Ieva is 6 months old!!

On Saturday, March 25th, our baby girl hit the 6 month mark! I was just looking back at some of our old blog entries and reminiscing about how tiny she looks in those old photos - man, she's growing up fast! She's rolling over all the time now, getting really close to sitting up on her own, babbles like crazy, and last night slept for 9 hours straight!! We're introducing her to rice cereal this week, and as I whined to my friend Rebecca about how it's a pretty big step for me emotionally, since I'm the only one who has provided all the food she's ever needed until now, Beka responded "yeah...and tomorrow she'll be going off to college!"

YIKES!
We know time is going fast, but we love every new stage Ieva is hitting (so far - I've heard turning two has a lot of not-so-fun parts) and are committed to making the most out of each developmental step. For now, she brings us constant joy and we couldn't be more thankful!

Grandpa's here!

On Sunday afternoon, Ieva met her Grandpa Stave for the first time when we picked him up at the Palanga airport. We were all excited to see him & are even more excited that he will be spending the next two months here in Klaipeda with us! Tom has taken a sabbatical from the University of Oregon library in order to volunteer here at LCC's library for the rest of the semester. We think LCC will be very glad to have him!

In less than two weeks, Ieva will also get to meet her Grandma Stave & Aunt Ingrid, as they will be coming to join Grandpa. Vicki may be doing some part time work at LCC along with her job of motivating Ingrid to finish her 8th grade class work. Aside from school, we're guessing Aunt Ingy will want to spend lots of her time practicing her babysitting skills on her niece!

During the past two days, Ieva has already had lots of Grandpa time and they seem to have hit it off famously. Yesterday Tom joined Ieva and I at our baby music class & then carried Ieva in the front pack to the market and all the way back home. Today he stayed with Ieva for a good chunk of the day while Andrew & I were both at meetings, and I came home to find her peacefully sucking down a bottle in his arms - both looking as happy as could be. Ieva loves to stare up at her Grandpa's face and reach out to touch it...I think she knows that he's someone especially special in her life.

Last night Tom made us dinner at his apartment and then we spent the bulk of the evening there relaxing and catching up. (This is us relaxing on his comfy couch!) He (and soon they) live in a great little place less than two blocks away from us! It's really nice having them so close, as I'm sure we'll spend lots of time there during the next two months.

We're not used to having family living near us, but couldn't be more thrilled to finally experience it for a somewhat extended period of time. I suspect that we'll become so spoiled by having them here that we'll have to recruit my parents to come for the fall semester in order to continue Ieva's grandparent fix! In the meantime, we're just enjoying every minute of it.

Spring Break in Slovakia

Ieva's first spring break vacation was spent in Slovakia & Austria! Pretty impressive for a 5-month old, if we do say so ourselves. We spent the first week of March driving long hours, curling up by a fireplace in a quaint house in an even quainter Slovakian village at the foot of the snowy High Tatras mountains, skiing in those mountains (Daddy & everyone else went - Ieva and I wandered the streets of our quaint village saying hi to locals), and seeing the sites of Bratislava and Vienna, Austria. It was quite a week!

We got to indulge a few of our American cravings for Starbucks, bagels and Pizza Hut, and do a little shopping in our favorite European department store, H&M (which, unfortunatley doesn't yet exist in the Baltics). The 25 hour drive on the way home was a bit much...although I think Ieva slept better in her car seat than any of the rest of us did. We got home around 8:00am and she was awake & ready to start her day while Andrew & I were wasted! We spent the bulk of the day taking "Ieva shifts" which essentially entailed one of us being in a semi-awake state and in the same general vacinity as she was while the other could be curled up in bed, dreaming of snowy mountains.

All in all, it was relaxing, beautiful, and fun...and now Ieva has 3 more countries under her young belt since we drove through Poland to get there. Anyone know of any "most traveled baby" contests we could enter her in?

Valentine Surprises

Recently, most of the surprises in our family have been initiated by Andrew while I have been the happy recipient. This Valentines day, however, he had no idea what was coming & I got him good.

While Ieva & I were in the States, I decided to take advantage of a magazine insert that advertised a free sitting & cheap prints for a department store photo shoot. Besides my senior pictures, I've never done the professional photo shoot gig - largely because I think we are capable of taking our own creative photos & all the props & backdrops at the department stores can often get pretty cheesy (in my humble opinion). I decided to take ieva & try it nonetheless, and since she was in a fantastic mood, the results were pretty darn cute. My original hope was that I would be able to pick up the prints before I left to come back to Lithuania, not tell Andrew I did it, and then present him with a beautiful framed photo of his darling daughter on Valentines day. I learned, however, that these places take 7-10 days to process & create prints, so I returned home empty handed...but still didn't tell Andrew we had done it. I wondered if he'd check our bank account online & figure it out when he saw the charge for JCPenny Portrait Studios...but luckily for me, it was only listed online as JCPenny - keeping it nice & ambiguous.

