Combined Thanksgiving & Birthday celebrations!

Since my (Kim's) birthday landed right ON Thanksgiving day this year, I got to have 2 celebrations in 1! But...since Thanksgiving isn't a Lithuanian holiday... (unlike all of you) we had a normal work day on Thursday. And since I was crazy-busy preparing for the 1st two events of my new (temporary) job as the LCC Holiday Coordinator, there wasn't a whole lot of birthday celebrating going on.

But we did manage to have our usual (and somewhat silly) American Thanksgiving tradition of going to McDonalds for Thanksgiving dinner. I don't know when this started, but we've been doing it as long as we've been here. I usually order a chicken sandwhich & splurge with an apple pie, as it seems like the appropriate replacement for turkey & pumpkin pie. We had a smaller group this year than last, but it was still fun, nonetheless.

The 2008 Thanksgiving McDonalds crew!

This year, I was suprised by two students (Ellie & Arunas) who happened to be a McDonalds at the same time we were, and presented me with a birthday chocolate chip muffin, complete with a lit candle! And then everyone launched into a fun but relatively embarrasing song of Happy Birthday to me, and since it was in English, it attracted the attention of everyone in the restaurant. Fun times!

Kim's birthday suprise at Micky D's!

Our real thanksgiving dinner took place on Saturday at the annual staff/faculty potluck! We had an abundance of turkey, gravy, stuffing & all the other thanksgiving fixins! It was a great time to fellowship with our colleagues (American, Canadian, Lithuanian & Russian alike). I didn't do as much fellowshipping (or eating!) as I would have liked since I was doing the coordinating of the event, but it still was a fabulous way to celebrate Thanksgiving! We are so incredibly thankful for the fantastic community we have here at LCC!

Sophie & Ieva checking out the dessert table. (If you look closely at the pumpkin pie, you'll see the finger-sized indent from Ieva's finger when she was taste-testing every dessert to figure out which one she liked best!)

The 1st Snow of Winter 2008

Last weekend we were blessed by getting covered in a gorgeous blanket of perfect white snow! And the best part was...it stuck!

Ieva & Andrew went out on the balcony & built a snowman during the beautifully sunny Saturday afternoon we had.

Then on Sunday it snowed a lot more, so Ieva went out on the balcony a few times in just her bathrobe, mittens & snow boots! The flakes were huge & so pretty!

Levi, Charlotte, Josiah & Ieva

Then on Monday evening we were all at LCC for a community dinner & walked home in the blowing snow with our friends the Kaethlers & the Boschs.

The kids (& dads!) had fun throwing snowballs the whole way!

After being out in the snow, it's always best to come inside & curl up with your best friend! Ieva loves her kitty Asti!

Planes, Trains & Automobiles: Our 2008 Fall Break!

Last week was LCC's annual Fall Break. Andrew went to the States with the LCC men's basketball team, the Moose, for a rigorous schedule of travelling & games. He was gone for nearly two weeks - all of fall break & all of this past week as well. He'll be back tomorrow evening & we can't wait to have him home!

Since Ieva & I were going to be on our own for the break, we decided to travel with our friends Jared, Carrie & Charlotte Schumacher. Thanks to the discount inter-European airline, RyanAir, we found cheap flights to Glasgow, Scotland. Since the flight departed from Riga, Latvia, we took a 5-hour bus ride from Klaipeda to Riga before catching our flight.

Ieva loves to hold baby Charlotte!

Upon our arrival in Glasgow, Ieva & I took a train to the city of Carlisle, England - just over the Scottish border - while the Schumachers trained directly to Edinburgh to settle into the apartment we had rented for the week.Maja, Kim, Kylie, Ieva, Kim & Devin outside the Hoelterhoff's cute English house.

Ieva & I spent two fun-filled days in Carlisle with our dear friends Kim & Mark Hoelterhoff and their kids Devin, Kylie & Maja. The Hoelterhoffs worked with us at LCC from 2004-2007 and we went through a lot together during those years. It was great fun to finally see their home in England and explore their fabulous city of Carlisle!Good Buddies Ieva & Kylie at the Carlisle Cathedral

On Wednesday morning, Ieva & I boarded another train bound for Edinburgh and joined the Schumachers in a fabulous apartment just off the Royal Mile (the central shopping street that ends at the Edinburgh Castle). We had a great time exploring this city with astounding architecture & an intriguing history.

