Back from Agape school

Yes, Will got back from Kiev on Sunday. He was exhausted, and we were exhausted, and it has taken us a few days to recover. But we're so glad that he could go! The next session will be in Uzhgorod in the beginning of December.

Will's class
(I pulled this photo off Facebook.)

I thought I would round up and translate the bits of news about the school that were on Facebook and the Agape site. Here is the first:

The tenth Agape bible school opened on Oct. 14. We were hospitably welcomed by Kiev Bible Institute. Students came from Belorus, Russia, and eleven regions of Ukraine. The grand opening was attended by guests and friends of Agape: Rustam Nazimovich Fatullaev, pastor of Tabernacle Church; Sergey Vladimirovich Manelyuk, president of Kiev Bible Institute; Alla Vasilevna Nechiporuk, dean of KBI, Oksana Valsilevna Malischuk, coordinator of distance learning at KBI; and senior pastor of Crimea, Pavel Vasilevich Fedoruk. All guests were asked to address the students with welcoming remarks and wishes. On the first day of training, Pavel Vasilevich Fedoruk taught fundamental truths about the formation of the character of God's ministers, about the importance of humility and total dedication to God. On the second day Boris Borisovich Gnatyshyn taught the "Seven Laws of the Learner" seminar.

And then there was a little more on Facebook:

Tuesday there was a warm evening of fellowship and getting to know each other. On Wednesday the school's students went to Tabernacle Church. On the third and fourth days of the training, Oksana Sidorchuk, the director of the charity "Circle of Friends," taught the students of the Agape school. Today (Friday) Tatiana Ryazantseva, a teacher from Tavrichecki Christian Insitute spoke about the structure and methods of Bible lessons.

When Will got back, he wrote: "Very impressive level of professionalism, from child psychology to pedagogical methods. I barely kept up, but thoroughly enjoyed myself."

And that's all I have. Thank you for praying!

Too tired

I was going to write something, but by the time I uploaded these photos, and I had forgotten what, and I'm too tired anyway. So, here are a few random photos from the past week:

Today was absolutely beautiful, by the way. Golden autumn!

Agape school

Now that we're in Kherson, I should be writing more about Agape. But, really, we haven't gotten involved yet. We've been enjoying a nice, slow time to settle in and rest. Now we're ready to jump in....

Alex Fedorchuk, the director of Agape, should be arriving in Kherson tomorrow! We had been waiting for him to get back, before even starting to figure out how we fit in to the ministry.

And, one of Agape's main ministries is teaching Christians how to minister in orphanages. Among other things, they do that through their yearly school, that meets in week-long sessions. People come from all over Ukraine and surrounding countries to study together. You might remember that we got to sit in on the final session of last year's school and graduation in June. This year Will is attending. He left last night for the first session in Kiev. We had wanted to go all together, but that didn't work out, so he's there for all of us.

This year Agape also has something new: a school for leaders of adaptation centers (homes for orphanage graduates). That starts October 28. Please be praying for the people learning how to serve orphans and for those who are teaching: at the new leaders' school, at Agape seminars in Russia next month, and at the school Will is attending. We won't be directly involved in the first two on that list, but we're praying for them!

I was right

Yes, this week was better.

Probably the biggest news is that Jaan started at music school today! It was a little bit more complicated to get him enrolled here than in Dneprorudnoe, but Will did the running around and got him in. First, Jaan had to have a medical document saying that he's healthy enough to be around other children. Everyone said that was simple to get, but it was a bit more complicated for us. Still, Will talked his way into getting it. Jaan's piano teacher will be the director of the music school, not a sweet babushka like he had before; Jaan is a little intimidated, but we'll see how it goes. Today he just had Solfeggio and Music Literature, and the teacher for those classes is nice. They also don't want students who don't have an instrument, so we'll probably have to be looking into buying a keyboard. (No room for a real piano!)

Other news:
We have bunk beds, and everyone is loving them. Bogdan has moved out of his crib and into his big boy bed without any fuss.

Will's going to be in Kiev all of next week for the first session of Agape's training school.

What a week

Our hamster died.

We've been sick.

Our internet has been off. (I did get that last blog post scheduled before it went out, so that posted, even without me.)

We were cold.

