Advent 2014

It's one of my favorite times of the year! Advent!

Last night we set up our Advent wreath, lit the first candle, sang "our" Advent song, and talked a little about hope and what is ahead for this season.

This year, these two...

Wait, she's almost as tall as he is?!?!

As I was saying, these two are planning and implementing everything for their younger two siblings. They're doing what we first started Advent in our family with, in 2006 (and then again in 2008 and 2010). They've been working on translating the little notes into Russian, formatting them, and collecting all the supplies. So, this evening they hid lots of 25 kopeck coins and the first note for Bogdan and Asya to find. It was great fun!

Then they read the note and Bible passage aloud.

And we sang "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel."

I think we have a very sweet Advent ahead of us this year, as we prepare our hearts to celebrate and remember Christ's coming in the world.

Thanksgiving and fall concert

Happy Thanksgiving! We're so thankful for all of our family and friends who are out there, reading this.

Yesterday we read in one of our children's books that the original Thanksgiving feast lasted three days. This year ours is, too. We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with one set of friends already. Each child in our family helped with something: Jaan made a big pumpkin pie all by himself, Raia and I made some incredible pumpkin cake truffles (and some chocolate, too), Asya made a cranberry and jello fruit salad, and Bogdan helped me make cornbread. Then we took that over to our friends' home; they provided turkey and all the other trimmings, and we had a lovely evening together.

Today we're resting and cooking a bit more. Tomorrow we'll celebrate Thanksgiving again with our community of American and Canadian friends.

By the way, on Wednesday the choir that Jaan sings in had an informal concert. Since I was the only one from our family in the audience, I recorded all the songs from that. Grandparents and anyone else who is really interested might enjoy watching, too.

Another Saturday at home

I don't like this idea of staying home on Saturdays! I should be out at the orphanage. I'm finally feeling pretty much well again, but Will reminded me that they would not want me in with those fragile little ones, when I'm still coughing. Plus, these visits by myself--while my friend is away--take a lot out of me even when I'm healthy. So, I'm home again today. I should be back next week.

But, last time I wrote about my visits there, I was still trying to get into a routine of spending time with the bed-bound little ones, after my lesson with the bigger ones. And I have been able to slide into that and should be able to keep it up now, too.

I really, really love this part of my Saturdays there. There are groups of children who spend all their time lying down in cribs. The sizes of their bodies and their abilities make them seem like babies, although they're much older than they look. After I finish doing a Sunday school-ish lesson with the bigger ones, I head over to the little ones and offer to help however I can. Usually that means the workers hand me a bowl of food, and I spoon it into little mouths. Of course, I talk and interact with them as much as I can in the process.

And then I get one or two for some individual play time in the sensory room. Most of them have no idea of how to play, so a lot of it is just holding toys in their hands and getting them used to that idea. Or, for some who already know that much, I work on interacting, encouraging them to imitate play, or very, very simple games (i.e. clapping hands; very simple). I have no training in any kind of therapy, and I really feel the lack there, but I hope and pray that just time spent together is helpful.


A few links to share:
I've mentioned Oksana before. She grew up in "our" orphanage and aged out last year. At this moment she is in the USA for medical treatment, but she'll be headed back over here soon, since the first stage of her treatment is over. Here is a site with updates about that. She has a long process ahead of her. Please keep praying for her. Culture shock in America has been hard for her, and I can imagine that coming back to her nursing home isn't going to be an easy transition either.

Also, the friend that I help has started a blog. It will have information about the houses she is building for the orphans who age out of this orphanage. Will and I have been able to help her a little so far, with the paperwork part of that, and we're very excited to see it get going! First will be a home for boys, and then another for girls, including Oksana. There's tons of info on her plans here, if you want to download and read the detailed document. Or, ask specific questions, and I can summarize or find out the answers for you. Please be praying for the paperwork, planning, and actual building.

A few recent photos and more

This is the one-year anniversary of the beginning of Maidan. They're calling it the Day of Dignity and Freedom. It's hard to believe that it's only been a year: a long, roller coaster year for sure! Please keep praying for Ukraine.

I've been sick (or sick-ish) for almost two weeks now. That really cuts back on what I do, but the rest of the family has been busy as usual. Random bits of that:
Jaan and Raia got to go to a summer camp reunion. I shared a few of the photos that they were given there, but I might have to post more soon. Camp was such a highlight of their summer!

Raia and Asya went to the second annual (?) MK girls sleepover, and had a wonderful time, of course. Those of us who weren't included in that watched a "scary movie" (Star Wars).

