Spring

It is spring! The trees are green, this week has been mostly around +20 degrees every day and it's been just lovely. 

My friend Marina called one day a couple of weeks ago with information about a preschool (they call it kindergarten here) for Dez. We wanted to get him into one for September so he could hopefully learn Russian but she knew of an opportunity now. We went to see it one day, Dez tried it out a few days later and he got approval from the director to continue going. We were a bit nervous about it being in Russian but they do a little English lesson every day so that means that there is a teacher who speaks English. I think the teachers were just as nervous as we were about having him in the class but so far there have been no problems. He goes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 am until 1 pm. 

These two chocolate bars are totally different, and made by totally different companies.

 I usually buy the one on the top but last week I foolishly grabbed the one on the bottom - seeing the blue package, yellow sun and bird apparently wasn't enough to determine that I was buying the proper bar. There has been some debate among friends as to which company copied the other and usually I would side with Roshen (the bottom bar) because anything Roshen makes is amazing, but this time I have to be against them because of the more detailed package on top. Also for some reason their version of this chocolate bard won't melt when heated....which is a bit worrisome, ha ha. Some days I wonder why anything still surprises me here.

 Some of these old Soviet playgrounds were probably really cool at one point, but now they're a little old and worn, and the boys are usually one fall away from needing a tetanus shot (that's probably a joke).

We grabbed some lunch at a cafe yesterday. Generally speaking any cafe you go to in town (unless it's a specialty place like sushi or pizza) will have food that looks exactly like this:

It's good food but the lack of variety between restaurants means that we rarely go out to eat other than at the American Embassy (McDonald's) every once in a while. There is one Ukrainian restaurant called Pazatta Hatta (which translates to Fat Belly) and it's really good, really Ukrainian food so when we need a borsche or sweet vereneky fix, that's where we go.

Monday night "supper" club is continuing despite moving from New Hope's former center to their church building. New Hope Center is now located in a building closer to where we live but it's made up of smaller rooms for training graduated orphans in things like sewing and hairdressing. There has been a bit of drama surrounding supper club (unnecessary and unwelcome drama) so please pray that those that oppose us would not be able to and would instead see the progress we have been making and see the good things that have come from it.

I have started baking at our apartment on Tuesdays with some of the graduated orphan girls (and our friend Jessica) and it's been so much fun. I love being able to share a skill I have with others as well as getting to know these girls better and being able to practice speaking Russian.

Steve started another English club this past week so now he is involved in three different clubs. Hopefully some relationships can be built out of this new one like has happened in the first two he was a part of.

And once more, pray for Ukraine as a country. Most of the bad things we hear are from the news back home and we really haven't heard too much from here. We have been told that there are police surrounding Zap that have been stopping buses of pro-Russian protesters and sending them back to where they came from, which is super cool! Steve and I are pretty sure that we live in the coolest Ukrainian city of them all. But prayer for the country and continued peace here would be awesome and appreciated!

Thank you to everyone who supports us and reads our updates/blog/emails! We are so thankful for each and every one of you who is a part of what God is doing here in Zaporozhye!!