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. : )