School is out

We finished our school year! It feels good to be done. All the end of the year stuff for music school was different this year, and, especially with Raia graduating, it took a lot of effort. Finishing art school is just fun and sad that it’s over; no exams there. And finishing at home is good. (I just realized that Bogdan finished 1st grade at music school, 2nd grade at home, and 3rd grade at art school. That amuses me, so I came back to add it here.)

Filming exams

Raia's art

Quarantine continues, but it is loosening up step by step. Our region is doing quite well, with very few cases of coronavirus. We still have to wear masks, but that's about it.

Last weekend some of the teens from church went on a picnic:

Then, on Sunday church reopened. Two of Asya's friends came home with us afterward. We stopped to take photos in the flowers on the way. Pictures don't show how beautiful it is right now.

We've been seeing a lot of my favourite birds. Usually they only fly over too high to really see, but one day Will and I saw a pair down low on the power lines. Then Bogdan and I saw another one the next morning right in front of our house. And today they were swooping over the flowers in the field. That was extra amazing: all their colours, plus the colours of the wildflowers!

Our friends found a baby crow:

And some other random photos:

Lavender!

Hedgehog season and other news

Last week Will and I saw a hedgehog on our evening walk. It had been a while since we'd encountered one. Back when we had a dacha, there were so many that it was hard to walk to the outhouse at night without tripping on them. Here, there just aren't as many around. The next morning Facebook showed me a memory of another one from the same day, 11 years ago. Then we went on our school nature walk that day and saw yet another one. It was in the grass right by the kids when I took the photo above; they could hear it crunching beetles. I told Asya that she and I should have reenacted the eleven-year-old photo.

Ukraine is slowly starting to come out of quarantine. We're in the first step of letting up, which is that stores and businesses can reopen, with precautions. It was a little early for this, but we met on Sunday with our American and Canadian/South African friends. It was very good to see each other after eight weeks. The only photo I took was a silly one of the girls begging for something, desert or a movie? I can't remember.

Also, art school is reopening for one month in groups small enough to fit inside the law, in masks, with temperature checks. So, I have a quiet house for the first time in months! While most of the rest of the world was pining for contact with people, I started needing People. Out. (Mostly I love having them home, and I have actually enjoyed that part of quarantine quite a bit, but it does eventually get old.) Bogdan is back at art for the first time right now, Will took him and will work in his office during class, Asya went with them to sit outside and talk with her friend who lives there, and Raia is on a walk with another friend; Jaan is quiet enough that he doesn't count. It's nice. Of course, there are three other children glued to the window to watch me. I'll join them outside soon. But for now I'm ignoring them. 

A Crimean Tatar fairy tale

Today is the day that Ukraine remembers the deportation of the Crimean Tatars. Because of our neighbours, that day has become important to us, too. (I wrote a little about this several years ago, too.) Yesterday our neighbourhood library sent out a link to a movie, a Crimean Tatar fairy tale. We watched it as part of school today. It is beautiful and sweet. As the library said, "A people's pain and their dreams are in their fairy tales." At the end, the dedushka in the movie tells the children just a little about the terrible time of the deportation; just enough to introduce the idea.

We're at that stage of language learning where we can't really understand much, but it's awfully fun to watch a movie, because of all the familiar words. Even Bogdan followed along with the audio, and he doesn't read fast enough to keep up with the subtitles. I couldn't find an English version of the whole movie, but here is the trailer with English:

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day hasn't really been celebrated here, so we've never really noticed it ourselves, and we often forget to say anything to our mothers about it. Sorry, Moms! We love you! Happy Mother's Day to you this year.

This morning I was sitting outside, almost ready to go inside and watch our online church service, when I heard someone pounding on a gate. Ours or the babushka next door? More pounding and then the sound of her fussing loudly. The other family here had a big iftar last night, so I thought it might be someone coming to get the outdoor cooking supplies and extra tables. I peeked out and saw Babushka G. grumping at someone from our church. He saw me and realized that he had the wrong gate. Then he pulled out three bouquets of flowers. Babushka G.'s face changed so suddenly that it was hilarious. Now he was such a good boy to bring me flowers! A quick happy Mother's Day to me and my girls from the church, and he was off. I was so surprised!

