Which brings me to my next point. Maine is full of people who are what ideal friends should be like. Great listeners, interested in your well-being, there for you when you’re down, and stand-up comedians. I know personally what I said is true because a couple of them had to live with me for a month in an orphanage! For those of you that don’t know, I went on a missionary trip to Belarus over the summer. It was lovely and terrible all at the same time. The kids that you meet stay burned into your memories forever.

I had the privilege of having TWO Dennis’s on my team, one my cousin, and the other, an escapee from an institution. I’m just kidding he’s awesome. They would constantly humorously guilt-trip the rest of the team about the amount of sweets we ate. Well to be honest, Liana, who everyone called “L” because of her unique name and me were the only ones ever called out on our eating habits. Also, on our laughing habits. Which were pretty outrageous.
We had two other quiet souls on our team. Lovely Luda, and one of the kindest people I have ever been blessed to be related to, Inna. One time the escapee decided it would be a good idea to take the key off of the bathroom and give us some keys that looked identical. When we had walked across the entire building and to the dark creepy downstairs bathroom, we realized we didn’t have the key. I’ve never seen “L” run so fast in my life. Later on, the events back at the kitchen, where the escapee was attacked in what could only be described as a comical world war three. Those were good times, full of these kind of memories.

Luckily I got to see my team this weekend at my cousin Mathew’s wedding. I also got to see my darling Maria who graciously let us stay with her and waited on us hand and foot, and who is my encouragement. My darling cousin Karina who was a bridesmaid put the rest of the female population to shame in her beautiful dress and radiant smile. Also my good friends that also went to Belarus with us, the mischievous Anton, who made the flight back from Moscow somewhat entertaining, and Marina my blonde, blue-eyed doll. Overall, this weekend was everything I had hoped for and more!

The following letter is from a 10 year old girl in Maine to a resident of a nursing home for Christmas  thankfully it was intercepted. We wouldn’t anyone to have a heart attack! (Graciously submitted by Denis Gorelov, the escapee)

If I were there i’d say a prayer this is what it would be:

Dear Lord I pray you hear my prayer whoever is not saved touch there hearts help them get saved. I dont want them to burn in hell that is a Bad place but heaven. Think of that place so wonderful in the biginning God created the Heaven and the earth. Dont let your poor and haughty spirt win God. Do you understand, here are some bible verses Luke 2:11 for unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior wich is Christ the Lord. May this touch your heart if you love the Lord or not. You should follow the steps to the Lord. Step 1 read bible. Step 2 pray. Step 3 get saved. And u wont burn in Hell. Just tell yourself this over and over again. Dont burn in hell. Dont burn in hell. Dont burn in hell. Dont burn in hell. God is living and what I wanted to ask you, is Christ living in you and christmas is about Jesus being born in a dumb durty manger not about santa oh santa and I’m ten and I know Christ and your what 89 or something and you Dont know God he is the most famous and holy he is not a person he is Holy God. I just wanna say get saved you’ll have a better life I promise just get saved He’s better than us why not get saved. Im a dreadful horrible sinner and so are you get saved just have a merry merry christmas with God in your heart and with joy in your heart and with love in your heart.

Merry Christmas

amen

I am not a cathlik

Graciously submitted by Denis Gorelov

Proverbs 31: 30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

I remember one time Liana and I decided to go snowboarding. We were both beginners and after some time of trying to snowboard and many failing and falling an embarrassing amount of times, we thought it would be a great time to go to the highest hill/mountain/whatever. I wish I could explain to you guys what a terrible idea that was. After riding the ski lift up for what seemed like an hour we finally go to the top. We cautiously peered over the edge, and realized just how dumb we were! There was no chance of us actually snowboarding down that hill without both of us dying and most likely killing most of the other skiers/snowboarders. So being the ever clever girls that we are, we sat down on our snowboards like sleds and pushed off. My oh, oh my what a completely stupid idea that was. See when you’re snowboarding you weave side to side which makes you go a bit slower, and we were just flying down the hill. At some time we both lost our boards because we were going waaaaaay too fast, and you would assume that Liana and I would just tumble to a stop? Hahaha no. We kept going at the same speed down the hill sliding on our bellies, snow blinding us, and board-less. I turn my head to see if Liana was anywhere in sight, and she was, doing a dive head first in to the snow  that divers world wide would be envious of. She had tried to stop herself so that she could find her snowboard, and somehow had managed to catapult herself into the air. I still don’t understand how that had managed to happen. After a while we finally stopped sliding, we found our boards in some woods and climbed back up the little embankment only to find the ski patrol standing there waiting for us. He told us we would have to walk the whole way back because sledding down was dangerous. Ha ummm really??? is it dangerous?!? Needless to say we learned how to snowboard that night regardless of our adventures.

