Choir concert

Jaan's end of the year choir concert was Friday. Earlier this year, they divided the huge younger choir up into two groups, and Jaan ended up in the little ensemble group. A friend caught these videos for us with his phone. First they sing a Ukrainian folk song, then a Russian song:

Getting ready

One week until we fly out! We can't wait to see as many of you as possible, and we really appreciate your prayers for our preparations and travel. Next Monday we'll fly out around 2:00, only going as far as Vienna. We were able to find and reserve a cheap family room at a hotel there, so we're hoping for a good night of sleep before we fly on. The next day we'll go from Vienna to Washington, and then on to Greenville, SC. In Greenville we'll get a minivan from Macedonian Call Foundation (praise God for his provision for us, and pray for this worthy ministry!) and drive to Charlotte. We'll have two weeks there, then we'll drive down to Florida for two weeks with my family and church.

That's just absolutely the bare bones of the big adventure ahead of us. Really, please pray with us over every step of the way. If you want to see us, please contact us or our mothers as soon as possible. We're really looking forward to visiting with our families, friends, supporters, and home churches!

Changing photos

I've had the same photos in the sidebar for ages! I think the group photo was from two years ago? And newborn Bogdan was, of course, more than a year ago.

So, now it's time to update with something more recent. From Easter Sunday, 2012:

(That's not our cat, by the way. Just a very friendly one, who lives outside our building. We call her "Jaan's cat," because she loves him so much.)

Dacha days

We've been at our dacha with our favorite ragamuffins. So nice!

We have one more week there, then back to civilization to finish getting ready for our trip. Two weeks until we leave!

Children's conference

On Saturday we got to go to a children's conference in Zaporozhye. We took our own children, plus the rest of the Sunday school.

On the train

This is a very rare picture. Bogdan chose to sit with someone else. Even with someone as "scary" as Taras! After this, the pictures skip a bit. We got kind of lost crossing the city, and made it to the conference a little late. The morning was full of songs and stories and a sermon and all sitting in one place. It was all good, but I didn't take any more pictures for a while. Then came lunch....

Eating himself under the table

He was so hungry and so exhausted! I was actually feeding him the macaroni while he flopped like this in my lap. (Like Asya said at the end of the day, "Those people in Zaporozhye forgot about nap time." Then she added, "So I did it myself!" since she slept all the way home afterwards.)

Last one at lunch

 Then, after lunch there were all kinds of games.

Cheerleader at game time

Raia's team

Jaan in a relay race

Funny football

Asya's team won!

Everyone enjoyed themselves, and they were great sports about the adventures of getting there and back.

Happy Mother's Day!

We don't celebrate Mother's Day, and, um, we tend to forget about it, even though we dearly love our mothers. This year I saw a printable "quiz" linked from another blog that I read, though, and I decided to see what our children would say about our mothers, their grandmothers.

So, here you go, with questions changed from "All about my Mom" to "All about our Baba." First, Baba Julie:

Our Baba's name is Julie Hunsucker.

She is 40 years old.

She is taller than our other Baba.

She weighs 40 kgs./She is heavier than our other Baba.

Her favorite food is very spicy.

Her favorite thing to drink is juice.

Her favorite thing to do is go for walks with us.

She likes to wear dresses.

Baba Julie is really good at helping at church.

I like it best when Baba Julie gives me presents/goes for walks with us.

My favorite thing to do with Baba Julie is going for walks/riding bikes.

During the day Baba Julie sleeps and works and probably plows (tills) the garden with that thing they have (a tiller).

(Illustration is the bottom part of the photo above. It's of when Asya and Baba Julie--with blue hair--went out and ran into a volcano.)

And now for the other Baba:

Our Baba's name is Kathy Robertson. (Lots of discussion between Jaan and Raia to get to that, but I didn't have to tell them.)

She is 41 years old.

She is shorter than Baba Julie./She is little.

She weighs 26 kgs.

Her favorite food is very grapefruit.

Her favorite thing to drink is plain water/grapefruit juice.

Her favorite thing to do is take care of fish.

She likes to wear skirts.

Baba is really good at taking care of us.

I like it best when Baba talks to us on Skype.

My favorite thing to do with Baba is play in their yard.

During the day Baba makes breakfast for Granda.

(Raia drew a then and now picture of Baba on her wedding day and Raia now. Very cute. It's the top half of the photo.)

So, Babushki, what do you think? Do they know you well? They certainly love you!

Last week and this week

Last week seemed a little rough. A bit of sickness went from Bogdan, to Asya, to Jaan, to me. Will traveled to Kiev to reapply for a social security number for Bogdan. On his way back, he couldn't get a ticket to Zaporozhya, so he went to Dnepropetrovsk. His train arrived right around the time that four bombs went off there. (God protected him, and he didn't even know that anything had happened until later, but it was still very scary.)

This week is looking better. We're heading out to our dacha! Actually we had planned to go yesterday, but someone was needing a place to stay, so we had let him spend a few nights there. Today he found somewhere else, so we're going for a few days ourselves. Of course, you won't be hearing any more from us until we get back....

Oh, other good news is that God provided a vehicle for us to use during our trip to the states in June!

Small but mighty

Bogdan is small for his age and doesn't walk yet, but he can...

...dig...

...climb trees...

...and catch beetles!

He is Risen!

We've been busy! Easter was lovely, but then Monday was just a tired day, and Tuesday we went to our dacha for the first time this year. And we're doing school, as usual. So, here are some pictures from Sunday....

The night before

Easter morning!

What's this?

Asya shows him

"Christ is risen!"

"He is risen indeed!