New Slavik

But there has been a lot of good, too:
Fun and fellowship with many people last weekend.

The new baby hamster is awfully cute.

Bogdan is really sweet and snuggly when he doesn't feel good.

We've had a lot of good family time, inside while it's been cool and rainy outside.

A committee of neighbors turned our heat on.*


And next week should be better.

*I have mentioned before that our landlady lives in Italy, but she has a family here help take care of everything related to this house. They do a wonderful job of it, too! Thursday night the landlady’s helper came by to check on us, and she was shocked and horrified to see me in a hat and sweatshirt indoors. (After 12 years in city-heated apartments, we're rather used to waiting for the heat.) I reminded her that she had told us to wait for her husband before trying to turn the heat on... more shock and horror, because apparently they had forgotten, and he had left for Kiev that morning. She didn't know how to start it up herself, but she said that she'd go for Babushka O,† since Babushka O. "doesn't have any men in her family. She knows how to do everything." And a few minutes later they came bustling back, with another woman along, too. This was late on a cold, rainy night! They got the heat all started up, showed Will how it works, and we've been warm ever since. So nice! (And so strange to be able to actually adjust the heat!)


†(Footnotes on footnotes: yes, I have been reading Terry Pratchett. Thank you very much.) This is the same babushka who did the bicycle trick I mentioned on Facebook a few days ago:

Pets

I wanted to write about our pets before, and I got photos ready a while ago, but then I didn't do anything with them. A small tragedy over the weekend pushed me to write now. This post is dedicated to the memory of Slavik.

Cute Slavik

Back in the middle of winter, a friend gave us four baby dwarf hamsters. They were so tiny! And so cute! We bought a cage for them, but they were so little that they could just walk back and forth between the bars of it as they wished.

There was a disaster that killed the three girl hamsters early on, but their brother survived and became a dearly beloved pet. Slavik put up with anything, and was really probably the cutest animal I've seen.

As I said, though, this post is dedicated to the memory of Slavik. Over the weekend, we had company, and as they were leaving, everything was pretty chaotic. Dina (the rat, more about her in a moment) was out, so Will grabbed her and stuffed her into a cage... the wrong cage. Slavik's cage. And Dina killed Slavik instantly. It was a very sad day. There was way more weeping and wailing than there should be over a hamster. I cried too. But, all's well that ends well. Will ran out and got us a new Slavik, and all the little people seem to be quite satisfied with him. (I don't have any photos yet. New Slavik is a baby, and moves very fast! I'm hoping that he'll settle down into a nice calm lump like his predecessor as he grows up.)

Other pets that I wanted to write about:

Dina

I'm afraid that she is in disgrace right now. That's putting it mildly. But, she really has been a good pet (except for her one murderous act!). We're working on learning forgiveness. You probably saw her in all our school photos, right? That's enough about her for now.

And this one:

Zhenya

We actually gave him away before we moved, but I don't think I ever posted photos of how funny he looked in all his various no-scratch collars. And somehow--even though we don't miss him at all--our children still seem to count him as ours. So, he's our long-distance pet?

We've also kept hedgehogs. But somehow, we don't get so attached to them. One lived on our balcony and then at our dacha for a few years. We found another, a baby, just before we moved, and we were going to keep him. Will even moved him cross-country with all our stuff, but then he escaped right after arriving here. One photo of that guy, and then I'm done:

Zhatva and later

Today we went to a different church than the one we've been attending. We actually know more people at this one, and we had been invited to their Zhatva (Harvest/Thanksgiving) today, since they had a guest speaker and singer from Israel that our friends wanted us to hear.

So cute!

None of those little ones are ours, but they were just so adorable that I had to get photos.

But then, this cutie is ours:

As usual after a Zhatva service, the children get the fruits and vegetables that were on display. For some reason, Bogdan took two peppers, and he is SO proud of them! He came marching out to me, and said, "Бобо ням п'ТОМ" ["Bobo (how he refers to himself) yum l'ter."] I was thrilled, because in recent days we have had so many tears over the concept of "later"! Maybe he finally understands it now? That was the first time I had heard him say it himself. He brought them home to eat later.

Home again

Home tour

We filmed a little walk-through of our home today. Remember the pictures I posted before? Now you can see it with us living here. We're still not all the way unpacked, and we have some bigger purchases left to make (bunk beds!), but those have to be spread out over a few months.


