Boys Will Be Boys!

I think I temporarily lost my sanity on Wednesday when I called a friend of mine and said, how about I take your boys (ages 10 & 8) with Yasha to go bowling this afternoon! It actually turned out to be really fun -- first time bowling for Yasha. It was a typical first bowling experience with lots of open frames...but he had fun anyway. I managed to get a video of one of the two spares that he made.


After two games of bowling, they quickly noticed that the bowling alley had laser tag too. "Oh Mama can we please play tag, please, please, please!!!" Ok, I am a softy, especially for something that I think looks like fun too! And they actually had a blast. Here are the 3 musketeers in full gear. I wouldn't want to meet Yasha or Justin in a dark alley (but Josh looks as friendly as ever)!

Today was more fishing, fishing, fishing with some friends. Here is our picnic -- looks deceivingly relaxing doesn't it?

My friend's son caught 2 fish and Yasha caught one HUGE bullfrog! I am not sure what else can fit in my garage. All I can say is I am glad we have a 3-car garage and only 2 cars, because that 3rd stall is FILLED with boy stuff including 2 frogs (original tadpoles from several weeks ago), 2 beetles, various grashoppers, moths -- and, for a very short period, one huge bullfrog. Unfortunately, Yasha put him in a really large plastic tub, but the big guy must have jumped out and is now MIA. I REALLY hope there is not a bullfrog somewhere near or in my car. Can anyone with boys relate?? :o)

God Cares About Our Everyday Decisions

Last week was full of many activities, mostly just hanging around the neighborhood catching frogs, grasshoppers, moths and, of course, lots of swimming! On Wednesday we went to a gym with lots of inflatables and play structures with some friends Yasha’s age. We also visited a farm/petting zoo and Yasha had a blast feeding the goats, ducks and going fishing (he caught 12 fish). Here are some photos from the petting zoo.

As a side note, just so you can get the full effect, while we were at the petting zoo, I needed to get on a conference call. So about 5 min before my call, I get the boys all set up with fishing poles, bait, get them on the dock, bait their hooks and sit them down for some relaxing fishing...well, not 1 minute into my call, Yasha catches a huge fish and he is scared to unhook it. So while I am on my call, I have to unhook the fish and re-bait the hook. Then Alek is done with fishing (5 minutes later) and wanders off to the area where you can drive toy tractors. Fortunately, I can keep my eye on both of them. I teach Yasha how to take the fish off the hook so I don't have to do that anymore...meanwhile, many mothers are giving me dirty looks because I am on my cell phone and not helping my boys...ugh!!! Grace, grace, grace I need it BUT MOSTLY, these incidents make me realize how much more I need to give it, give it, give it!!!

On Friday evening, we volunteered at Freedom Fire, a ministry to feed (physically & spiritually) inner-city kids. When I explained to Yasha that we were going to help some poor children by playing with them and then feeding them dinner, he was puzzled. Then when I told him the purpose was to show Jesus' love to these children in a very practical way, he really got puzzled...However, he really got into it. He was a little hesitant at first, but then started up a game of soccer with the boys and it was awesome to watch him interact with the children. Then we served the children and he was so excited to hand each of the children their plate of food with a BIG smile on his face. Very cool.

Not every day is rosy, however. Each day is LONG, but the weeks go by so fast. We continue to have behavioral challenges each day, but this week I saw God use these challenges to help train Yasha in learning right from wrong choices.

As one example, at the inflatable gym, Yasha was racing another boy and when the other boy started to win, Yasha then sabotaged him and tried to hold him back and pull down his pants…yikes! Anyway, we immediately left the gym and it was a time when I could explain about playing and winning fairly. I also used the opportunity to talk about how God wants us to treat others with kindness and love, and fairly. Yasha looked very puzzled by my including God in our discussion almost as if he had never considered that our everyday choices and behavior matter to God. I think that was a breakthrough moment this week. Praise God!

A Reflection on Simplicity -- Laundry

Some of you know that I have been reflecting a lot on ways to simplify my life. Yasha's visit this summer has helped in one way that I thought I would share. Before Yasha came, I did some major clearing out of our closets. I really purged in Alek's room and he now has the same number of summer clothes Yasha has which is about 5 pairs of shorts, 8 T-shirts and 2 church/dress outfits.

Therefore, this is a recommendation for all of you task-oriented, "beaver" or "disC" types, I just want to tell you how freeing it is to throw all of Alek and Yasha's clothes into the washer once per week and then their whole closet is clean. It is one time that I finally feel that something on my to do list is complete!!! :o) Of course my theory has a tiny flaw when they go fishing, swimming, bike riding and digging in the mud all in one day!!!

I remember this same feeling during our 3rd visit to Russia. I only had 5 outfits for the 9 weeks we were there and it was so freeing -- never worrying about what to wear and only having to do two small loads of laundry weekly. I now need to tackle my own closet!!!

Training Wheels are GONE!!!

