Week 6

July 2, 2012

Hi Family,

Hope this email finds you happy and well.

In many ways it seems like we just got to Lviv, and at other times it feels like we've been here 6 years instead of 6 weeks. We had a couple fun and new experiences this past week... not necessarily in order (chronologically or by significance): 

1. Anne turned 4! She was so gracious all day as she received gifts, and birthday well wishes. We were a little nervous about how the big day would go down, because earlier in the week she went to bed in tears dreading her "happy birthday." She informed us she wanted to be 3 forever-  Which I really don't blame her for, we too think three is pretty great. Part of the problem, we learned, was that 3 is now her favorite number ... but we assured her she has many more three's to look forward to ... 13, 23, and all the 30's for starters. That seemed to calm her down enough to not dread the pending day - though she did tell us she already knows she will NOT like being 21 ... we are all bracing ourselves for that birthday. Favorite gifts were from the grandparents (of course), picture attached - Bruce's cousin/sister/wife shark Larky, and Coral the snake. We had pink pancakes for breakfast, and Anne had 4 hard-boiled egg whites (a definite favorite food of hers). We did birthday cake in primary, and then all 8 of the missionaries serving in the Lviv Branch came over, plus one graduate student doing an Eastern European study abroad here, to sing to Anne and play a couple of games. It was fun, and felt kind of like a birthday party - even if there weren't any kids:) 

2. Ella performed Twinkle Twinkle and I'm a Little Tea Pot on the piano keyboard for the branch concert/ talent show. Anne sang the ABC's. They both earned new dresses for the event - Ella earned hers by reading Green Eggs and Ham perfectly, word for word. Anne was a little disappointed that she couldn't read a book - so she promptly recited Fancy Nancy's "Delectable Cupcake" book almost verbatim, which I thought was nearly as impressive as actually reading - and certainly a lot more cute!

3. We had an ultra-sound ... we (Benj and I) were a bit nervous about prenatal care in Lviv, but we received a recommendation from a wealthy Russian lady in our building who has had 2 children here that "Intersono" (the ultrasound/ diagnostic clinic) is a great place ... so we tried it out ... and it was WONDERFUL! Comparing it to our  other ultrasound experiences in San Mateo (all three girls) there were some definite pluses about the Ukrainian way - like less (okay, NO) paperwork, NO office wait, and NO co-pays, insurance, and out-of pocket expenses that seemed almost cost prohibitive for having children. Health care in Ukraine is "public" and free - but there are private clinics and doctors as well - you just have to pay for them - like the one we went to. I brought my passport to the clinic thinking I would need it to fill out paper work - NO paperwork! We waited for all of five minutes in a very clean waiting room with a flat screen tv giving parenting/ prenatal tips and advice, as well as a juice health snack bar, and then went into our room. There were two technicians, the one who did the ultrasound and one who entered the information into the computer - again all very clean and professional. The machine was the same as in America - with 3D capabilities and all - the image was so clear, and all the stats came up in English! so I could even read what she was measuring, which put me even more at ease. Both Benj and I got a bit emotional when we heard the heartbeat and watched the baby kicking around in there - the head, heart, leg bones, water-sac ... everything measured out totally normal - and it was such a relief to A) know the baby is growing correctly, and B) to feel more confident about the prenatal part of our experience here. Due date according to measurements = December 27. Then, the icing on the cake, the bill ... less than $20 USD! We were in shock - truly. We didn't know what to expect, and literally brought thousands of Ukrainian ghriven not knowing what the grand total would be ... so we were pleasantly shocked to say the least! All in all, I would chalk it up to a ten out of ten for ultra-sound experience. In fairness I should say I had a great (quick, efficient) experience in Salt Lake the day before we came to Lviv ... but I'm pretty sure the bill came to a bit more than $20!

4. Benj joined us for our weekly outing to Aqua Park - an indoor water park. It was his first time coming with us, and we had so much fun. Ella and Benj went down the big black tube slide together many times ... and I think Benj just enjoyed doing something mindless and entertaining for a change on Wednesday morning. In fact, while we were waiting in line to go down a slide together, he looked at me and said, "what are we doing with our lives!? It's Wednesday morning and we're all at a water-park in Lviv, Ukraine!?" Crazy, right? We know - and for better or worse, the weirdness of what we are doing, and where, has NOT worn off. Needless to say, it was a fun break and diversion to have Benj join us at the water-park. Fingers are crossed that he comes again this week. 

5. Shevchenko Park and Lychakiv Cemetery - I posted picture on our family: http://benjandmeagan.blogspot.com/

I haven't been very diligent about updating the blog - but maybe now that I have a bit more energy (14 weeks) and I realize I can't send all the pictures I want to in an email ... I'll get better at posting updates. My goal for this week is to update the Lviv Laundry blog as well - but there is so much that has gone on with the Bubbles business I feel like I don't know where to start ... you know how you feel when you haven't written in your journal for years, and so you just put it off because there's no way you could ever get caught up ... that's how I feel about the laundry blog:)

Well, I think that's about all from our end for now. We love and miss you. Hope you are all healthy and happy. Facetime and Skype are really great ... and we love to use them, wink, wink.:)

xo,

Meagan+