To Brighten Your Day

Her giggles never fail to brighten my days and bring a smile to my face. :)

Furlough ~Cousins~

Traveling down from Maine on our way to Virginia, we stopped in Conneticut to meet with my brother's sweet {adorable} family.  We had SO much fun!  (Anna didn't want to leave!)

{Singing Jesus Loves Me}

Fun at Lowes

Who would have ever thought that a day with Grampy at Lowes could be SO much fun?

Adorable Sammy

Isn't he adorable?  I LOVE the little foot!

 On our way to church last Wednesday night, Sammy and I did a quick photo shoot while Eric and the girls were at the little store.  I can't believe how big he is getting!  He looks even more grown up in the pictures!  Wish he would have flashed me one of his heart-melting smiles but he was too interested in the cars going by and just being able to sit on the log.

 (The village school is in the background.)

 

I think God gave boys a special type of cuteness to make up for how rascally they are.

Princesses Learning Psalm 1

My drawbridge is a little, um, messed up, but they think it's great.  They are so excited to move to the castle and the awaiting princess tea party that they are saying their verse constantly.  For months now I have wanted to put up something for verse memorization, but never got around to it.  Finally, I just did SOMETHING.  Anna was SO excited when she got up from her nap and found this on the wall.  When I explained it to her, she went up and counted to six and said "There.  I said it.  Now we can have a tea party!"  They pretty much have Psalm 1:1 memorized.  I LOVE hearing them constantly quoting God's Word!

 

 

They want to share it with everyone they meet and quoted it for a lady we met on the street heading to church tonight...guess we need to work on some verses in Russian.

Thanks, Jessi, for the great idea!

Even though...

 you wipe your oatmeal all over my piano {Sammy}...

Run into all of the corners in the house {Sammy}...

And run grinning, with Aunti behind you yelling no, to pull every book off the shelf {Sammy},

And not put them back straight {girlies}...

You know how to make messes fun.

I LOVE you!

My Girlies Singing in Russian

This was taken in January, but grandparents are wanting some videos so I thought I'd post it anyways.  In January "This is the day" was their favorite song to sing in Russian.  They forgot the repeats.

MK - It's A Hard Knock Life

We watched a video/slideshow of pictures of my sister and other Crown College students working "to" that song.  Anna and Lydia started going around singing it while they worked.

Here is video number one:

Then, she decided to get a little more, ummm, creative...

Training My Girls ~ Baby feet are for Kissing

Anna

This is what our house sounds like first thing in the morning...

thought I'd give my sister a warning. ;) 

She said she was singing thank you to God. 

I think it had something to do with her heart being dirty and Jesus cleaning it.

In her defense, she can sing quite a few songs fully through. 

She just likes to make up her own songs too...

with her own made up words.

Her attitude seems to have changed a lot since she prayed.  She is no longer concerned about herself needing Jesus, but has started asking me whether or not I have prayed for Jesus to clean my sins or if Lina has.  She also asked Grampy if he knew about Jesus.  She has started asking to pray for Nikita and Alosha to be saved.  I pray that she continues to have a desire to see others come to know the Lord as their Saviour too.



Me Singing in Russian

I thought about not posting this, but here it is anyways

with all of it's musical and probably gramatical errors.

