It was a good, though not necessarily an easy, weekend. Talking with like-minded friends helped us identify and clarify some of the areas we, as a family, need to work on – namely, finding balance between ministry and family time while still making sure that we're all fulfilling God's purpose for our lives in Ukraine.
Dietrich also got his first Band-Aid this weekend after he reached into the trash and touched the raw chicken package, then, while having raw chicken washed from his fingers, he reached for daddy's razor. Despite our best efforts to secure the bandage, he promptly pulled it off. With his teeth.
Apart from the difficult realizations and the minor wound, we made some lovely memories. Some of my favorites:
1) Getting to know Joy, Jon and Andrea's 2-year-old daughter. We've actually known Joy since she was six weeks old, but in the past couple of months her vocabulary has grown significantly. All of a sudden, she's able to express her opinions, to sing, to express her love and joy in whole new ways. She's a delightful little girl, and it was so fun to hang out with her.
2) Watching — and listening — as Dietrich got to know Joy. They've been hanging out periodically since Dietrich was born, but now they're at the point where they'll run off and play together for some time, no parental supervision required. The best such moment: All the grownups were sitting around the table after dinner one night when, all of a sudden, we started hearing wild laughter coming from Joy's room. There'd be a moment of silence, then the giggles would start up again. What was so funny? Good question. Wish I could have been a fly on that wall.
3) Taking Dietrich for a walk — his first big outdoor, on-foot excursion — on the big square outside the Hoglund's apartment. The square is about the size of a football field, and the only thing on it is a huge statue of Lenin. Dietrich loved wandering all around it, until we pointed out the birds in the sky. Then, when he fell down, he was content just to tip his head back and look for the birdies.
Dietrich's approach to walking sheds a lot of light on his personality. You're probably familiar with the image of a mom walking behind her little one, holding his hands up in the air to help balance him. I thought I would be that mom, but Dietrich has never wanted us to help him walk. He's independent, determined and tenacious. He falls, tries to get up, falls in the process, tries to get up, falls in another direction — but no matter. He just keeps plugging away at the standing process until he's solidly on his feet. And then he's off!
4) Dietrich's enthrallment with Jon and Andrea's cat. Which, I'm sorry to say, outsmarted our little guy pretty easily. Dietrich would chase Winston into the bedroom and under the bed. Whilst Dietrich got down on his belly to catsearch, Winston would run out the other side and into a safer room. In the middle of the night, Winston climbed up on a should-be-sleeping Dietrich and me, and Dietrich looked right at him and said, "Ca." Or, possibly, that was a dream.
