We got in well after bedtime last night, and it felt very good to collapse in our own beds! We had a truly wonderful trip, and I'll write about it over the next few days. For now we need to get settled back in and rested. . . and out the door to church. (Because of the holidays, tomorrow is a work day, so we have church today.)
For now I'll just give you one photo:
It's been so long since we have used the stroller, that I had to figure out a new way to fit them in it.
Will called this morning to check on Raia's visa, and they told him that there were "some complications." Please pray, because we really need it done by tonight, so that a friend can pick it up before the weekend. Everything is closed tomorrow, and we had planned to leave on Sunday.
I finally finished my first real knitting project!
He wanted to show them to you. A few days ago we put some pumpkin seeds into a jar, so that he could see how they grow. Now anytime anyone comes over, they get an explanation of how the roots grow down and the leaves grow up, complete with a reenactment of what he has observed.
God is so good to work out details like that and save Will from having to make yet another trip to Moscow!
)
Raia sits under Jaan's chair and begs when he eats, so I let him give her this piece of apple yesterday. She didn't really eat any of it, but she sure was excited to taste it!
Will says that this looks like a picture of a dangerous, man-eating baby.
It sure seems like that was a long time ago. . .
We're without Will for a few days. He left early, early this morning to meet with some of the Gospelink men in Moscow. Then he'll spend the night with Nathan, and head out tomorrow morning to a conference for youth leaders outside Moscow. He should be home late Sunday or early Monday.
Yesterday was really crazy with trying to get everything together for Will's trip. I'll spare you the details, but it seemed like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. In the end, God fixed all the problems, though. Please pray that Will's trip and our time alone at home go better than the preparations did!
So far, we are doing well. All is quiet here. The children are asleep. It's pretty cold out, but the weather is just beautiful. After nap time, we'll go outside for just a little while to get fresh air, but not long enough to freeze.
She had a jingle bell inside a Ziplock.
Jaan helped make flour paste, and then he got to play with it in a bag, too. After he enjoyed it for a while, he decided to show Raia what to do with his bag, and he played with hers.
Those of you who know me, my opinions on movies in general, movies made from books in particular, and--even more particularly--movies made from books that I love, will be very surprised to hear this: I saw the new Narnia movie, and I really liked it! I was surprised myself. For those of you who don't know me that well, my friends from Bible school could explain that I usually think a movie is a good excuse to take a nap.
Anyway, Wednesday night Will came home, with Narnia on DVD. We'd never rented a movie before, so I was completely surprised. He knew that I didn't want to see it, but he said there wasn't really anything else that was interesting. I couldn't let him watch it by himself, even though I expected not to like it. So, the children went to bed early, and we had a date night, which would have been fun, even without such a good movie.
I have to say that it wasn't exactly like the book. Still, it was about as close as possible. Some details weren't like I imagine them, but some actually were! Of course, the book is still better, but I certainly don't regret having seen the movie. Overall, it was a very good picture of the story that we love.
Still, who needs movies, when you have children for entertainment? Raia's crawling is better than any comedy. Jaan has been playing out a drama, involving a snake (long black shoelace) who eats from a can, takes long walks, sleeps in a hat of Raia's, and goes potty. When he's not busy with his snake, he has work to do with his beloved crane (broken plastic clothes hanger). Then, he has to spend as much time outside as he possibly can, and sometimes he can fit preschool
activities with Mama into his busy schedule. I have more of those to write about and post pictures of sometime soon. . . .
I would say that, as of today, Raia is officially crawling!
Edited to add:
During the really cold weather, when it was rather cold inside, Jaan started shedding his clothes at random times. He's crazy! Anyway, he would completely undress, and then sit on the radiator by the (COLD) window with his bear and talk to the plants. Will said he just needed some time to commune with nature.
During the cold weather, Jaan and I had time indoors to do fun preschool activities from Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready, one of which was making a necklace with paper "beads" and a pipe cleaner "needle." Of course, since Jaan is a boy, his was a crane, which he carefully raised and lowered while making appropriate noises.