When deciding to host Yasha this summer through New Horizons for Children (http://www.newhorizonsforchildren.org/) we reviewed all of the children who had been interviewed and approved to come this summer. Each of them had a little paragraph of things they were hoping to do when coming to America for the first time. Yasha's blurb said that he hoped to ride a bicycle this summer. When I read that I thought, well now, that is not too much to ask for a 10-yr old boy.

My friend's sweet son loaned us his bicycle for Yasha's visit. The first day Yasha was here, we decided to all go for a bike ride as a family along with a couple of the neighbor kids. We showed Yasha the bike, but we were puzzled when he chose to ride the scooter instead. Unfortunately, in my ignorance I didn't consider the fact that he had NEVER ridden a bike before. It did occur to me after he wiped out on the scooter several times during a 15 minute ride.

SO, when he saw Alek's training wheels, we pointed to them and motioned that we would put them on his bike and he got a big smile on his face.
Well after riding with the training wheels about 5 days, he can ride.
Here is a video of the inaugural "flight." I was SO PROUD!!!

Lazy Summer Days

What a relaxing vacation we had at the Lake. We rented a small home at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri...this was my old stompin' ground when I was a young, foolish high schooler! It actually hasn't changed that much since I hung out there...same old LaMans go-kart place, same hokey Ozark Opryland giftshop, same miniture golf places...it's kind of nice when things don't change that much. Makes me feel like I am not getting too much older!!

Anyway, we spent a couple of days on the boat pulling Yasha behind in an inner tube...then I decided to try it too -- what fun! We got to witness the stark contrast between the boys. One was the biggest risk-taker and wanted to be on the tube non-stop. One was scared of the waves on the boat and wanted to go back to the dock after only a 5 minute ride! I'll let you guess which is which!

On Monday evening, Yasha came down with a high fever and Scott and I stayed up most of the night with him putting a cold compress on his head and giving him Tylenol. He seemed to like it when I was rubbing his head and stroking his arm. We prayed over him and the next morning, no more fever! It was a great testimony that God answers prayers and we got to explain that to him. Cool! On Tuesday night after only a few minutes in bed, he came down again complaining his head hurt. I took his temperature, but he did not have a fever. I could almost read his mind that he so enjoyed us comforting him the night before, he almost wished he was sick again...I am not sure if anyone has ever shown him that type of love and concern, so it was kind of neat to be privileged to provide it for him -- such a simple act that I hope spoke directly into his heart about the kind of love God has for him.

On Wednesday night, Yasha got all excited to read Scott and me some prayers from his Russian prayer book. We were blessed by his opening up some more of his world to us. We are so thankful that our prayers have been answered about Yasha being open to God's message of hope for him. Awesome!

Happy 4th!

We've had a lot of fun the last few days. Last night we went to the Royals baseball game and then watched their display for our 4th of July fireworks after the game -- kept the boys out too late until 11pm and paid for it a little today! Oh well, we had fun though! It was cool watching Yasha and Alek see their first live game. Yasha likes baseball, along with a lot of other American things (American football, Batman, bicycling, a lot of different movies, etc.). We are not quite sure where he has had exposure to some of it, but I guess American culture gets marketed at the European kids quite a bit -- for good or bad.

This morning, Scott took the boys fishing and on a picnic. They had fun and Yasha caught a huge 18" fish! Unfortunately, he thought he was going to get to bring it home with us (like the tadpoles) and so he was HUGELY disappointed when Scott said no. I had driven to the lake just to see this monster fish, and so then he turned to me, "Please Mama, Please, Pa-jahloosta (please) can we bring it home???" We had to present a unified front, so consequently...no fish came home today and after many tears, we left the dock to come home. It was sad, but nothing that a little quiet time at home didn't solve. When he came out of his room he was all smiles and we asked him if he wanted to go on a bike ride to the park and he said, "Yes!!" One of our first major tests of saying no....I think we passed.

Tonight for a change, Yasha wanted to read us a story at bedtime. Scott and I have been climbing in bed with him in the middle and reading him a story in English. Tonight, he picked up the book, "The Wizard of Oz" that we had bought in Russia for Alek. We asked him if he knew the story and he said yes -- go figure! He read to us 1 chapter in Russian. It was a good day.

To the Fyerma (Farm)

Well, one way to burn a whole day is to drive 1 1/2 hours to a dairy farm in Missouri, take a 1 1/2 hour tour and then drive back home! We actually had a great time at the dairy farm learning how milk is processed and bottled. I don't think Yasha had ever been near a cow before...as he was petting one of them, the cow kind of snorted and Yasha jumped! I was brave though, and milked a cow for the first time!

After being confined to the car for such a long time, I decided that when we got home at 3:30 that we would walk down to the park in the neighborhood to get some exercise. It was a lot of fun watching the boys play. Yasha used the small net we had with us to catch 2 almost fully grown tadpoles...he thinks they are fish, so I am not going to correct him. Anyway, he begged and begged to bring them home, so we filled up a bucket with lake water and walked home with them. They are now in my garage...NO TADPOLES IN THE HOUSE seems like a good rule to me -- I just made it up today!

Here are some photos from the milk tour...a friend and her 3 kids went with us.