A section of Edinburgh's Royal Mile

Kim & Carrie within the castle gates

Ieva & I with the Edinburgh Castle behind us

All said & done, Ieva & I spent this trip on:

• 2 buses
• 2 airplanes
• 6 trains
• 3 taxis
• and did a whole lot of walking

It was great fun!

GO VOTE TODAY!!!

(image borrowed from Facebook)

Sorry to go political on you, but it's difficult being on the other side of the world while one of the largest & most important elections (in my personal opinion) is happening in America today. I'm not going to get into my (our) political preferences, even though for the first time in my adult life I finally care deeply about the results of this election, but I do want to encourage any of you who happen to see this blog to please take full advantage of the privilege you have to go cast your vote today. Regardless of which way you vote, just go do it.

(image borrowed from Sandra McCraken's website)

As Americans living abroad, we had to go to great lengths to get our registrations & ballots cast. In my opinion, the work was worth it. If you're already registered, then all you have to do is make a trip to your local polling location & let your opinion be known. It's so easy, and truly SUCH AN HONOR to let your opinion count toward the future leadership of our country. Why not do it?

And even though it's probably way too late for this schpeal of mine, I still plead with you:

• Please don't be swayed by the media to swing the direction of your vote.
• Please don't vote one way or the other just because you happened to be raised in a Republican or Democratic home/community.
• And if you haven't already, please take some time to understand the major issues of this election and the stance each candidate takes on them.
• Make an educated vote.

In the words of a wise friend of mine: If you don't take the opportunity to vote, then you suspend your right to complain about the result of the election later.

Happy Voting!

The blessing of little friends

We are so thankful for the friendships Ieva has been blessed with this fall! Had she been born during our early years at LCC, she would have many less friends as there simply weren't many kids in our community between 2002-2004. This year in particular, there is an unusually high number of expatriate families with young kids and we're really enjoying getting to know them.

Here are some of Ieva's friends:Ieva, Nike & Erik
During the month of August she spent every weekday with Erik & Nike Karosis. Their parents, Saul & Susanna, are both LCC alumni and Saul now pastors a local church in Klaipeda that many of our friends attend. An interesting thing about their family is that Saul is Lithuanian and Sanna is Swedish, and both parents are fluent in both languages. So they primarily speak Swedish to the kids at home, but the kids have learned Lithuanian from being at church & school and out in the community. Erik has also picked up English from his friendship with a number of American kids - only 6 & already trilingual! Amazing!

Ieva & baby Charlotte (2 months old at the time)
One of Ieva's newest friends this year is baby Charlotte. Some of you may remember that last fall Ieva also had a new friend named baby Charlotte as well! This is, indeed, a different Charlotte, but so far Ieva's two for two: 2 baby Charlottes in 2 years. This is Charlotte Schumacher, the 3-month old daughter of our new friends & colleagues Jared & Carrie Schumacher, and Ieva absolutely adores her!

Ieva & Sophie
Another new friendship for Ieva this fall is with Sophie Campbell. Sophi's dad, John, teaches in the theology department at LCC. And not only do the Campbells live across the street from us, but Sophie is in the same school as Ieva - in the classroom right next door! The girls often play together at recess and sometimes we'll walk to or from school together, which they both enjoy!

Josiah, Ieva & Levi

Yet another new family to the LCC community is Chris & Lydia Bosch with 8-year old Josiah & 6-year old Levi. We've really enjoyed getting to know Chris & Lydia, and Ieva adores these boys! Even more fun for us parents to see, the boys absolutely adore her! Especially Josiah! The last time we were at their house for dinner, Ieva burst into song (as usual) but this time, adapted "tomorrow" from Annie to sound like this: "Josiah! Josiah! I love ya! Josiah! You're only a day away..." Too cute!!