In the past few years our church has moved from March 8 to Mother's Day, but I really appreciate how they still take note of all women and girls, mothers, potential future mothers, spiritual mothers, everyone. And this year some of the men who have cars delivered flowers to all of us! If you watch the slide show near the end here, you can see some of us with our flowers. (There were a lot more photos sent in to the group later, and even though they didn't make it online, it was really good to see all the faces we've been missing in real life.)

Raia's artwork

Results!

We heard from my doctor. She says that the scan results are wonderful. The cancer is GONE! In almost exactly one year we have gone from Stage 4 to fully healed. Praise God!!! I don't even know how to celebrate something so wonderful.

The next followup will be a CT scan and checkup in Kyiv in three months.

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped, supported, given money, prayed for us, and loved us through this!

There and back again

The trip to Kyiv was really beautiful. Just before the sun came up we saw a big, beautiful fox. The countryside we went through, especially up closer to Kyiv, was some of the most beautiful I've ever seen: hilly, green village areas in full spring green and flowers.

But then the idyllic part ended. Everything in the clinic is weird and tightly controlled by quarentine measures. I passed out with blood draws and felt icky after that. Because my blood sugar was low, I started throwing up during the scans. If you have any idea of what PET CT scans are like, you can imagine. If not, I'll just say that immobilized, fully restrained, flat on your back in a tight space is not where you want to be while vomiting up many liters of water. The one bright spot was that everyone was wonderfully kind. I'm already sold on private clinics, but Lisod is better than any of them. 

I got out later than we had planned, the anti nausea shot apparently wasn't enough, and the way back was long and nightmarish. It was physically and mentally the hardest almost 24 hours I've been through. But I'm home. It's over. Now I've slept and eaten and am already enjoying school with the kids. Thank you for all your prayers. It will still be several days before we get results and hear what they mean.

Another PET scan

UPDATE: The clinic is open. We'll be leaving at 4:00 a.m.

I've been scheduled for another PET CT scan on April 28 at the place just outside Kyiv since before quarantine started. We've spent lots of time and energy over the past week figuring out how that could work out. (And lots of emotional energy mourning my trip to England and dreading the scan!) As it stands now, the clinic is still working. There are no trains, buses, or planes running, so we are going to pay a local pastor to drive me there. Hopefully he can rest while I'm in the clinic, and then we'll drive back the same day. Assuming the clinic is still working. Assuming that roads are open. They did write up an official document to help us get through road blocks. We'll see. Even if travel goes well, it's probably about a 7 hour drive each way. And four hours in the clinic for me (very unpleasant hours). And they're not sure they'll still be working then. There's a lot to pray about.

Contests

Ukraine's quarantine was extended, but the contests our art school is running online are wrapping up now. Please go vote for the work of the kids from our house by clicking the Like button on their pictures: Ася, Лютфие, Богдан, Нуруддин, and Уммухан. And thank you for voting! I wish you could see how excited they get over counting their votes every day. Don't tell the girls, but I think one and/or both of them might actually be headed for a prize.

We had a fun surprise the day before yesterday. One of Bogdan's art teachers happens to be the mother of Raia's friends:

She was out with her daughters and dropped in to see if Raia could walk with them. (Raia hasn't gone anywhere at all--and of our whole family--she's the extrovert, the one who suffers the most from social distancing. We were very glad for this little chance for her.) While we were all standing around, chatting informally, I noticed that the kids from the other family were staring, so I introduced this "aunt" formally, and then they understood who she was. Their reaction was like what would happen if a movie star had walked out of a film right into our yard. They're still talking about it.

From their walk

This is our spring break from homeschooling, but music school continues online. The past few days Asya has been working on perfecting an entry for a video contest. We've made bunches of videos and gotten feedback from her teacher. I think now we finally have something that will work.

