Overcoming

(I am scheduling this to post on our first day of camp in Kherson, where Raia will be back in her element, working with kids and her friends at the church she loves. Please pray for us.)

Jeremiah 1:19 “They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. 

HomeLife Academy gave Raia their Overcomer Award for this year. 

Here's a link to full year book: https://www.flipsnack.com/76D6C988B7A/hla-2023-yearbook.html 

I just took the one page about her to share here.

 

She has just officially graduated, and I am struck again but how much the word Overcomer fits her and what she has done in the past year. She has overcome 

• Fitting 11th and 12th grades into one year 
• While living, thriving, helping others under occupation and in an active war zone 
• During unexpected sudden evacuation 
• Through a dark winter winter without electricity 
• Far from her very closest friends 
• When her dreams of a certain university became very distant because Lithuania didn’t accept the high school diploma she was working so hard for 
• Not taking the SAT when planned with her tutor and then taking it later when she was stressed and not feeling ready 
• Passing the GED, which she never planned on taking 
• Retaking parts of the GED to raise her passing scores even higher.... 

 
She still has more to conquer, including right now figuring out applying for residency in two countries almost simultaneously, not to mention starting the whole new adventure of university. Thank you to everyone who has carried her and the rest of our family in your prayers and support all these years. Please keep praying! 

If we were in normal times, we would celebrate her graduation with our family and local friends. Even that isn’t really possible right now. If anyone here wants to congratulate her, send words of encouragement, or even little gifts, her email address for both notes and PayPal is raia.xansaker@gmail.com. Again, thank you! 

 

I’ll close with these words of Jesus in John 16:22. Glory to the One who is the real Overcomer: 

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Good news

Jaan’s here! With Yana! It’s so good to have him back.

Raia got her answer from LCC: she’s in! We’re thrilled.

Finally.

That said, we’re still drowning. The war goes on. Jaan arrived without luggage and is caught up in the craziness of modern airline “service,” when he really has so much else to work on, too. Raia’s acceptance comes with some nuances. The logistics of everything for all of us are just too much. I can’t even explain. Stress levels are still very high. Please keep praying.

And praise God for good news.

They’re back

Will and Raia are back, sleeping after a very long night on a bus. They didn't get the visa that Raia needs. Because of where she was born, the consulate couldn't just hand her a visa, like they were doing for everyone else. Her application could take up to 30 days to be processed through Kyiv. Then she can go back to Poland and get it. Of course, this really complicates everything, both logistically and--to be very honest--emotionally. Again, please keep praying....

Now this

Last night Bogdan fell out of a cherry tree. He fell hard, and I thought his arm might be broken, but it was late, and he was doing okay. So, we gave him ibuprofen, iced his arm, and put him to bed. Asya was wonderful; she's really calm in medical situations. This morning it was still hurting. We tried to call a taxi, but the app I like was all busy, so the three of us walked to the children's hospital. I was so impressed with them! There were hardly any lines, and they were so incredibly kind. Bogdan's wrist is fractured, but there's nothing complicated. He has a cast for 2.5 weeks, and that's all.

 

Afterwards Bogdan decided that we needed "Kherson lemonade" to recover, so we walked across town in the other direction to go to a coffee shop from Kherson. Asya and Bogdan had that special treat, and I had cold coffee. Then we came back to the apartment.

 

While all of this has been going on, Will and Raia had their appointment in Poland. As we kind of expected, they couldn't get everything sorted out right away and were told to come back after lunch. They've been running around, and as far as I know, they're back at the consulate now. Please keep praying for them.

Please keep praying

Raia did get her her math and science scores higher. Now her science is up to what Lithuania requires, but her math is still a little low. We're at the point where if LCC can average her scores across all four subjects, she's in, but if they can't accept an average, then there's really nothing else we can do now. Please keep praying. Pray that we'll get a positive answer and soon!

