Christmas is coming . . .

Christmas is celebrated on January 6th here, Orthodox style, so everything is hustling and bustling and decorated beautifully right now.  We feel so blessed to get Christmas twice this season! 

Independence Square at Christmastime

We found a place to buy some necessities today!

And we went grocery shopping again!

We are not sure if stores are open on New Year's Eve and Day, so we wanted to stock up, just in case.  Then we had almost a mile walk back to our apartment (mostly uphill) with all of this, plus a big jug of water, a bottle of Coke, and a bunch of other food that I think I forgot to put in this picture.  I'm loving all the walking we are doing here.  It's a great workout!   We live almost ten miles out of town, so this is a novelty for us.  One thing about living out in the country is that you don't get to walk everywhere.  It is pretty nice to be able to just walk wherever we want to go!

We are working on our Russian as much as we can, trying to be brave and talk to people in shops.  We are really good at saying, "I don't understand."  I got yelled at by a lady today, and I have no idea why.  I was just walking along.  She seemed upset by my shoes???  Who knows.  I told her, "Sorry, I don't understand," and kept walking.  Hmmm.  Wonder what that was all about.  

Derek does not like to be doing nothing.  Give the man a fence to repair, or a chicken coop to muck out, or a leaky faucet to fix, or a shelf to build, or some kids to play with, and he will be happy as a clam.  Tell him to sit in an apartment in the middle of the big city and wait patiently for a week, and he gets a little stir-crazy!  We are going for lots of walks, and spending a lot of time in the Word and in prayer.  I think he is itching to fix that mess of electrical wires outside our apartment door (he is an electrician), but he is restraining himself!  

We finally got to Skype with our kids last night (well, morning for them!)  I tried not to cry, but I was just so so SOOOO happy to see them again!  Gracie made funny faces at herself, like it was a mirror.  It was hilarious!  She seemed a little shy to actually talk to the strange mommy and daddy in the computer, though!  She nodded when we asked her questions, and looked so sweet and confused, and I just wanted to jump out of the screen and kiss her little face so badly!  


And then we got a turn talking to my Josiah, whom I could tell was not really sure about this procedure either.  He was just really holding back, sort of talking to me like he would a stranger, and I just so wanted to hug him.  It was really hard not to just burst into tears to see him and not be able to hug him.  Oh, my little lovebug!  It really is mommy, here in the screen!  He looked like he might cry, too.  But he looked good, and I know he is in good hands.  It just hurts so much to not be with him.  He told us he hasn't been flying his new remote control helicopter because he wants to wait until Daddy gets home to do it with him.  


Now my bubbly little Isaac seemed delighted to Skype with us.  He is nine and he understands everything that is going on a lot better.  He filled us in a bit on how life is going over there, and he was just all smiles.  Oh, how I love my boy's huge thousand-watt smile.  I could have just talked to them all day.  


I gave them a Skype tour of our apartment, which probably gave them motion sickness, so they could see where mommy and daddy are staying.  I got an update from my dear parents about the news back home.  I feel better seeing that everything is still ticking merrily along there.  It was just so hard.  People keep telling me I should be enjoying the break from the kids, and thinking of this as a honeymoon.  And that is a nice thought, but I just really really want to be with my little lovies right now, you know?