So, the 14th came & I sent Andrew an email with the following as an attachment:

He didn't get a chance to see it while at work, so when he came home he opened it in front of me. His first reaction upon seeing the photo wasn't "Awwww - how sweet!" or even "Wow - what a great photo of Ieva - how'd you do it?" No. My husband's initial reaction was instead "What'd you do? Cut & paste Ieva's head on to some other baby's body??" Leave it to Andrew to think that there's no way I'd do something as involved as getting a baby photo shoot done without telling him. Once I finally convinced him that the body in the photo did indeed belong to his daughter as well, his next question was about how much I payed for the whole deal...but that's where my replication of our conversation will end. I'm convinced that those department store photographers are trained to take way more adorable photos than necessary so you'll be so smitten by all of them that you won't be able to make a decision & order prints of everything. I didn't order prints of quite all of them...but for an extra $5.00, I was able to get small digital versions of them sent to me electronically so now we can share them with you!

Ieva in her favorite blanket (thanks, Great Aunt Claudia!)

Ieva rolling in roses

Adorable, yes...but can she be any more posed?

The Stave girls

My personal favorite...ieva's really into touching faces these days

beginnings & endings all in one place

Thanks to all of you who prayed for us & sent your encouragement as ieva & I travelled to the States & back again to be with my family. Ieva did amazingly well on the flights in both directions, but we've been struggling to help her get her days & nights sorted out during this past week since we've been back home. Jetlag's brutal at all ages!!

Our time in Michigan was an incredibly special and meaningful time with family - specifically with my Grandmother before she went to be with Jesus. I won't leave you in suspense...Grandma took her last breath around 11am on Sunday, January 29th, and my mom & I were there at her side as she journeyed from this world to the next.


Grandma & her grandkids: Dayn, Erik, Kim & Ieva (missing my brother Corey & his son, Elijah)

Mom, ieva & I went to join my Aunts Shelley & Gloria who were already with Grandma at her apartment on Wednesday, January 25th. At this point, she needed around-the-clock care, getting up multiple times in the night to use the bathroom and wasn't able to walk on her own. Mom, Shelley & Gloria spent all of their energies helping Grandma from her bed to her chair in the morning and back in the evening, as well as making her food & feeding her, helping her use her portable commode, getting up with her in the night, and dialoguing with doctors, nurses & hospice employees about her rapidly declining condition. Grandma spent most of her time during those last few days sleeping in her chair, and while she slept the 4 of us played with ieva and Shelley's puppy Izzy and spent quality time catching up & reminiscing. Having that kind of time with my mom & aunts was really fantastic.


My mom & aunt Shelley with their babies, ieva & izzy

I've never been so involved in experiencing the end of life as I was during my week with my Grandma. Every day we watched her body shut down as she grew more & more weak, being able to do less and less, and sleeping more and more. By Saturday evening, she had lost most of her responsiveness and by Sunday morning, wasn't responding to us at all. The hospice nurse said that there was a good chance that she knew we were there with her, despite her ability to respond to us.


I am thankful that when we first saw Grandma on Sunday and then came back again on Wednesday, she was quite aware and responsive, and was happy to meet her only great granddaughter. Mom and Shelley both commented that there was something special about having such a new, young life present at the end of another. As mom & I stood by Grandma's bedside just after she took her last breath, mom asked for ieva, saying that she needed to hold a baby, and hugged her tight as we wept. It truly was a special time.

There wasn't a funeral or memorial service (at Grandma's request), but over the course of her last weekend, my aunt's family drove up from Kentucky and my brother and his family flew out from Portland giving her the opportunity to see her entire family before her last day. Everyone also enjoyed the opportunity to meet ieva - especially her 5 year old cousin Elijah.

The Cliffe Family together again - Mom, Dad, Corey, Kim, Elijah & Ieva

My last week there was filled with taking care of final arrangements and then I was able to connect with some friends back at my parents home. My childhood friend Tarla & her 3 year old daughter Hannah drove up to see us on Wendesday, then on Thursday, my dear friend Jen drove up from Indianapolis to spend the day and night with us. On Friday I drove to Calvin College to reconnect with my old friend Kari (from our days at Spring Hill Camps in the early 90's) and to see Brandie (who just left LCC to work at Calvin last summer). It was great to get some quality time with friends as well as with family.

And on ieva's last night with her Grandma & Grandpa, she decided to impress them & roll over for the first time in their living room! We were all very excited - especially her Grandma!! We said a tearful goodbye on Saturday, still feeling the intensity of the emotions we had experienced together throughout the past two weeks, and arrived back in Klaipeda on Sunday evening to be greeted by a very lonely daddy eagerly awaiting our arrival!

The "how's" and "whys"

As Kim and Ieva are accross the world, I wanted to let you all know what they left behind as I hold down the fort. For most of you in Oregon, cold temperatures mean dipping below freezing for a few hours during the night and the desperate hope that what smells like snow coming will actually stay for more than a day. In the midwest the understanding of cold is a little more refined as cold winters and snow that stays for more than a day is more common. However, recently we have experienced a cold spell in Klaipeda that is uncommonly cold, even for this region of the world.

