Number 13

It's Luke's 21st birthday and since I'm leaving him 21 messages throughout the day, I'm resorting to a blog shout-out. One and only.

The Self-Confessed Blogger Begins

Today is Thanksgiving.

I'm sitting on my sister's couch, having just finished "Bugs Bunny's Thanksgiving Diet," and have decided to start up the blog again. Like you do.

I've usually used this blog as a way to communicate with loved ones when other ways weren't possible:  "I'm in California, in a different time zone, very busily changing the face of our church, so I process and report through this blog" :) ...or, "I'm in another country, unable to call or text, so I communicate with the masses by stealing some Australian man's internet bandwidth and blogging to my church congregation."
So I've had that excuse: "Oh yeah, I have a blog, but I only use it when I'm away and can't talk to people any other way."

Social media is such a tricky thing to handle. It's designed to keep us connected, but so often it ends up disconnecting us from our current surroundings. I don't want to be disconnected, so I often hate some of the labels I seem to acquire. (By the way, Twitter much? Have you checked your Facebook while you're reading this?) :)

I've been thinking of doing this for awhile, and after becoming jealous of how much practice my roommate is getting in her writing with various social networking outlets, I have decided to give in. One of my goals-that-you-want-to-complete-before-you-get-too-old-to-complete-it is that I hope to publish something(s). What I'll publish exactly, I'm not quite sure, but publish I will.

So lately, I've been thinking I needed to write more. Everyone needs an outlet, and one of mine is most definitely writing, but I'm not the typical writer. I own journals, but about five pages in, they get the shelf. Combine the fact that I have no discipline with the fact that I'm often too scared to write, (because putting my thoughts on the page makes whatever I'm dealing with too real) and you get one bottled-up writer.
But after much thought, (and dare I say whining) no more excuses, I think I'm finally going to admit to and embrace the title of "blogger." : )

So, since it's Thanksgiving, I'll say this in advance: thanks. Thanks for reading. Thanks for processing, thinking, and tolerating. I hope this works as an outlet for me, and a source of thought for whoever may read it.
Cheers,
The Blogger

This Actually Didn't Happen

Since I only seem to use this blog when I leave home for extended periods of time, I thought I’d keep blogging this summer about my experience here at camp.

I’m not allowed to use my computer when I have kids during the week, but I’ll have a day off a week as well as weekends off, so I should be able to get an entry or two in a week, so check back regularly!
If I see people are still reading, I’ll keep writing! : )

For the first camp experience, here are a few videos from the ride today to First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, the church that owns Ligonier:

People sing here a lot.


You have to hold your breath in tunnels.

Living Out Memories

I’m at camp for orientation. I got back from the Ukraine very early on Wednesday morning (after a free international ride in first class and then a very frustrating cancellation with my domestic flight.)

On Wednesday I took a bath (with warm water!), answered a few emails, and then headed for camp orientation. During training I had to mountain board—skateboarding on a mountain—and mountain bike—I literally biked over a pile of logs, rocks, and a teeter-totter. It was intense.
I spent the night and left to be home for H.S. graduation and then the funeral on Friday. It was a wonderful remembrance of my grandma. She was celebrated but the focus was still on her focus: Christ.

Then on Saturday I came back to camp and have been here since. A lot of this has been hard for me to have happen at the same time, but I know that the this is the right place for me to be right now.

For my last Ukraine entry, I thought I’d put what I wrote in my journal after we said goodbye in Vasilcov:

“We just left the orphanage.
Ruth started to pray on the bus and it was really powerful.

I just love these kids. A phrase I’ve heard a lot on this trip is to ‘love on.’ That idea is so awesome. It was so fulfilling to ‘love on’ these kids.
I don’t know quite what to do now. I feel called to love on kids for a lifetime, but where do I start? How do I sustain?

I can picture their faces; I can see them now. In a month will I be able to? In a year?
How can we live a memory?

God has opened my eyes to the world this week.
But now that they’re open, I have to start deciding where to walk.

Everything seems so big and so little at the same time."

A Picture Memoir Will Have To Do

I think I might not have internet access again so I thought I'd put up some of my most memorable pictures so far just in case I can't write again until I get home. : )

Think of it as a mini-memoir. : )

Everything here is beautiful.

Ukraine food is healthy. Very healthy.

Bread is a necessity.

Three kids without a home.

A lot of times we work.

And sometimes we play--long enough to go on walks and find pretty flowers.

...as well as find the new door to Narnia.

...or a woman from a Disney movie.

I love the Faceless team! (Especially when they stand in a room we just redid.)

The Kids

Tonight's our last night in the orphanage. I have loved getting to know these kids.
I got to spend a lot of quality time with the girls today. We went shopping and painted nails and one of the girls gave me a picture of herself at the end of the night to keep and then left trying not to cry.
In addition to the girls I've befriended, I've really valued my relationships with the boys here. Oddly enough I'm pretty close in age to most of them (and they are legally considered men by ours and the Ukrainian standards) but I feel such a motherly connection to them.

I wish this was the type of situation where I could come back and check on them in a few years, but I know they'll all be scattered across the world soon. I hope I left them with something.
What a blessing to know them for even this short a time.

Sacha, the most friendly (and most would agree at times annoying) :) of the boys sang a song for me today when we were our shopping. (Of course, Sacha came with us.)

