Words

Danya's definition of медлено: Exactly on the lines, at soccer, when you run.
It really means ‘slowly’ but that’s a good working definition!


Tima’s world of words:
I won two surprises!
There is a volcano in the water when the sink drains.
In basketball, they run on the courtyard.
The goalie keeper plays soccerball.
At Halloween, I like to eat acorns.
(Can you figure out what he means? It's candy corn.)


Ella:
Ma Boo (my boots)
Ma Da Da (my Danya)
Dee-Da (Tima!)
Da-Dee (Daddy)
Eh-la (Ella. Now said constantly while pointing to herself or her things. She only uses ‘ma’ about a few specific things, see above.)
Lo-lee-lo-la (just a song)

Friends on Three Continents

Jon and Tanya Coody came to visit! Due to our family's various sicknesses, we only saw each other once in the 8 days they were in Kyiv. But we loved being with them, and their baby girl Anna. (For those who don't know, we were all teammates in Irkutsk and last saw each other in Colorado. They are studying at seminary in St. Louis. We are hopeful to see them again next summer!

Fall Festival

Last weekend, we enjoyed the local Christian private school's 'Fall Festival'. Yes, it does resemble a certain October holiday. The kids all had lot of fun.

Although we don't attend the school (KCA) many of our friends do. It was basically a big party run by the middle- and high-school students for the elementary kids.

The boys especially enjoyed their friend Masha Birdsall, though the picture didn't turn out so well! Danya won three prizes, and we think that (in addition to his natural talent, of course) his friendship with all the teenagers may have contributed to the abundance!

Tima's line

"I'm bored, so can you talk to my mom now?"

Tima said this to his friend, Evan, who he called and after he had talked to him for 15 minutes.

Then he told me, "That was fun. I got sweaty, sweaty, sweaty."

Little details

With Dominic, Fabienne and Eric Chaplits, in the 'little' plastic house our neighbors loaned us.

Ella is adding a few new ‘words’ each week. None are very clear, and very vowel-based. Two favorites are ‘cold’ which sounds more like ‘ooh’ but is accompanied by her holding up her (cold) hand for me to touch. And she makes the same ‘aah’ sound for both off and on. Not very useful! I think she has her first peer-friend—our neighbor Dima. He just turned one, and when Ella sees his door, she cries out, “Dee-dah” over and over again. Tonight, the boys went upstairs to play at a neighbor’s. And I was talking on the phone. Ella wandered away, and in a few minutes I realized that it was very quiet. So I went to find her. Not in the bathroom, kids’ room, or our room. Hmm. Then I noticed our door was not latched shut. Thankfully, the door to the stairs was locked! But where was she? I went a little farther, and saw that Dima’s door was open. Sure enough, she was in there, playing with him and his mom. I’m still not sure if she knocked, called out, or maybe their door was open.

Another detail--Ella accidently drank cow's milk early this week and had no adverse reaction. So I let her have a milk-based blini yesterday. Perhaps it's something else, but this evening, she was very fussy. We did ask our supporters to pray against a reaction the first time, so maybe God just prevented her from feeling it. But we'll keep her off dairy for awhile yet!

Tima had a hard week. I joined Eric for three nights of a week-long conference in Odesa. Our babysitter, Tyotya Klava, came to stay with the kids. And as we had feared, Tima didn’t do very well with her. The second night, he cried every hour, until she sat with him and calmed him to sleep. When I heard this, I thought about taking a bus home early, so I would be home for the third night. But on the advice of some experienced parents who were with us at the conference, I decided to wait. And Eric and I had a stern conversation with him about expectations. Sure enough, he did much better the third night. I’ve been concerned about him this whole year, as he seems so emotionally needy. But I think part of it is that he’s learned to get the attention he wants with his little break-downs. It’s so hard to tell their real and felt needs apart! I am so grateful for the community of older moms I am part of who can give me advice (and perspective)!

Danya has been dealing with some hard situations with a friend—one of his best friends here. But he makes fun of Danya during their soccer practice together. It’s been hard to watch Danya have to make his way in the harsher aspects of little-boy culture, and unexpectedly from a friend who speaks English. The boy’s parents have noticed the situation, and I’m grateful that they care about it. And we are grateful for a fairly safe relationship for Danya to learn to take the initiative in talking about his conflicts and feelings, and not have us rescue him. It’s also brought up issues of how not to gossip and blame, but address the situation directly. Challenging for all of us!