I know I've been quiet here. There hasn't been much to write about: lots of school, lots of settling in. Asya did have a wonderful birthday. Will's been fighting with the electricity. Other than that, it's just been all little things.

A few funnies

Just like last month, I am copying my sister. I can't blame anything on my phone, though. My phone is proudly dumb. I'll just blame my lateness on not having access to computer and internet and then being busy.

From before we moved: when we approached the playground bird cage and saw that the peacock was showing off his tail, Bogdan said "WOW" and grabbed handfuls of his own hair on the top of his head, trying to pull it up, spread it out, and imitate the peacock. Just a very cute moment.

At some point, a friend of ours linked to a series of YouTube videos where adults reenacted a 2-year-old's conversations. I happened to watch them with my own 2-year-old and 5-year-old. Aforementioned 5-year-old absolutely latched on to a certain phrase. The original is approximately, "I'm naked, so I'm the boss," but she heard something a little different. Now, every time she hears the word "bus" in English--which is often, because we're doing a lot of trying to figure out how to get around here--she yells, "I'm naked in da bus!" Full volume.

Our neighbors seem to have a regularly scheduled screaming hour that corresponds with our bedtime. On one of our first few nights here, Asya asked me, "Mama, do we have any valerian?"
No, why?
"I wanted to take three pills over to Aunt Larisa. One for her and one for each baby."

I was serving out watermelon recently, and Asya said, "Please, ma'am, кавун." That's two English words and one Ukrainian, all in one sentence... from a child who usually speaks Russian. (At least she got it right this time! She used to say колдун. )

This is technically from September, not August, but it matches with Leetra's theme of things I can't believe I said. A certain child was whining along the lines of "why do I have to get dressed before school?" and I answered, "Because I don't want to do school with your underwear!" What?!? Where did that come from, and what does it mean? It worked, though. She skipped off to get dressed.

Social events

Even though we haven't been here long, our "social calendar" has been nice and full. Soon after we first got here, we met up with a new friend for lunch. She has been serving here as a missionary for five years. Last weekend she invited us to a picnic that she had planned for the children she works with in a nearby orphanage. We went and had a truly wonderful day. I can't post too many photos, because their faces shouldn't be out on the internet, but maybe you can imagine some. We played games, did a craft, listened to a lesson, ate, and did lots of chasing and racing around with wheelchairs. Our children are still talking about how fun it was to get to know that great group and spend a whole day with them. Raia especially really wants to visit them in their orphanage now.

Jaan on top of a sign near where the picnic was 

Asya and Bogdan with one of their new friends

Then, the very next evening after the picnic we went to another event: a Bible study and worship time for English speakers. There were three families there, including us--13 children!--and our other new friend, the one from the lunch and picnic. So much fun! (We just missed Papa.)

This weekend we visited another family that we had met when we were here in the spring. They wanted to teach our girls how to make borsch, but sadly, playing won out over that. Still, we had a great time of fellowship and a wonderful pot of borsch made by the adults. The TV was on, and we heard that it was even "Borsch Holiday" that day, so I guess we chose an appropriate day to get together for that.

And yesterday we went to "the big church" for their first day of Sunday school. There were balloons and presents and even a puppet show. Asya got to go up on the stage with the other little ones just starting school; so cute! It was the first time that all of our children have gone off to separate Sunday school classes on their own. Even Bogdan went to the toddler class, but he was very careful to be sure that I went with him and stayed close. That sweet-talking preschool teacher was scary!

Today we had our first just regular school day of the year, and tomorrow is Jaan's TENTH birthday.

First Day

I already posted two photos from today, here and here. Now for a few more!

First day of school, 2013-2014

Jaan, age almost 10 (and Dina)

Raia, age 8

Asya, age almost 6
Just starting school!

Bogdan, age 2

Serious students?

In our new school room

Starting school

I have had a whole day of quiet here. Even though I'm surrounded by boxes, I've been ignoring them and trying to plan for starting school. It's a challenge! I've never had to do it all in one day, and I've never had to do it so soon after moving, and I've never had three students. But, by God's grace and Will's babysitting help, I think I'm at least ready for tomorrow.