The Long and Short of It

Just long or short hair is now out of style. Let me introduce you to the new coolest thing in my mind:

The European Pseudo-Mullet

A Walk in Ukraine

Today I went for a walk in the Ukraine. We decided to go behind the orphanage and we followed a trail and went past all of these beautiful houses. We ended up being gone for about an hour, it was that beautiful.
Along the way I took this video. I swear I did not add this music in the background, it was playing in one of the houses we walked by. : )


Sorry for the hilarious face I make at the end. : )

Differences

From my journal:

Thursday, May 28, 2009
I'm sitting next to Sacha while he goes through my iTunes (he's on Foux De Fafa right now).
I love this.
I know I can do this for my living. These kids have such a childish love for me and I adore them.
I am constantly surprised at how God can bring people together in community.
Sometimes I feel like I have a lot of differences with the people I came with, especially in my faith.
But still, despite our differences, God can find a way to show us our similarities.
There's a big world out there, but again and again I find that the differences are small.
I'm excited.
I'm excited to do this for God, by God.
Thank you God for other countries, for small differences, and for Russian boys that steal your computer to listen to Ben Folds. : )

Name Variations

So far on the trip, the kids (mainly the boys) have given my name a few interesting translations. I thought I'd share them with you.

So I started by telling them my name (Addie), which promptly lead to them thinking my name was Eddie.

They then made the connection to Eddie Murphy, so that became my name (which was really hard to drop.)

I made an effort to get rid of it by telling them my real name was Addison, which lead to them changing my name to Addison Murphison.

This morning one of the boys then turned Eddie into Freddy which resulted in my next name: Freddy Crouger.

I have also been repeatedly called Crazy Frog.

So there.

Addie.
Eddie Murphy.
Addison Murphison.
Freddy Crouger.
Crazy Frog.

Reflections and Updates

I think the way things will work with my blogging/updating is I will write a blog every night at around dinner time your time, midnight here.

Then I will upload it to my blog when we get our momentary internet access around 2:00 here, 7AM at home.
So each blog post will have been from the night before and will be more of a sort of reflection theme than an update theme.

For updates on general happenings with the trip like videos and other blogs, type in the faceless address (www.facelessinternational.com) Before you get to the website a Ukraine Trip page will pop up on your window and you can check out everything there.

It’s being updated regularly with blogs and videos, so look at it often! (Even though we only have a certain amount of time with the internet, they’ve set up timed blog postings so it sends later than when it’s actually posted and able to be seen online.)

Thanks for reading! (Hi mom.) ☺

Weeping

I just got access to the internet! I'll probably only get for a few hours in the afternoon each day, and even that might be limited. (I have no idea what time that is at home, check when this blog was posted.)

I thought for this brief post I would give you some bits of my journal so far: : )

Monday, May 25, 2009
We’ve arrived in the Ukraine. I like traveling a lot and I can see myself staying here for a long time. I’m not sure I like the capacity in which I’m here yet, but I can definitely see myself molding this experience into a job down the road.
…
There are Russian/Ukrainian boys outside my room laughing.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Today a guy in my group (who is a photographer and taking some hopefully awesome pictures) said during our morning debriefing that “when you travel, you have the opportunity to see God in/as a new face.”
I really love that. And I think it’s so true. God is here. But he seems really different.

Eric, another guy from Kansas City, talked about how he was studying John with his friends at home and how he had found a new meaning to the story of Jesus going to heal Lazarus and weeping because Mary and the others thought he had arrived too late to save him.
“Jesus wept.” I only knew the verse because it is the shortest one in the Bible and it was funny to quote to people. I never thought about how meaningful it is though. In a simple sentence, we see how Jesus sees the world. He weeps at how much we don’t get it. How much we don’t trust him. How much we think we’re in control.
Jesus weeps for the world. I’m weeping for these kids. (I’ve certainly been the only one to weep in our discussions so far.) : )

Jesus wept. I hope sometime you weep too.

It begins again...

Hello everyone, the blogging begins again!
Welcome to everyone who was directed here by one of my many postcard reminders. : )

I've started the trip. I spent most of the day in the airport waiting for people to get here and then we taxied/subwayed/walked to the Brooklyn Bridge to have pizza for dinner. I'm sitting here in the hotel in New York with two of my new friends, writing this and listening to them talk about religion. : )
I'm so exhausted though, so I don't want to write much tonight but I thought I'd say three things:

First, check my twitter this week: http://twitter.com/AddieDomske (It's a short blogging-like website that I can update from my phone.)
Twitter will also update my facebook status, so check facebook if you want.

Second, check out the Faceless site, (http://www.facelessinternational.com) where an official Ukraine link has been added when you first visit the site.
Note: if I don't end up having access to the internet or my phone, this is where you can get all your updates for the rest of the trip! : )

Last, I thought I'd copy a bit from an email I wrote today to my friends from General Assembly (since the last time I blogged I was actually with them at GA) for today's reflection:
"Right now I'm sitting at Gate D78 in the Pittsburgh airport, waiting to fly to New York, and then tomorrow the Ukraine. (I think I told you all about this: I'm working with Faceless International in an orphanage for victims of the human trafficking industry.)

I've been planning it for about 6 months and I'm really excited to go and meet the people I'll be going with tonight, and then meet the girls in the orphanage. I expect it to be life changing. : )

I come to this trip with a heavy heart though because my grandma is in the hospital. She's pretty much the strongest person I know so it's been hard to see her so weak the past couple of days.
The doctor says we should keep her in a comfortable state but that she won't make it through it. I'm fine with that; we just celebrated her 96th birthday last week. : }
I think I've figured out that I'm ok with death, I just don't like dying. My dog Charlie, who I've had for about 12 years is also dying and I would rather him just go sit by Jesus' dog in heaven (who I'm guessing is named Sampson--that sounds holy enough.) ;D

So that will be hard to go into the trip with. But I thought it was so providential that Maggie sent this out because it just helps to tell people who I care about. : )

I hope you are all well. (There is a group of big hearty Russians beside me, I just thought I'd point that out.)"

Time for sleep. Orientation at 10 tomorrow. : )
Domske out.