Bogdan had to cling to his big brother,
because he was so convinced that he would be scared.

Fall colors are mostly gone, but this was our cherry tree about a week ago.

Only a handful of these leaves are left now.

Raia got a pet rat. She had been wanting one for quite a while, and when she found 100 griven on the ground, she knew right away what she wanted to spend it on.

His name is Martin.

This big boy is still cute when he naps.

I had to get a pic of Asya in here, too.

And I can use that last photo as an advertisement for my friend's new book. I highly recommend it for all educators!

He makes us laugh

For a few days recently Bogdan's "uniform" was jeans on backwards, Jaan's belt, and Jaan's knife sheath. Papa wouldn't let him carry Jaan's knife, though, so...

In case you couldn't see it above

He's also talking more and more, and sometimes it's so funny to hear him. He still speaks his own language, but at least we understand him. Here are a few quotes:

On asking if he would have to go to bed soon and hearing me answer with a yes: "Mama, say not-yes!" ("Мама, 'жи не-да!")

When I made him wash his very painty hands over the bathtub, because the sink was busy: "The water here is not better." ("Вод здесь не луч'.")

One cold morning, his breath was "smoke-smoke-smoke like a 'gon" ("дым-дым-дым как 'кон"). You got that last word?

I picked Bogdan up and noticed that something on him smelled bad. He said that it was his underarms. When I told him that, no, it was his hat, he said that there were also underarms on his hat.

Autumn in Tsyurupinsk

We had such a beautiful day today! I've been wanting to do a fall family picnic out across the river. I had noticed that the weather forecast showed today as the last day of sunshine before some rain, so I had been planning on going today instead of doing school. Then, when we got up this morning, I was so disappointed: they had changed the forecast. Clouds? I could see them out the windows, too. Boo. But we went anyway. It seemed to be getting darker and darker. By the time we were in the marshrutka, the girls were asking me, "What if it rains?"

Then, we got out, and there was the sun!

See the clouds breaking up?

All of the girls in this family wanted to take a picture, but...

...the boys didn't want to!

With Papa

A frog!

The view from our picnic place

We came back just in time for art and music school for the older ones, and this for the little one:

He was exhausted!

An orphanage day

Most Saturdays I go out to the orphanage for handicapped children across the river from us. Since the beginning of the school year I've been going alone because my friend, the one I help there, is in the states. Yesterday, as I rode back, I was thinking that I would like to record what has become a pretty typical Saturday.

On Saturday mornings we get up, Will does breakfast, Asya and Raia head out for art school, and a little later Jaan has music school. As they're all getting ready and leaving, I go, too. First I take a bus toward the center of town. I get off and start walking, going through a big market area, and buying cookies and juice along the way. The orphanage is very careful about what they feed the kids, but they trust a particular store there, so that's where we buy. (And it's a super yummy sweets store!)

After the walk and making my purchases--now my backpack is heavy--I come out to the big road and get on a long distance bus. That takes me out over the river (beautiful!) and into the next town. I get off and start walking again. It's not far to the orphanage.

First thing there, I have to find the nurse. She checks the snack I brought, gives me the key for the classroom, and tells me if I can combine groups of kids or not. No quarantines yesterday, so I went down to get the boys ready. They get so excited! Lots of happy screaming and hugs for me and sweetness as they help each other get their shoes on and wheelchairs ready. I can usually take four or five of them up to the girls' classroom for something like a Sunday school lesson.

When we get up to the girls, there's more screaming and hugs and excitement. I always have to tell T. to hug me gently, because she forgets and hurts me, but she's learning. Little D. has latched on to a certain silly song that we've been doing; she greeted me doing the motions for it, so I knew she wanted to sing.

The classroom is small for that many wheelchairs, but we fit them in like a jigsaw puzzle. I think I had eight girls, with the four boys? Yesterday I started with some little coordination exercises that caused lots of giggling. Then I got out the book that my friend had translated for these kids. This was our third time reading from it, and they finally seemed to be catching on to the idea of listening to a story. From the beginning only V. had really seemed interested; she dives out of her wheelchair and scoots up to where she can put her chin on my knee and catch every word. We finished the first chapter, and I explained what that means. Now that they know a chapter is just a part of a book, they're excited to hear what happens next. (There is a school there, but the kids in these two groups that we work with are not allowed to go to the school. Most of them can't read and write, although some of them would be perfectly capable of learning, at least to some extent.)

