At the Airport

A lot of people came to see me off at the airport. That made it... pretty hard.

It's important for everyone to say goodbye. And I will see the Harrys again soon, when they come back for holidays next year (please God!!)

Sunday November 4th

These photos are courtesy of Rebekah Harrison.

Thanks Beckles, for your outstanding camera work! xx

Vlad and Trac

Masha, Felicity and Ryan (below)

Vlad, Jake and Ryan

Open Day- scenes from home

We declared my last Saturday to be a home day. Visitors were welcome, and we just enjoyed eachothers company. Here are some scenes from around the house.

A Borsch storm

Scott, Alison, Jack and Ryan spent the afternoon with us- they're a family from Clifton Park! Luke, Jake and Beckles spent last week (their school holidays) with Alison and the boys at their home in the Zima compound. A home away from home.

Natasha (above) and Kartso (below).

Jake- I caught him fussing with his hair in the mirror!

Daisy, taking Becky for a walk.

Poses inspired by the Lenin Square statue of Lenin.

Trac and Kostya (home at last!)

Team Russia

Girls' day

It was the week of 'last times.'

Janet, Masha, Tracy and I spend quality girl time together. For Trac and I it's a breath of fresh air. A time and place of trust where we can be ourselves and speak openly with people who support us but aren't directly influenced by our work. Who share our values and encourage us in our hopes and plans for the future. And we, theirs.

Autumn- a strong sense of preparation lies in the air. There's so much change to take place in minimal time. If even one week goes by without your notice, you've squandered half the season.

Happy 12th Birthday Jake!

Three birthdays in a week is more than usual- but such is the last week of October in this household!

Some people started going a little crazy...

Jake turned 12 on the 31st, and we gathered for a meal with family and friends at our house. Jake doesn't like fuss at times like this, he likes to sit back and see that everyone's enjoying themselves.

What does Jake like? A lot of people asked me. Jake's a hard one to buy for.

He likes gadgets, nice smells, chocolate, and beautifully textured material. What would you do with that? Here are a few suggestions:

A wool-lined chocolate-flavoured self-seeking keyring; A perfumed silk shirt; a fragrance-emitting chain-mail covered alarm system; chocolate-coated turkish delight.

Kostya's back, and he's 21!

After 2 years- 2 years of waiting and praying, smsing, calling, writing, visiting, encouraging-
Finally he's back.

Kostya's home! And he turned 21 on Sunday.


Our house is full at the moment. Not quite to capacity, thank God. But... only 2 young people and baby Gela are visitors in these photos.



Men of the house.
Roma, Alissa and little Angelina

Autumn photo shoot

Crisp air, fresh skies, delicate leaves- the Glory of God revealed in Autumn.

This week in court

Wednesday morning was a continuation of Katya's mum's trial. Katya had received a letter requesting her presence so she could testify. She hadn't been allowed to attend the previous hearing(s).
Trac and I went with her-

She hadn't seen her mum since May, when it all happened and her mum was arrested.
To see her would be hard enough. But to be alone in the straight jacket of legal procedure in a small room where her mum would be caged behind bars in a corner...

We arrived at the courthouse and followed a group of people Katya seemed to know down the long corridor of closed doors. We stopped and waited outside one of them, until a young man who turned out to be a legal secretary opened the door, invited us in and explained some basic protocol.
Stand when the judge enters. Stand when replying to a question from the judge. Otherwise don't speak at all. Don't make noise. Turn off your mobile phones.

Guards entered with Katya's mum. She's short, like Katya, with dark chocolate-brown hair, and deep brown eyes, like Katya. She has a low, gravelly voice. Quiet.
She sat still in the barred corner, with guards on either side of the room. The female guard sitting next to me spent the entire two hours sending messages on her phone.

When Katya first saw her mum, tears started streaking down her cheeks- they didn't let up until she went to sleep that night.

The judge called Katya to testify. Her mum's lawyer asked questions- what kind of a mother was she? Why did you live in a children's home for 6 months? Where is your brother now? Why was your baby sister already in a baby's orphanage when your mum was arrested? Do you love your sister? Why did you let her go to the orphanage? Describe your relationship with your mum. Is that a hard question? Do you love each other? Are you friends? You won't answer? That's all.

After they'd finished with Katya, the judge asked her mum to give a full account of the incident- so we heard all the gory details. Thank God Trac and I couldn't understand much in this part of the hearing. But Katya could. She heard it all.

I lent Katya my sunglasses on the way home.

The hearing will continue next week.

HOME

THIS has been my home for the last year- but now it's time to start closing, finishing, completing, saying goodbye. I'm going back to Australind in 2 1/2 weeks.



The last couple of days at home have been very full of stressful things, but we are enjoying life and each other all the more for it.

Kostya (who's been in the army in Khabarovsk for the last 2 years) is coming home to Sakhalin next week. Two years of praying, waiting, supporting, smsing (Tracy's phone didn't often leave her hand these last 2 years! She's on 24 hour Kostya support standby) is coming to an end.

He's had a very difficult time, and new difficulties are arising with his return. Suffice it to say that we will not take part in the struggle going on for Kost. We're working through each new trouble with patience and endurance (thank you Lord for the passport and visa office, where we can learn such things!!)
We will prepare him a place in our household, and leave the rest for Kostya to decide.

Roma (above) has been going through troubles of his own. But in recent times he's turning more to us for friendship and relationship than previously. He'll be able to look for work again once his passport and documents are in order (they expired a month after he turned 20).



Natasha has grown and matured a lot since the summer. She spent the summer living with her sister (who recently turned 32) and working for her aunt, taking care of her baby cousin. For the first time Natasha has spent bulk time with these family members, and I wonder if she is finding a confidence and peace that comes with knowing who you are and where you're from, through her sister and aunt.

Nastya may have got herself a job today- she was calling around a couple of hours ago, and searching the papers for ads. She visits us occasionally, when she needs something (which is not uncommon)- but more often she's visiting without Anton, and I find her more approachable at those times. She finished her computing course this summer, and wanted to continue studying, but there's some rule about living at the school's dorm and money for a second course, which counts her out, at least for now. Hopefully she'll be able to earn enough money, stay focussed, and then pay her way through a second course. She can do it, it's just a matter of motivation...

It's a good thing I don't have paper airline tickets- I'm sure she would have taken them off me and hidden them by now ;-)

Day of Thanksgiving

We celebrated the Harvest Festival in a Day of Thanksgiving at church last Sunday.





The table at the front of the church was LADEN with fruits and vegies, produce from the dachas, cottages belonging to church members.
Groups of people, and individuals performed songs, dances and poems. I was not among these, although it wasn't for Pastor Peter's lack of trying to persuade me to ;-)





After the celebration service we headed upstairs for afternoon tea (after which we didn't need dinner!) and talked, sang songs, "hung out" church style.