More sickness!?!?!

Jaan just started throwing up.

Raia had a little relapse yesterday, but I think it was just from eating solid food too soon. She's improving. (Her little, round belly is gone, though. I asked her where it went, and she said that she "coughed it.")

Will has been down with something. We're not even really sure what, but he has definitely not been feeling well.

Asya and I are still healthy!

She's well!

Thank you, Lord! We actually took Raia to church (in Charlotte, no less) yesterday. She was pitiful all day long. Her stomach was calm, but the fever was hanging on. The fever broke during the night, and she seems like her usual self today. She's still weak, but happy. We're supposed to keep her on a banana and toast diet for a little while longer, too.

Raia update

Her stomach finally settled late last night. We haven't tried any food yet this morning, but she's keeping down a little Gatorade. Just pray that it will stay down! I just heard that two other little boys are sick now, too. Please pray for Joseph and Daniel.

Raia. Sigh.

Last night she fell out of the living room window (which is high!). Today she's sick.

Edited to add: She probably has rotavirus, which can be pretty serious. Please pray that she'll be able to keep some liquids down!



(In the photo she's "showing off" her injuries from last night. Actually, she's covering some of them up.)

Asya's Social Security number

Please pray that we'll be able to get it for taxes! They seem to go very slowly overseas with Social Security numbers, and we applied for Asya's in Moscow. Pray that it would come through quickly and not be lost. Pray that I would be able to get in touch with someone who knows about it, and that they would be able to tell me what's going on. (I seem to remember something about you have to ask in person, not by phone or email. . . .)

Moving forward

We have a region of Ukraine chosen. Now we're working on visas. Please pray that they'll come through QUICKLY. Pavel, our friend and pastor from Kovrov, is visiting his relatives in Ukraine now, and he's working on getting invitations for us. Please pray that will go as quickly as possible!

Cross posting

This is something I had posted on our blog:
Prayers are being answered. Someone that we have really been wanting to get in touch with has gotten an internet connection. Pasha (in Kovrov) has been able to help a good bit, too; he and Will have been talking often via Skype, trying to figure out how to get visas for us.

Please keep praying! We still have a long way to go before we have definite plans settled.

Answers

Please pray for answers to the emails we've sent out. We've been writing and calling to try and decide where in Ukraine we'll be going, and now we're just waiting for answers. I would like to apply for our visas as soon as possible, but even that has to wait until we have some answers.

Pray for wisdom as we plan!

Will's cold and travel

Will and his parents are flying to Texas tomorrow. Will's cold hasn't been bad, but please do pray for him (and them) as they travel.

Also, I mentioned that our trip from Russia went well. I forgot to say that the drive from Florida to North Carolina also went smoothly. I wrote about that. . . .

Update

Sorry I've been so silent! There just hasn't been any time for me to write much.

Let's see. . . .
Our trip to Florida went well. It was long, but smooth. I had asked for prayer for Asya's ticket. We did get her on the plane with us; that cost a whole lot, but like Will said, it was worth it to be able to have her along.

And we're healthy! Praise the Lord for that, and please keep praying that we won't get sick. It's been so nice to be able to enjoy our time here without any sickness. (I started writing this yesterday. Today it looks like Will has a cold. )

I know people were praying about the car. Getting it on the road was an incredibly quick process. Thank you for praying! Please keep praying that we won't have any trouble with it. So far, it's running beautifully.

Our children have been doing well. Asya’s the easiest of all. As long as her milk supply is nearby—preferably holding her—she doesn’t care where in the world she is or what language is being spoken around her! Raia has struggled the most, but she seems to be doing okay now. She's even been babbling some; maybe she's getting ready to start speaking English? Jaan's doing wonderfully, but he seems to be more emotional than usual.

Travel

We have tickets. We’ll be leaving Russia on the 9th. Please pray for us as we travel!

Please also pray for one last detail: they don’t do e-tickets for infants, so we still have to get Asya’s ticket. There aren’t any travel agents in Kovrov who sell plane tickets; pray that Will will be able to get one in Vladimir.

Health

We’ve really been struggling with a long run of colds and coughs. Please pray that we can get well before we leave. Also, we tend to be sick a lot when traveling and staying with other people. Please pray that we can stay well this time!

Car!

Will's grandfather is going to let us use his car. Praise the Lord! (And thank you, Pop!) Please pray for all the details of getting Will's driver's license, buying insurance, getting the car running and such.

Lena

Some of you know Lena, mother of Jaan’s friend Andrusha, sister of Ira. We prayed every week for quite a while for God to heal her infertility and bless them with another baby. Now she’s expecting twins in the springtime! ( ) Please pray for her and them, especially considering the low quality of maternity care here. And pray for me, too. One of my big struggles is that I won’t get to see her little girls.

(Oh, and the doctors couldn’t do anything for Lena’s infertility. These twins are the result of God’s direct intervention!)

For our children

Please also remember to pray for our children. They’re sick. . . again. It’s nothing serious, but it is just another little thing to deal with. (Jaan says that his nose is drooling. )

They don’t really understand what is going on right now, but they do seem to feel that something is happening. (It’s been funny to see what sets them off. For Jaan it was when I packed up and sorted through the books. He stood next to me and cried the whole time, “No, Mama! Not the books! What will we read?” Raia had a harder time with the clothes: “What will we wear?”) And it’s so hard to stay patient with them! If I have to leave the room for Asya, I’ll come back to find that Jaan and Raia have instantly resorted my carefully sorted piles, unpacked our carefully packed items, and just let their curiosity run wild.

Kolya

Our friend Kolya has been going through a really hard time. He lost his job, and his wife is trying to divorce him. We have told him that we’re praying for him and that we would ask our friends to pray, and he really appreciates that. Also, pray for wisdom for us. We want to reach out to him, but especially when he’s very drunk he uses up a lot of our time. Pray for wisdom! We don’t want to turn him away, but we can’t afford to spend hours focused on him every day. Pray for his physical health and safely, too. (Recently one of our elderly neighbors upstairs came home drunk, and his wife locked him out. He yelled in the stairwell until late, and then went out. The next morning his coffin lid was by the door! He died in the night. I worry that something like that could happen to Kolya.)

[Since I wrote this, Kolya has started writing a book. He wants us to take it to America, translate it, and sell it for $10,000. Not too realistic, but it’s keeping him sober and busy. Praise the Lord for that!]

Seryozha

I’m struggling with the thought of leaving Seryozha, “our orphan.” Please pray for him to do well and for us to be able to leave him!

Sad news

We lost the appeal. Please pray for our broken hearts and for the practical details that we're going to have to be taking care of.

Appeal Hearing

We have just found out that our court hearing in Vladimir will be tomorrow, Friday the 18^th, at 3:00.  We appreciate your prayers!!

Appeal

We'll be appealing the court decision on January 9th. Please pray for Will and Sergei (the missionary-lawyer) as they prepare the appeal and turn it in.