Then songs! Music is not my thing at all, but I've started bringing an MP3 player with a little speaker, and they love it. We "make a (very) joyful noise." After singing every song that I have at least a few times we moved to the tables for a craft.

I wasn't sure at all about how this craft would work, but they did a great job. We made a tree from beads and wire (something like this. I'll come back and add a picture next week, because they want to send one to their friend in America. I just didn't have the camera with me yesterday.) Many of them have difficulties with coordination, but they really focused on getting those tiny glass beads on to their wires, and no one got frustrated. Each child made a branch or two, and then we twisted them together into a tree.

By the time we were done with the craft, it was lunch time, so we did hugs and goodbyes, got everyone back to their places, cleaned up, and I left.

I really want to get into a good routine of feeding one of the bed-bound little ones lunch and then playing some one-on-one after my time with the older ones, but I didn't do that yesterday. Before I could take them for walks outside. Now I need to transition into time in the therapy room instead. Yesterday, I was too tired and hungry myself, and the people I need to talk to about the little ones weren't around. Hopefully next week....


Edited to add: here's the tree they made:

Another babushka

I know I've mentioned our landlady some. She spent the summer here with us, bustling around, fixing everything up, sorting things, and just generally working hard. She kept telling us that she was getting everything in order so that she could die here. Then she went back to Italy... and she died there.

This is the only photo I have of her, a stealth picture from when Bogdan and Asya were watching her doing brickwork:

Maybe this is strange, but I really enjoyed watching our neighborhood community come together to remember her. On the day of the funeral in Italy there was a big meal here. What was definitely a little strange was how much everyone wanted to do everything right--following all the traditions--but no one really knew exactly what that meant. It was our first time at a completely secular funeral, so we certianly didn't know what to do either. Still, it was good to sit there with our neighbors and other guests and get to know them a little better, while remembering Babushka Valya.

Actually, this summer was a little bit difficult. I won't say anything bad about Babushka Valya now, but apparently she had changed a lot, and with her confusion and bad health, it wasn't easy. But, since she's been gone, I've been remembering what a very funny person she was. Her stories about life in Italy, especially when she kept forgetting that we don't speak Italian, were hilarious. The amount of work she got done here and her care and concern for her children and grandchildren was remarkable.

Several people asked what this means for us, in the context of renting this house that I love. We don't really know. I thought her daughter owned the house officially, but that's questionable. Probably in the winter one of the daughters will come from Italy, and then we'll find out. Probably they'll just do whatever paperwork needs to be done, and we can continue renting. At least that's what we hope for.

Crocus that she planted this summer

A strange anniversary

Did you see this over on the side?

As of today, we have lived in Ukraine as long as we got to live in Russia. There are definitely lots of emotions attached to that little statement, but I'm not going to write them out. Just recently, I was digging (digitally) and came across photos from our last days in Russia. They still make me teary. I'll share a few of those here:

Random photos from early 2008

They were so little!

That winter was the prettiest ever.

Papa and Asya

Church service for our last Christmas there

In the midst of packing

At the church goodbye tea

That's Raia in the middle

Okay, enough nostalgia. Here's a disorganized photo of all our children, happy in Kherson in 2014:

Quick, current family news: Will got back last night from his time in the states. In a few hours we're headed off to an overnight in Odessa to renew some passports.

Grandma

Last time we saw Grandma Blackwell, in 2012

Will's sweet little Grandma went to be with Jesus this week. We will miss her, but we know that she's much happier now. I was trying to think of how to save for posterity her long obituary that relatives shared online. In the “old days” we would have clipped it out of the newspaper. Now I'll just paste it here, to remember later:

June Ferguson Hunsucker Blackwell
June, 89, was born in Charlotte, NC on June 10, 1925. She was the third child and second daughter of Floyd Mack and Grace Wright Ferguson. She graduated from Central High School in 1943 and went to work for Barnhardt Mfg. Co., rising to the position of secretary to the president. She resigned in 1952 when her first son, Bernie, was born to stay home and raise her boys. It was at Barnhardt’s that she met the love of her life, Wilburn (Willie) Hunsucker, and they were married in 1947. It was a short ten years later in 1958 that Willie died of cancer. June was 32, Bernie was five and Larry was almost two. She remained a widow for the next 12 years until she married Tom Blackwell in 1970. They enjoyed 38 years until Tom’s death in 2008.
June was a serious and devout believer in Jesus Christ and a lifelong student of the Bible. She served in numerous capacities in several churches and other ministries from her teen years until Alzheimer’s prevented her from continuing. At various times she led Child Evangelism Fellowship Backyard Bible Clubs, weekly classes in several housing projects with Children’s Bible Hour, children’s church for 200 kids, and had the tract ministry at the Ladies Bible Class at the S&W Cafeteria at Park Road Shopping Center. All of this while raising her boys.
June’s true calling and most significant work was her own Tel-Evangelism ministry which began in 1972 and tapered off about 2010. T.E. was a perfect fit for her. She had always had a passion for personal evangelism, i.e., telling people the good news of the Bible’s message about everlasting life. She knewfrom thousands of personal conversations with children and adults that though many knew of Jesus’ life and even His death and resurrection, they didn’t know that He offers everlasting life as an absolutely free gift, received by faith alone in Jesus apart from good works or anything at all one could do.
She carefully explained to many thousands, one phone conversation at a time, that the only requirement for obtaining everlasting life is to believe in Jesus for it. It was her greatest joy to see many trust in Christ alone for His free gift (John 3:16; 4:10, 14; 6:47; Ephesians 2:8, 9). For 35 years she was typically at the phone from 2-10PM, seven days a week. Though others helped finance her ministry, she and Tom funded the bulk of it themselves.
June was preceded in death by her siblings: Nettie Hurd, Billy Ferguson, Ruth Surratt, Floyd Ferguson and Dot Rorie.
She is survived by her sons and their wives, Bernie and Julie Hunsucker, and Larry and Liz Hunsucker; step-daughter Mary Coley; grandchildren Will, Anna, Abby, Christy, Chris, David, Lindsey, Susie, Mary and Billy; 16 great-grandchildren, numerous nieces and nephews and grand-nieces and nephews; sisters-in-law Ann Ferguson and Frances Ferguson; and brother-in-law Jimmy Surratt.
June’s family is especially grateful to LaDonna Yoza for her loving and compassionate care for her. 

 Tomorrow Will is heading out to be with his family for a week....

The time before, in 2008

Years

It's been 11 years since this wonderful person was born:

Happy birthday, Jaan!

It has also been 13 years since we left America.

And we have been in Kherson for a little over one year now.

School 2014-15

We had a great first day of school today! Will already shared some photos on Facebook. I'll probably post more here another day.

I just went back and looked at last year's post like this. We did pretty well with my goals: we met some, we didn't meet others. To recap:

• Formal nature study--Not really. Nature notebooks didn't happen too often. But we did read nature books consistently during Morning School. (We've never had trouble with the actual outside time or observation; it's the recording that gets us!)
• Morning School--Yes! I would say that was the highlight of the school year for all involved.
• Handwriting--Yes. We were very faithful with it, and both Jaan and Raia made good progress. Even better, they now have a habit of writing a little every day.
• English narrations--Yes. We're almost to my original goal of narrating English readings in English and Russian in Russian. It's easy to slip on this, though. If they're tired (or if I'm tired), it's still all Russian.
• Individual work--Yes. They're doing well with this. Check lists helped, especially for Raia. For Jaan, just getting into a routine was enough; he doesn't necessarily work off a list.

Jaan and Raia finished AO's Years 3 and 1. It took us two years to get through them. Now we'll be moving into Year 4, Year 2, and Year 1 for Asya.

We are going to pick up outside involvement a little this year. In order to home school, it's very important for me to stay home, but we're going to add in more away from home than we have before. Jaan will continue with music, Raia will start music, both girls will take take art classes, and there might even be something for Bogdan, too. Almost all of that still lets me stay home, though. Everyone except Bogdan can go to their own classes by themselves. We'll see how it works out. Will this be too much busyness, or a good balance?

I'm going to try restructuring our mornings a little, too. I want to take an hour first thing, while Will is still home, to do 20 minutes individually with each scholar of mine. Then we'll have our Morning School together time. And then we'll continue on with everything else that still needs to be done.

And for new goals:

• Recording nature study--I bought spiral bound sketchbooks and scheduled in a time. All that's left is to actually do it....
• Reading--Asya in Russian, Raia fluently in English, Jaan happily in English. (Jaan already reads pretty fluently in English, but he doesn't enjoy it.) I don't think we need to do anything special here. Just keep moving forward.
• "Enrichment" or whatever you want to call it--In the past year we have not kept up with art, music, and poetry. We need to get back on that train. Mainly, I have to have everything ready in advance, or it falls by the wayside.
• Move along--As much as possible, this year I would like to get an AO week done each week.