And me, I’m doing well. I really enjoyed the conference, which was for the leadership teams from four countries. Many of them I already consider friends, though I hadn’t met them a year ago! (And honestly, I don’t think I even knew that Moldova was a country, let alone where it was or how wonderful the people were!) But of course the best part was to be with our teammates from Russia. I was so grateful that the conference was in Ukraine, as I haven’t been able to attend this team’s meetings, though I was theoretically part of the team.

Eric is still at the conference for another day—he’ll return early Sunday morning. I’m suffering a sore throat—which I blame entirely on staying up too late at the conference! But I’m hoping I’ll not get sick, and have the energy to get the kids to church by myself Sunday. After church, we’re looking forward to seeing Jon, Tanya and Anna Coody, former teammates from Irkutsk who are going to be in Kyiv for a few weeks!

For those of you interested in Ukraine’s spiritual development, I just read a fascinating article. And for Russia’s sake, may page two be true!
http://www.christianitytoday.com/lyris/ctdirect/archives/friday.html

Not to us be the glory!

In response to my parents compliments:

I must say that we can't take credit for our 'ease of living' here. In the past year, I feel I've learned a lot about how to rest in God's strength and joy. I definitely don't have enough of either by myself! Little things that He teaches us in the Bible--being grateful, focusing on the eternal by snacking on the Bible throughout the day--have really helped me to have a good attitude even when I don't feel like it!

My mom's impressions after her visit

Danya

[Danya is on the far left.]

Wow, I didn't expect to see many changes, but there were, although subtle in many ways. He seems so grown up and more responsible, helping all of us (even Tima and Ella) frequently by playing, entertaining, or explaining things to them. It was touching to watch him peeling carrots and other veggies, looking just like his dad (what a great role model!).

I really enjoyed playing soccer with him. (He didn't really understand why I sometimes wouldn't play - I tried to explain that it is very strange to his Ukrainian neighbors to see his grandmother playing soccer... actually, I don't really understand either, so I'm glad I did play! Never in my fondest dreams did I imagine playing soccer with my grandkids when I became a grandma!) Of course right now I'm only a teeny bit better than he is, and only because I'm older and bigger!

It was agonizing for me to watch Danya's soccer practice, in part because he was the youngest and the smallest boy out there, and partly because he seemed to be clueless when I know he isn't. Perhaps it was the language or just being new, but he's a lot better soccer player than what he showed. I told Dad that watching Danya play goalie was almost as hard as watching you dive, Kara. Again, when he played with Tima and Dad and me, he was very aggressive stopping the ball, but at practice he seemed detached and not aggressive at all. I just wanted him to do well!

One of my most vivid memories is of the walks we took (Dad, Danya, and
me) when we were staying at Olga's cabin in the woods. The first day we walked to the little lake and I sat basking in the sun while Dad and Danya skipped rocks. The only problem was, we couldn't find any rocks, let alone flat ones good for skipping. So they tried all sorts of things without much success.

Our second walk too us past the lake and around in a big circle, looking for the "back way" into Olga's property, which we apparently missed. When we walked past a sign (in Cyrillic) Danya said he hoped it didn't warn of something dangerous. He also figured out that, while we wouldn't be able to explain to anyone that we couldn't read the sign, he would be able to say in Russian "I'm sorry I don't understand." At one point Olga's dog Rrrrrrrada got very aggressive with a man we met on a bicycle, with Rada acting like she was protecting us. Of course we couldn't communicate with the man (or the dog), and Danya tried to tell Rada in Russian to "Come", which didn't work. Danya also worried about Rada falling into the lake (luckily she didn't), and I'm not sure he believed us when we said dogs could swim. But the surprising thing to me was that Danya was so concerned that we were lost, although I kept reassuring him that his Grandpa has an excellent sense of direction and wasn't lost. When we came out on the road to Olga's cabin, Danya gave Rada credit for finding the way home!

