Bits of recent news

Will led the local English club twice recently, because pretty much all the Americans and Canadians were out of town, and they asked him to fill in for them. After his years of teaching English, he really doesn't enjoy stuff like that, but he's good at it, and it went well from what I hear.

Jaan and Raia both made it through their technical music exams. Jaan wasn't too sure that he would survive, but he did.

Asya's pet duck died. 

Jaan and Raia both went to special events at the main regional library as the final part of contests they had entered. Jaan went on a "quest" there (NEW photos), and Raia met special dogs and heard from a groomer (NEW video clip). Neither of them won in their contests, but they enjoyed their times there.

During fall break from music school Raia and Asya decided to start trying to play balalaika and recorder together. It's turning out quite well, even without help from their teachers or any other adults, and it's fun to see them working together.

Our family was invited to a neighbourhood holiday and given an award. 

Bogdan had me quizzing him on English words recently, and I told him that he was doing a really good job. His response was, "Of course! I was born in Ukraine, so I know English." I think that was some twisted version of a discussion he had with his English teacher. I still haven't talked to her, so I think she was trying to figure out if he really is American or not... or something along those lines. He says that she said he should know English and asked where he was born.

I love this drawing Bogdan made for a friend. It's of a scene from our trip back from Rovno, when we saw hot air balloons along the road. You can also see lots of red fall leaves and the marshrutka we were riding in:

Fall colours are winding down, but still beautiful in places:

That's all the randomness that comes to mind right now. We haven't taken many pictures or done anything really big, but it does seem like everyone has been busy.

Fun with Oksana

A little over a week ago Oksana left for her last medical trip to America. She's our friend who grew up in the orphanage here. I guess we've started a tradition of having her spend the night with us before she goes to America. Or, at least, this is the second time we've done it. We had fun together: eating, talking, doing a bit of school, and going a walk to a playground. The photos with date stamps below are from her camera:

And then she left and won't be back until spring. Please pray with us for her while she's away. I know that she's already had her first appointment with one of the doctors, but I haven't talked to her to hear how it went.

More conference photos

I was just going to edit an older post and add links to the photo archives from the professional photographers, but I decided to put them up here instead. This is Nikolai Kuleba (from the presidential administration) with the Kherson branch of Agape:

(Jaan stood directly behind everyone.  )

The rest of the photos are here and here. There are a few specifically of our family around here, but of course, not everyone was looking the same way at the same time or keeping their eyes open.

Jaan's theater birthday

Have I mentioned Jaan's enjoyment of theater? He is in the church theater group, and he really loves it. They also had a gathering to celebrate recent birthdays--including his--and I stole a few of their photos to share here.

Also, this was from when they performed their Easter production way back in June for Children's Day:

(Did I link to photos from the play at Eastertime, or not?)

Yesterday they did the play again at a men's church conference. Jaan had speaking parts for the first time. He says that it all went well, and he was very excited to spend another day at the conference today. They won't be up on stage all together, but the youth leader will be doing some impromptu skits, and Jaan insisted that he has to be there for that, even though it means skipping a day of music school.

Soon they'll be working on a Christmas play.

Asya's art birthday

Back when it was actually Asya's birthday, I wrote that she got to celebrate with her friends at art school. Since then, the art school put up a few pictures of the big day, and then they published the whole collection of all their photos. I chose a few of the best, especially the ones of our own nine-year-old, and brought them over here. The first is from before the party, while she was at class on her birthday, and then the rest are of the big event. It was all so beautiful and fun and delicious!

By the way, Asya's culinary class made some of the refreshments for the party that day, too. Her teacher there is very faithful about posting photos; did you see the ones from last week? So cute!

Through Raia's eyes

My parents and Grandma sent Raia a little camera. She took it with her for the first time on our Rovno trip. So, here's the conference through her eyes.

(It may be too many photos, but we'll try anyway.)

By the way, there are professional photos from the conference here and here and maybe elsewhere, too, but I might think that Raia's are more fun.