Anyways here are some photos:

]]> http://bekkysphotography.com/tim-and-mary-engagement-part-2/feed/ 0 http://bekkysphotography.com/tim-and-mary-engagement-part-1-and-mary-engagement/ http://bekkysphotography.com/tim-and-mary-engagement-part-1-and-mary-engagement/#comments Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:05:17 +0000 Bekky http://shindyapin.wordpress.com/?p=309 Continue reading →]]> These are a few photos from Tim and Mary’s engagement session! A very lovely couple, who are undeniably in love. What I love about them, is that they are so adorably dorky together, they can make each other laugh over the most ridiculous things. They have a wonderful relationship and I’m sure these photos reflect that.

]]> http://bekkysphotography.com/tim-and-mary-engagement-part-1-and-mary-engagement/feed/ 2 http://bekkysphotography.com/my-sister-helga/ http://bekkysphotography.com/my-sister-helga/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 22:27:49 +0000 Bekky http://shindyapin.wordpress.com/?p=271 Continue reading →]]> Growing up we called my sister Helga Patakii, even though her name is Olga, thou she insisted on being called Oliya. Yeah…….don’t ask, I don’t understand either. Olya is a two and a half years older than me. When we were younger we used to play dress up in these really weird old dresses from our attic, and build these completely awkward houses out of our couch cushions or bed sheets tacked to the wall, then we would usually play hide-and-seek. Olya was the second best hide-and-seek-er. The first one was and still is Dima, but that’s a story for another blog. I remember this one time when she hid in our laundry chute, and all of us were looking for her for HOURS! No joke, we thought she ran away, then she just got tired of us looking for her and came out of her  hiding.

Anyways Olya got married three years ago, and gave birth to a beautiful girl named Kseniya. She lives far away so when she comes to visit all is well again and everything is peaceful, well for the most anyways. Olya has these gorgeous light blue eyes, this cute little nose that I envy almost everyday of my life and like a million little freckles that are freaking adorable!

Here are a few pictures of the lovely couple:

The first time that I flew to Washington it was for Thanksgiving, it was freezing and very dry. Masha, being the hilarious person that she is, *eye roll* ran up to me at our grandmas house and started twisting my nose. What do you think happened? Well of course blood started gushing everywhere! Ohhhh how about the time when Masha was 12, my older sister Olya was  12, and I was 10 and we were setting up the reception hall for my brother Ilya’s wedding, and those two trouble makers chased me around singing about how annoying and fat I was. Ummmmm excuse me?! how annoying I was?! Pshhhh right if only they knew how annoying they ar— were!

Back when I lived in Pennsylvania there was this amazing lake called Seven Points Marina. The lake had this swimming area framed off by this thick yellow tube that you could sit on and dive off of. While we were there with Masha her sister Liya and Olya and me we would take turns jumping into lake posing like mermaids screaming at the top of our lungs, ” ARIEL, RETURN TO THE SEA!!!”

Today my sister Dina asked Masha if she would like to go shopping with her and this is what she told her “No, I cant leave Bekky my BFF I mean BFC -  Big Fat Cousin!” Oh my oh my what wonderful times we have together!

There were better times, like when we slept on the beach of Priest Lake, ID. It was about zero degrees, but that didnt stop us one bit! The louder we laughed the louder the screams came from the tents around us, “SHUT UP!” and for some reason every single time that happened it just got funnier. Everything is funnier at night, and I mean EVERYTHING. Regardless of how cold it was the stars were gorgeous, and the memories will last a life time.

You might all be thinking, “What the heck? I thought you said she was nice?!” The truth is she is. In our family THAT is the way we show love! By making people’s noses bleed, ripping out hair, having good sportsmanship and experience yeah marshalkin? Anyways Im being serious. Thats just our weird way of showing love.

By the way Masha, How many shirts were you wearing on that island?!