We have had snow since the day after Christmas which stuck around in its brilliant whiteness for several weeks, occassionally getting a light dusting to cover up the road grime and has been beautiful. It began to melt about a week ago and we thought that warmer temperatures were on the way, however in the last few days the temperature dropped substantially. On its coldest day the "real feel" temperature (temp + humidity) was listed on a website at -28 C which in Farenheit is -18 degrees. This is cold for those of us from Oregon as well as anyone not wearing polar bear fur or penguin feathers. I was not born with a layer of blubber like a walrus or with Yak hide so it is pretty miserable. The clincher of it is that it is windy here and with the maratime climate from the Baltic sea, its a wet cold, not the Winnipeg, steppes, frozen tundra dry cold that is tolerable. This is the freeze your snot, make you short of breath as the cold coats your throat and ices over the inside of your car windows as the condensation freezes cold. As I drove back to Klaipeda after dropping Kim and ieva off at the airport, the windows of the van were frozen everywhere except the front and rear windshields from my breath. ITS COLD is what I am telling you. (click on the photo to see how cold)

So, we don't go outside much, conversation mostly revolves around who's car won't start, who has skin peeling off their cheeks from the wind burn and who's kid stuck their tongue to the lamp post (ok, so that was in A Christmas Story, but really, its cold.) As this moment the "real feel" temperature is -18C (0F) and it seems almost tolerable. Its funny how things change as you get used to new things. When I worked for a roofing company in Sherwood, Oregon in 1999 we had a cold spell that dipped into the 20's F for a few days and that seemed bitter cold to me. Now as long as its above 0F I think of it as pretty mild.

It seems like we really can get used to anything if we allow ourselves to do so. In a book I read called Man's search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, a concentration camp survivor talks about how he made it through the war and what kept him alive when others stronger and healthier then he died and he said, "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how". This has really stuck with me as I grow as a father, a husband and as a Christian here in Lithuania (where its freezing) When my life seems consumed with diapers, sticking my finger in Ieva's mouth to calm her for what can seem like hours, late night feedings (not me, I have diaper duty while Kim feeds) and the changes that my life has taken since fatherhood was gracefully laid upon me, I remember that being a father is such a gift, that this little perfect child, that my wife and my God are my why and as long as I have a why I can bear almost any how. In times of frustration with my job, arguments with colleagues and other trials, when we get down thinking about how bad things are, when its cold and you wish you were someplace warm or a place with toilet paper in the rest area bathrooms I have to remember that I have a why and with that why to live for I can and will bear with almost any how.

We are so blessed to be here in Lithuania, so blessed to have the wonderful friends, colleagues, family and circumstances that we have here and at home. We have hard times too, Kim's family is going through one of them right now but we have a why, and that's all we need.

Please pray for Kim and her family as they go through this time of struggle but please rejoice with them because we do have a why whose name is Jesus and he will help us bear with any how

Quick decisions & long trips

As some of you may have heard by now, we decided that ieva & I should hop a plane for North America in order to see my grandmother while there's still time. Things happened quickly:

• last friday I talked with my mom at 6:30am to get an update on grandma's health - she advised us to come, as it wasn't looking like she'd last until our scheduled trip back in June
• around noon on friday I went to a travel agent to see what kind of prices/schedules I could find for flying to Michigan within the next few days
• there was a flight leaving Vilnius (our capital city) at 7:30am on saturday for Chicago that we could get for a relatively decent price considering the short notice
• we booked the flight & I ran around Klaipeda picking up a few things & meeting with some colleagues to wrap up some details at the college
• Andrew had a basketball game at 6:30pm on friday that ieva & I watched
• we brought an LCC car home after the game, packed a suitcase & drove the 3.5 hours to Vilnius, arriving at the airport hotel around 2am
• we got up at 5:30am, walked to the airport, said goodbye to Andrew & were in the air by 8am
• upon arrival to Amsterdam where we were supposed to connect to Chicago, we discovered that the flight to Chicago was cancelled & were rebooked on a flight leaving at the same time for Detroit - which is about the same distance for my folks to drive, but easier since they don't have to go through Chicago to get there
• I scurried to find a phone in the Amsterdam airport to call dad & tell him to drive west to Detroit, rather than east to Chicago to get us, but couldn't get the phone to take my credit card
• a nice pilot happened to be walking by & offered to let me make the call on his mobile phone (such a blessing!!) & I left a message on mom & dad's machine
• ieva did amazingly well on the long flight - thankfully we had an empty seat next to us (have I mentioned how incredible our baby is??)
• we got off the plane in Detroit with no luggage, since there wasn't enough time to get it on the plane with us, and thankfully dad had gotten the message (although just barely!) and was there waiting for us
• we proceeded to wander in the parking structure for a half hour looking for his car, and then ieva & I went back inside to wait as he searched for another hour - finally finding it in the exact place he thought he had left it, but on a different level (senior moment, dad?)
• we arrived home around 3:00am Lithuania time (8pm Michigan time) and crashed
• sunday morning we went to church with dad & then drove up to Lansing in the afternoon to see Grandma, my mom & aunts
• As of this writing (noon in Michigan on Monday), our suitcase has still not arrived & we're getting stinky!! (but I called the luggage people this morning & they assured me it would be delivered later today - let's hope so, or I fear I may actually turn into my mother after wearing all of her clothes!)

