College

Raia has been planning to go to LCC since her friend started studying there four years ago. Along the way, Jaan decided that he would, too. Then Jaan and Raia worked it all out so that she would finish both 11th and 12th grade this year, and he would use this year as a gap year. That way they could go together, even though they're actually two years apart in age and school. War complicated their plans, but Raia is finishing well, and Jaan is working in Florida to make money during the second half of this gap year of his.

We have been wanting to visit LCC, and when they had "University Days" at the end of January, we finally got to go. That was two days for prospective students to go on a campus tour, attend classes, and find out about studying there. Jaan, Raia, and I traveled for two days through Poland and London to get to Lithuania, spent two days there, and then made the long trek back. We really enjoyed our visit.

Right after that, they started the application process. It has been much more difficult and complicated than we would have expected. Now I remember that when our friends--another international family in Kherson--were going through college applications with their two oldest, it seemed very overwhelming. Now I understand. I really don't know if it's usually like this, but pulling together everything to get into college has been a marathon for all of us. We're almost to the end... maybe. Jaan and Raia are conditionally accepted at LCC! Please pray that they can meet that final condition, one more big test for them to take.

Assuming we can get through this next hurdle (and Lithuanian residency and finances), Raia will study English and Jaan Contemporary Communications. I think they'll both get some Theology, too; LCC doesn't call it a minor, but that's basically what it is. 

Anyway, please pray for us, as we work so hard to get to the next step now.

Residency for Raia

While we've been here in Ivano-Frankivsk, we've had a lot of details to work on, things we couldn't do anything about under occupation. One of those is getting residency for Raia. She'll turn 18 in less than a month. We had kind of decided that we wouldn't do anything about Ukrainian documents for her, since she's planning to be in Lithuania at college most of the time soon. She could legally be in Ukraine with her passport 90 days at a time, and that seemed like enough. But, really, it would be better for her to have residency, so we're slowly moving forward with that.

When we did this for Jaan, I wrote a quick summary of the process. That was back when everything was simple. Now, that first step is very daunting. The first document needed--there could be quite a few subpoints under that first point--is a request from the inviting organization to the local religion and culture office for them to approve the invitation of a foreign citizen. Okay. But there's no religion and culture office in Kherson now. There's also no migration service or passport office, and everyone we used to work with on all this is gone. Can the Kherson war administration do approvals? Will went around to offices here yesterday (and several other times in the past few weeks), and honestly, no one really knows what to do. We have some leads, and we'll keep looking. Please pray for us.

Joy seeping through

I recently started rereading one of my favorite books: Champagne for the Soul. It’s one I really clung to when I had cancer, and I’ve read it several other times. Now my paper copy is at home in Kherson, but OpenLibrary comes to the rescue again. I read a little each day. Here’s just one sentence from a few days ago: 

“Sometimes joy is what seeps through the cracks when our hearts are breaking." 

Joy was my main feeling all through the time of occupation. Yes, it was often mixed with fear. Yes, there was a lot that was terribly hard, but I had peace and joy inside. Since we’ve left home, it’s been different. Everything is dark. There’s nothing I have to do now, and I’ve just been sad. But my book is reminding me that joy can mix with sadness, and maybe the joy is actually leaking through the broken places.

Bogdan's 12th birthday

Yes, his birthday was a long time ago, but before spring ends, I should write about our spring birthday. (Will also wrote about it in a much more timely fashion.) Exactly two months ago, Bogdan turned 12. Raia and her friend and I arrived back from Kyiv that morning, so we didn't have much time to prepare anything. Will had bought a cake, though, and made sure that there were presents. Bogdan was also very excited by the presents that Raia and Dasha had chosen in Kyiv for him:

Polished rocks!

Bogdan took his cake to Sunday school, and shared it there. Then his friends came back with him afterwards and played on the school field near us. That was what he had really been looking forward to, and he loved it.

We went out to dinner at a pizza place he had chosen:

One of the presents was a robot kit from Jaan:

So, Bogdan has had his second wartime birthday now. How we hope and pray that there will be victory for Ukraine before his next!