 

Already she has to move on to her next step. The papers we needed for her Ukraine visa application--the first part of applying for residency--came through from the Kherson war administration. Tomorrow she and Will are going to "celebrate" his birthday by sitting all day in a bus to Poland. They have an appointment to apply for her visa on Wednesday, and if all goes really well, they could be headed back Thursday-Friday. We haven't even gotten as far as buying return tickets yet, though, because we don't know how long this will take.

A call to prayer

Tomorrow Raia will be retaking math and science exams to try to raise her scores on them. Please pray for her! Pray that she can sleep on the train to Kyiv tonight and do really well tomorrow. Thank you.

The dam

It's been a week since Russia blew up the dam at Kakhovka. The Bible study we host here is made up of mostly of people from Kherson, and last week's study was a somber evening as we met and were sad together. Even though our family hasn't felt the physical effects of the disaster, we've been so sad. This is a new low place in a long run of awfulness.

Our house and our church in Kherson are high and dry, but the dacha that we bought just before the war isn't. This video is probably somewhere over in that area. And before Kherson we lived for 5 years on the bank of the beautiful Kakhovka Reservoir, which is drying up now (before and after). It feels like we know two sides of this tragedy ourselves. There's yet another side that's even worse. On the other side of the Dnepr River, where the Russians are and were the flooding has been worst, people are suffering even more. Please keep praying for Ukraine and especially for Kherson region!

Here's an old photo of happier days, July 8, 2008, little Jaan floating in the "Kakhovka Sea":

There are more old photos here, too, and everywhere else in our family memories. That beautiful "sea," the other shore was almost too far away to see.

Last Bell

We're at the end of the school year! Kind of. The school year in this part of the world and in our family has always been pretty much the first day of September to the last day of May. Everything is different lately, but still it's Last Bell now. We're celebrating with a walk to the river and a fancy meal.

And, yes, Bogdan is finished. He's done well with 5th grade through all kinds of chaos. His online music lessons will continue throughout June; he has to make up for long gaps when he didn't have access to lessons and/or an instrument. He's loved art here in Ivano-Frankivsk: earning awards, showing up on the news, and having his work exhibited in an actual museum! I don't know if art classes will continue in summer months?

With his teacher and his work at the museum

Asya has also done really well in her 9th grade. She kept up with her music, when no one else could. Sometimes she and her teacher were on Zoom from their phones, when one or the other of them was actually traveling from one place to another, or when explosions or air raid sirens were sounding in the background. Asya has also been in a small Zoom group of AmblesideOnline kids around the world, and that was wonderful for both her and me. (I think our group started a fad; it looks like there are going to be a bunch of similar Zoom groups next year.) Asya's not quite done yet, because in high school we count a full school year by days, and she has some more to do before she gets to the end.

Zoom group in April

Raia won the Overcomer Award from HomeLife Academy, the American school she's enrolled in. She definitely deserves it. This whole year has been about overcoming war, occupation, displacement, distance from her friends, hurdles to finishing high school and getting into college, and so much more. Raia also has more days and more hard work ahead of her before she finishes 11/12th grade and graduates, but she's doing a great job and finishing well. (And you saw a photo of her and Jaan in my last post, so it's fair that I'm not adding one here.) 

I'm always so thankful for our AmblesideOnline family. Finding AO at the beginning of homeschooling and being involved there is honestly one of the biggest blessings in my life. This year especially we've needed that continuity and support, and it's been there for us constantly. 

 One more year of homeschooling is (almost) done!

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!

Christ is Risen!

We don't have a family photo from this year's Easter, so I'll post one from last year when we were under occupation, but all together.

 

We did have a good Easter this year, even if we're in different parts of the world and far from home. We talked about how hard our Easters have been for quite a while now: 2019--I was in the hospital at the beginning of my cancer journey, 2020--covid, 2021--the fire at church had just happened, 2022--Russian occupation, and now displacement. But all the same, Christ is risen!

