Kids say the cutest things...

Scene: C4 is walking down the hall with his two blankies over his head headed to naptime.Me: "Are you going to take your pillow and blankie to college?
C4:  "Where do you live in college?"
Me: "In a dorm room with another boy your same age."
C4: "Then I'm not going to college."
Me: Puzzled, "Why not?"
C4: "Because I don't want to live with someone that is not in my family."

Musings of little ones

C4 to T3 today while swinging and watching an airplane fly overhead:  "I wonder where that airplane is flying."  We discussed all the places it might be going to Thailand, Japan, America, Moscow, or Korea.  Then T3 pipes in, "I want to go on airplane to Russia (pronounced "Ru-a")."  C4: "We already are in Russia."  T3: "Oh."   And that was the end of the conversation.   It was quite funny.

Happy Birthday Boys!

Can't believe that my two older boys are now 9 & 5 years old!  C9 was excited to hear that he only had 9 more years until he could join the military.  Scary thought!  Besides being a fireman, he wants to join the military.  Both have been pretty constant now for some time.  C5 is a very strong little boy.  His latest interest is wanting to be a boxer.  When I told him that he would have a lot of black eyes if he was a boxer, he decided that wasn't such a good idea.  They are all boys.  C9 is energetic, creative, loud, an inventor, and has an engineer's mind.  C5 is, very strong, inquisitive, and athletic; for those of you who know him, he still loves his thumb and pillow. Parenting these two (and the others) is far from easy, but we are so thankful the Lord brought them to us.  As Scott asked me today, "What would you do without us?"   My reply, "Sit on the beach with a good book and listen to the waves splash?" 

Apartment Life

I am fast asleep.  In my "dream", I hear the sound of someone talking loudly in Russian in my apartment.  Wait!  It isn't a dream.  It really is someone talking.  Could the window be open?  Perhaps it is someone outside on the sidewalk.   No.  It must be inside, but it can't be.  I lean over to the bedside shelf and reach for the watch.  It's 2:30 in the morning.  Where is my husband?  And who is in our apartment talking at this time of night?  I get up, wrap my blanket around me and walk down the hall.  It really IS someone in our apartment.  I hear (in Russian):  "Tomorrow I am coming to remove the toilet."  .... Finally, the lady & repairman leave. 

What happened?  Apparently, there was loud knocking on our door which woke my light-sleeping husband.  The neighbors below had a leak on their ceiling below our bathroom.  Apparently, we have a leaky toilet.  She called our landlord and threatened to take him to court.  How sad!    And at 2:30 in the morning - what terrible news to receive!

Stuck...

I think my big kids' biggest fear here in Russia is getting stuck in the "lift"  or elevator.  I have tried to encourage them to go in the elevator by themselves for independence sake.  For example, if someone comes to our apartment to bring us something, we all have to go down the elevator to meet them.  It would be much easier if my older ones would go down themselves and meet our visitor.  However, after today's experience, their fears are warranted.   God does indeed work all things together for our good.  In this case, the fact that C4 was being mean to C3 was a good thing because it caused my husband to wait on a separate elevator with C4 while the rest of us went ahead.  We live on the 7th floor of a 16 story building.  The elevator is a little smaller than 3' x 6'.    It is small elevator compared to US standards but surprisingly larger than many Russian elevators.  It is also a very dirty place.   A few seconds up the elevator, we could hear the sound of the elevator chains grinding to a halt.  My children's fear had come true.  We were stuck.  Fortunately, my husband was not far behind me.  I forgot my personal rule of not yelling out in English and yelled to him, "Help! We're stuck!"   I began pressing the 3 buttons on the elevator that were not numbers..nothing happened.  My youngest remained calm the entire time.  My daughter began to whimper and was about to cry.   We prayed and I assured them that God would watch over them even when the elevator stops.   Since my cell phone does not work in elevators, I knew that we could do nothing but wait.  My husband called the elevator dispatcher who began to talk to us from her phone to the elevator in Russian, "Machina poexala" The car has left, she was saying.   I tried to ask her how long, but she hung up.   I decided that in order to keep my daughter calm, we should start singing.  But this idea did not go over at all with my oldest who began to get very agitated and hostile towards me.   We waited some more.  Thankfully we had also just gotten back from church, so we had our Bibles with us.  So I began to read the Psalms and from Isaiah "Do not fear..."  This seemed to calm my daughter, when lo and behold the elevator began to go down again.  A few minutes later the door opened, and we were back on the 1st floor where we started.   It was only 10-15 minutes, but it seemed like a lot longer.  After that episode, the kids were too scared to get in the other elevator, so we walked.  And by the way, the stairway has no lights. 
I told the kids that now they would have something to write to their friends.  C4 replied, "I am going to write JB and tell him that I got to go to the roof with Daddy."  I am thinking that he is making this up, but I didn't say anything.   Remember the building is 16 stories high.  Afterwards, hubby tells me that yes, they did get to go to the roof because that is where the elevator repairman had to go to crank up the elevator again.  And he got to look over the edge of our 16 story building.  Sure glad I wasn't there to watch! 

