The training wheels have come off.
We’ve been at dacha for the past few days, and Valerie asked if we would take the training wheels off her bike. After a day of mama keeping her steady, she finally got the knack of it:
Category: Family
Happy Birthday to Valerie
Valerie had her 5th birthday a few weeks ago, and I’m just now getting around to posting this video. One gift was a singing card from Grandmother Nancy in the States:
We’ve also started a tradition. Each year we take a picture of Valerie in the same dress, one of Olga’s. It will be fun to watch Valerie grow into it as the years pass.
Here are the first two photos in the series:
4th Birthday 5th Birthday
Snapshots from Russia
We were all at dacha for the May 9 Victory Day holidays earlier this week. I go to Montenegro tomorrow to meet a mission team, and it was nice to have this family time before my trip.
The little white flowers are called “Under the Snow” and are considered to be the first flowers of Springtime. The daffodils are also blooming now.
The buds are on the trees:
We organized and cleaned the summer kitchen. It looks worlds better than it did:
Of course, we have a meal together. We cooked shashleek the day before and had good leftovers as well as traditional Russian salads.
Great-granddad Orest came to visit our home a few weeks ago. I like this picture:
Vids of Val
Here are a couple of recent videos of Valerie.
By the way, she’s doing great. Beth Shanklin, a good friend who is a neuro-developmentalist, visited recently from the US. Beth assessed Valerie about a year ago and wrote a program to address some developmental issues. Olga has been faithful to do the program over the months.
Beth checked Valerie last week and Valerie is almost at her age level developmentally, with just a few small issues. Remember, just over a year ago Valerie said about three words (at age 3). She’s really catching up, speaking more and more English, too.
We went to a park:
And today she did something really great. I’ve set out my small travel hammered dulcimer for her to plunk around on, hoping she’ll take interest. I showed her how to play the Alphabet Song (she doesn’t know it as Twinkle Twinkle yet). Today, after some rough starts, she did this:
That’s m’girl!
A Postcard from Russia – Loss
I am so very thankful for my family. Olga and Valerie are wonderful people, and I’m humbled that the Lord has called us together as a family.
We have some sad news to share. We lost a baby last week. Olga was about 8 weeks pregnant when we found out. She recently returned from the hospital and is doing well as she recovers. I was due to be in Murmansk right now, but it’s clearly the priority to be with Olga and Valerie as we recover.
Today at dinner Valerie started crying because the baby isn’t coming to us. She said we need to pray to Jesus and ask Him to send us one. I often say that we want to live in such a way that our lives are full of miracles, made up of relationships and events that are clearly not of our own doing. So, we await God’s miracle in this area.
Valerie In A Tunnel
What more can be said? Mary Walsh watched Valerie last week, and they visited a playground. This GREAT picture resulted:
Olga and Valerie are in Russia now. I’ll attend a conference in the US this weekend and then head off to Russia.
Our apologies go to all who we didn’t get a chance to see on this trip. We had a lot going on and will report on that a bit later. It’s been a busy time.
The summer will be quite busy. We’ll host teams in May, June and July; I’ll be in Montenegro twice and in Estonia often; Sunbeam is moving ahead at a quick pace, and it will be nice to be there and participate in all that’s happening there; and of course there is a lot going on in Russia: I’ll visit Murmansk in March and work at Elama quite a bit as well.
Yesterday, Olga attended the preliminary court hearing for the removal of Valerie’s birth mother’s parental rights. The hearing went well. The final hearing will be on Monday afternoon. Once Oksana’s parental rights are removed, then we have a six month waiting period before we can apply for adoption. So, hopefully the adoption will be completed by the end of this year.
Onward!
Merry Christmas!!
Merry Christmas to you all.
God is not far off. He is Emmanuel — God With Us.
Blessings to you all, from Mike, Olga and Valerie
This made us smile:
The Low Slag Heap
I just read a quote by Peggy Noonan:
In Iraq this year I asked an Iraqi military officer doing joint training at an American base what was the big thing he’d come to believe about Americans in the years they’d been there. He thought. “You are a better people than your movies say.” He had judged us by our exports. He had seen the low slag heap of our culture and assumed it was a true expression of who we are.
