To Minsk (Минск) and Beyond!

Getting Settled—Our first Few Days

Well, we are now a few days into our trip here and despite the jet-lag and corresponding exhaustion we are all doing quite well! 

Saturday was a very good day.  After a somewhat rough night of kids waking up and needing attention for most of the night, we finally all got to bed around 5 am and we were all able to get some rest, which helped a lot.  In fact, we all were sound asleep when the realtor showed up at 10 am to show us apartments.  Jacque got dressed really quickly and left with the realtor while I got the kids up, fed breakfast, dressed, etc.  After some craft time and a fun morning together, we had lunch and then, just as I was putting kids down for naps, Jacque returned from her apartment search.  She looked at 3 places and had pictures to show me and plenty to say about each.  In the end, the decision was clear and we notified the realtor. 

After rest time, I took the three oldest girls down to the little playground outside the apartments while Jacque, David, and Kaylie continued to nap.  Within a few minutes of going down there, a little girl named Nichole came out and started playing with our kids!  Her mom is Belarusian, but she was born in the U.S. and speaks both Russian and English well.  The girls all made friends nearly immediately and they spent the next two hours playing hard!  In the meantime, the girl’s mother and soon-to-be step dad (who is a British citizen but lives in Dubai) came out and we all chatted the entire time the kids played.  They are a super nice couple and very eager to help and welcome us to the area. 

 

After we finished playing, we came back up to the apartment and woke up Jacque, David, and Kaylie and then started dinner.  After dinner were baths for all the kids, a few minutes of a movie, and then bedtime.  Jacque and I then were up a while longer catching up on email and such, before headed to bed around 10 pm.  By 1 am, kids were waking up and Jacque was up and down with them for a few hours.  Then it is my turn and I was up with Kaylie and David the rest of the night, while everyone else got some sleep.  

Sunday was a very tiring, yet very good day!  Though Saturday night was probably the worst night’s sleep since we arrived (primarily due to Kaylie having a hard time sleeping and then continuously waking everyone else up), we made it through the day!  Despite the exhaustion, we got up and got ready for church.  Two girls from the Minsk LDS branch came to our apartment and showed us the way to the church building (which involved quite a bit of walking and several stops on the subway).  Taking the subway was actually not too tough, but the walking path from the subway to the church was rather confusing (lots of turns through a lot of apartment complexes that all looked the same).  But with the girls leading our way we arrived at church about 10 minutes early, in time to get settled in and even say hello to many of the local members.  

The branch meets in a rented two-story building that seems to suit their needs well.  The one strange thing about the room for sacrament meeting is that there are basically two sides to the congregation, separated by a half wall (so everyone can see up front, but half of the congregation is obscured from the other half because of the wall).  Anyway, we sang the hymns (in English as they sand in Russian) and Jacque had one of the missionaries translating (loosely speaking) the talks for her.  The girls colored and I just held David and tried to stay alert. 

After sacrament meeting, Jacque took the kids upstairs to primary and nursery.  After several minutes Amber came down crying because she didn’t understand anything, but after I talked to her about how it was OK not to understand (that I didn’t either), she sat with me for a few minutes while she calmed down and then she went back up and seemed to do well the rest of the time.  The primary was broken into two classes; junior and senior.  So Amber and Lia were together in a class and Sara was in a separate class.  And Kaylie was in nursery.  The older girls were able to get some help with English interpretation from their teachers so they could have a general sense of what was going on.  Jacque and I went to Sunday school together and then we split for Relief Society and Priesthood meetings.  When all was said and done, the girls came running up to me, happy as they usually are at the end of church, and it seems as though everyone had a great time and nobody was scarred for life or anything! 

After church was over, we said our goodbyes and then we were on our own to find our way back to our apartment.  We took some wrong turns, but after a while we were able to find it just fine; our first successful extended family outing!  We were quite proud of ourselves!  After getting home, we got the girls some snacks and we watched a general conference talk (I felt like it would be good to do our own church stuff at home too so the girls can be sure to have a chance to understand) and sang some primary songs.  It was fun! 

Then I ran off to meet with the owners of the permanent apartment we will be renting, to sign some papers and make first/last months’ rent payments, etc.  The apartment is beautiful (Jacque did a great job!) and it was fun to see everything and get that taken care of.  Here are just a few pictures:

 

 

We then did a couple Skype calls and had dinner, and then it was time for bed, with the new sleeping arrangements (Kaylie is now sleeping in her own room and David is with Jacque and I).  David went down a bit later, and Jacque and I followed soon after.  It was a very exhausting day, but a great day.  We were able to get things set up for the new permanent apartment and also most importantly make it to church for the first time.  And a good night’s sleep is always good! 

So slowly but surely we are settling in and getting adjusted.  This will be a week full of more first and additional adjustments, so we are excited for the adventures in store!