Ieva, Erik & David at her birthday party
There's obviously a lot to be said for long-time friends, and Ieva does have a few of those here, too. Since our long-time colleagues Gregg & Sharon Brubaker adopted Lithuanian brothers last December, Erik and David have become good friends with Ieva. And this fall David is even in Ieva's class at school, so they get to spend even more time together.

Ieva helping Charlotte celebrate her 2nd birthday last week

And Ieva's closest friend here in Klaipeda is the original baby Charlotte...who is no longer a baby! In fact, this fall Ieva started referring to her as Big Charlotte, just to differentiate between her & new baby Charlotte. We just celebrated Charlotte's 2nd birthday last week, and are also thrilled that her parents, our dear friends Andrew & Alene, have returned home now with not only Charlotte, but with 6-week old baby Paige in tow.

Ieva & Charlotte admiring baby Paige

There are other kids in our community that Ieva occasionally plays with, and she considers many of our friends her friends as well. And of course, she is blessed with a small troupe of friends back in the USA, too. All in all, we couldn't be more thankful & blessed for the friendships God has given our little girl here in Lithuania!!

Living Outside of Her Generation

As I'm sure many of you did, I grew up hearing stories from those in my parents and grandparents' generation about how much harder life was for them as kids. "When I was a kid..." and then things would get rolling from there "...I had to walk 2 miles to school in 3 feet of snow...uphill...both ways...barefoot..." and the tales would get taller as they'd go.

I've thought of this generational descriptor many times in the past month as we've been walking our daughter to preschool...a 1/2 mile each way...over a 25-foot high pedestrian bridge...in the rain...barefoot. (just kidding! I had to slip that one in...)

But in all seriousness, our newly 3-year old daughter walks .5 miles to school & .5 miles home from school every day. And it usually takes us anywhere from 20-30 minutes depending on her mood & how much she wants to dawdle (or how much we refuse to carry her). How many 3-year olds do you know that walk that far to school? We have realized that not even many of her classmates do this, as the vast majority either live in the neighborhood of the school or their parents have cars.

We're curious how it's going to work once the weather gets really cold & wet this winter. There is a bus we could take, but it goes out of the way & will take nearly as long to walk to the bus & from the bus stop to school as it would to just walk the whole way.

So when Ieva is a grandma, she'll be able to tell her grandkids the stories about "when I was a kid living in Eastern Europe..." and she won't even have to embellish...at least not too much!

Ieva turns 3!!!

On September 25th, our baby had her 3rd birthday! We had a great time spending the next 3 days celebrating! Before she went to school on the 25th we opened the box from Grandma & Grandpa Stave, Auntie Hannah, Uncle Morgan and Auntie Ingrid. She immediately wanted to cover herself with the fun band aids they sent - especially the cool Spiderman ones from Ingie! And she wanted to wear her new sweater that Grandma knit for her to school.The birthday girl in her new sweater that Grandma Stave knit

Showing off her Spidey band aids for Auntie Ingie!

We sent her to school with chocolate chip mini-muffins to share with her friends & we picked her up from school with a big flower made out of twisted balloons which all the kids thought was pretty cool. That evening we went to her favorite pizza place & let her order special treats that she normally wouldn't get. We came home & let her open a couple presents, then talked to Ama & Grandpa Buz (Kim's parents) on skype. She & I made a big pan of imported American brownies and our friends Carrie, Jared and Chris all came over to sing her happy birthday.

Mom & Dad got her a pretty pink umbrella!

Then on Saturday, we had a JUNGLE PARTY for her friends! We decorated the house like a jungle and gave all the kids stuffed giraffes as a gift to take home. Ieva's friends Sophie, David & Erik came. We were sad that Erik, Nike & Ema weren't able to come, but our small living room was still full of energy with only 4 kids!

Welcome to the Jungle!

Birthday girl

friends...Ieva, Sophie, David & Erik

Getting ready to give out giraffes to her friends!

The jungle crew...

After Ieva blew out her candles on Saturday, we asked her to tell us how old she is now. She did her typical response of holding up her hand & slowly opening up 1, 2 & 3 fingers...but then she pulled up a 4th finger & said "I'm 4!" I said "are you sure? I thought you were 3?" To which she responded "we had a party the other day & I was 3 then. At this party, now I'm 4!" Pretty good theory, huh? :)three...