Breakfast

Ready for church

Raia's picture in the Sunday school display

Asya getting ready to say her poem

(...with her mouth full of candy. And click on the picture to see Will's face!)

Evening tea with guests

It was a rainy day, so we didn't get to go on a picnic or spend time outside like we usually would have. We still celebrated, though: special breakfast, church, fun activities at home afterwards, and guests in the evening! And the rain made everything start to bloom on Monday morning.

Growing and learning

Bogdan has been growing and changing so much lately! He's learning all kinds of new skills:

Sharing

Well, that's not new, but he sure is good at it.

Scrounging

Papa left a piece of candy in a bag that he threw away. Guess who went digging in the trash and found a treat?

Using a fork

He seems to need to hold one hand in the air, like a fencer, while he works to get something on his fork. I was surprised to see him take off eating with utensils already. Here are some photos of him eating spinach and pumpkin with two spoons, too: one, two, three, four.

Playing piano?

Reading?

Or just enjoying books. (The book in the picture was Jaan's favorite at this age.) Bogdan loves to sit on his potty and "read." He's making great progress with the potty, too. His vocabulary now consists of two words: "yum" from before and the new word "kaka." Utilitarian baby talk? At least he's telling us about two basic needs. He's also just taken his diaper off and headed for the potty once, but he can't get onto and off of it by himself until he starts standing, so I'm not ready to move him out of diapers yet.

Recognizing letters?

Helping

Bogdan loves to help! His favorite toy lately has been this little sprig broken off of a broom. He crawls around with it, sweeping everything in sight. He wanted to sweep the camera and me when I got down on the floor to take pictures of him working, though.

Watch him grow

Honestly, Jaan doesn't play with Raia's doll stroller much. However, when he got it a few days ago, and I started taking pictures, I realized that we've done this a few times before.

June 2011, 3 months old

November 2011, 8 months old

April 2012, 1 year old

I really enjoyed watching them this time. Both boys were laughing and making motor noises as they zoomed around.

Holy Week

We've been reading Lenten Lights again this year. I found a Russian translation, that I've been printing out, instead of using my own. In between squirming, arguing about who gets to blow out the candle, fussing because it's Time For Bed (Bogdan!), it's been a nice to slow down and read the Word together these evenings. Jaan has been doing most of the reading, actually begging to be the reader, instead of waiting to be asked. After reading, we sing, learning the songs that they'll sing with the rest of the Sunday school for Easter. That's a very practical preparation, along with the heart preparations.

While the West is celebrating Easter, we're on Palm Sunday (Pussy Willow Sunday). Next week we'll be saying "He is Risen!" with you. For now, we're just heading into Holy Week. Here's my list of activities that I want to do:

• paper palms (last night)
• Today: donkey cookies (just because Raia found a donkey cookie cutter, and we can)
• Monday: start this set
• Good Friday: turn off the lights until Sunday morning
• Saturday: make empty tomb cake, but out of breakfast cake, not chocolate (To tell the truth, I like an Easter garden better, but that doesn't work well with a baby and a cat. I'll still gather violets and bits of spring beauty, even if we don't make them into a garden this year.)
• Sunday morning: red eggs and cake for breakfast

I've just been reading back through my old Easter posts and enjoying them. If anyone else wants to read with me, here's 2009, 2010, and 2011.

Raia's basket

Raia has been picking up willow twigs and making little rings of them almost nonstop. Instead of drowning under a sea of willow circles, I wanted to find something else that she could make with her twigs. So, I searched around a little and found this blog post. The project was just the right level for Raia. She did a beautiful job, mostly all by herself.

We may have started a trend in our neighborhood. Jaan really wanted to make a basket, too, so I got him started on one outside. While we worked, the local troublemaker hovered over us, saying how cool it was and that his mother doesn't do things like that with him. (I feel sorry for him now, instead of just being annoyed about all the bad words he's taught my children.) Then, when I came in, I looked out the window and saw Jaan still at work, along with that other boy, plus the building chairman and his granddaughter and two more little girls. All of them were twisting and weaving willow twigs.

Poland, part 6

Can you believe that this is still not the end of our Poland pictures? We had one last day of exploring Krakow.

Copernicus

While we were standing here, Jaan asked, "How is it that every day we read about something, and then we see it?" How could we not, when we were reading about Krakow in Krakow?! That morning we had read a part of The Trumpeter of Krakow that mentioned Nicolaus Copernicus, and then we found this monument dedicated to him.

Up into Wawel Castle

And further up

The cathedral

I went in with the three older children, while Will stayed outside with Bogdan and the stroller. I thought we could just take a peek, and come right back out, but there was a whole route to follow. I would have loved to have spent more time in there! Of names that I recognized, Chopin and Pope John Paul are buried there, but the Polish kings and queens made more of an impression on us. We really enjoyed the beauty, and we followed a Russian tour group around for a little while, but we couldn't stay long.

This window was beautiful from the inside!

Lunch

We went in one of the many museums on the castle hill. It was the site of an actual archeology dig, which was quite fascinating, but our little group was already pretty worn out, so I'm not sure how much they enjoyed it. They probably liked lunch afterwards better. Although, Jaan had been begging and planning to visit a museum, since even before we started out on our trip. After our lunch break, we explored some more.

I'm seeing a theme of Raia and doors.

The palace courtyard

See?

Once again

That evening we went back for one last visit at the Glasses' home.

A sad goodbye?

They really were sad to say goodbye to Clarissa, and it was Jaan's idea to get one last photo together, just before we left. However, they were all so wound up and sweaty from running wild, that it didn't turn out too great.

And now the only continuation left to post, is how we got home from Poland....