Cultural Rules in Russia

1. Do take your shoes off inside someone's house.
2. Don't smile on the street.
3. Don't be friendly to a customer in a store, restaurant, post office, etc.
4. Do tell children to be quiet in public (if you are a stranger to them).
5. Do yell at said children in buses and on streets for doing things they aren't supposed to be doing (and aren't even aware they aren't supposed to be doing them).
6. Do allow your children to go to the bathroom wherever they please as long is it outside.
7. Don't open the windows even if it is 90 degrees outside. The breeze might make children sick.
8. Don't drink while you are eating.  Only drink before you eat.  It is bad for your health.
9. Do allow children to run around outside in just their underwear at preschool in the summer heat, including girls.
10. Do not smile when getting your picture made.

Just a few from my own observations to share :)

Another cross-cultural experience

Did I mention in my last post that the Korean people are friendly? It wasn't just in the hotel but everywhere on the streets. They always smiled, acknowledged the children, even wanted to take pictures with our daughter. If Korea is super-friendly, Russia is the antithesis. No one smiles at us (unless they know us). Hardly anyone greets us on the street except in a situation that follows. Instead of cute looks at the children, we get stares and then without fail the question comes. "Are these ALL yours?" "U vas detski sad!" (You have a kindergarten!) Yesterday I was with the kids eating an ice cream on the street. This lady approached me and asked me from where we came. She then proceeded to look at each of the children and ask "Are they all yours?" Then more looks. Then "You have four?!" Then she walked away talking to her friend.

Today we all went to the Wal-mart size grocery store to stock up on food supplies for the week. Hubby was waiting outside with 3 of the kids, and I was in line with C4. First, I should say that Russia is mainly a cash society. We have used cash almost exclusively since arriving until last week. Hubby was given an ATM card last week and has just begun using it. I do not have one, and have never used his. Since I did not have enough cash, he gave me the card and quickly told me the pin. Of course, by the time I got to the checkout, the pin had slipped my mind. So when I handed the lady the card, she handed me the pin code pad and asked me to plug the pin in. I replied that it was my husband's card, and I forgot the code. Couldn't I just sign it? (like you can do in the States - either use it like a credit card or ATM card) She replied that no, I had to sign it. I then told her again that I forgot the pin and needed to find my husband who was outside. I told her I would quickly go find him. She replied why can't you just call him? To which I replied that I do not have a phone with me. At this point the checkout lady and the lady behind me became very impatient and rude with me. They were both yelling at me in Russian and told me to hurry up. There was absolutely no grace extended to me whatsoever. The lady behind the checkout acted like she was there for me to serve her own needs. Customer service? A novel concept. What was I to do? I ran off to find hubby and did not return. I took 2 of the children and ran off in tears. At this point I was visibly upset and in front of the children as well. The children were wondering why Mommy was crying, and there was nothing I could do. It is really a helpless feeling. I was immediately reminded of the foreigners in our own country and how we treat them. Do they receive similar treatment, especially those that don't speak English well who don't know all the customs and cultural rules? It was a good opportunity to remind the children of how we should treat foreigners in America. I sincerely hope that this lesson will not be forgotten by me for one. It is really a horrible feeling. And unfortunately in Russia it has been one of several times when I have been treated this way. Americans are not perfect of course. But I do think, that at least in the South, generally we are more hospitable to outsiders. I know it was the case in South Korea.

"Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be a foreigner, because you were foreigners in Egypt." Exodus 23:8-10

"The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God." Leviticus 19:33-35