Razom

It seems like so long ago that April 1 seemed forever away… We were completing documents for the Embassy, we got the visa! Working until the end of February, moving all our stuff yet again back to Kyiv, my parents leave, Allyson arrives!, off to the village for 2 1/2 weeks, back to Kyiv, visiting with friends and relatives, packing and shipping off a suitcase this morning with a friend! And now, we’ve got less then 48 hours in the place we both call home.

Tears have been shed by Kolya’s family… the unknown of when they’ll see us again or ever if our plane crashes…the uncertainty of what is in store for us once we reach the states, for the long-term… Where will we work? live? find a car?

What we do know is that our God is faithful! He has brought us to and confirmed in many ways that this is where and what we are supposed to be doing for this season of our lives. Will it be tough? Yes… Will we bent, molded and conformed more to His likeness? Yes… Will everything ‘just’ happen perfectly? No…

Please pray with and for us as we start this new adventure, in a new land… For Kolya to quickly adapt, for us to find like-minded friends, for our marriage in the new challenges/differences/roles we will be taking on… and for us to keep our eyes on Him!

Last fall, when Kolya upgraded to his own laptop computer, we sold his desktop to his sister and brother-in-law. After several months of storing it at mom and dad’s (thanks) we were finally able to pass it off! It ended up in Kolya’s village over the New Year’s holiday. And today, they connected to the internet. It’s a SLOW connection, but I’m able to check email in these last 2 weeks before we leave to the states!

I was able to find out that someone is willing to take a 50lbs suitcase to the states for us! WOW! It will be in Maine and hopefully, we’ll be able to make a couple hour detour and pick it up in April when visiting family in Boston and Cape Cod!

We’ve been in the village since the 9th of March and plan on returning to Kyiv next Wednesday. Kolya’s oldest sister and 2 daughters (6 and 4) are now living back here and we’ve had tons of fun with them AND teaching them how to write and the alphabet. We’ve even got them saying, please, thank-you and I’m sorry. Hopefully it will continue after we leave! Kolya’s younger sister and husband were here last weekend, with his sister staying through this weekend! It’s been great getting to spend quality time with many of Kolya’s family. We’ve been here every 3 months since we’ve been married… and we’re not quite sure when we’ll be making our first trip back to Ukraine!

We’ve been gearing up by trips to the dentist for teeth cleanings and such. I didn’t have any cavities and we’ll see what happened when Kolya returns this afternoon.

Well, I better run… Clifford the big red dog puzzle is waiting to be put together in the other room with Lesya and Nastya…

12 days until we fly….

6 days until we return to Kyiv…

18 days till we land in Salisbury…

19 days till I start job hunting

Kolya and I now have one month left in Ukraine until we fly to the states on April, 1! Not much time left… I thought I would be posting more often but, it looks like it’ll have to wait until next month! We have ‘moved’ back to my parents where we continue to pack, sort and pitch.

We were hoping that we would be able to visit the states while my parents will be around so they would be able to share in introducing my dear husband to ‘our’ side of the family and friends! We started the visa process in January when we got back from visiting Kolya’s fam. It took 1 1/2 months, start to finish! God is amazing! We had enough time to think and pray about how to spend the 1 1/2 months before we would fly. We finished work out in internetless Bucha the end of February, giving us time to spend 2-3 weeks out west with Kolya’s family and our two cutie nieces, Lesya and Nastya (6 and almost 4). How the details have come together in getting our double bed and other things out to the village when we don’t have a car, etc… have been truly amazing as only God could orchestrate! We’ll be sending my parents to the states late tomorrow night, or the wee-hours of the morning Tuesday and look forward to seeing them soon!

Please keep us in your prayers that this ‘last’ month will be spent with quality time with friends and family and our focus would stay on Him!

Yes, limbo is where I’ve been feeling the past little bit. Every time you think you know what’s going to happen… it doesn’t or at least not in the way you expect it. You don’t take the time to come up with a daily anything… just filling the days waiting for when you think you may move and then don’t! So, we are STILL in limbo… We thought we were moving on November 17th to a place where Kolya will work, we can live until we figure out everything. Well, we are now preparing to move on December 1. When will we know??? November 30th, in the evening. So, as many of you may have seen on facebook, I am currently unpacking/sorting/repacking. With Thanksgiving thrown in and leaving on Saturday for the weekend, not much time is left. We obviously don’t need ‘everything’ as it will be fully furnished BUT it is nice to have some of your own things to make it homey… and our Christmas things. We have thrown out some things, a big bag and box to go out to Kolya’s mom (hehe) a pile for my mom, keeper things to store, things to take with AND a box for what we would really LOVE to have for when we find a semi-permanent place! We’ve been very thankful for wonderful parents letting us stay with them! We have accomplished some things which I think has made it worth their while but we are looking forward to being on our own again

On a side note… I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS! I don’t know if Thanksgiving will ever be celebrated by just family, for me. I love that my parents opened up our home for many people, a tradition that continues here in Ukraine! Although this year will be 6 family members and 4 ‘others’, it’s going to be super fun as it always is! 5 pies were made today and most everything else will be complete tomorrow to enjoy a relaxing Thanksgiving day! I’m soooooo glad I don’t have to watch the parade (but it was fun having everyone think I loved it and was off of kitchen duty except for commercial breaks!) This year we will attempt Kahlua Sweet Potatoes that are my absolute FAVORITE! It’s been a long time since I had them (back when Lynne would cook and mom would clean) and this year I’ve got the Kahlua to make them!