Prayers have paid off!

The first two weeks of Ieva's preschool debut were difficult. Very difficult. Much more difficult than I (the mommy of the family) ever expected. Our kid has been saying goodbye to us as we left the house each morning since she was 11 months old. On the occasional day that she decided to be clingy, the babysitter always said that within 2 minutes she was as happy as a clam again. So she should do fine going to school, right? Apparently not so much.

We had talked it up. School was a BIG deal for BIG kids! On her first day she was excited...at least in theory. When it actually came to walking her into that classroom & then walking away, her excitement was replaced by tearful pleadings for us to not leave her there. We'd come at the end of the day, hopeful that she had adapted (like she did at home with the babysitters) but instead found her tearful in the arms of her teacher.

Mornings were getting increasingly difficult by the day. The worst was Friday of the second week when she cried so hard with me in the coat room that she made herself throw up. It was all I could do to not scoop her up and run all the way home so we could spend the day together in familiar comfort. Instead, I pryed her out of my arms and into the extended arms of a teacher & fled the building as quickly as I could so as not to let Ieva, the teacher or anyone else see the tears I was fighting back.

I was having such self-doubt about my parenting. In the evenings she was acting out far more than usual so instead of lavishing her with comforting time together as a family, we found ourselves in discipline mode more than anything else. We knew why it was hard for her - she's an extremely verbal kid and the teachers don't understand her when she speaks English to them. That would frustrate me, too! And she's never had such a high kid to adult ratio in her life...sharing the teachers attention with 14 other kids was challenging for her. And she probably doesn't fully understand everything going on around her. And they feed her weird food (not the PB&J or Mac & Cheese that we spoil her with here). No wonder she was upset!

This past Monday we decided that we'd all walk to school together (it's on the way to LCC) but only Andrew would take Ieva in and drop her off. She reacts much more emotionally to me than to him, so for both her emotional stability and mine, we removed myself from the morning drop off. And suddenly...everything changed. At the end of the day she was playing happily when I came to pick her up. The teacher said she hadn't cried all day!

By Wednesday Andrew said that he had to remind her to give him a hug & a kiss because she was in such a rush to run into her classroom! And by this past Friday when I had to drop her off in the morning, she did the same to me. I was thrilled!!

I've talked to a number of moms at LCC (and beyond) over those first two weeks seeking advice, wisdom & prayer. A number of people have said they were praying for her (and me) as she transitioned. And at least for last week, the prayers paid off! I don't expect perfectly smooth sailing from here on out, but having one good week was so very encouraging!

Ieva's 2nd Flower Girl Debut...

...was just over a month after her first on September 6 for the wedding of Aurelija, Ieva's first nanny. Aurelija joined our family in August of 2006 when Ieva was 11 months old. She left us in November of 2007 to move to Lithuania's capital city of Vilnius where her boyfriend Balys lived so they could see what it was like to date while living in the same city. We had met Balys & thought he was pretty fantastic, so we were happy for them to develop their relationship in closer proximity to each other, but were heartbroken to lose Aurelija. We've stayed in touch with the couple - visiting when we're in Vilnius or when they're in Klaipeda and were thrilled when they got engaged over Easter. They invited us to the wedding before we left for the summer, and when we returned from the States they asked if Ieva would be their flower girl...an unusual element for a Lithuanian wedding. Ieva already had the dress, so we just changed the sash from green to red to match their colors.

the red version

We spent a glorious weekend in Vilnius around the time of the wedding: the weather was in the high 80's (a nice break from the 60's it had been in Klaipeda), the city was hosting "Vilnius Days" which covered all major streets & squares with local artisans selling their wares and concerts, we took our friends Jared, Carrie & Charlotte Schumacher and had fun introducing them to the city as well. Our highlight of the weekend was by far the wedding.On the train to Vilnius with the Schumachers

The ceremony was beautiful & much like many evangelical weddings we’ve attended except in Lithuanian. Since the reception wasn't scheduled to begin until after the bride & groom drive around the city taking photos, they had planned for the 60+ of us remaining to take a rousing driving tour of the city on 2 decorated trolley buses – complete with on-board entertainment & food! It was a very fun way to stall while the photo shoot happened. We returned to the church just before the bride & groom and each guest proceeded to line up in the lawn & present gifts to the couple, give greetings and take a photo. Of course, we had forgotten our gifts in Klaipeda, but it was still fun to get a few minutes to chat with them personally.Here come the bride & groom!

