June Pictures

Solomiya is getting very good at pointing.

Tato made her a bread mask. It later became toast.

Happy Father's Day to Mike! S sporting a fo-hawk in honor of the day.

The dude who takes care of the grounds at our apartment complex (using the push mower). He does such an excellent job at keeping everything looking good.

He has got a lot of ground to cover with that push mower...

Super hot today. S passed out on the bed for a 2-hour nap.

S waving for the camera and her fan club.

Just finished reading a copy of the local newspaper: Transcarpathia Pravda

And the moral of the story is...

Updates on the current activities of the people living in apartment 22, building 7 on General Svobody street, Uzhhorod, Ukraine 88009:

Mike: This man is getting quite popular and has given the Sunday message at 2 different churches in the past 3 weeks. In addition to mentoring some young guys in the church, helping out at the English school, taking an online TESOL course, being Annie's personal translator and hanging with little S while mama goes out to see patients; Mike will also be taking Ukrainian lessons 5 days a week for the summer with a professor at the local university.

Annie: Continuing to work with her stroke patient 3 mornings a week as well as evaluating other clients here and there (6 month-old baby with flat head; soccer player with knee injury). Yesterday, our friend Marina brought someone to our apartment for Annie to evaluate: a 2 1/2 year-old girl with Down's syndrome. Can you believe the "special-needs school/center" here in Uzhhorod will not evaluate her until she turns 3! What the crap?!!! So, Annie will now begin to see Yulianna 2 days a week to help her "catch-up" developmentally.

Solomiya: 9 months old has proven to be an exciting time of development for this little baby. Not only has Solomiya started to point with her finger, clap her hands, crawl backwards and pick up her finger-puppet monkey when you ask, "Where is your monkey?"; she is also reading chapter books out loud every evening before going to bed. In addition to this, Solomiya has quite a good pincer grasp for one so young and enjoys  her current hobby: al fresco painting on the kitchen walls.

Solomiya crawled backwards and ended up under her pack-n-play.

She was having a good time until...

... she realized she could not back up any further. Tato had to rescue her.

We cut this tomato in half and realized it looks like a heart. Not a real heart with aortas and ventricles sticking out, but a heart-shape heart.

boo-yah

Guess how much all these fresh veggies cost? 13r. That's right, $1.60. boo-yah.

exotic and vibrant

Check out this article about Uzhhorod:

http://ukrainianweek.com/Travel/50981

From Mike's facebook:

"Nice little article, with an overview of our home town of Uzhhorod. (Thanks to Clinton White, who I "stole" this article from ;-)
> My favourite quote: "the city still boasts plenty of uneven pavement and piles of litter to satisfy tourists looking for a grittier experience" LOL...great way to talk up a tourist destination."

Small City Lights - Navigator - The Ukrainian Week

ukrainianweek.com

Exotic and vibrant, Uzhhorod is a striking mix of the multiethnic past and present

Woohoo!

As of May 31, 2012 we are legal, temporary residents of Ukraine for 1 year!

... the documents ...

When we went to the Ukrainian Consulate in Budapest in April, we were given 45 day visas to enable us to return to Ukraine and apply for temporary residence. Once back in Uzhhorod, we worked with a lawyer to complete this process. (There was SO much paperwork required along with official signatures and notarized copies needed, that a lawyer was very necessary. We had no idea what to do by ourselves.)
It took about 3 weeks, but we have the documents in hand! And, we found out that Solomiya is registered on Annie's document- so all 3 of us are now legal.
Thank you to everyone for your prayers!

Next year, we will have to apply again- but our lawyer said it would be much easier and require less documents.
Why not apply for longer residency? Our lawyer said that even President Obama would only receive temporary residence for 1 year. Well, 1 year is good!
If we are in Ukraine for 5 years, God-willing, we will be able to apply for permanent residency.

Also in the news today, Solomiya now has a highchair: -Ukrainian Style-

This chair is cool because it is 2 separate pieces. The top chair comes off and the bottom portion of the highchair turns into a table. And... if that wasn't cool enough, the top of the table hinges up and turns into an easel. Only 700r or about $87.50; bought it at a baby consignment shop. There were no babies up for consignment, just baby accessories. (We saw this same chair at a baby store in town and it was over 3000r! Oi.)

-happy dino- (and on the seat is a pic of a penguin and it says -happy penguin-)

She was so excited to sit in it.