Can you believe it?
We celebrated living in Ukraine for 1 year on Sunday, January 27th! What a better way to celebrate than with a Skype/Google chat with our peeps at Changepoint in New York. Thanks so much to everyone who came and chatted with us; thank you for being patient as we lost our Internet connection 2 times (or was it 3?); thank you for still being excited with us as we embark on year two of our adventure.
The title of this post sums of the weather for the past several weeks. Here and there we have had a day or a few hours of sunshine- and that has been glorious. We all started taking extra vitamin D again to give our immune systems a boost.
I'll give you the low-down on what we have been up to:
Mike: Finishing the semester strong at the English school (which ends next week). He has still been very busy with teaching and preparing for his classes: Monday and Thursday evenings he teaches the Advanced class and Friday evenings he has a Beginner's class here at our apartment. On Wednesdays, he is a part of the team that leads the weekly English conversational group at the school. On Tuesday and Saturday- he now has band practice (which he is super excited about)! The band is made up of musicians and singers from all different churches in the city, which is pretty cool and unique for Uzhhorod. They will be playing at their first multi-church worship night in March.
When he is not doing the above, or washing dishes, or playing silly/crazy games with Solomiya, he has teacher meetings at the school or meets/calls a few young guys to encourage and spur them on in some really cool dreams that they have or a bazillion other things.
One thing he really excels in is being a friend to people. Not just any kind of friend, but a really good, loyal, encouraging friend. He is always calling someone (in Ukraine or the USA) to keep in touch with them, hear about what they are up to or see how he can help them.
He is also an amazing father. He is daily teaching Solomiya something new: how to drink from a cup (yeah, he's brave), how to say eyes-nose-mouth in Ukrainian, or how to push her teddy bear in his stroller- up the wall. I know that you are not surprised about that last one...
Annie: Currently having occupational therapy sessions with just one woman two times a week. She had a minor stroke last March; a surgery to relieve pressure/swelling last April (in her head); and then a severe stroke after the surgery. I started working with her in September and she has come a long way! I am so proud of her. She is now living back in her own apartment, but does have family members take shifts so that she has help 24 hours a day.
As for future OT plans: I am, or my friend who will go with me and translate for the first meeting, [is] waiting to hear back from someone about a new patient- not sure the diagnosis yet.
And- I am also hoping to visit the 'abandoned babies ward/room' (at the local hospital) soon with our friend, Clint. I visited one in another city about 2 hours from us, but that was 3 years ago. I really want to make this a part of my regular 'OT' each week. Clint has been going for several months and has a relationship with the staff there (at the hospital), so it will be great to be able to go with him. From what I know, the babies there are in a state of limbo- too young for the orphanage, not a good home life to go to, etc... And they are in this room all day- they get fed, get diapers changed- that is it; unless people like Clint go in for an hour or two to hold them, talk to them, give them some stimulation and something to look at besides the ceiling. I'll keep you updated.
Solomiya: This girl is becoming so tall. She can reach things that were completely out of her reach like 3 weeks ago. She currently has 6 new teeth coming in, so she's been a little touchy lately- but that's understandable.
She can point to different body parts when you ask her (eyes, nose, head, etc...) in English OR in Ukrainian! She's super-baby. Well, super-little girl.
She LOVES dressing up, putting on and wearing hats (all day), taking care of her bear, making tea with her tea set, watching Masha on YouTube...
Favorite episode, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYniUCGPGLs&feature=related
Also, we visit a friend, Andrianna, once a week who is bed-bound due to a neurological disease and Solomiya "helped" me last week as I was massaging this girls back. It was cute, she was rubbing Andrianna's arm and hand. We call it "Solomiya therapy".
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| Crazy outfit for the evening. |
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