Despite the last-minute craziness of this trip, I am so very glad we decided to do it. Grandma looked good, all things considered, but it's pretty clear she doesn't have much time left. The time we'll get to spend with her in the next two weeks will be a blessing!

Thank you for your prayers for us & my family. We are thankful!

Praying for Wisdom...

Ieva is very blessed to have 5 wonderful great-grandparents. 4 are on Andrew's side, and the only one left on mine is my mom's mom, Grandma Mlejnek (pronounced Mel-en-nick). Soon after we moved to Lithuania in 2002, she was diagnosed with a bone-attacking cancer called multiple myloma, but over the past 3 years has been able to keep it under control with meds. She's stayed in fairly decent health & has still been able to live independantly. In the past month, however, negative effects of the cancer have started piling up on Grandma, and at the moment she isn't doing too well. Thankfully, all 3 of her daughters (my mom & 2 aunts) are currently in Michigan with her now, taking care of her & helping to make decisions with doctors.

Ieva hasn't met any of her great grandparents yet. In fact, the only extended family members she has met are her Grandma Cliffe (my mom) and her Grandaunt Shelley (my mom's sister) when they came to visit after her birth. I am Grandma Mlejnek's only granddaughter, and Ieva is her only great granddaughter. She's actually the only grandparent I've ever been close to as an adult, and that has given us a special bond.
It's very important to me that Grandma meets her great granddaughter, and because of this, we are discussing Ieva & I flying back to Michigan in the near future to see her. It's a little frightening to think about making my first ocean-crossing flight with a baby alone, and not a pleasant thought for Andrew to be without his two favorite girls for a chunk of time, but we think it's pretty important for Ieva & I to go see Grandma while we can.

Will you please join us in praying for wisdom about this decision? We know that God is in control of all things & trust Grandma's future to Him, but also want to make the most of the time we've been given with her. Flying back comes with the stress of traveling alone with a 4-month old baby, the expenses of a last-minute flight, and making adjustments in my schedule here. Please also pray for my mom & her sisters as they talk with doctors, support & love their mother, and make decisions. This isn't an easy time for them.

I don't know who exactly reads this blog and what relationship you have to us, but if you know my parents especially, please pray for them. If you know my dad & have the ability to call & check in or write an encouraging note, I'm sure he'd appreciate it as he's been doing a lot of bachelor time lately since my mom has had to be with Grandma in Lansing a lot (a 1.5 hour drive from their home). I'm sure he's surving just fine on oatmeal and the frozen stuffed green peppers my mom left for him, but I can't help but be concerned for him, too.

Thank you for your love & support of our family! These are the times when it's difficult to live on the other side of the ocean from them, but also make us thankful to have such an incredible community of family & friends. You are a blessing to us!

My Orange Revelation

Remember how the Ukraine had it's 'Orange Revolution' last year? Well, today I had my own personal 'Orange Revelation.' Close...but not quite.

I'm not a big fan of oranges. I like the idea of them - they have a nice shape & once peeled, usually pull apart into nice wedges. I like how good they are for you and I really like drinking their juice. However, I've just never really enjoyed eating them. Oddly enough, I'd always choose a grapefruit over an orange if I had to make the choice between citrus fruit that are messy to eat.
Anyway, today as I was eating my lunch, I was staring at the only thing in our fruit bowl - the big orange Andrew put in my stocking at Christmas. I started thinking about how it was probably going to go bad soon & how I probably should eat it because it's good for me & I've had a cold lately...and before I knew it, I was getting orange skin stuck under my fingernails as I peel the thing apart. It happened to be a particularly juicy & messy orange, and I didn't enjoy the experience of eating it. But, I kept forcing myself to eat piece after piece due to the health-induced guilt trip I was putting myself through.
So, here's where the revelation came in. As I took a particularly luscious bite, all the while thinking about how much better it would be if it was a grapefruit, I started thinking about people who lived (or still live) in parts of the world where they can't get fruit. I remember hearing about how bananas were a huge deal here during Soviet times because they were so hard to get. As soon as a vendor would get a shipment of them, people would be fighting over them. How amazing would that juicy piece of orange taste to someone from a place where fruit is hard to come by? What a celebration it could be to eat this huge orange if I was someone who couldn't ever get them?
And then I realized something: I've never been without. Growing up in a middle-class home in the US provided me the luxury of getting most anything I could ever need. The only foods I didn't eat where the ones my mom just chose not to cook or the ones I didn't like. When we moved here to Lithuania in 2002, I mourned the loss of peanut butter, but that - like many other western food items - have found it's way to our grocers' shelves in recent years.

I've never had to go without.
I am so incredibly blessed.

God has blessed me (and you, too, if you live in most developed parts of the world) with so very much. I need to not lose sight of that so easily.

The next time you eat an orange (or a banana, or most fruit at that) remember to pray for those who don't have the same luxury that you do.
I know I will.

She's a big kid now!

