Stupid Foreigner Moment #3

Or is it 300? I've lost count.

I went to a nearby grocery store this afternoon to pick up a few things while Steve stayed home with the boys. I brought a small purse with me and while I was collecting the things I needed I had it draped over the same arm that was carrying my basket. I got everything I needed and then got in line and at that point started looking for my purse. And looking, and looking and looking....and then panicking. I got out of the line and went to a place where I could take everything out of my basket but it was not there, or on my arm anymore. I quickly retraced my steps and then practically ran to the front of the store to the security guard. A million thoughts were rushing through my head - everyone always tells us to be so very very careful with our things because there's always someone waiting around the corner to nab them so of course I'm thinking I may never see my cell phone, driver's license, bank cards or most importantly - our very very verrrrrry important Visa card that we use for everything. I explained as best as I could that I had lost my purse - I said "black" and showed the size and "purse" I got across by motioning that it goes over my arm - another security guard came over and asked me something to which I said I don't know Russian and then they started laughing a little bit at me. Yeah, I know, I'm an idiot. One guard stayed at the front and the other went looking for me and I continued praying and pleading that it would show up. I retraced my steps a second time with no luck but by the time I got back to the front of the store, there was the security guard dangling my purse from his hand with a big smile on his face. I could've hugged him I was so happy (but I didn't because that's super weird)! I ran over and got it, repeating thank-you over and over again! And then they let me cut in front of the line to pay, ha ha silver lining!! Praise God for my found purse!! All of those parables in the Bible where someone has lost something and then rejoices and has a party when it's found are very relatable right now!!

Praise be to the Lord,
for he has heard my cry for mercy.
 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
and with my song I praise him.

Psalm 28:6-7

Visa Stuff and Basketball

We've had a lovely break in the cold weather - it was about +6 degrees Celcius yesterday (and +5 the day before) which is great for being out and about but boy is it messy! All six + inches of snow are pretty much gone! Back to being brown and gray outside!

We went Wednesday morning to get our pictures taken for our visa registration - apparently they need four photos of each of us for some reason. We were going to go to the different offices to do registration things as well but the one we had to go to first had already closed for the day (at noon! A real government job)! So yesterday we headed out to one office with John and another girl who helps him do all of these things and what he thought would take three hours only ended up being about an hour and ten minutes! Thank the Lord! Today the girl that helps John is taking our papers to another office and then hopefully that's all we need for a year.
I am hoping to get enough paperwork together to become a resident - because three of my grandparents were born here I can become a resident, it's just a matter of finding the proper paperwork of theirs. If I know the town where any one of them was born I can go to that town and apparently the churches there have archives of birth certificates and so forth. If I were able to become a resident than Steve would be able to become one as well and then we wouldn't have to jump through all of these hoops to stay here. I'm hoping and praying that that is a real option for us.

Tonight we are planning on going to a Zaporozhye Ferro basketball game - Steve and I were at a grocery store last week and overheard another couple speaking very good English so in that case we always have to talk to the people to see who they are, where they're from and what in the world they are doing in Zaporozhye. It turns out they are from Ohio and the man has been on this basketball team for the past two years. I think Steve almost passed out when he heard there's a professional basketball team here - we really had no idea. So they invited us to the game that is this evening so we're excited to go and check it out.
 

 

 

 



Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours we wish you a wonderful and merry Christmas season!



We've had some of this white stuff a few mornings in the past week:

 However it hasn't lasted more than a few hours and it's back to being gray outside.

We moved into an apartment last Saturday!

It is very nice to be in our own place with our own things even though we were very comfortable where we were staying. Our new place is very comfortable and checked all of the boxes on our list including having an oven which we've learned is rare. We also found out in the apartment hunting process that it's difficult to find an apartment that allows children! We saw a number of places that were nice and then were told afterwards that they weren't an option for us and a friend of ours called 3 or 4 different places and was told no because of the kids. Usually people complain about a no pets policy so it's been interesting dealing with a no kids policy.

This is the view from our kitchen window:

 At night the tower is lit up and is rather lovely.

It's been cold, -7 to -10 degrees Celcius. Now this temperature isn't bad if you're in a car driving places but when you have to walk most places it's pretty cold, especially when it's windy which seems to be every day.