On another aside… I love my husband! He is the most wonderful man and I don’t think life could be any sweeter! He is a dear and I love him! (hmm, maybe I’ll devote an entire post to him!)

And now… back to limbo… urgh… sigh…

Kolya and I have been talking a lot about what the future may indeed hold for us It’s exciting to start to see some things that have been making progress! It seems since pretty early on in married life so pretty much near the beginning of this year, we’ve been treading water. Sometimes that’s good and sometimes not so great BUT we were happy to find the wonderful church in Kagy and build some lasting friendships that both us and them have been planning when and how to get together! It was nice to known as Kolya and Jeanne, not just Jeanne and oh yea, that’s her husband or Kolya and oh yea, that’s his wife. We’ve been all over the place as well and haven’t felt strongly about really staying in one of those places this past year and starting/raising a family! So, now we are still in the waiting mode BUT Kolya has been offered a job and it looks like by the end of the month we’ll be moving (again)! It’s been fun and frustrating working on different projects together and have both had our moments, heh. But we both agree married life is great and all that we’ve lived through in this year has been worth it in building/uniting us more strongly then if we hadn’t had lived through everything. We serve an amazing, gracious, faithful, trustworthy God! We didn’t even imagine that this is what our first year of marriage would be like BUT we wouldn’t trade it for the world I’m preparing myself for moving out to the land of no internet so I figure I’ll try to post more these coming weeks! I can’t wait to move and decorate for Christmas!!!!

Kolya has his International Passport!!!  Yea!!! And he is home

I just had a wisdom tooth ‘deleted’ from my mouth… bottom left. OUCH!!!!

Please pray for a quick recovery!

Nothing like chisels, wrenches, scooper things and other things to make your mouth feel nice

Mom says it’s a banana split for me tonight for dinner. Heh.

Back tomorrow at 9.30 for a check to make sure it’s healing okay… no stiches…

Lets see, what else… at least I’ll have a week to recover before taking on 3 kids for 2 weeks…

So far, Kolya, mom and dad laugh at home I talk… Half of my tongue is still numb, not to mention the whole left side of my face!!!

Praise God for Sasha! That he is a great dentist! That when he said say ‘Ahhh’ if it hurts… he stopped and gave me another shot. (that was when he was digging for the roots… OUCH!!)

Thanks in advance for your prayers!!!

Anyone who has had a wisdom tooth removal, you can share your recovery suggestions!

Rachel Taylor… I feel your pain as I just rewatched your youtube diary of you wisdom teeth removal!

After leaving Rzhihchev in August, with all our stuff to Kyiv… We are finally back in Kyiv, land of internet on a real computer! Not just through the mobile phone.

Kolya and I are both doing well… Pursuing different leads and options and prayerfully taking steps in gathering information making sure we are doing what we are supposed to be doing and not just what we want to be doing, heh.

I’ve loved keepin up with everyones blogs… even though I haven’t had time to do so myself. Look for different installments and pictures SOON!! From the steps to get Kolya and International Passport, his Mom’s birthday, traveling to Odessa, the work on the Dacha and the trip back!

God is faithful!

I thought I had updated before but for some reason it is missing!

Plans are always nice to have but they are not essential as we have found out the past few days!

Our ‘plans’ have changed yet again and we are heading out to Kolya’s moms place tomorrow morning! We are taking a bunch of stuff with us and so will be trying out a new marshutka that go straight from Kyiv to the city 6 kilometers from the village! That way we won’t have to switch with two heavy bags plus our backpacks which also won’t be super light :-/ So we will be getting up at maybe 5.30 to take showers before heading off to the train stain by 6.30.

We’ll be out West for 2 weeks, maybe a little more and celebrate Kolya’s moms birthday on September first AND Independence Day on the 24th (a week from Sunday). I hope it will be cooler and that Kolya will get some good R&R for at least a few of the days! My next week will be spent watching Olympics as much as I can!

I don’t think I’ll be able to update while we are there but I will keep a diary in a word doc so I can update when we have internet access!

Please pray that we will be able to get all the documents together and get Kolya’s passport under way We hope that maybe in the next calendar year to get to the states to meet the family no promises though! but the passport is the first step…