As of this past weekend, ieva kirstine is officially grown up. Okay...maybe not quite, but she has taken the step (or been moved) from sharing a room with mom & dad to the independance of a room of her very own.
The event has more strongly impacted us (the parents) far more than her (the newly-appointed big kid), as we had really become accustomed to hearing her sweet voice from her crib at the foot of our bed & liked how quickly we could jump to her side. Now we are forced to rely on an electronic moniter, through which her voice doesn't sound nearly so sweet (but still pretty close), and trust that the big room that she's in all by herself won't spontaneously combust in the night. Oh, and hope we don't stub our toes too many times as we stumble in our sleep from our room to hers in the night to change & feed her - thankfully there's no stairs or too many turns to navigate!
After two nights on our own, we're doing okay...wait...sorry - I meant after two nights on her own, she's doing okay! ...I actually even wonder if she knows the difference.

I guess this is just the first step of many that will force us to slowly let go of our precious baby girl as she grows up before our eyes. And, like with all those difficult steps to come, I have to remind myself that this is good for both her & for us as we're teaching her to become her own person - a person who I'm sure will be simply amazing.

Ieva's first passport stamp

This past week was our last week of Christmas break & since we had a friends car at our disposal, we decided to go up to Riga, the capital city of Latvia (just north of us). Our friends & colleagues Rebecca & Pisey came with us, as they hadn't seen much of this beautiful city yet and we've gotten to know it pretty well after 4 previous trips there. Ieva did great on the 4 hour drive (sleeping most of the way!) and we all especially enjoyed the American treat of eating at a TGI Friday's in the city.
The real highlight of our trip, though, was spending half a day at the huge indoor water park, Akva Parks, which is just outside of Riga. Ieva loves to take baths, but had never actually been submerged in water before since we don't have a bathtub (we bathe her in the 5-6 inch deep base of our shower). After a few tears when we first got in the water with her, she did fantastic!! We had her in the wave pool, floating on a tube in the lazy river, in the kids play area, and on these huge underwater bubble chairs and she seemed to enjoy it all! There were loads of people around, which also didn't seem to faze her too much, and everyone was staring & smiling at our precious girl in her little blue swim diaper.
We had been there once before & wondered if we wouldn't enjoy it as much with a 3 month old baby in tow, since we wouldn't be able to ride the big slides or do many of the activities, but having Ieva there with us was fun in a new way...a more family oriented, baby-centered way...and we loved it!

Stave Family Highlights of 2005

Here are our Top 10 highlights from 2005:

10. Our (very) recent discovery of the WB sitcom 'Gilmore Girls' via a colleagues DVD set of the first two seasons (we don't know what has happened since season two, so if you know, don't tell us!! We're holding out hope to somehow get caught up)!
9. The start of our 4th year of work & ministry at Lithuania Christian College with Andrew's best yet First Year Student Orientation program.
8. Our relationships with students at LCC have deepened more than ever during this past year.
7. Having the opportunity to reconnect with dear friends & colleagues at George Fox University this past summer through working with them as they hosted the annual ACSD conference.
6. The incredibly cheap package deal we took to Hurghada, Egypt during our spring break vacation to relax from a very busy spring semester.
5. Our entire trip to the States this summer & all the connections we made with family & friends. All the love & support we were shown through countless baby showers and work opportunities were a tremendous blessing!!
4. Kim's mom & aunt's trip here to Klaipeda to be with us after Ieva's birth.
3. The day we discovered we were pregnant on January 16th.
2. Ieva's birth on September 25th.
1. Marvelling at the many ways our amazing daughter has changed and grown since her birth during the past 3 months!

We are so thankful for all that God has blessed us with during 2005 & wait with eager anticipation to see what He will do in our lives in 2006!

Phonetical Ieva

We understand that by giving our daughter a Lithuanian name with a pronunciation unknown to most North Americans, it makes it difficult for our family and friends to to know how to say it without talking with us. In an effort to help you pronounce 'IEVA' as the Lithuanians do, we spelled it out below based on the IPA (International Phonetical Alphabet). The 'i' and the 'e' keep their individual sounds, but as you say the name at normal speed the sounds blend together, almost making a 'y' sound (as in 'yawn' or 'you'). Say it aloud & you'll understand.

Merry Christmas!

