Hello, everyone!
Well, it has been awhile since my last life update! We are all doing very well, but have been very busy!
In January, Scott was back in the US for meetings and was able to spend time with both of our families. The girls and I stayed in Kiev – mostly in our apartment because of the cold weather! We went sledding a few times, and also got out for trips to the store and to church on Sundays. Scott had helped me stock up on groceries before he left, so our shopping trips were pretty much just quick stops for milk, eggs, Diet Coke, etc. 
About a week and a half after Scott got home, our friends from Australia, Kyle and Becky Sukanen, came to visit us for 2 weeks. That was a crazy, fun and busy time. Kyle and Becky have two little boys, 2 ½ years and 7 months. There was always something going on! While they were with us, we all went to Vinnitsa to visit the church there, the orphanages, and the Nazarene drug/alcohol rehab centers. The trip went well, despite Bekah’s tumble down a full wooden staircase! Praise the Lord, she was uninjured!
The day after our friends left and returned to Australia, Scott left for a weekend trip to Moldova. He spoke at a family/parenting seminar and preached on Sunday. He took the train 14 hours each way! Our pastor from Vinnitsa traveled with him, so he had company. It was also good Russian practice for Scott – Pastor Roma doesn’t speak English!!!
Soon, all of us will travel to Russia! It will be Bekah’s spring break. We will travel to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Volgograd and attend two district assemblies. I have to confess that I am also planning at least one visit to Starbucks and hopefully Subway! It will be the girls’ first time in Russia, and my first time since 2002. I am also looking forward to experiencing life in a country where Russian is the language that EVERYONE speaks! In Ukraine, so many people speak Ukrainian on the street, and signs are in Ukrainian. It is confusing sometimes for me as I am trying to learn Russian.
When we return from Russia, it will be time for Ukraine’s district assembly here in Kiev. Then, Scott will travel with Lonnie Norris to Central Asia and Armenia to spend time with friends there. The girls and I will be glad to stay at home and get caught up again on life!
Bekah and Sarah continue to grow like weeds! Their knowledge of Russian increases every week. The other day Bekah told me that she needed to “conjugate verbs” for her Russian homework. I don’t think I knew what conjugate MEANT when I was 8 years old!
Bekah only has 9 more weeks left of second grade. In the fall, we are hoping to send her to a great Christian international school here in Kiev called Kiev Christian Academy. We visited the school this past week and were very impressed with the facility, teachers, and other students. Bekah met the kids who are in second grade this year, who will likely be her classmates next year. They try to keep the classes at 15 kids, but Bekah’s group seems like it will only have about 10. The kids there are from so many different countries: US, Germany, Ukraine, Korea, Japan, and some African and central Asian countries that I can’t remember! Bekah will go one day after we return from Russia for an assessment to make sure she is where she needs to be to enter 3rd grade.
Sarah continues to make us laugh continually. Today at breakfast, I reminded her that she needed to stay seated until she had finished her milk. When she was done, she looked at me, and said, “Game over” and got up from the table. Now where did she get that?! She wears dresses nearly every day, sometimes with very interesting accessories! She loves to dress everyone else in the household when she is allowed to do so. She will literally choose our clothes, then stand by and hand us each article of clothing as we put it on. If there are buttons or zippers, she will try to fasten those for us. The other day, I wore one of my baseball jerseys. I usually only button the top two buttons because I always wear another shirt underneath. All day long, she was trying to fasten the other buttons every time I got close to her! When we visited Bekah’s school the other day, she promptly told the Admissions Director that she “will not do any homework!”
Bekah’s other breaking news: she will quiz this week to qualify for the World Quiz at General Assembly in Indianapolis in June! We have to quiz her over questions sent from Kansas City and send the results. As long as she scores 85% or better she will qualify. If she qualifies, and I am pretty sure she will, she will quiz in Indianapolis on Saturday morning, June 22, from 8 AM until 11 AM. Bekah has worked really hard on learning her material, and I think many of you may have seen her on Facebook this week saying all of her memory verses. We will keep you posted.
Bekah and Sarah love playing games. Sarah’s current favorite is Sequence for Kids. She plays that nearly every day with at least one of us and she often wins! She and Bekah also like to play Tic Tac Toe, Pass the Pigs, and Sorry (Winnie the Pooh version). They also love to play with their stuffed animals! We really limited the number of stuffed animals we brought to Ukraine, but in our time here, their collection has again soared to zoo proportions! We have tons of dogs, but also a giraffe, rabbit, horse, hedgehog, cat, penguin, and I can’t remember what else!
On Saturdays, Bekah and Sarah attend Kid’s Club at our church. The teachers and kids are Ukrainian, so they don’t speak much English. I think it is helping our girls become more comfortable around kids speaking Russian and Ukrainian. They are getting braver to try what they are learning in language lessons. It also gives Scott and me a little date time. Yesterday we ate at a little café with traditional Caucasian/Central Asian food like plov, kebabs, and shashlik. It was an interesting experience, not because of the food, but because of the surroundings. There were no menus. There was not even a large sign over the counter listing food items. We just asked if they had certain foods and they brought them to us. We both ordered bottled water and they brought us each a bottle that was a different brand. The food was quite good – especially the shashlik. As we were leaving the café, we got a peek in the back room where they were preparing the food. In one corner was a sawed-off tree stump with a hand-axe lying on it and evidence that meat had been chopped there! Today we are thankful that neither of us is sick!!!!! Later we stopped at a coffee shop to get hot chocolate and found that that restaurant has a resident cat as a pet inside the restaurant. Not a stray! It was a nice restaurant, and there was this little cat running around and climbing on benches and coats! You never know what you will see …
Scott and I continue to take Russian lessons with Olga three times a week for 2 hours each session. Olga also works with Bekah for an hour 3 times a week. We have started watching some movies and cartoons in Russian, and recently found a Russian Christian radio station that has a website where we can listen online. Maybe someday we will be able to really, really communicate and understand. Some days we feel like we are doing really well, and other days we feel we will never get it!
I don’t seem to have much time for hobbies these days, but when I do have a little free time, I enjoy reading books on my Kindle. I still am exercising, usually 6 days a week. Our elliptical machine has been such a blessing this winter! I play my guitar most Sundays at church. Two weeks ago for the first time, I was able to sing (in Russian) the song I was playing, as I was playing my guitar! Slowly, but surely, I am learning this language! Praise the Lord!
This weekend is a big holiday in Ukraine called “Mazlinitza.” This holiday is to celebrate the end of winter and is celebrated with lots of eating and drinking. One of the traditional foods for this holiday is called “blini.” They are very thin pancakes, sometimes spread with jam or rolled with sweetened cottage cheese or some kind of meat. People have celebrated all week by eating these pancakes, but the festival days are the weekend days. These days are the Ukrainian version of the US’s “Fat Tuesday!” Monday starts Orthodox Lent which is observed by the Veliki Post (Great Fast) for 40 days until Easter.
We love and miss you all! We are so thankful to have all of you as our loving support and encouragement team. Life is sometimes difficult, but knowing we have all of you behind us helps keep us going. Thank you for your prayers and support of us!
With love from all the Raineys!