On the September 1st Jaan and Raia started getting a little upset. They saw everyone else going to First Day celebrations, and they begged me to start school with them, too. At that point Will still wasn't even here, and all our books were with him. I reassured them that we would start soon. Yesterday, in frustration, I said something like "maybe we just won't do school this year" out loud. Right away, Jaan grabbed Bogdan and offered to take him outside so that I could work.  But I still didn't really get anything done until Will took everyone out today.

So, my plans for tomorrow are:

• pancake breakfast and discuss our schedule
• first morning school session
• first nature study (paint!)
• bake for afternoon tea
• new quiet time schedule (more about that later)
• dress up and go out to take pictures
• special tea with poems and wishes for the year
• watch Masha and Medved?

Beyond that, I do have an idea of what we'll do daily. Plus, I got most of our school books unpacked. Will set up our school area for me first thing (and it looks great. Pictures coming tomorrow.) It's probably a good thing that we're having our First Day celebration on a Friday, because I can work a little more over the weekend, and then we'll jump right in.

Please pray with us as we start off this new year of school!

All in Kherson!

Will got here on Monday, and we're slowly settling in now. Our internet connection is still very iffy, but it worked for a little while last night, and I hope it will come on today for me to post this.

We have been enjoying this little house so much! After dreaming of something like this for years, and then pretty much deciding that it wouldn’t ever happen (and learning to love apartment life), now my old dream has come true. Even after I decided that I loved having neighbors under, over, and all around us, I still had moments where I wished that I could just step outside for a little while, without it being a social occasion. Here I’ll be able to do that sometimes.

Although, we certainly haven’t gotten away from communal living. This is a whole new level of collective. Our closest neighbors are the young family that rents the other half of the house. Then there are also the “Aunt” and “Uncle” who live two houses down and look after this place. Also, for the first week, our landlady was staying here. Apparently, she comes (all the way from Italy!) for a few weeks every year. And all the other random, less closely “related” neighbors are in and out, too, of course. So, while the introvert part of me has been cringing a little, the people-loving part has been thriving.

The other family has two little boys, both younger than Bogdan. They’re 1 and 2 years old. (Really! The Russian wait-at-least-five-years-after-first-baby mandate isn’t nearly as strong in Ukraine.) Our children have already fallen in love with them. Bogdan wakes up in the mornings, asking for the “babies” and then wants to spend all day with them. Both of them are quite comfortable toddling in and out of our home, as if it was theirs, too. We’re enjoying their company and getting to know each other. I love having a few more little ones around!

Unfortunately, the yard has been a bit of a disappointment. Our neighbor sees it all as hers, and doesn’t think children should do anything other than sit still in her yard. So, we’re going to have to work things out with her and learn to try to please her. It really is too small for running, but I would think a little noise and dirt and climbing would be okay. Not so, at least at this point.

But, the house is wonderful! And we’re enjoying being here. We've had a lot of quiet days, exploring our new surroundings, and also two big, fun highlights: an orphanage picnic and an English-speaking family gathering. Hopefully I can tell you about those soon, but for now we really need to get unpacked and started on school. And, like I said, internet is a still a work in progress. We'll see how much I can write in the next week or so....

Summer prayer letter

I actually wrote one already! If you didn't get it by email, here it is. Older prayer letters and the link to join our mailing list are always over on our About us page. -->

The moving plan

Will and I had a good time to talk yesterday, and we came up with a plan to get us to Kherson. We find packing and moving with children underfoot to be incredibly challenging, even though we've done it quite a few times now. They just help a little too much!

So, on Monday (probably) we'll all go to Kherson with just a suitcase. Then, the next day Will will come back here for about a week, to sort and pack (a lot is still in boxes from our last move, which will help some), find a truck to carry it, and then come to the rest of us. It will be a lot of work for Will and a crazy week for all of us, but I think this will work well.

Please pray for us lots, and don't expect to hear from us much at all until we're settled in Kherson. Thanks!

With one of the butterflies he raised

Nature study: mammals

I originally wrote this in September of 2010! And apparently it just sat there as a draft until now. I went looking for it when I wrote yesterday, and decided to publish it now. Better late than never.

