Birthday Pictures

Better late than never...
We invited friends over to our apartment for supper to celebrate Annie's birthday in February.

L-R: Oksana and her daughter Anichka, Solomiya, Victor and his daughter Melissa (his wife Alisa came a bit later), Annie, Victor's mom- Tanya, Sasha- Oksana's husband.

L-R: Annie and Solomiya, Annie's friend, Oksana (Annie does therapy with Oksana's aunt 1-2 days a week- that is how they met); the rest of the people -see above-.

In Ukraine, for your birthday, you typically prepare a big meal with specific foods and invite your friends and family over to enjoy the meal with you.
Also, in the above picture, you can see Zhenya sitting in between his mom, Tanya, and brother, Victor. His wife, Oksana and daughter, Nicole could not come because of a cold.
You can also see part of Jim (he and his wife, Laurie (also NYers) have been living in Ukraine for the same amount of time as us.
You can also see Timea, but not her husband Edic (he was sitting on the counch next to her) and also Volodya and his wife Oksana were sitting next to Edic.

God has given us so many wonderful and special friends here!

16th of March, Night of Worship

The Night of Worship was awesome! The band was made up of singers and musicians from all different churches around Uzhhorod. The lyrics for each song were shown in both Russian and English. I would guess about 100 people were there, if not more.

I know the quality is not the best, but it was super dark inside and Solomiya kept trying to grab my phone as I was taking the pictures and video.

If you look very closely, you can see a tiny Mike in the center of the pic playing the keyboard.

Our friend, Rudolf, took this pic of S and I. We had to cut out early about half-way through due to Solomiya's state of extreme tiredness. When she is that tired, her ability to make good decisions drastically declines.

This is a short video of one song- just to give you an idea of what it sounded like. Once again, Solomiya kept trying to grab my phone as I filmed so it's a tad shaky.

Beautiful Spring Mini-Blizzard

Woke up to snow this morning! I cannot believe that just a few days ago we had sunny, Spring weather.
Had a slippery, cold and windy "commute" to the Children's Hospital.
Helped Oksanichka with her breakfast and met a new little baby! So tiny- maybe like 6 pounds or something.
After the hospital, I walked to one of my newer patient's home for a therapy session.
I photographed my journey- see below.

Beautiful snowy day. I enjoyed being outside.

New Baby at the Children's Hospital

While I was working with the babies this morning at the hospital, a new little girl came in. She was SO tiny! She also looked undernourished, underdeveloped and was very dirty. I'm guessing she is about 1 month old, maybe 2?
It's pretty difficult for such a little one to get that dirty and that thin, unless it is just neglect on the caregivers part. Granted, I do not know the whole story or the family's situation, but sometimes it's hard to not get pissed off at whoever was taking care of these little ones.
I am glad she is now at the hospital where she will be fed, bathed and get some regular hugs.
And, now that I am thinking more about it, maybe that is why her parents brought here there, because they knew they could not take care of her. Or maybe the court ordered it. Maybe her parents are devastated that she is gone.
I should not be so quick to judge them, but 'more quick' to offer grace and mercy. It's a good thing that I don't rule the world.

The first two pictures are of the new little girl.
The second two pics are of my little buddy doing his exercises and rockin' some awesome hot pink tights (they had pictures near the foot area of glasses of lemonade with straws- ha ha).

Oksanichka

This morning, I left early so that I could go to Силпо and buy some diapers to take with me to the Children's Hospital. (If anyone is interested in helping out with providing diapers- let us know! They REALLY need them!!!)
Once there, I checked with the nurses to see if I could work with the babies (the 'caution sign' was still hanging up on the entrance door). I got the head nurse's approval and headed down the corridor.
I worked with the two smallest babies first 4-5 months old, I think). We did some range of motion exercises, tracking objects with their eyes, tummy time and lots of hugs. I could see they were both getting over some pretty bad colds.
These two fell asleep and I spent the remaining hour hanging out with Oksanichka. She is one of the older babies (9-11 months-ish). She seems to be developing at the appropriate rate. She just has funky posture when she is sitting unsupported.
We did some exercises, some tummy time and playing with some scrapes of cloth and my phone (where the little toys went- I do not know...).
I had downloaded this free App on my phone for Solomiya; it is a picture of a zoo filled with animals and when you touch them they make noises. Oksana loved it!

After the hospital, I walked along the river on my way to see Ludvic (CVA patient).
Beautiful day!

The Musician

I took some secret footage of Mike practicing this evening.

This is a keyboard he borrowed from one of the local churches. He's working on preparing his own keyboard to handle the voltage change and general electrical-current-issues of Ukraine.

You may remember from some previous posts that Mike has band practice a few evenings a week. He was asked to join a band that is made up of musicians and singers from all of the different churches here in the city. They will be performing for the first time March 16th.

Вечер Поклонения-16марта Worship Night 16 march

Saturday, March 16, 2013

6:00pm

Ужгород.

ул.Бородина 14, акт. зал, 2-й этаж

Ужгород.

ул.Бородина 14, акт. зал, 2-й этаж

The First Day of Spring- March 1st

Another perk of living in Transcarpathia: Spring comes early! March 1st is (or was) officially the first day of Spring. We have had a break in the cold weather and clouds: sunshine and temps in the late 40s and 50s. The trees are starting to grow buds and bulbs in the ground are sending out shoots. The ladies by the pedestrian bridge are beginning to sell flowers from their gardens (maybe?)- tiny, dark purple crocuses.

This past week, I went to the Children's Hospital, but was turned away by the nurses both days due to an illness going around- no visitors.
Here are some pics I took last week (and videos are in the previous post):

I really hope this illness clears up and goes away by Tuesday- if not sooner!

In other news:

Solomiya is becoming a good climber. I caught her hanging out on top of this side-table-thingy. Which I am surprised- because she still cannot climb onto this bed by herself... how did she get up there?

Celebrated Anichka's (left) 1st birthday with our wonderful friends!

The birthday girl is taking a break from her party and hanging out under her kitchen table.

Solomiya washed the dishes again tonight. She was feeling a bit shy though and did not want me to take her picture.

Super Short Videos from the Children's Hospital