We had gone to the wedding expecting to know no one but the bride & groom and to not understand much. Instead, we were amazed by the number of LCC alumni there as well as how many people spoke great English & were very excited to talk to us! We were also blessed to be surrounded by such a vibrant, young Christian Lithuanian group of people. Even though I had to carry Ieva down the isle (again!) no one minded & she was a star in her beautiful dress. All in all, a wonderful celebration and a wonderful weekend!

Ieva's 1st Flower Girl Debut...

...was on August 3rd in her Auntie Hannah & (now) Uncle Morgan's wedding in Oregon. Since Hannah got her an amazing dress that practically matched her own wedding dress, we talked a lot about how Hannah would be the Queen & Ieva would be the Princess for the day. Once in the dress, Ieva felt pretty good about herself so she kept trying to convince us that she was ALSO a Queen (along with Auntie Hannah, of course)! Getting Ready...

Royalty

The wedding was held at a golf course on the McKenzie River outside of Eugene. The ceremony was under a canopy & the reception in a covered picnic area with a backdrop of mountains. It was a beautiful setting & fun to celebrate with all of the Stave family and lots of friends!

The Stave Girls

(Ingrid, Hannah, me & Ieva)

The Lithuanian Staves

The wedding's official cake-tester

Kickin' it up at the reception

(aren't the crocs great? They were Hannah's idea...)

Our baby goes to School (preschool)

Normally September 1st involves Kim and I rushing around LCC as we finalize last minute housing details, hire last minute student employees and begin to arrange what our semester will look like as we interact with the students that we minister to in the university. This September 1st was a little different as we dressed Ieva up in a "pretty dress" and walked the 15 minutes to "Obelele Darželis" a derivative of "little apple kindergarten or preschool. This preschool is fairly close to our normal walking route to LCC and is tucked away in a little neighborhood off the main road. While on the outside it doesn't look like much, the teachers are friendly, the director is happy to have "foreigners" in her school and the staff, even though they don't speak English, try very hard to communicate with us and Ieva.

Kim had run out the night before to buy some flowers for her teacher and teacher's assistant. (a September 1st tradition in Lithuania) We made her look all pretty (not a tough task) and headed out the door for the walk. Along the way we talked about all the kids she would get to play with, the new toys and games she would see and all the fun she would have with her new friends.


She fortunately already had two friends in the preschool, David and David, both English-speaking children of some LCC colleagues. As soon as we arrived she seemed to be fine and when she sat down next to a little girl and began to play in the little kitchen, we thought we were home free.

And then it started...."I want you to stay with me, I want to go to your office with you, I want to go to LCC with you mommy." I guess we should have expected it but it has been a hard week of early morning goodbyes. In fact, each day has been harder then the one before, culminating with this morning when Kim had to drag a limp, crying girl in the front door, leave her with her teacher (who is very sweet and patient) and walk quickly away. One thing that it has reinforced is how much she appreciates us and hugs us when we pick her up in the afternoon. There's nothing like a little girl hug to make a daddy melt.

Overall we're hopeful that this will pass and she'll be excited about going to school and playing with her friends. One other fun thing is that she has begun to say many of the Lithuanian words that she is learning. As we walked to school one day, Ieva spouted out proudly "girl is mergaite" and even pronounced it pretty well. Each day she's adding more words, counting to ten in Lithuanian and adjusting to this different way of life then her norm, a babysitter coming to our house and focusing only on her.

While it will take time, we're excited for her language learning opportunity, excited for her to make more friends and continue to grow and experience new things. We welcome your prayers for her to adjust and develop a sense of security when we leave as well as prayers for us to trust that she'll be ok when she's clinging to us and begging us not to leave her in the mornings.