God save the Queen

Little S is becoming quite adventurous!

Opening a birthday card from Chrissy masi, Prayer masa and Sophia! She especially loved the artwork from her cousin, Sophia.

From Mike's facebook: "Latest additions to our telecommunications equipment. Used iphone 3 GS fully jailbroken and working? check! Reconditioned Soviet-era teal rotary dial phone hooked up and working? check! Those who know me will be able to guess which one I'm more excited about ;-)".

We had bought the used iphone months ago in the US, but never used it. Mike finally got it up and running and uses it as his daily phone. What's cool, is that it does not cost any more (for a monthly plan) than our regular cell phones: $5 every 30 days or so- can't beat that! And there are a few cafes in town that have free WiFi- so that's a bonus!

We have a land line for our apartment but never had a phone for it. Every month we would receive a bill for it in our mailbox (about $3) and have to pay for it at the post office. There is no option to NOT have the land line- so we decided to make use of it since we have to pay for it anyway. Mike found this awesome phone at the bazaar for 60r ($8)- it works beautifully.

Sojourn to the Lake

In between a break from English summer camps and classes, patients going on vacation or into the hospital and our language tutor not being available last week- we accepted an invite from our good friends (Volodya & Oksana and their 2 boys Volodya & Daniel) to have a rest at a nearby lake for 3 days.
It was so nice to just relax and not have to be anywhere at a certain time.
We had a lovely section of beach all to ourselves, an awesome outhouse and our friends did the majority of the cooking over a fire.

Definitely came back rested and ready for action!

Solomiya enjoying some waves (do not fear mom and dad- this is as far as she was allowed to go).

enjoying some rays and holding a rock.

Attempt at a family pic and showing off our awesome tan lines.

View from our private, exclusive beach. It was great to have a place to park our yacht.

Daniel and Solomiya! (2nd son of Volodya and Oksana). It was his 10th birthday!

morning sunshine.

every good and perfect gift is from above



James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

"...with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning"- man, thank God for that. At least one thing in our lives can be stable...

Current Events in Pictures

Solomiya has learned how to crawl into our closet (or wardrobe-thingy).

She is enjoying her new-found freedom of being able to travel from room-to-room independently.

Learned how to make a Transcarpathian dish: Lechos. So good and tasty (onions, tomatoes, banana peppers, chili peppers served over buttered bread and cheese); and a great accompaniment to any meal: Kvas!

no caption needed.

Getting ready to have a Skype call with Changepoint Church in NY.

Soap gotee. She did it herself.

Solomiya working on some standing tricks and other fancy-pants moves.

Sporting 'crazy hair'; an 'after-bath' special.

Solomiya got a letter in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa!

*birthday card*

Kid's English Camp

Mike is coo-coo for cocoa puffs

Mike's Camping Trip

Photos from the trip. Mike will add captions soon.

July Update

Mike

• Teaching/co-leading at the 'Kid's Summer English Camp' at the Life English office.This is the 3rd, week-long camp at the school this summer.
• Went on a 3-day camping trip to the mountains with youth from the church and the English school.
• Spoke at the Friday evening Shabat service on the 13th and the 20th. Our friend, Nadia, leads a ministry to assist the elderly, Jewish folks in our area (many of them survived the Holocaust).
• Co-leads the weekly 'Conversational English Class'. This group now meets at our apartment once a month.
• Continues to meet with/mentor several young guys from church. 
• Recently began joining his friend for an early morning exercise and prayer time on Fridays.
• Giving Solomiya rides in her bath tub.

Annie

• Continuing therapy 2 days a week with Yulianna (2 1/2 year-old girl with Down's syndrome) and seeing progress!
• Evaluated young guy with an old TBI (traumatic brain injury) last week. Planning on a more thorough eval tomorrow and looking at muscle strength, sensation, vision and cognitive issues.
• In the works: meeting the directors of a local 'special needs' school.
• Making yummy 'American' cookies for the  'Conversational English Class' when they meet at our apartment (made peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies- they were a hit!).
• Giving Solomiya baths in her bath tub.

Solomiya

• Crawling around really fast and following us around the apartment.
• Working on 3 more teeth coming through (with 3 already visible).
• Screaming as 3 more teeth come in.
• Strolling around town.
• Being a very adaptable baby with no set routine.
• Eating buckwheat.

We had a huge thunderstorm a couple of weeks ago. The wind was so strong, we felt like we were in the midst of a tornado. If you look close- you can see this apartments windows were damaged. The left window has a broken pane of glass and the right window was bent inward. Amazingly, Mike's socks were out on the clothesline and they all survived.

Traditional Ukrainian Folk Band. We were able to see them perform at this outdoor museum. The guy playing the drum is our friend. He also works with the Jewish ministry and attends the Shabat services weekly.

Also watching them perform was a tour bus full of Americans. It was strange to hear people speaking English. Or maybe it was strange that we could understand the conversations of the people around us.

We had our language tutor, Marina, over for brunch. She brought Solomiya some bright, yellow socks!

Solomiya gets very daring sometimes and tries to jump off people's laps.

Tub rides with Tato.

good times.

strollin'.

the woods

In between morning language lessons, Mike preparing for and leading the evening conversational English class, we escaped Uzhhorod for a few hours!
Our friend, Valya, invited us to go to the woods. It was amazing. It was 20 degrees cooler than the city. Seriously. Not to mention beautiful!
You know how in 'Lord of the Rings' (the best novel ever written by man), the elves are always like- "the sea... the sea... (sigh), it calls me"; well that is how the Ukrainians are about the woods- "the woods... the woods... (sigh), i must go to the woods". Well, now I know why.
So when it is 93.7 degrees Fahrenheit in our apartment on a blazing Thursday afternoon, I will dream about going to the woods.

The water was SO cold. I dipped Solomiya's feet in it and she screamed. (what?... she was hot!)

Our friends, Valya and Matchik (he is from Poland).

Solomiya strolling.

Yes, the 3rd picture of everyones back- except Solomiya!