Nine years ago on August 28 I proposed to Olga. We were at dacha (a Russian country house) celebrating her grandmother’s birthday. A couple of days ago, we had another birthday lunch under the apple trees at dacha. Russians love to give toasts at special occasions. Orest Grooten, Olga’s grandfather, gives a toast to his [...]
I took this picture yesterday of Violeta on Pyhäjärvi (Holy Lake). We’ve had a good time here in Finland, and we head back to Russia tomorrow.
Olga and I are now in Finland. We’re here with Olga’s mother, Tanya, our ‘sister’ Violeta from Montenegro, and our good friend Natasha from Russia. Once again we’re staying at the little cabin by the lake, which comes complete with beautiful sunsets. (Just so you know — it takes us about 5 hours to drive [...]
Here is the latest news on our embryo adoption – As many of you know, Olga and I have been in this process for the past year. We transferred two embryos this morning! It took very little time, and the doctor and embryologist were very helpful. We prayed for wisdom about whether to transfer one [...]
Victor Minakhin, Olga’s third cousin once removed, has created a family tree of people who will attend our family reunion in Narva, Estonia this August. I’ve cropped the entire tree to show the part that directly relates to Olga’s line. You can read about Olga’s grandfather, Orest Maximilianovich Grootten, here; and here is more info [...]
We are actually in the US (in Texas right now), having a great visit with family and friends. We have good news about our embryo adoption. We have finished all the paperwork and have scheduled the transfer for June 4th. If all goes as planned, we’ll return to Russia, pregnant, at the end of June! [...]
Continue reading about A Postcard from Russia — Spring Awakenings at Elama
We have been invited to attend a reunion of several family lines — Bolton-King-Beck-Klemm-Grootten — in August, in Narva-Jõesuu (formerly Ust’-Narva, formerly Hungerburg), Estonia. Pictured here is our grandfather Orest Maximillianovich Groten (Grootten), with daughter Tanya (Olga’s mom) and wife Ludmilla. You can see Orest’s father as a boy in the picture below. Here is [...]
Continue reading about A Bolton-King-Beck-Klemm-Grootten Family Reunion!
We are in Finland for just a few days. Olga needs to be in Finland because of some visa restrictions, and I need do a little work with a friend in Helsinki. We return to Russia on Thursday and then go to the States on Monday the 12th. We’re staying at the cabin, Koppero, we’ve [...]
In November of 2000, I (Mike) moved to Russia to help establish a Russian Charity named MIR. A little over a year later I married Olga. Over the years, God has led us and blessed us in many ways. We now live in Russia and spend time in the US, Finland, Montenegro, and Estonia. I’m [...]