A Missionary's Health

Well, our family has giardia again.  I actually had it around Thanksgiving, but was in denial thinking I was either pregnant or nervous about having everyone over.  I had other symptoms besides the gagging at every smell, sight or sound and Lydia had some symptoms, but still not wanting to admit it, just assumed it was something she ate.  Then the stomach pain started getting worse and I found out that I was definitely not pregnant...that left only one thing (which was pretty obvious the entire time) - giardia.  As soon as I started feeling better from that, the kids and I picked up a flu bug going around.  Even though we were sick, on Tuesday the kids and I decided to take a quick walk around.  Every babooshka on the street was out that day and in a mood to talk.  They asked lots of questions, but didn't give me many opportunities to talk.  So I came back with my mind overflowing with plans for a ladies' neighborhood tea.  As we headed back to our house, we saw Baba Nora outside.  She cannot let us pass without giving the girls something - candy, cookies, fruit.  She stopped us, ran inside and came out carrying two bright, round oranges.  Needless to say, by the time we made it back inside, we were all sneezing and coughing with noses running.  Wednesday, we had gotten worse so Eric made us stay home from church.  By Thursday, I was feeling so bad and the kids were cranky, I thought about begging Eric to stay home and help me that day.  Thankfully, he was able to get home a little early that night, 4 PM.  The girls might have been sick, but since he had had so many late nights that week the girls (and Sammy) were ready for playtime with Papa.  That night everything seemed okay and everyone went to bed fine.  Shortly after I climbed into bed Sammy woke up not feeling well. He was up crying until about one.  Then Anna woke up crying.  We rushed in to check on her and she was burning up.  Eric took her temperature and it was 104!  Thankfully, by the time she went back to sleep a half hour later, her temperature was down to 100.  On Friday Anna was doing much better with no or little fever, I was feeling worse though.  I had chills, fever and severe asthma problems.  Eric lovingly forced me back into bed, canceled all of his plans for the day and took over.  He even washed the dishes!  My temperature continued to rise throughout the day until it reached about 104 in the afternoon.  Soon after that it seemed like everything started to get better.  My temperature continued to drop and my asthma was getting better.  On Saturday, Eric was either in bed or in the bathroom all day sick with the giardia.  Needless to say, it was a rough week...a rough year as we have been hit with one sickness after another.

I say all of this not to be negative but with the desire that it will encourage you to pray more for the health of your missionaries.  It is not uncommon for a missionary to have to leave the field because of health reasons and we have heard of even a few missionaries to Ukraine who have died on the field.  It is not just the sickness itself which is the problem.  Most of your missionaries are living in places where not only is the medical care not as advanced as American, but also some of the customs of the people cause sicknesses.  (Like sticking their hand in the pickle jar and serving you with visibly dirty hands.  You really have to take no thought sometimes when you are eating.)

Even with all of the sicknesses, the girls have still had some pretty sweet moments.  Here's a video I took on Saturday.  The girls were rocking their babies and singing to them.  By the time I pulled out the camera they were almost done, but it is still cute.

After 10 Hours on A Train...

...this is what happens:

Our trip to Kiev went smoothly and Eric should be able to pick up Sammy's passport in about a week.  Praise the Lord!  And even though I sometimes don't understand, it is so nice to get back to my "primarily Russian speaking" life.  It's weird, but I always feel so awkward at the embassy with so many Americans and I catch myself staring at the "English speaking people".  I feel much more comfortable with our little group of believers and with the Ukrainian people we are trying to reach.  The bond through Jesus Christ is much stronger than the bond of a language. 

Here are a few pictures from our trip.

The girls "sitting" Ukrainian style.

They kept their balance very well for being on a rickety old train!

By the fountain in front of the Kharkov train station.

Almost HOME!

Poor Missionary Kids

Eric took this video on the train ride home and it was SO cute that I had to share it with you.

With no baby doll around, Anna was pretty creative. (Let me say before you start feeling bad for the poor missionary kids without baby dolls, they have probably more dolls than they need at home.)

Sorry that it's sideways. Can't figure out how to rotate it.

Jesus Loves Me

Anna singing with Valentina. Thanksgiving Day.

Sorry that it's sideways.

Thanksgiving Tour

Thought I would invite you to our home on Thanksgiving Day and also introduce you to those who celebrated the day with us. Made one mistake in the introductions (called Yuri - Boris) but he tells you his name at the end. Because it was getting too long, I had to stop recording. Unfortunately this made it where you'd miss the best part. Everyone started trying to talk in English. It was such a blessing to be able to have them all over for Thanksgiving.

Hope you enjoy the tour. Sorry I went through a little fast.