Despite this being our 4th year in Lithuania, this was our first Christmas spent here. It was particularly special being our first family Christmas with ieva in the picture, and we had a fabulous time!
Christmas Eve was spent at our friends Kim & Mark's home hosting a party for the international students who weren't able to travel home for the holidays. It was a fun time of food, gifts, singing & games, and hopefully helped some of our students feel more at home, despite being so far from their families.
After the party, our friends Janneke & Reuben and their kitten Sasha came over and spent the night here so we could all get up & do a "family style" Christmas day together. We spent the day opening stockings & gifts, made and enjoyed a tasty breakfast of egg casserole & cinnamon rolls (Janneke has a bread machine!) and spent the afternoon playing cards. In the evening we went to an intimate Christmas service at our church where we sat in a circle with the 15-20 friends, colleagues & students who were still in town.
I found myself being surprisingly emotional during church (although I realize that being emotional should never come as a surprise to me...but believe it or not, sometimes it does) as I contemplated the reality of the birth of baby Jesus & looked down at my own precious baby curled up in my arms. I was especially touched when during one colleagues' prayer he thanked God for sending Christ as an sweet, innocent baby - much like our Ieva. We ended the service by lighting candles and singing Silent Night - which again, kept my tears flowing as I looked around and realized how blessed we are to have such a community - such a family - here in Klaipeda to live alongside.
The five of us came home from church to make a huge Christmas dinner - complete with honey-glazed ham (you can't buy it glazed here - we made it ourselves!), sweet potatoes, potato casserole, corn fritters, jello, salad, and Christmas cookies & hot wassail for dessert. Labai Skanau! (Lithuanian for 'very tasty!')
It was an extremely meaningful day of friends, fellowship and the distinct reminder of how blessed we are by Christ's birth and the opportunity we've been given to serve Him here in Lithuania.

Here are some photos from Christmas Eve & Christmas Day:

Christmas Eve Party with International students


Kylie Hoelterhoff & Ieva at the Christmas Eve party
(Kylie's getting practice for her new little sister coming in April!)


In front of the Christmas tree on Ieva's first Christmas morning


Andrew got a new scarf & hat for Christmas!


Ieva got new shoes from Janneke & Reuben!


Such a surprise! I got the Amazing Bullet for Christmas!
(to read the funny story behind this, click here)


Christmas dinner in our living room


We didn't have a very white Christmas, but woke up
this morning (Dec. 26) to a winter wonderland!

A few of my favorite things...about my daughter

In keeping with the Christmas spirit, I've decided to make a list of my favorite things - but these are all specifically about our darling nearly 3- month old daughter, ieva (pronounced 'yeh-vah' for those who have forgotten or don't know).
Now, I know that parents are supposed to be wildly in love with their babies & think theirs is the most beautiful one ever, but I feel justified to say that our kid & our adoration of her seems way beyond the norm.

These are a few of my favorite things:

• her infectious smiles
• her adorable dimple that dips in each time she smiles
• her stunningly enormous & alert blue eyes
• her perfectly tiny fingers & toes
• her sweet voice that she's learning to use more & more
• I love it when she's laying under her play gym, looking up at the mirror hanging above her head & smiling, cooing & talking up a storm to the girl she sees (as I'm watching her do at the moment). They have whole conversations together!
• I love it after she finishes nursing, (when she's not asleep), she'll sometimes turn her head & just lay there looking up at me with her beautiful eyes. She'll smile & talk to me & and often reach up with one hand. We'll sit there, holding hands & talking, and I'm in heaven.
• I love it when Andrew gets her laughing - she has the 'open-mouthed smile' & 'throw -your-head-back laughter' that brings nothing but joy to anyone around.
• I love it when she wakes up & lays in her crib talking away in her sweet little voice to the colorful mobile spinning above her
  
• I love it when I take her to events at the college (like the staff Christmas luncheon yesterday) and everyone wants to hold her & take photos of her and she's just as charming as can be as she gets passed around (you can see her working her magic with Virginia below).
• I love it after she yawns, she always makes this cute guttural sound that tells us that her yawn is done. (almost like she's clearing her throat, but much cuter!)
• I love it when she sneezes & then smiles after she sprays us with baby snot
  
• I love it when she's bundled up in her white fleece snow suit (somewhat resembling the stay-puff marshmallow man) & I'm carrying her in the front pack and I can hold her bundled feet & kiss the top of her bundled head as she watches the world pass by as we walk.
• I love it when she's taking a bath & she starts to kick her feet on her own & then smiles & laughs with excitement as the water splashes all over me.
• I actually love it when she cries the 'I've just woken up & am a bit disoriented' cry where her whole face scruntches up & her mouth makes a visible frown - it's so darn cute (and rarely lasts very long...even better)!
• I love putting my face down close to hers when she's peacefully asleep in her crib with her little arms up on either side of her head, listening to her rhythmic breathing.

Before having ieva, I remember hearing that after having a baby, you won't remember what life was like without them. Despite the sleep deprivation & spit-up stained clothes, I wouldn't go back to pre-ieva life for anything.

Snow, Amazing Bullets, & Handel's Messiah...

Today felt like the first real winter day we've had in Klaipeda this year. Over the course of the day, over 4 inches of snow accumulated & we spent most of the day outside enjoying it! We donned our long underwear & went to the 'things' market (essentially a large, outdoor flea market) this morning with Janneke & Reuben, wandering the isles and getting ideas for Christmas gifts for each other. This market sells everything from pet supplies to shoes to DVD players to fur coats - all in individual booths set up in long isles. Here you can see everything from little babushkas (Russian grandmas) selling hand-knit wool socks to men pushing a wheeled cart around selling hot 'belašas' (a pastry with minced meat inside). It's relatively amazing to us what you can find at the market - there is truly something for everyone there!
Janneke was shocked to see the 'Amazing Bullet' (as seen on TV - called the Magic Bullet in the US) blender/ chopper/ processor for sale there, as she had been considering purchasing one of these wonders while she was in Canada this past summer. (We had never heard of it.) We've been in the market for a blender & she convinced me that the Bullet is a blender as well as so much more...so we had to have one. We talked the guy down to selling 2 of them to us for a great deal - approximately $35 US dollars each (aren't they normally like $100?) Since Janneke also wanted one, we bought them both & decided that we'd each wrap them up & give them to each other for Christmas & then make Christmas milkshakes with to test them out. We're silly, we know...but it's so much fun!!