Things I loved: His unembarrassed affection for us (how long will that last?), his sense of humor, his quick wit and intelligence (even when he was "tripping us up" trying to work our way out of things we said without thinking). I learned to never say "always" or "never"
around him! I also love and admire his desire to understand how or why things work the way they do.


Tima:

I love Tima's sense of humor and his mischievous streak (which I know would drive me crazy as a parent) and his innocence, sometimes real and sometimes not. I love his bravado and daring, and I feel bad for him that he'll (in his mind) always be second to his older brother.

Tima has perhaps changed the most of the three, in subtle and not-so- subtle ways. His vocabulary is much improved (not that he was behind before you left), and his grammar remains interesting. But he definitely knows how to get his ideas across! His maturity shows in many ways, including his "reading" stories to Ella, and also being able to really pick out words from a book. He has learned how to compromise (I guess that comes with being the second-born), but it surprised me how often he is able to manipulate Danya into doing what he (Tima) wants. Sometimes I don't even think Danya realizes what Tima is doing.

He has changed physically, looking much taller and thinner. In fact at the airport when you and Tima met us, I did a double-take to be sure it was Tima and not Danya. It was very special to me that Tima would come with you to the airport, and that he was so patient with all the waiting, especially when we were getting things settled at the church.

Tima's love for dogs and cats is very touching. Sometimes I worried that he was getting too close to strange dogs, especially out on the playground, but it always seemed to work out okay. He is a very tender-hearted boy, and he was so affectionate with the dogs at Olga's. I have a clear picture in my mind of him petting Rrrrrada and the other dog ("Wide Chest").

He's so typically all boy, and so typically 4! It seemed he was constantly in hot water (completely justified) for not listening and/ or not obeying when he really didn't mean to misbehave. He just gets so wrapped up in whatever he's doing that he just completely forgets to do what he's supposed to be doing (such as sitting down on the bus or in the paddle boat).

It was fun to watch Tima in his Superman cape, especially the day he wore it to the market, and flying around the apartment. It was always important to him to make sure he had the cape with the "T" so he knew it was his cape. And he's such a role model for Ella, whether he means to be or not. She mimics his every move! I also enjoyed watching his gymnastics, although he seems awfully reckless and seems to land so hard. Doesn't he ever feel pain? He tried to get me to do cartwheels in the apartment (I had already declined to do them outside), and I did a few wimpy ones, mostly afraid I'd get hurt on the hard wood floors. Guess I'll have to practice up for next summer!

One other memory of Tima was when he put the rubber bands on the knobs of the kitchen drawers. I just assumed he had done it before, so I was surprised to learn it was the first time and he had done it on his own. It was really special that he put all the rubber bands away without even being asked!

Ella:

Where shall I start? At first she was so woeful because she was sick and obviously didn't want strangers stealing away some of her mom's attention! And she was so clingy to you, Kara! But then gradually she began to warm up to us, until at the end we were just like family!

My most special memories include her "Please" in sign language, looking kind of like she was making a motion to slit her throat (that sounds much more brutal than it was), and doing it so quickly that I usually missed it. That's how she always answered "Yes." And of
course her "No", yelling "Nah, nah, nah, nah... And also her special
laugh which is so rewarding. I can hear it now, as she put her hands to the side of her face to say "Oh, my goodness", just like Adi and Mae. And her blowing kisses! Much better than via the web cam!

And how could I forget those temper tantrums (I remember her having them at 8 or 9 months old)??? They are just like her Mama used to do, and with the same consequence, being carried into her room to kick and scream in solitary! That certainly brought back memories to me, Kara!

One of my favorite things with Ella was the day we played with the kids on a playground near the market while you shopped, Kara. There was a piece of playground equipment that was meant to go around like a merry-go-round, except it was extremely hard to push. The boys tried and tried to push it, straining and grunting with the effort. And the next thing we knew, Ella was pushing hard, using exactly the same form as the boys, and she was grunting in exactly the same way. It was hilarious to watch her. And I'll cherish the day she followed Tima wearing her Superman cape, waving her arms and saying, "Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Another picture I have in mind was the day we went to the park and Ella was playing with a push toy that belonged to another little girl (whose Mom said Ella could play with it). A little boy came along and he really wanted the push toy, but Ella was quite adept at keeping the toy away from him. She could twist and turn and maneuver to keep herself between the boy and the toy. Obviously the training with her two big brothers has paid off!

