Life in America

When we lived in Ukraine, I kept a blog to stay connected with friends back in the states.  As we moved to different locations, my friends wanted to see what was happening in our lives and blogging was easiest.  Upon arrival, I let go of the blog because I figured we all already know about life here in the states.  So upon request and for my dear friends in Ukraine and Russia, I am continuing with the blog.  =)

The last two weekends we celebrated Katie turning 14 and Matthew, 12!  To celebrate, I took Katie and her two friends shopping and a sleepover.  Gotta love 14.

Matthew had friends out to the park for some intense bball and flag football, followed by an all night sleepover with pizza, x-box and games.  They all had a blast.

Matthew still our athlete, loves the spot of goalie.

Guess who is freaking out his mother with jerky stops and near death?  Yes, Andrew’s license is just around the corner!  And he has recently applied and landed his first full-time summer job, a life guard at Henry Moses!

Loves to play with his friends!

 

my little ballerina –

So as with all mom’s, what do we talk about?  Our kids =)

I’ll post next week with our future plans.  Stay tuned….

Those crazy Kerins

Life has taken quite a few unexpected twists and turns for us this summer and now fall.  Last I wrote, we were visiting folks, sharing about the Ukraine and enjoying time with family.  As many of you know, we decided to stay in the states longer.  We are not sure what that means for us now or in the future…..but here is what daily life looks like as we try to become stable here.

We found a house to rent, with great schools.  When I first told the kids we were staying, I asked them if they wanted to go to school or be homeschooled.  Matthew said homeschool, until I described what that meant.  Once he realized that it wasn’t constant couch and x-box, he quickly decided for school.  The first step was enrolling them in school, and helping them get established.  We knew that joining a group, sport or activity would help them get to know kids and feel more community.

The first words out of Matthew’s mouth when he heard we were staying, “Can I play football?”

Michael joined by default because big brother was in, and LOVES it!

The two boys are at Fairwood Elementary, 6th and 2nd. So far both are making friends, enjoying the classes and academically slipped right in! PTL

Katie has begun to Babysitt, help out in Sunday school and getting settled in school. She so far loves her classes and has been getting sewing lessons with Sue P. Thanks Sue for investing in her!
If you need a sitter, she is GREAT!

Joy is my Joy! She is loving playing with her cousins. We are moving into a house just down the street from my brother and his two kids. She loves it! Her english speach is developing much nicer, I was getting a bit worried.

Andrew (sorry no picture) is enjoying the options available here.  He is playing in band, water polo for the school team and loving the class options.  He wanted to sign up for them all, we couldn’t believe the choices available.  He loves the high school group at church and seems to be adjusting well.

We went through a waiting period with the house we are renting.  But we now have the keys, are painting and cleaning.  Saturday the 19th we move in!

Many people have offered furniture and things, thank you to all who have signed up.  If you are able to bring stuff over on the 19th that would be AWESOME!  My number is 206-718-3334, if you have questions.

I’ll post some pictures when we’re set up.  I think a fitting title is, “Come and See how God is good!”

Down memory lane with college friends, Amy and Julie,notice I am the only one wet.  The sting rays were out in droves that day, I saw several while swimming.

Amy’s daughter Shannon and Michael burying each other in the sand.

college tour, Amy (college friend) Gardner and I took our kids to see Biola University. Trying to expose Andrew to colleges while we’re in the states.

we squeezed in a date night on the beach (for me the theme was beach everyday)

after Huntington Beach we moved on north to the valley, visited family (my grandma)

hanging with cousins and Uncle Dave and Aunt Jan

visiting Aguora Bible Fellowship

and of course lots of pool time! One of the great things about So CA, so many people have pools. Now the kids wake up and say, “Lets go to the friends house.” (we’re at a new house each day) If we get there and they have no pool, Joy tugs on my skirt and says “A different friends’ house, with a pool”. I think they are going to have a skewed view of American life, thinking everyone has a pool.

We’ve loved seeing everyone, it has been a superb trip.  Currently we are in Northern CA, bay area.

Life on the road

We have been in CA the past few weeks, visiting friends and churches.  Here are some fun shots of good visits with friends.

the road trip…lots of Mickey mouse

We went to visit one of our churhes in Vista, CA and they gave us tickets to SeaWorld!!

the sharks at SeaWorld

petting sting rays (seaworld), this is my cousin, with Joy in the middle

I couldn’t believe how much Joy and Michael loved the rollar coasters, they weren’t scared at all!

