bible twice that day, because I read it to the girls at the orphanage that morning, too. They really listened well and seemed to connect more than usual. Often when I read to them, it's hard for them to concentrate, and they talk. For this story, they were quiet. At the end, several said that it was so sad. We sat with those feelings for a little while, talked about them more, and then I read the resurrection story, too. They also listened well to that and responded with joy. I don't know that I've ever had their attention for two stories in one day!)


I just realised that Jaan was really good at staying out of these photos:

He was right there with us, though.

Easter Day

We had a very beautiful Easter yesterday. Unfortunately, Raia was sick, so we didn't take family photos, and the only picture I have of her is from our preparations the night before:

Easter morning:

An empty tomb

Christ is Risen!

He is risen, indeed!

One of our babushka neighbours brought us fresh baked Easter breads, too. She made so many that she couldn't carry them all to church the night before, so we got the unblessed ones. They still taste wonderful.

At church, instead of Sunday school, the children went on a walk around the property where they saw scenes from Holy Week.

After church we came home for a quick lunch, all except for Asya. She had to stay to get ready for the art school celebration that was the next event on the schedule. As soon as we finished eating--again, leaving poor Raia at home--we hurried back for the celebration. (Raia was supposed to take photos for the school to post online. She had been so excited about being asked to do that. I tried to get some for her, but I just don't have her eye and energy.)

The preschool group that Bogdan is in was hilarious. Only a few of them showed up, and they were the very first ones to perform.


Bogdan did sing the song loudly all the way home, and he's still singing it now. Also, as part of the program Asya's group sang; there were games, a short message from the Bible (most of these families do not attend church), the preschoolers did a craft, clowns came....

So that you can see Asya, too, here she is with a present that she got:

Today was a recovery day for all of us, and tomorrow we start back into school. We continue to sing and say and remember that CHRIST IS RISEN!

ХРИСТОС ВОСКРЕС! ВОИСТИНУ ВОСКРЕС!

Nikolaev photos

Remember that trip to a contest in Nikolaev last week? Here are a few photos from it. Our group got second place.

Spring concert

March 23 was the big spring concert for our music school. It was really good. All the choirs and ensembles and dance groups performed.

There might be some professional video later, and if it goes up online, I'll add links to that. For now, here are two clips that I took when our children were playing. The first is Raia and two other students with her teacher. The second is the whole folk ensemble. (There was trouble with the sound system, and Jaan was playing even though we couldn't hear him at first. Raia said the song was "boring" without him.) This is one of the pieces they played at the contest in Nikolaev a few days later.