Raia continues to keep us amused with her "crawling." This photo was a second too late, because she was doing a full split just before. I think she's making progress, but she really doesn't see any reason for forward motion; after all, we carry her everywhere she really needs to go, right?
And Will is busy with Gospelink work.
I forgot to say that the children's Christmas evangelism program went well. Our landlord and his daughter did come, and he's still raving about how good the puppet show was and how much fun his daughter had. It was a hit in Sannikovo, too, and Will says there were more adults--parents and grandparents--than they've ever had come out for anything before. Of course, all the kids came. Thank you for praying!
Babushka Tanya did call us to wish us a Merry Christmas, but she didn't come to church.
It's Christmas again! We have a busy day ahead of us. . . .
(Our internet card ran out in the middle of trying to post yesterday. We'll get a new one soon, and then I'll be able to finish that post and put this one up, too. If you see updates, we're back online, obviously.)
I love January in Russia! (Of course, that's easy, because I love
all months and seasons here.) January makes me think of crystal
clear days, a drop in temperature, brilliant early sunsets, and
bright whiteness. Today when we went out for our walk it was -1/-18;
-20 is where I start feeling cold, and we're getting close to that.
We've had fun watching the birds in our new bird feeder today, and
Jaan's back to being my good helper in everything. I've really been
fighting him on behavior and attitude for a while now, so it's
especially nice to have my cheerful helper back. Raia's working hard
on her crawling skills. In fact, she can hardly stop to sleep!
Tomorrow we're going in to Moscow to visit friends. . . .
Here are a few photos of our fun day yesterday:
Jaan enjoying his bagel
Originally uploaded by fylliska.
Tonight we have friends from our old church in Moscow coming. They'll go to the youth club--which is tonight, because of the holidays--then spend the night and go to church with us tomorrow. (Church was also postponed, because our meeting place was closed on Sunday.) The Egor, Olga and Bogdan family will be staying with us; anyone else will sleep over at the Korneichuks.
One more thing: Raia is within inches of crawling! If I put her down on the kitchen floor, she makes it to the other side of the room in no time. She just gets up on her hands and knees, then pushes herself backwards. Her hands don't understand their part yet, so on other less slippery surfaces, she mostly just rocks back and forth and moves slowly.
When that one finally gets up, we'll open presents! Jaan understands what presents are now, so he's itching to get his hands on these from our Hunsucker relatives. . . .
Here are a few recent pictures of Jaan playing with play dough and helping his grandparents pack:
One if the things that I love about living here is the Christmas season. While the holidays are winding down for most people in America, we're just getting started here. The churches that we know of celebrate December 25, at least some. Then we have New Year's; it's the biggest secular holiday of the year, but of course the church family has to enjoy it together, too. After that January 7--which is the Russian Orthodox Christmas--is our biggest church celebration. As our pastor in Moscow liked to say, "The Bible tells us to rejoice always, so we're going to take advantage of every day we can to rejoice in Christ's birth."
We had a wonderful family Christmas yesterday. Having my parents here really made it special. In the morning we had a Christmas breakfast, and Dad read the Christmas story. Jaan "read" along with him from his picture Bible. Right after that Will had to run out for the Sunday morning lesson with the orphanage children, then music practice. Mom and Dad joined him for church, but I stayed home with our coughing babies. The three who had been at church came home around 5:00. We went out and took Christmas cookies and cards to our neighbors, and then came back to a nice, hot Christmas dinner. Dinner was followed by opening presents; this was the first year that Jaan understood that. The last thing we did before putting two very tired children to bed, was my family's traditional Happy Birthday Baby Jesus cake.
The weather has been celebrating, too, I think. Both yesterday and today we've had clear blue skies. Right now I'm sitting between my two sleeping children, and sunshine is pouring through the window onto us. The trees we can see out the window are all lacy with frost.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas yesterday; don't forget to keep celebrating Christ's birth!
Will took my parents sightseeing in Vladimir today. We've just played
outside a little and had a normal day at home. (Raia did not like the
falling snow, but I sure thought it was beautiful!)