On Monday at 4 pm we went to New Hope Centre to hang out with some youth. It's kind of a drop-in geared towards graduated orphans that was started by a few Americans. They have gone home for Christmas so Steve and I said we'd fill in. We went and played games, I made food for everyone, we tried to communicate, it was fun.  

We finally got internet in our apartment yesterday which is soooo nice!! No more trips to use public internet which we will not miss.

Steve is still attending Young Life on Friday evenings and will continue to do that. He is also going to an orphanage on Saturday with some people - the last, or one of the last Trek teams that was here went to this orphanage often and built some good relationships with the kids so hopefully those can be built on by the people that remain here.

 

Quirk of the Day:

We thought a fun little addition to the blog could be one interesting item every post. We already have 5 or 6 in stock (we see "interesting" things on a daily basis) but here's the first one!

We bought a hand blender from an electronics store and we got these as a free gift. And they are????

Our best guess (which turned out to be right) was that they are electric shoe warmers.



Zaporozhye!

Andre, his family and us before we left Kiev:

How do two people get four 50 pound suitcases, four carry-on bags, two babies and one stroller onto a train? By the grace of God and with the help of one awesome friend! We thought we were giving ourselves ample time to get onto the train when we were leaving Kiev but with all the above-mentioned luggage we had to move it in several stages and therefore barely made it onto the train! And of course we couldn't be in car one or two but waaaay down near the back of the train in car 18! A lot of huffing, puffing and praising God happened as soon as that train got going with us on it!

  We made to Zaporozhye!! John Wiens met us at the train station and we had breakfast with him and Ev before meeting our friend Marina to get us to our apartment. It is a block from McDonald's (or as Andre called it, the American Embassy) and very close to many amenities. It is only temporary however as our needs require a slightly larger space (it's a one bedroom) and this apartment isn't really a rent-out place, it was just made available to us because it belongs to Marina's step-father. We're hoping to still be close by because we really like this area and we are waiting to hear from a friend who knows a real estate agent to find us a place. We have no idea what the process for that is - if we will be in a place by next week or if it will be next month.

The boys checking out our place:

  We've spent the last few days temporarily settling and getting reacquainted with some friends. The weather has been nice enough (cloudy and 0-5 degrees Celsius) for us to do some wandering as well – to the market and along Lenin Prospect (the main street through the city). As we are not permanently housed yet, our only access to internet has been to go to McDonald's or a cafe close by called Coffee Life to use their WiFi so we usually do that once a day. McDonald's is usually incredibly busy and you can't always find a place to sit whereas Coffee Life is quite smoky so it's only tolerable for short periods.

Getting some coffee at the park near our old apartment:

 The park near our old apartment:

Kiev

We arrived in Kiev yesterday afternoon and were picked up at the airport by Andre - the head of YFC here just outside of Kiev (in a city called Irpin).

On the drive we passed areas of the city where there are rows upon rows of huge apartment buildings - some old, some new. None of these pictures really do the sea of buildings justice but they were the best I could get from the moving vehicle!

 It was actually a little overwhelming seeing hundreds of apartment buildings with no trees or no life to be seen anywhere. 

We are staying at the YFC conference center - YFC rents it out to different Christian groups to stay at or to just use the facilities. There was a group here when we arrived but they left shortly after. YFC also has a cook who cooks for the groups that come in so she had made extras so that there would be food here for us to eat. Every pot we opened was like a dream come true - several different kinds of borsch, delicious pasta, several different cabbage salads, eggs and bread - a true welcome to Ukraine!

Our room for the next few days:

This morning we went to church with Andre and afterwards had lunch with his family at their beautiful home (it changed my mind about what Ukrainian decor can look like!). Andre and his family are amazing and gave us such a wonderful welcome. They've been really encouraging and it's awesome that he is so on fire for God and seeing youth come alive in Him.

Tomorrow we will go with Andre and Zheniya - another girl who works for YFC to do some touring around Kiev.

We (obviously) didn't manage to get train tickets for tonight...or tomorrow night because they were all sold out but we do have tickets for the overnight train to Zap for Tuesday night. Until then we're enjoying our time here and it's a great transition to ease us into life here!