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. : )