Ieva was bundled so deep within her stroller that she slept through our whole market experience & missed the beauty of the huge falling flakes that we were getting pummelled by. After a couple hours, we were ready to thaw out and found a cafe in Old Town that looked warm & cozy. We drank tea, ate lunch & watched the snow fall outside while enjoying good conversation & warmth inside. Later, we went back to Janneke & Reuben's apartment where we played cards & listened to Handel's Messiah to continue in the Christmas spirit. It was while singing along that we came up with our own rendition in honor of our precious daughter "...the 'Ieva-lasting daughter', the prince of peace..." We think Handel would be proud of our creativity!

What's in a nickname?

The Lithuanian language is an extremely difficult one to learn. We're nowhere near being fluent yet, but can hold our own in restaurants and while out & about in the city. One fun thing about Lithuanian, however, are the nicknames everyone has...or more correctly I should say the diminutives each name has. You know what a diminutive is, right? Kind of the "sweet, little..." version of someone's name. Like Kimmy for Kim or Tommy for Tom.
In Lithuanian, however, every name has a diminutive version & all are very commonly used - especially with children. To fit into the grammatical structure of the language, all female names end in -a or -e, while all male names end in -as or -us. So there are two generally used suffixes to make a name diminutive. -ute is added to a female name & -ukas to a male name. My Lithuanian colleagues gave me the name "Kimute" long ago & some who I'm close with use it on a regular basis. You North Americans are probably reading it as "Kim-oot", but in actuality, it is pronounced "Kim-oot-eh" or almost sounding like "Kimootay." Andrew, for example, is sometimes called Andrukas (Ahn-droo-kus). This is the normal way the Lithuanian version of Andrew's name (Andrius) would be used.

Since Ieva is already a Lithuanian name, there's no need to make up a diminutive form like people have done for me. "Ievute" is already well established, and when we're at LCC, she is referred to more as that than in any other way. Remember now, it's pronounced "Yev-oo-teh." There is even a Barbie doll knock-off called Ieva with a miniature little girl version called Ievute. (kind of like Barbie & Skipper.) We're so used to hearing these diminutives that we use them on a regular basis, too. So, if you ever hear us referring to Ievute, you know we're talking about our precious baby girl. It especially works great when singing the Raffi song 'Baby Beluga.' When we sing it, it's "Baby Ievute in the deep blue sea..."

Because Lithuania belonged to the Soviet Union until 1991, there is a large population of ethnic Russians who live in Lithuania. You can usually tell a person's ethnicity by their name, since the Russian names don't have the same grammatical endings that Lithuanian names have. Something that Russian names do have, however, are a lot of nicknames, most of which are used interchangeably with a person's real name. Being unfamiliar with Russian names when I first got here, it took me forever to figure out which nickname went with which real name, as the correlations are sometimes difficult to find.
For example, a common Russian name is Aleksandr (for a guy) or Aleksandra (for a girl). Don't ask me how, but for some reason, the nickname that goes for both guys & girls with this name is Sasha. Sania also works. Hmmm... One that is a little easier to see the connection for is Misha for Mikhail. There's also Tania for Tatiana, Slava for Viacheslav, & Katia for Jekaterina.

And if you think some of the spellings & pronunciations of those first names are difficult - you should see the last names! I set the goal during my first year to at least properly pronounce first names - but I leave the last names to the pros.

Christmas comes early to LCC

As usual, the annual Lithuania Christian College Christmas program occurred during the 1st weekend of December. With all the end of semester Christmas events & students preparing for finals, doing it any later just wouldn't work.

I served as the Program Coordinator again this year - something I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do with ieva, but found it to be a huge relief to get a little adult interaction again! This was the first year that I didn't sing in the choir, however, so I actually got to sit & watch the program as a member of the audience, which was fun. Ieva did awesome both nights & slept through the entire thing. Because I presented flowers to Dave (the director) at the end, I sat near the front & on an end (in case I had to run out with ieva or to help with something - like the first night when Mary & Joseph had their mics on back stage & we could hear everything they were saying!) which put me directly in front of the brass band we had accompanying the choir in a few pieces. After jolting awake to the first brass proclamation of Christ's birth, Ieva slept through the rest of it without a problem.