I’m in the pink with Joy, who LOVED the rides!

In awe of God’s creation

We had a super fun day together!!  Thank you New Community Church!!

First, we were in Cambria and soaked up the beauty of the beach.  Pretty much that is my favorite place, each meeting somehow revolves around the ocean.  “Let’s get coffee and go to the beach.”

Every time I am back, the salt water flows through my veins again.  I always struggle with leaving CA, I just love the ocean and sun!  As I run in the mornings along the water, do fires at night and watch the sunset over the ocean, it continues to take my breath away.  The majesty and wonder of the water draw me to my Father like nothing else.  The waves heal my heart and fill me with new strength.  It is reallly great to be back, I forgot how great it is here.

Andrew and Michael in Cambria

We are in Huntington Beach this next week, if we are in your area and want to see us, give us a call.  My US cell is 206-718-3334.

Back in America

reading books with grandpa and cousins

We’re back in the states and enjoying every minute.  On the way over, the kids and I were delayed overnight in Paris.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have the chance to go downtown, but the airline gave us food vouchers.  You should have seen us spending them.  For breakfast we went to Starbucks and almost bought out the place.  It was like Christmas ordering whatever you want and still having more to spend, super fun!

going to church in Ukrainian dress

We had a potluck after church, where we shared about our times in Ukraine.  The kids told people they were wearing “veeshavanka”.  The reply was, “willie wonka?”  We all had to chuckle.

loving the food

had a family bbq with cousins, aunts and uncles

Boppa took us out on the boat

It was quite cold….

but that didn’t stop the boys from wake boarding (Andrew showing us how it is done)

Matthew up on his first try.

We go again tomorrow and it should be nice and hot!  Yeah!!  I’ve enjoyed hanging with mom, reconnecting with Val and we are all glad to be back.

Finishing School

Fifth grade graduation – Matthew received the optimism award. He turns the negative into positive with his funny wit.  Very true, he keeps us all laughing and smiling!

finishing elementary school and moving to middle school – the ceremony was followed up with a class picnic.  Super fun way to end!

Katie had a lead role in the school play and did a FANTASTIC job!  We have found her niche, she just blossomed and loved every minute of it! The older kids head into exam week, as I clean up and begin packing.  Just a few days away from leaving. Those is the Seattle area, we will have a potluck on the 24th, 12:45 pm at Highlands Community Church, looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Departures

Gardner and Michael flew out this morning for the states.  The rest of us will finish out the school year of exams, parties and the school play before joining them for a summer in the states.

A sure sign dad left, dominos for dinner…. I love that you can order pizza here and they deliver it to our door!  Very cool!

See some of you soon!

 

First Baptisms for Lighthouse International

Yesterday I arrived home to find my first grader waiting on the doorstep.  With great worry and concern, we found out he walked home instead of staying for the after school program that he normally goes to. Of course we began to rehearse “what to do next time,” but I also asked him what he did for the hour and a half he spent waiting. He said, “I took out my book, but put it back after a bit and began praising Jesus.  I sang Him songs.  It was a nice quiet place to praise Him.”

And on that innocent note, we too praise Him for this last weekend.

Andrew was baptized this weekend  along with a young lady –  our new church’s first baptisms.

We started out with a worship service on the river.

Andrew and Gardner played trumpets together!

followed by a sermon, testimonies and the baptisms

wrapping it up with a huge feast, volleyball and picnic on the river

fun candid shots of different groups

Gardner bbqs us some yummy shashleek

A great showing of people, feeling the presence of our Savior as we publicly praised Him and enjoyed the beautiful nature!

Check out our homeservice page, we’re coming back to the states for the summer, soon!  Yipee

Happy Easter

Now I can finally say, “Happy Easter, Jesus has risen!  He has risen indeed!!”  We had our big celebration this last Sunday.

my girls on Easter Sunday

it was a great service

I would love to have a nice lovely family picture, where everyone stands still and smiles, but we are just NOT the stand in one place type of family.  Michael trying to escape and Joy pulling on our necks.