And today is the first day of Ramadan. So, as we continue to celebrate Easter, our neighbours start their own special season.

Easter 2020

I was in the hospital for Easter last year. This year was way better, even though we couldn't go to church. It turns out that our kids have no memory of me being gone for the holiday last year; they didn't remember celebrating Easter at all. So, it was like our first time in two years, and it was especially sweet.

We had our special breakfast. Asya and Bogdan got everything ready pretty much by themselves.

Then we gathered to watch the online church service, but the electricity went out at church right when it was supposed to start. While we waited some painted and some read. After about an hour and a half, they got electricity and started. (Oh, vote for Asya and Bogdan's pictures, please. And scroll through to vote for all the kids of our house on other days. It's almost time for them to count and see who has the most.)

For our special lunch, I had requested food from a restaurant we all enjoy. The day before Easter we found out that it's closed, but Will found another place to order a similar meal, and it was delicious! Because of the delay with church starting, the food came while it was still going, so we moved outside with the computer and continued listening while we ate and then started playing.

The last part of the church service was a cute mother-daughter cookie baking class. Asya mixed up their recipe, and we had our own cookie class.

Asya and her friend went around to say Christ is risen and give treats to other neighbours as best they could, from a little distance. One neighbour was also brave enough to come over into our yard and bring us a kulich that she had blessed by herself, since they couldn't be blessed by priests this year.

In the evening I sat out in the street and watched the kids. Then Will and I went for a short walk. It was all very fun and relaxing. Such a wonderful way to celebrate Christ's resurrection! He is Risen!

Quick update; photos

I don't get much computer time these days. Either someone is doing school at the computer, having an online music lesson...or I'm outside. It is really beautiful out now. Over the past week I took each of our kids for a walk to see the flowers and get coffee or tea. Other than that, we just stay in our yard. And we're enjoying every single day of it.

The first two photos are from a little earlier, when it was still okay to go out in groups. We have done something special each time just before it was cut off. Our trip to the forest was just before that was made off-limits. I took the neighbour kids and ours out for a walk the evening before that became questionable. (We're not supposed to move around in groups of more than two people. There is an exception for adults accompanying children--who aren't allowed to be out alone at all--but it's supposed to be for essential business....)

And we're preparing our hearts for Easter. We were sad that the yearly procession of all the churches on Palm Sunday couldn't happen this year, but our church is doing a wonderful job of making online church good and fun.

Please be sure to vote for our art! Look for the names Ася, Лютфие, Богдан, Нуруддин, Уммухан. They love getting lots of likes.

Art school at home

(Updated at the end.)

Music lesson

Ukrainian public schools are going to broadcast on TV. Our music school teachers have been working out their own versions of distance learning. Art school is private, so they can do what they want, and they're staying in touch, too. One of the teachers for the older classes has been doing a challenge where she sends a theme to draw each day. The kids send their pictures to her, and she posts them on Facebook each evening. They're keeping track of who gets the most likes. (Do you want to help us? Look for the name Ася.) At the end of quarantine there will be prizes.

Yesterday Bogdan's drawing teacher started something for the younger kids, too. She sent a video of herself drawing a beetle and asked them to join her. The little kids in our house did it all together and loved it. They couldn't wait for the next video to come out. Today was butterflies. Again, you can vote for the pictures with Facebook likes: Богдан, Лютфие, Нуруддин, and Уммухан with Ася are the best, of course. I didn't think the teacher would include the other kids, because they aren't in her classes, but she did, and they're very excited when anyone votes for them. Watch for their butterflies soon, too.

Bogdan usually draws a lot by himself, but I had noticed that he wasn't lately. Yesterday got him going again, and now he can't stop. After the beetle he made a whole set of other beetle drawings on his own. He has been missing art classes, but I think this is going to help him.

P.S. After I told you what names to look for, the butterflies came out without names. These are from our house: one, two three. (Bogdan didn't send any.)