As close as Ella was to talking, I'm sure she'll be saying lots by the time we see her again. Not only is she mimicking words and syllables,but she just rattles off whole sentences of gibberish which will soon turn to real sentences! And if she's like Tima, she'll really take off with her talking when she's in Colorado next summer.

Life in General:

I'm amazed (although I should be used to it by now) at how you and Eric have adapted and made such a wonderful life for yourselves and the kids in a new culture. Just moving would be overwhelming for most families with kids the ages of yours, and you have not only moved half- way around the world, but are adapting to a new city, culture, friends, job, home-schooling, and just about everything else. Your kids are happy and well adjusted, and seem to be adapting quite easily to a new environment. I wish I had just a fraction of your ability to turn any situation or set of circumstances into something good.

My dad's impressions after his visit

Danya

I was impressed with how he is growing up and maturing--in most ways ;^). Several times he did all the toy pickup when Tima didn't pitch in. At least once he did it without being asked. I'm glad he is going to football (soccer) practice. If he works at it he will gain coordination and more understanding what competition is all about. Right now he must feel a bit overwhelmed with it all but seems to enjoy it and can only get better. I really enjoyed playing with him on the football "pitch" at the apartment although he made me strain two muscles (at different times) in my right leg. The spots are still a bit sore but when I feel them it reminds me of a special time.

Sometimes he seems so grown up and I have to remember that he is still a six-year-old and should (and does) act like one.

He appears to be learning a lot in "school" and, most importantly, loves learning without Kara feeling she has to make everything fun in his lessons. If he can carry that attitude into his later years, like his parents did, he will be successful in school.

Tima

I empathize with Tima, being the middle child, although I don't remember much about that at his age. I guess the problem of the middle child is evident right now for me because in thinking back on the two weeks we were there, it's hard to focus on Tima as an individual since most of the time he was with Danya and trying to "be Danya". I have to remember not to expect him to act as old as his older brother even though he is almost as big. He seems almost out of control sometimes with so much energy and not too much constraint but I have a feeling that may be similar to the way I was as a child.

He has a winning way about him and can be so cute. Sometimes I worry about that because he knows he's cute and he may try to get through life being that way instead of growing in all the ways he should.

Tima appears to be very coordinated and almost muscular for his age.
My guess is he will be quite athletic--more in the sense of a linebacker as opposed to a distance runner. Perhaps he'll become a wrestler!!!

Ella

I definitely saw more change in Ella than the boys because when she left Colorado she wasn't walking and now she can conquer almost any terrain. I was disappointed she didn't "take to me" when we first
got to Kiev because I had felt a special bond with her in Colorado.
She was feeling poorly and didn't really want anyone except her Mama but eventually, when we pushed the issue a bit by getting her with us alone, she responded and we had a lot of fun times together. My most precious memory is the time I spent with her outside the church while everyone was inside. I thank Kara for suggesting that. The weather was perfect and most of the time Ella was content for me to just carry her around and look at the birds, animals, flowers and people. Of course, she would get heavy so I would put her down to play but before long she wanted the security of the most familiar face around. [from Kara: Here is a photo my dad took of her that morning.]

She has a fiery personality with more of a temper than the other kids but she can also melt my heart in an instant with her smile and laugh.

All in all, I loved my time in Kiev and am impressed with how well Kara and Eric can carry on with their lives dealing with three young children in a strange place with strange customs. They have a great support system in the other missionary families, but it's amazing how they have adapted to the local scene and have developed relationships right in their apartment complex and nearby surroundings. At this time when everyone in the world supposedly hates Americans, K&E are great ambassadors for our country.

Sick Day

On Saturday night, the adventure began when I got sick with a stomach virus. By the time I was well on Monday evening, Danya and Eric started throwing up. So yesterday morning, Danya was couch-bound. But it looked like fun to Tima and Ella, who also wanted popsicles on the couch. Tima kept getting up and racing to the living room, "Look how fast I can run, Mom!" while also maintaining, "I feel like I'm going to throw up."

Thankfully, Tima and Ella are both still well. So far! And Eric and Danya are feeling much better.