More Baby Photos

Here are some photos of the babies from the last half of January, my mom's last days with us (this time around, at least). Above, the babies are playing under the table Pelagia built out of an old barber's chair.

Phoebe showing off a new hat, made by Yiayia Sophia.

My mom holding all three of her grandchildren.

Paul's godfather Paris helped out with lunch time last Sunday after the Liturgy.

Here my mom is reading to the babies in their play area in the living room.

It's been quite cold here the last week or so. Nevertheless, we still try to go out for a short afternoon walk when at all possible. Here I am with Paul and Phoebe.

Benjamin got to ride on his mom's back this time.

It's snowed quite a few times in the last week or two, but it hasn't really amounted to much. This is about the extent of it. People still freak out about "all the snow" on the roads though. (As if we needed more chaos on the streets.)

For more photos, click here, here, here, here, and here.

I have an interesting story from today. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of it, and usually when I don't have a photo of something I don't post on the blog about it, but I thought I'd append this to all these baby photos. On Sunday, after Liturgy here in Panorama, one of the public school teachers from the elementary school asked me to come by her class and give the kids a talk about missionary work in the U.S. So I went this morning at 10:00 to Panorama's public elementary school and spoke for 40 minutes to a class of about 20 kids, who must have been about 8 years old.

First, I have to set this up, as it is quite amazing for me as an American, even after living here over 3 years. First, the class had gone to Liturgy that morning, and had just returned when I arrived. The Three Hierarchs (whose feast is celebrated Jan 30) are the patrons of education, and for this reason the tradition is for all kids to go to Liturgy on their feast. Since this year it falls on a Saturday, the kids went today instead.

So the teacher met me at the front of the school and we went to the classroom. On the way, I asked about the make-up of the class. She told me most of the kids were Orthodox, although one child was a Jehovah's Witness (yes, unfortunately, they're even here) and one, the poor soul, his parents had declared him as an atheist. So, in accordance with the law (I suppose), the teacher said to him that he could go join another class, since we were going to have religious instruction. He left, but the rest stayed, including the Jehovah's Witness.

The first thing I noticed about the classroom was a big icon of Christ hanging square above the blackboard. We had a nice discussion about the U.S., the religious composition there, and how some people are finding Orthodoxy and converting to it. One little girl gave me a nice drawing of a priest performing a baptism inside a church and wrote on it that they love me and want me to come back. They then all took my blessing and I left.

Before I left, though, the teacher took a photo of all of us together for their yearbook, and it was then that I was very sorry I didn't have my camera with me. If someone wants to get me a decent cell phone with a camera on it, I could promise that I would put in service of this blog. (Hint, hint.) :)