This has been my experience in various countries. The USA exports a lot of filth (by movies, music, popular culture, etc.), and others have judged Americans by it. We need to keep this in mind when the US is criticized by other cultures. In many cases the USA is not very attractive when judged by our cultural exports.
This is also one more good reason for mission trips: people in other countries can experience a different kind of American, an American who follows God and acts in love. In this way we may, in small part, act as peacemakers between cultures.
The best thing we can do is love the Lord deeply and be the people He wants us to be. Sometimes He may then send us to other cultures be a witness of His loving-kindness. He always wants us to be a witness in our home culture.
Thanksgiving in Russia
We celebrated Thanksgiving on Sunday. Since thanksgiving is not a Russian holiday, it’s a bit easier to have the meal on Sunday.
In addition to several friends, Olga’s mother and grandparents joined us. Olga’s grandfather, Orest Maxmilianovich Grotten is 92 years old, and we were very glad he could be with us. Above is Olga with her mom and grandparents. Valerie is not in the picture because she was busy having her face painted by Natasha Pavlova.
We had turkey and dressing (my mom’s recipe), gravy, mashed potatoes, and a variety of non-American dishes including Korean carrot salad and Russian mushrooms with onions. At times like this, I look back in wonder at the life God has given me. We are so very thankful for His love and guidance.
News about Valerie: we’ve submitted documents to the court regarding the removal of parental rights from Valerie’s birth mother, Oksana. We were expecting a court date this month, but the judge is on holiday and won’t set a date until she’s back on late January. So, we wait. We continue to be in touch with Oksana, helping her and encouraging her. Olga has visited her in prison several times, and we stay in touch by mail. Olga is homeschooling Valerie using some basic kindergarten material, and that’s yielding good results; Valerie is speaking better and learning her numbers pretty well. It’s fun to watch her learn and improve.
I go to the US this week; I will attend a Stoneworks board meeting in Chattanooga on December 7. Olga and Valerie will join me a little later. We plan to spend Christmas with my family in Georgia and Tennessee and then make a trip to Texas in January.
Ministry continues. We’re planning several mission trips to Russia, Estonia and Montenegro next summer. One team will be 40 teenagers! That should be fun. I’ll be in Montenegro in May with a team, in Russia with a team in June and in Estonia with a team in early July, then back to Montenegro with a team in late July (if all goes as planned). I’ve recently made several trips to Estonia and things there are going very well. I’ll have news about that soon.
I recently wrote a friend in the US something that’s been on my mind for a while: More and more, I’m feeling grounded in the knowledge that the flow of love is God’s most important action among men. The greatest commandment is to love God; the second greatest commandment is to love others; people will know we are followers of Jesus by our love for one another; God is love; He loved us enough to save us. All of these scriptures prove the primacy of real, heart-felt, selfless love.
10 Years
Today is Thanksgiving in the USA. While it’s not a holiday here in Russia, it is certainly a day of celebration for me and Olga.
Today we celebrate our 10th anniversary. As a special treat on our anniversary today we both woke up sick with head colds. The start of a great day!
The picture at left was taken on the day we met. I (Mike) was hosting a dinner for Russian interpreters who had been working with mission teams.
This happened at the same time we were staffing up MIR, the Russian charity we were starting, so I invited Olga to attend since she had been recommended as a secretary/interpreter for MIR. Olga’s ‘interview’ was conducted as she and one of our board members prepared chicken in the kitchen. She fit right in from the start.
These 10 years have seen many good times and many challenges. We are so very thankful for where the Lord has led us, for the life He has given us. This gives us faith and trust that the road ahead, however challenging it may be, will certainly lead to green pastures if we’ll abide with Christ along the way. He is a good shepherd.
Here is the moment I proposed, in the garden at dacha:
Mike and Olga Cantrell 