With Ambleside Online's schedule, we're focusing on mammals in nature study right now. Our "study" is really mostly just spending lots of time outside and enjoying it. Although, we are stopping to observe and record every week now. So far, here's what we've done:

Week 1: Still getting used to school schedule and had a few days of sickness. No formal nature study.

Week 2: We had one evening just talking about what mammals are, and then painting our favorites (and sticking stickers of them, since Great-Grandma sent such wonderful ones!).

Our favorite mammals

Standing up on the right-hand side: Asya's work; also standing: Jaan's whale; lying down below Asya's: my kitty; next to it: Raia's pretty frame for cat stickers. (Oh, Jaan would want you to know that favorites are not whales. He just thought that he couldn't draw a cat, and he was fascinated by the whale in the book we were flipping through. So, he painted a whale and stuck cats on over it, too.)

Artist at work

This just makes me laugh. Long after the rest of us were done, Raia was still dashing off paintings, and then throwing them over her shoulder as she finished.

That was our first mammal lesson. Next I started thinking about what other mammals we have around here. I thought it would be nice to be able to observe a hedgehog. (Sadly, ours didn't make it through last winter's hibernation. )

Week 3: Well, we went out to our dacha, and the first night I almost stumbled over a hedgehog on my way to the outhouse. Will and I locked it up in the empty chicken coop for the rest of the night. Next day....

Foot prints

Moving the hedgehog on to the paper

The meeting of the mammals

Note the stain on the table

Asya inspects the hedgehog

Dressed for hedgehog study

Week 4: We didn't do much, except enjoy being outside. One evening I did give Jaan and Raia assignments. Jaan was to record "The Things Which My Pet Cat Does" (from The Handbook of Nature Study) and I want to transcribe what he came up with. Raia's job was to design a cover page for the mammal section in our notebook, but she got distracted with just drawing. I'll sure we'll come back around to that again.

Week 5: Rainy, grey weather outside made for a great opportunity to "travel" and learn about an exotic mammal. We watched a great documentary about whales.

Ideas:
make mammal cover page for nature notebook
read beaver book
watch skunk documentary again?
muskrat (talk about it, find old photos, draw, or even go back to Zaporozhye and look for them again)
bats

School planning: nature study

I do well thinking things through by talking or writing about them. Since my AO friends might enjoy "listening," so I'm thinking this out here. I had five school goals that I mentioned before. The first is actually pretty easy. And fun. Nature study is my favorite part of school!

So, I'm off to look at the new-ish nature study rotation.... In September we'll do trees/shrubs/vines. Easy! Especially with a new home that has a yard. (Then in November we'll start studying the night sky. I'll have to do some brainstorming then.) When I'm doing well with nature study, I have a simple running list of topics to cover, like

• definition of the category we're studying, and draw/paint your favorite
• list/draw local species
• start a year-long tree study
• bark rubbings and leaf collecting
• fall tree observations; why do leaves change color?

As I said before, we're good at getting outside. What we dropped, and what I'm wanting to pick up again, is the actual study part of nature study. Many people record their observations outside, and I agree that in real life would be best. We're not to that point yet. So far, we have to try to recreate real life indoors. That means we bring something home in order to observe and draw it. Or sometimes we have to work from photos.

We also don't have individual nature notebooks (yet). What worked before was using separate papers. Then, at the end of the term, we collected them into a binder. I just had to make sure that we had time once a week to work, and that I had a specific place to put the papers, so that I didn't lose them. I think I can do that again now. This year Bogdan should be happy to work with us, and I'll make a priority of setting aside time and space.

One more thing: AO has also added geography. Most of the topics fit very well into outside work that can be done on a nature walk, so I'll be working those in here, too. Plus, they fit with Asya's Year 0. (I couldn't resist coming back and adding this quote from my friend Jeanne's wonderful blog: "just where physical geography ends and nature-study begins is not easy to say; each helps the other.")

I'm still thinking about how and when we'll do our nature/geography time, but I think I have a plan....

The Search

After almost 3 months of calling and looking, we have a house rented in Kherson! Well, a duplex, anyway, with a separate little yard of our own, something we have dreamed of for years.

Like many other facets of life, this housing search seemed to be about 50% Divine Providence and 50% legwork and dogged persistence. It was a learning process for me... just when you think that you really know just about everything there is about the culture you're living in, you try something different only to discover a completely new and previously unsuspected field of research and study.