Our program is unique, as it's all done with both English & a Lithuanian narration, and the students who participate come from 18 different countries. This year our 3 wise men were from Ghana, Kyrgystan & Lithuania, Mary was from Albania & Joseph from Ukraine. A few years ago Dave had a life-size straw horse made (straw figures are a traditional Lithuanian handicraft) for Joseph to pull Mary out on. It's on wheels, so it rolls well & the audience always gets a huge kick out of it! We also have a Lithuanian guy who's played the angel Gabriel for the past few years & we tell the whole story of him appearing to shepherds in the fields, as well as to Mary & Joseph. We also had a troupe of dancing angels, dressed in white & proclaiming God's glory. Overall, this year was one of our best yet. The choir sounded amazing (especially considering they are made up of volunteering staff, faculty & students - some who can't even read music), and we had a bell choir who also added a nice touch.

People kept asking why ieva wasn't playing baby Jesus & then were shocked when I told them that she probably wouldn't stay as calm and serene as the doll we use instead. Everyone thinks she is a perfect baby who never cries, since she knows how to turn the charm on when she's in public. Before the 2nd performance, we took a group photo with the entire cast & Andrew set ieva on the back of the big straw horse.
Everyone Ooo'ed & Aww'ed and it seemed like hundreds of photos were taken (too bad our camera batteries were dead by that time & no one has sent us a copy yet). She definitely is a little star around LCC!

All in all, the program was a success. We told the story of Christ's birth & His love for all people to approximately 1,300 people over two nights, and hopefully, what was communicated made a difference in someone's life.

Birthdays come & Birthdays go...

...and my 31st birthday came & went this past Sunday!
Historically, my birthdays have been a much-anticipated thing with a lot of excitement surrounding the celebration. Last year was a particularly big deal to me, being my 30th and all. When Andrew & I got married, I warned him that I LOVED to be surprised on my birthdays, but due to my incurable curiosity combined with my sleuthful detective skills, he'd have a hard time ever truly pulling one over on me. To his credit, he's worked hard over my past 6 birthdays & has pulled off some sort of surprise or another for at least 4 of the 6.
This year, however, my birthday was so not a big deal to me that I hardly remembered it was happening, not to mention spending any time scheming about a surprise. Maybe being a mom has consumed so much of my mental energy that there wasn't anything left to think about birthdays. Maybe 31 doesn't seem very exciting to me, therefore giving me nothing to be excited about. Regardless of the reason - it just came & went this year without much fuss, which I was perfectly fine with. The small amount of fuss that did occur was, however, very fun indeed.

The day itself was full with a rehearsal for the Christmas program that's coming this weekend, an international leadership conference that had an afternoon seminar specifically for staff & faculty, and then church in the evening. I at least wanted the later evening to hold something other than our usual 'sit & watch reruns of Law & Order on the Hallmark channel' routine. So, we invited Janneke & Reuben to come over & help us get into the Christmas spirit. We put on the 1st Amy Grant Christmas album (a classic!), made a couple batches of Christmas cookies (peanut butter blossoms without the hershey kisses (they don't exist here) & white chocolate pretzels with the meltable white chocolate mom had sent me), and put up the tree & a few other Christmasy decorations. And since I'm a sucker for all thing Christmas, it was the perfect way to spend my birthday evening.

Andrew had said he wanted to take me out to dinner on Monday night & had arranged with Janneke & Reuben to come babysit (you can see Janneke & Ieva on the left). It was our first time away from Ieva, and man, was it fabulous! We went to a fancy restaurant in Old Town & were spoiled by the fantastic food & wonderful service. We were also really impressed by how low the prices were - until the bill came & we realized that the prices we had been looking at on the menu were actually listed in Euros, not in Litas. Ooops. Now dinner cost about 3 times what we expected & this nice little joint wasn't exactly impressing us with their prices anymore. Since it was my birthday, however, Andrew said I was worth it and we were able to laugh at our (fairly major) oversight & decided we won't be going out to dinner again for a while.

It was a gorgeous evening as we left the restaurant & I wanted to walk the 20 minutes home, but Andrew insisted we take a bus. This was a total role reversal for us, as usually, I'm the one who wants to be lazy & insists we ride home & it's my frugal husband who would rather walk than shell out the 3 measly Litas (approx. $1) it costs for the two of us to take the bus. But he kept saying he was concerned about Ieva...actually not so much Ieva, but more for Jann & Reub - what if she was crying out of control or giving them problems? I didn't share his concern, but thought it was sweet that he was such a worried daddy & jumped on the bus with him.

As we walked in the door, I saw the back of a body that didn't below to Janneke, Reuben or Ieva hurrying into the kitchen & identified the shirt as belonging to Casey. "Oh, Casey's here!" I exclaimed as I rounded the corner into the kitchen to see not only Casey, but Anna, Rebecca & Pisey all standing there with big smiles. "Happy Birthday!" they all said as I turned to my grinning husband. "Worried about Ieva??" I asked inquisitively. "Not so much" he told me. "Casey just has to leave by 8:30 & I wanted him to be a part of some of the celebrating."

My sneaky husband had done it again.

So the evening was spent feasting on the Christmas cookies made the night before & the scrumptious ooey-gooey chocolate cake that Anna made. Being the good friends that they are, they brought me some fun gifts & we ended the evening with a champagne toast. Even Ieva got in on some of the celebrating! :)

It turns out that turning 31 can be fun after all!