Neighbor/duck/memories

I confused people on Facebook. Let's see if I can be clearer here. Back in March, I shared a post. Apparently it was a poem? I just noticed text that stuck a chord with me and the picture. (People thought it was a poem I wrote. No, I clicked "Share" on someone else's post.) I don't know the author at all.

Link to original post

At that time, I shared her post with these words of my own:

I will share this morning’s silliness, but the serious thoughts here are the real thing and what I think, too. (Although, I won’t bother to dye these new grey hairs.) I told my family the picture was actually me and our duck this morning. At 6:30 a neighbor babushka called me to say that our duck was on her roof. I woke Asya and we went running over there. Babushka’s son is a child in an adult body because of disability, and he was very excited to see us! And the duck! Once I caught Bella, I realized that I couldn’t crawl back through the fence holding her, so Asya went back to get the keys to our gate, while the son let me out of their yard. Bella and I looked exactly like this picture while we waited in the street, except that I was wearing pajamas and forgot to put a wreath on my head.

 

And then jump ahead to now: on Thursday I was looking for a photo of our late elderly duck, and my search on Facebook brought up that post because of the word "duck" in it. It was very poignant to reread and remember, because we had just learned that our neighbor's son--the one I wrote about there--died from his long-term ailments. His death wasn't directly related to war violence (except for maybe all the fear and stress?), but in peace time he could have been treated at a hospital and lived longer. That morning when he found our duck on their roof was so funny; he was just so excited. Now I'll treasure that memory of him outside, trying to get video of the "rare bird," and going on and on about it. We'll miss him.

Odesa-Kyiv-Ivano Frankivsk

Game night with Kherson friends here

Well, here we are a whole week after our arrival in Ivano-Frankivsk. Again, I recommend reading Will's Facebook posts for details. 

To backtrack quickly, though, on November 24--the nine-month anniversary of war in Ukraine and Thanksgiving Day in America--shelling picked up in our part of Kherson. Our pastor offered to send us to Odesa in a van that had brought humanitarian aid, if we could get ready to go very quickly. So, with shells whistling over us (Bogdan says that explosions are no big deal, he’s used to that, but whistling is BAD!) we took turns running out of the root cellar to grab some things from our home to take with us. And then we left. 

That evening we got to Odesa, spent the night at Camp Lela, and then took a train to Kyiv the next day. During our week in Kyiv we applied for passports at the US embassy. That's easier said than done, because we had to pull together documents and do photos and print things when the power was often out, but it all went smoothly. 

Then last Friday we got on a train from Kyiv to Ivano-Frankivsk. One person in our family is thrilled to be here; one rabbit was in deep depression*, and some people feel like her. Others bounce back and forth. We’re working on settling in; we plan to stay here until we can go home to Kherson. 

 

*She is doing better now. I started Googling her symptoms, and really, the internet said she was depressed. There are actually articles online about rabbit mental health. We followed all the suggestions about "cheering up your bunny," and it seems to be working. If only human emotions were so simple!

11.11.22

It's not overstating to say that November 11 may have been the happiest day of my life. We know that the war goes on, and life is physically difficult now, but after 8+ months of enemy occupation now we are FREE and so, so happy about it! 

And, yes, we haven't had running water or electricity for two weeks now. We're stinky; in the evenings we sit around in the dark and cold (but tonight won't be so cold: Will and Jaan got our heat working!), during days we scurry around searching for internet and working on what needs to be done, and but still we're smiling inside or visibly. 

Will and many others start their daily updates with a count of how many days of war we've lived through. (If you haven't been following Will's posts on Facebook, you might want to. He has made his account public again, now that it's safe to do that. See especially the recent posts that he wrote while offline: about Day 261, Day 262, Day 263, Day 264, and so on.) Now it almost feels like we should also have a count of how many days of freedom we've enjoyed. As in, this is the Xth day of Kherson's freedom.