Gardner preached, a few of us women did a reader’s theater, amazing worship and at the end we set up tables and had a giant feast together.  We all left feeling God had blessed us with His presence, filled our hearts as we worshiped Him and remembered His sacrifice for us.  I loved listening to all the languages that surrounded me.  I thought, “what a small glimpse of what heaven will be like, with all peoples coming before HIM”.  One man was in the back translating into Arabic, another sat behind me translating into Farsi, Gardner preached in Russian, we sang in Ukrainian, English, Russian and Arabic.  What a morning of praise. (other nationalities represented were German, Kazakh, Tatar, American, Canadian, Iran, Syria, Egyptian, Ukrainian, Russian, quite the mix!)

 

The next day we woke up and met in the forest for a picnic, a huge group showed up.  Gardner bbq meat, I taught a group of Chinese students how to play baseball, Ryan and Andrew played volleyball with some Turk men, Ukrainian, Chinese and Iranian students, kids ran all around us and we got to meet and play with a group of refugees from Eastern Ukraine (people who have fled from the war).

 

We were exhausted when we layed down last night.  After we got all the kids washed and in bed, I said, “lets just watch a movie”.  I didn’t realize it was soooo long, thinking it was still early enough.  We went to bed too late but that isn’t all!  Right as we were dosing off, I hear this little voice.  “Mommy, I threw up in my bed.”

Unfortunately, I was super cuddly.  My reaction was more of the “oh no”, you ok?  I climb up into their boys’ loft bed (Matthew and Michael share a bed) and wake up Matthew.  “Matthew, you better get out of bed quick.  You are about to roll in barf.”  He wakes up, is inches from rolling into it and says, “How did I miss this?”  Is was kind of funny to watch.

Anyway this morning, we got them all off to school and went out looking for good spots for our church’s first baptism.  We found the best spot just 15-20min from our house, had never even known it was there.  We’ve decided to have our Sunday morning worship service there on the river and then have the baptisms, followed by a whopping picnic/feast/bbq and volleyball.  You can even rent paddle boats right there for $2 and hour.  If you live nearby and are interested it will be April 26th at 11am.  Those of you in the states, please pray for good weather, God to bless us, His presence to be powerfully felt by all.

I posted a home service page if you are interested in more details of our summer in the states.

Chernobyl

I know this post should be about Easter, but we actually haven’t celebrated Easter yet.  Here Easter is this coming Sunday the 12th.  It is always strange for me when the holidays don’t line up, I miss the holiday in America.  After a few days I remember most have already celebrated and remember I forgot to call home or congratulate anyone.  Happy Easter!! Christ is risen!!

This last week our kids had a week of spring break, we decided to take a trip to the mountains.  Things are super affordable right now because of the exchange rate and it is in between seasons, thus a hotel/apartment room for our entire family is only $50 a night.  We asked our dejourni, Ludmilla Nikoliavna to come along and help watch Joy while we were off in the mountains.

After a week with her, we unanimously voted that we can’t vacation without her!  She took Joy for walks during the day and when we got back in the evening she had hot dinners waiting for us!  What a deal!!

Her story touched my heart, her husband died at the young age of 58.  He was stationed in Chernobyl as part of the clean up crew.  She described that after that short service, he was sick for the rest of his life.  His teeth all fell out shortly after, he got cancer and battled until he died.

Another dad of Michael’s classmate told me his similar story of being stationed in Chernobyl.  He was an opera singer and after serving for a short time, he lost his singing voice.

Ironically Gardner and Ryan are there today taking a tour.  I couldn’t imagine why they would willingly want the radiation, but we’ll soon hear their impressions.

Gardner took a group to the Carpathians snow shoeing.

this wonderland is what we went to as a family a week later

the beauty takes your breath away

It was crazy weird to leave this winter wonderland and a few hours later arrive back into the city and see spring arriving.  I love the warmth, so it is quite welcomed, but surreal to jump climates so quickly.

Now we prepare for Easter.  We are planning a very interesting Easter service for all ages at 11am Sunday, afterwards we are setting up tables and sharing a feast together for all who attend.  It will be a great way to celebrate the gift of new life Jesus gives.

April is a packed month, Easter, kids’ birthdays, our church’s first baptism (Andrew is one of the people being baptized), fun picnics, school events and we begin to prepare for our trip to America.

I’ve listed a few needs we have on another page, if you are interested in praying or want to help out.

Today I read Romans 7 and 8:1 with my neighbor friend, we reflected on the significance of Easter and why is was important for Jesus to rise.  How His resurrection has significance to our lives today, it was super awesome to share with each other and share the true hope Jesus gives me!  She received this hope for herself this morning!  New Life all around!

Happy Easter!!