                                                    So, I have been learning once again.

First - looking for housing in a larger city in Ukraine becomes more of a challenge the more young children you have.


When I mention that we have children, the first question is "How many?" (FOUR??!!), and the second is "and how old are they?" (TWO to TEN years old??!!)

I literally do not know how many times I tried to convince complete strangers, over the phone, that we aren't a Barbarian Horde or Gypsy Band in miniature. ("What nationality are you?" was the 3rd question...)

I also learned that I got many more serious responses once I went to Kherson and could say "I'm here for a few days, if you have anything at all, I'll come look at it and might even sign the contract and make the down payment." Calling from Dneprorudnoe, I mostly had people offer to find an apartment or just tell me, "You'll never find people that will rent a house to a family with four young children for the price you want... call us back if you want to look at houses from $700-1300 a month."

Even with being in Kherson, it was slow going. The 'good deals' that got published online were snapped up almost immediately, so I spent a lot of time calling through local newspaper ads and contacting local realtors and agencies. At one point, I had at least 4 agencies and 4 freelance realtors searching for houses for me (not to mention the actual home owners or their representatives I was calling.) After I while, I began those conversations with "I'm not sure if I've called you before, so let me remind you, just in case..."

I was in Kherson for 4 full days, not including 1/2 days traveling there and back again. The first "real deal" I was offered was a 3-story unfinished construction project. (At one point it was meant to have been a health complex/hotel.) We were being offered the top floor, which would be 'finished to our specifications." (Using 2-months advance of not-so-low rental payments of $440, not including utilities.) It had sheet rock and windows, but that was about it. I could actually see how it would be very nice... but the rest of the place was something of a mix of a junk warehouse/maze/construction site. The kids would've loved it, but what with the lack of a separate staircase, the completely NON-'kid friendly' setting and the unfinished bathroom and non-functioning 'kitchen' area being down on the construction zone of a 2nd floor; my dear, wise wife said she'd rather not, thank you very much.

The next were 2 twin houses, both empty and unused for 1-2yrs. They reminded me of something you'd see in a decent urban subdivision in Florida. The houses looked HUGE to me... at least 2000 square feet each. They were willing to rent them to us, again, with our down-payment going into doing necessary repairs so we could actually live there. (One place had been completely stripped by the last tenants. They took everything: linoleum, light switches, outlets; heating system - boiler, radiators, and all; toilet, tub, sinks; every scrap of the kitchen furnishings and appliances; all doors, complete with hinges....completely, thoroughly stripped.) However, one place was really out of the way, with bad access to public transport (the 'stripped' house), and the other literally had no yard. It was cemented over and had a huge, DEEP unfinished pool in place of any green space. Both would have been a minimum of $450 per month, not including utilities.
Again, my wonderfully wise wife asked that these be left as a back-up plan if I didn't find anything better.

However, I wasn't coming up with any better options. Well there was one, although it would have been an hour minimum commute on public transport to Agape's office... but by the time I had been to both of the big 'subdivision' houses, that house was rented.

 I agreed to talk to Phyllis again that evening and more than likely discuss details of a contract for one of the huge 'subdivision' houses the next morning, barring any better alternatives. Then it was more phone calls, more re-checking with agencies, following up possible leads, checking ads online and in newspapers.

My wonderful, wise, lovely wife (notice the theme here?) called me that evening. "You know that agent guy whose ads you said to ignore? He just put up an ad for a house in the same area of the city as Agape. Maybe it's worth giving him another try..." I had decided not even to bother this guy anymore. He was prolific in getting ads online, but I had called him numerous times from Dneprorudnoe, and he'd finally just said we weren't going to find a place with four little kids. However, at this point, I'd had so much practice at selling our family as good tenants I figured it couldn't hurt to give it a try.

I called him after 9pm. He said "I thought you wanted a NICE place, that's all - sure, you can look at this house!" We agreed to meet the next morning around 9am. By 10:15, I'd signed the contract and paid the down payment.

A man can inherit a house and money from his parents, but only the Lord can give him a sensible wife.  Proverbs 19:14

(Except for the last one, photos are just stock images. The last is actually our new home!)