In case someone hasn't seen this yet, Reuter's did an article from an interview with Will. They called him William and got the wrong age for me, plus mixing up a few other details, but overall it's good: The U.S. family who lay low during Russian occupation.

I can't make any promises about regular updates here. Our connection is still very tentative. But I did want to be sure that people who aren't on Facebook read this. Thank you so much for your love, prayers, and support!

More birthday stuff

Today is Will's birthday. Happy birthday to him! We're going to try going out to a restaurant. A few are open....

Also, we had thought that Bogdan's birthday box from Baba Julie was probably lost, since it was sent before the war. Not too long ago it showed up in Lviv, though. The shipping company asked her for a different address to send it to. Since there's no way to get it through to us, we had it rerouted to the family from the other side of our house. They're in Lviv region now. They got the package and called on video to open it "with" Bogdan. That was great fun all around. He let them eat the candy in the package, and they built the Lego set "together," too. They'll bring it to him when they can come home. (Please, God, let that be soon!)

Raia's birthday

These days I find it very hard to know what to write. We have to be careful what we say, and I just don't have words anyway, not to mention technical troubles. It seems like since I last wrote we've had about three days that felt good and normal, all three were kinds of holidays: Easter, end of school, and Raia's birthday. Since we're almost to our July birthday now, I'll post the pictures from our June birthday, which was one of those three special days.

So, first the preparations: Raia's friends actually came over on June 15, the day after her birthday. Before that I made a chocolate pie which Raia decorated beautifully, and our ducks both decided that they needed to have baths to be ready for company.

Then the guests arrived.

They played games inside...

and outside.

Reenacted old photos

 

Showed off our bomb shelter

...and enjoyed good food!

The whole group

 

Then, on Sunday morning her friends also gave her flowers at church:

We all enjoyed the celebrations, and we love our 17-year-old!

Birthday, back to school, and more

Bogdan turned 11 on Saturday. Like my father said, it was a birthday that he'll tell his children and grandchildren about, but it was actually pretty normal, even though in some ways it was entirely strange. While we were at church, working and visiting with friends there, it was almost possible to forget about the war. Almost.

On Monday we started back to our usual homeschooling schedule, and that has gone okay. At times it's very hard to concentrate, but it's good to have a routine going. Bogdan's friend comes over almost every day to play after they've finished their schoolwork.

On Tuesday Yana went back to her village. We were worried about her getting there, but it went fine. If you look at the screen shot below from Live Map, you can see how it was possible for her to get home, but that we still can't go anywhere. Her family lives north of Skadovsk. (Kherson was under the fire and announcement icons.) If someone can get past the block posts at the edges of Kherson, the roads are pretty open going south. A man came into the city from her village and picked her up; it took them two hours to get back out of the city, but then their trip was fine.

Inside Kherson, lines are very long. Pretty much nothing has been delivered to stores for several weeks now. It can take an hour or more to get into a store, and then the shelves are pretty empty inside. But there's still enough that people aren't starving, and farmers from the south are getting things like potatoes and carrots in. People who rely on medicine (like insulin) are suffering. Our own family is fine, and we share back and forth with our neighbors.

I'm sorry for writing randomly and infrequently. It's hard to know what to write and to find time and energy to do it. Will posts most days on Facebook, and that's public, so you can see it even without a Facebook account, I think.

Tenth day of war

We've gone through quite a few stages already: absolute terror, active fighting around us while we hide underground, being able to come up and live in our home somewhat as usual, weird stuff with communications off and on yesterday.... It changes constantly. We're still here, though, and we're so thankful for your prayers. Even though the stores are empty, we have food. We've been able to share with other people, and they share with us. Our church is providing food and shelter and help for many, too.

The main thing is that Ukraine needs your prayers! Please keep praying.

I think we're past this stage now. (I hope.)

 

There's so much I could write, but I can't quite pull it together now.